Is OpenAI Becoming AI's MySpace? Losses Balloon to $12.3 Billion | August 19, 2026 – Morning Market Briefing

Good morning.

Welcome to the Morning Market Briefing.

Today is Wednesday, August 19th, 2026.

I hope you're doing well.

I have some interesting things to get to today, including Iran potentially targeting U.S. military bases in Europe.

Among other things, we also have a few earnings reports.

State of retail.

Retail usually reports on a month delay.

And the reason for that is that they want to make sure that It really all stems from the fourth quarter.

So in the fourth quarter, they make a ton of revenue, but then there are some returns and refunds that they need to process and get the quarter closed.

So they don't like closing the quarter on December 31st.

They usually close the quarter on January 31st.

So they're a month later and that just extends, obviously, throughout the rest of the year.

So that's why retail stocks often are on a month delay.

So this week we're getting Target, TJX, Walmart.

We'll talk actually a little bit about Estee Lauder today.

And it's a good day for Kevin Warsh because he is married to the Estee Lauder heiress.

But I wanted to start off, Tom, talking a little bit about OpenAI.