Trump nominates advisor Stephen Miran for temp Fed governor

Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.

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1.

Hot seats: Donald Trump nominated Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran as a temporary Federal Reserve governor while advisers eyed Christopher Waller as a top contender to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair. Miran is only expected to serve a term that expires in January, while the search for a permanent replacement continues, Trump said. Meanwhile, Waller is emerging as a top candidate to serve as the central bank’s chair among Trump’s advisers, who are also considering Kevin Warsh and Kevin Hassett, Bloomberg reported. Trump’s team is reportedly satisfied with Waller’s approach to move on policy based on forecasting, rather than on current data, as well as his deep knowledge of the Fed system, Bloomberg reports. Last week Waller was one of two Federal Reserve board members to vote against the central bank’s decision to hold rates steady for a fifth time running, preferring a quarter-point reduction. (Bloomberg)(Bloomberg)(Capital Brief)(Donald Trump)

2.

China Intel: Trump called on the CEO of Intel, Lip-Bu Tan, to resign over his previous ties to China. “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem,” Trump posted on Thursday. The comments follow an open letter to the Intel board written by Republican Senator Tom Cotton on Tuesday, which questioned Tan’s ties to the Chinese government, including apparent connections to the country’s military and investments in other semiconductor companies. Responding to the senator's report, Intel defended Tan and dismissed the suggestions that the company posed a threat to US national security. The company had not commented on Trump’s demands. Meanwhile, the US General Services Administration announced that Amazon Web Services will provide US government agencies with as much as USD1 billion ($1.54 billion) in savings for cloud adoption, modernisation and training over the next three years. (Capital Brief)(WSJ)(Reuters)(FT)(Bloomberg)(GSA)

3.

Firefly lift-off: Firefly Aerospace shares surged as much as 64% in their Nasdaq debut, opening at USD70 and trading for as much as USD73.8 each, after pricing its upsized IPO at USD45 per share and raising USD868 million. The offering, which priced above a marketed range and drew orders for more than 20 times the planned amount, gave the Cedar Park, Texas-based company a fully diluted valuation of roughly USD10 billion. The listing comes five months after Firefly made history by landing its Blue Ghost lander upright and intact on the moon in partnership with NASA. Firefly plans to use the IPO proceeds to ramp up production of its Alpha rockets and accelerate the rest of its product lines, including its Eclipse rocket and Elytra spacecraft. The successful listing follows other recent debuts from tech and space firms including Figma, Circle, Voyager Technologies and Karman Holdings. (Bloomberg)(Reuters)(WSJ)

4.

PhD power: OpenAI announced GPT-5, calling it its “smartest, fastest and most useful” model yet, and made it available to all ChatGPT users, including free users. CEO Sam Altman described it as “a major upgrade” from GPT-4, saying it brings “PhD-level experts” to users’ devices. The model delivers improvements across writing, coding and health, with lower hallucination rates, quicker responses and a better ability to accurately understand and carry out user instructions or prompt. According to the company, GPT-5 introduces “safe completions” for risky queries that will provide answers “where possible while still staying within safety boundaries.” It includes four optional personalities and new visual customisation options. The model underwent 5,000 hours of safety testing. The release follows the launch of two open-weight models this week and a partnership to offer ChatGPT to US federal agencies for USD1 annually. (OpenAI)(Microsoft)(The Hill)(CNBC)

5.

Pill potential: Eli Lilly shares plunged over 14% after trial results for its experimental obesity pill orforglipron fell short of investor expectations. The company said orforglipron led to 12.4% average body weight loss in patients on the highest 36 mg dose. That was lower than the 14.9% weight loss seen in a 2021 trial of Novo Nordisk’s injectable Wegovy, and below market expectations, which had hoped for weight loss of around 15%. The 72-week trial of more than 3,100 overweight or obese adults without diabetes found those on the highest 36 mg dose lost 27.3 pounds (12.38 kilos) on average. Just over 10% of high-dose patients discontinued due to side effects, primarily nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal issues. Lilly CEO David Ricks said the results were encouraging and that the goal was to deliver a powerful GLP-1 in a convenient pill. He described the trial results as “right on thesis,” despite being slightly below expectations. (Eli Lilly)(Bloomberg)(Reuters)

6.

Deadline set: Labor officials working on the government's stalled news bargaining incentive have told media executives they want the policy to be finalised before Google's deals with Nine Entertainment and Seven West Media expire in the first-half of 2026, Capital Brief reports. Executives from Australia's largest media companies have been in close contact with the government in recent weeks amid concerns the policy, which would compel tech giants to pay publishers to display their news content, has been put on the back-burner due to concerns about retaliation from the Trump administration. But senior media figures were this week advised the government is hoping to finalise the policy within nine months, according to people familiar with the discussions. Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino, who is leading Labor’s work on the incentive, has further told some media executives that a discussion paper on the policy could be distributed within weeks, one of the people said. (Capital Brief)

7.

Competition review: The Productivity Commission doubled down on its push for road user charging reform, adding the recommendation into a new competition analysis interim report that largely focuses on skills. In a National Competition Policy analysis 2025 interim report, it says there has been added impetus for a shift in the way drivers are charged for road maintenance and infrastructure due to the growth in electric vehicles that are able to avoid the fuel excise. The PC was asked to analyse an occupational licensing scheme allowing workers to use their skills across Australia, adopting offshore standards and aligning regulated standards nationally, and any other priority reform options identified while undertaking the study. The PC found the reforms it was asked to model collectively have the potential to raise GDP by up to 0.24%. A final report is due to be delivered in October 2025. (Capital Brief)

8.

Meeting Putin: An unnamed White House official told media that Vladimir Putin must meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before a one-on-one summit with Donald Trump can take place, pushing back on Kremlin claims that a meeting between the US and Russian leaders had already been agreed. Putin told reporters he is not against meeting directly with Zelenskyy, adding: “It’s a possibility, but certain conditions need to be created” for it to happen. The Kremlin has previously said that Putin and Zelenskyy should meet only when an agreement negotiated by their delegations is close. The Kremlin said details for a meeting in the coming days were being finalised, with a venue set but not disclosed and the UAE seen as a possible location. It comes after Trump threatened new sanctions on Russia and countries buying its exports from Friday unless the country moves toward ending the war. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said Europe must be involved in the peace process. (Bloomberg)(Reuters)(AP)(Politico)