• Stocks: The Dow was dragged lower by a selloff across the banking industry, the Nasdaq reached a new closing high for the second day in a row, and the S&P 500 split the difference.
• Crypto: Bitcoin faithful are calling crypto’s recent winter over, but the currency’s sudden surge may be due to a short squeeze rather than any fundamental market changes.
• UN General Assembly: US and Iranian delegations met for three hours this morning, though that didn’t stop President Trump from threatening to annihilate the country during his speech. Still, crude prices fell for a fifth straight day on hopes of a peace deal.

Fitness

Morning Brew Design, Photo: Getty Images

Remember Peloton, the bike that turned bedrooms into spin studios and staved off thousands of pandemic pounds long before GLP-1s? While the fitness company has been sweating through a rough few years, it’s trying to reenter the race—this time on foot.

Today Peloton rolled out three new treadmills, including its first foldable version, the Tread Flex, for $2,195. That’s about $1,000 cheaper than previous models, and is aimed directly at fitness buffs who are tight on both budget and square footage. Meanwhile, the equipment’s video screen has also gotten an upgrade. Peloton IQ, an AI-powered software platform launched last year, now comes with a slew of new tools for runners, including real-time feedback on form, pace, and technique. Consider it a robot running coach, free of the judgmental looks when your last half-mile sprint looks more like a jog.

As for bikes, the company’s old standby, CEO Peter Stern told CNN that spin classes have “clearly lost momentum,” adding, “The fitness landscape is evolving toward more sustainable and habitual routines rather than overly choreographed or intense workouts.”

So far, Peloton’s product pivot has been met with applause, with shares gaining 1.52% today. Will the runner’s high last?

Peloton’s uphill climb

Peloton’s Olympic rise and epic face-plant is one of the pandemic’s most painful cautionary tales. Launched in 2012, the company quickly built a cult-like following with its charismatic fitness instructors. By May 2020, sales had jumped 66% and subscriptions were up 94%.

With that explosive growth came growing pains: Delivery times stretched for months, and Peloton’s once-loyal fanbase started airing frustrations. As pandemic restrictions eased and people trickled back to gyms, Peloton’s momentum reversed hard: Revenue has fallen each year since peaking at $4.02 billion in 2021, while the stock has cratered 97% from its all-time high of $167.42 in January of that year.

Stern took over as CEO in January 2025, and so far, he’s picked a promising direction for a redux: Marathons are booming in popularity, with a sizable uptick in crowds crossing the finish line at major races. North America’s home treadmill market is predicted to grow by 40% into a $5.6 billion category by 2030 (stationary bikes, by contrast, are forecast to grow at a snail’s pace).

On the other hand, running clubs are also on the rise. On fitness app Strava, club activity was up 1.5x in 2025, as more people turn to IRL meetups for social connection, eschewing their home workout equipment. That may explain why Peloton is branching beyond home gyms and bulking up its commercial arm, offering more heavy-duty equipment to gyms, hotels, and apartment buildings.

Peloton’s new treadmills go up for sale starting October 1. With cooling temperatures coming soon, the months and holidays ahead will be a true test run of whether this company’s new business prop has legs.—JD

      

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Stocks

🟢 What’s up

• GameStop climbed 5.58% following CEO Ryan Cohen’s purchase of roughly $26 million worth of shares.
• Alibaba rose 0.45% after unveiling a new AI chip and plans to sharply expand its data center footprint.
• PayPal added 0.51% and Shopify jumped 7.12% on partnerships that let shoppers check out through Meta’s Muse AI assistant.
• On Holding rallied 7.58% after unveiling new financial targets that call for annual sales growth in the high teens through 2029.
• Lennar rose 6.39% following Berkshire Hathaway’s purchase of more than 2.7 million shares.
• Capri Holdings surged 6.11% on reports that the luxury fashion company has been in contact with potential buyers.
• Power modules manufacturer Vicor jumped 19.85% after doubling its third-quarter sequential revenue growth forecast to more than 20%.

🔴 What’s down

• Netflix sank 1.64% after catching another downgrade, this time from HSBC analysts concerned that Youtube is stealing viewers.
• UBS fell 3.65% ahead of a key Swiss parliamentary vote on stricter capital requirements for banks.
• Planet Fitness dropped 9.52% as slowing membership growth and rising competition continued to weigh on shares.
• Quest Diagnostics fell 4.13% and Labcorp Holdings lost 3.06% after federal regulators found that Medicare pays roughly 16% more for lab tests than private insurers.

Gimmick of the day

Fashion's new frontmen

Morning Brew Design, Photos: Gap

Fashiontainment (n): a retail strategy that glams up brands with splashy music, movies, and pop culture writ large.

Gap’s latest drop? A boy band. Today the retail giant announced it inked a multiyear deal with Just Your Type (JYT), an all-American touring group formed last year. The partnership includes a cross-country mall tour, where JYT will perform at shopping centers and meet fans in Gap stores. It might sound like a weird hook, but the move could be music to investors’ ears.

Break it down: The strategy was designed by CEO Richard Dickson, who established a similar pattern in his last role as top brass at Mattel. Dickson is credited with the Barbie bonanza of 2023, where the doll brand stunted on Fashion Week runways, rented out her Malibu DreamHouse, and starred in a box office-busting film.

The idea: Enmesh a brand in modern pop culture well outside the retail category, using buzzy entertainment moments to draw in customers. At Gap’s flagship brand, Dickson began with blingy hires and brand spots: Snagging designer Zac Posen as creative director in 2024 gave the company high-fashion cred, while a savvy campaign with girl group Katseye in 2025 captured 8 billion impressions.

Overall, investors have good reason to trust in Dickson and his maximalist marketing style. Since the CEO stepped up in August 2023, Gap’s shares have climbed 80%. More recently, although revenue fell 2% year-over-year in Q2, EPS beat Wall Street forecasts and the company raised its year-end earnings estimates.

So why not add a dash of flash and teenage swoon? If Gap tours it, sales may come.—GR

Pharma

Morning Brew Design

Pumpkin spice latte season is officially here, and Viking Therapeutics has some timely news for anyone already regretting the apple cider donut on the side.

Shares surged 35.67% today after the biotech company reported positive data for VK2735, its experimental weight loss drug. Patients receiving weekly injections lost roughly 16% to 19% of their body weight after 21 weeks, and results held up even when Viking started spacing the doses out: Patients that switched to every-other-week dosing kept off up to 97% of the weight they had lost, and those taking the drug just once a month maintained up to 90%.

The weight of expectations

Viking’s rally comes just a day after Novo Nordisk fell 8% on the heels of its investor day, where an ambitious pitch of several new blockbuster launches by 2030 and roughly $23 billion in pipeline drug sales by 2035 still left investors with plenty to worry about.

Much of that concern centers on semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo’s smash-hit obesity drug Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic. As patent protection begins expiring in some markets in the early 2030s, cheaper versions could emerge, forcing Novo to cut prices, weakening its pricing power.

“Yes, the price might go down by 50%, but there is much higher volume,” CEO Mike Doustdar said in an attempt to reassure investors.

Analysts also question whether Novo’s long-term growth targets are ambitious enough, and whether the company will need bigger acquisitions to fill out its pipeline. “Novo’s Capital Markets Day offered little to change our cautious view with mid-single-digit topline growth ambition for 26-30E in line with consensus,” Citi analysts wrote in a note. “M&A focus remains bolt-on, but management did not rule out a large transaction, creating some inherent risk.”

The $100 billion prize

So why can seemingly small differences between drugs trigger massive stock moves? It’s the size of the market: Wall Street estimates that weight loss drugs could generate roughly $100 billion to $150 billion in annual sales by 2030. A pill instead of a shot, or a monthly injection instead of a weekly one, could translate into billions of dollars in sales if a company persuades enough patients to switch.

For now, though, the market is still largely a two-company race. According to IQVIA data, Lilly controls about 60% of US obesity prescriptions, while Novo holds roughly 40%. But that duopoly is increasingly being challenged: Viking is testing less-frequent injections, Roche reported fresh mid-stage data today, and drugmakers including AstraZeneca and Amgen are also trying to break in with their own takes on the next generation of weight loss treatments.

At this rate, you’ll soon be able to pop GLP-1 powder into your morning smoothie.—SY

      

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News

• DraftKings is using AI to send promotions to gamblers most likely to lose—and quashing any attempts to use the same technology to track gambling addiction.
• DoorDash will dole out $131.5 million to its New York workers over unpaid wages.
• Red Bull’s wings have lifted it off Kroger shelves as a pricing dispute continues to disrupt grocery store supply.
• Apple is reportedly working on a new fitness tracker to compete with Whoop.
• Bonds are back in vogue: The two largest municipal bond ETFs on the market just saw their largest weekly inflows ever.
• Margin trading is incredibly risky, so of course Kalshi just asked the CFTC to allow its users to try it.
• Here are the issues at stake when President Trump and President Xi meet in Washington, DC later this week.

Calendar

The earnings keep trickling in, with reports from General Mills, Cintas, Cracker Barrel, and Manchester United on the docket.

Fed Governor Michael Barr will take the mic tomorrow morning, keeping a streak of Fedspeak alive and well. Plus, the flash manufacturing and services PMI reports will give us a glimpse at how the economy is faring.

recs

🏊 Private equity rollups have hit almost every industry under the sun. Now, they’re coming for swimming pools.

🤖 Forget Nvidia—meet the AI infrastructure stock set to triple its share price over the next three years.

🧑‍🍼 The affordability crisis isn’t just about your grocery budget—it’s taking a toll on young people who can’t afford to invest without some help from mom and dad.

🤑 The ultrawealthy love a good tax loophole, but the IRS is cracking down on one of their favorite sneaky ways to pass their wealth on to the next generation.

🫐 The blueberry business is just the latest market to be disrupted by Chinese competition.

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🌎 Readers’ most-clicked story was about how the US may be a wealthy country—but this chart of several major economies’ wealth per person really puts the world’s money in perspective.