Spirit Airlines has stolen the spotlight lately, soaring another 160% today on a Wall Street Journal report that a government bailout is on the way—but let’s not forget all the other airline drama taxiing around the runway.

For example: United Airlines surpassed top- and bottom-line expectations in Q1, but it’s in for a turbulent year ahead. Jet fuel prices have doubled amid the Iran war, forcing the airline to hike fares this summer by 15% to 20% while planning to cancel about 5% of flights this year. The company is bracing for full-year adjusted EPS to fall somewhere between $7 and $11—a far cry from the $12 to $14 forecast in January before the war began.

Shares sank 5.58% on the news, and United is hardly alone. In the past month, both Delta and Alaska Air yanked their full-year forecast entirely, causing shares to nosedive by 4.8% and 4.65%, respectively, this week.

Boeing’s comeback takes flight

But although airlines are stuck on the tarmac, one company making those planes is cleared for takeoff.

Boeing’s first-quarter earnings blasted past expectations, with sales soaring 14% year over year to $22.2 billion, buoyed by growth in its military aircraft and space systems. Its passenger jet business also rebounded by 10%, delivering 143 planes despite delays from wiring issues with the 737 MAX.

Overall, the aerospace giant posted a $7 million loss, but that’s actually an improvement over its $31 million deficit a year earlier. Basically, Boeing is still recuperating from strict production caps mandated by US regulators after quality-control failures led to two deadly 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. Now, though, “All systems are go,” according to Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg, who expects the company to turn profitable by the second half of the year.

Shares climbed 5.53% today.

The mile-high divide widens

So, what does this all mean for your vacation plans? That depends on where you fall on the financial spectrum.

The wealthiest 1% (who blow $12,400 per getaway, up 48% since 2022) can look forward to more pampering than ever. Meanwhile, the average traveler (who spends $3,700 per trip to squeeze into coach) may end up further pinched by higher ticket prices and fees on everything from checked baggage to seat selection.

Since high-end travelers gush cash, some airlines have expanded their “premium” section to 40% of the plane and doubled down on luxe upgrades to entice VIPs on board. Think: business-class seats that recline into beds, or full-on pods with sliding doors you can close for privacy as you sip your complimentary champagne.

Time to start saving up those airline miles for an upgrade.—JD

🟢 What’s up

• Adobe rose 3.54% on a newly announced $25 billion share buyback program.
• Axe Compute soared 79.3% after landing a $260 million contract to build Nvidia GPU systems.
• AST SpaceMobile rallied 5.81% as the FCC cleared the company’s plan to roll out direct-to-device cellular from space.
• Healthcare Services Group gained 18.29% on stronger-than-expected Q1 earnings.
• GE Vernova climbed 13.75% after beating earnings, lifting EBITDA guidance, and posting a 71% surge in orders.
• Dell advanced 1.07% with a $1.44 billion AI infrastructure deal.
• Tilray Brands jumped 14.22%, Canopy Growth popped 21.05%, and Aurora Cannabis rose 6.74% as expectations of a looser federal classification of marijuana lifted the sector.

What’s down

• Best Buy fell 4.6% as a CEO transition raised uncertainty.
• Calix dropped 13.98% after warning of margin pressure despite a Q1 beat.
• TE Connectivity slid 9.1% as weak second-quarter guidance overshadowed strong orders and margins.
• Sonoco Products tumbled 16.14% on a tough quarter all around.
• Avis Budget Group sank 37.82%, reversing a short-squeeze-driven rally.
• Trump Media & Technology Group declined 3.46% following the abrupt departure of CEO Devin Nunes.

To say retail investors have reshaped markets is an understatement. Since GameStop stole headlines and launched a meme stock revolution, average Joes once dismissed by Wall Street have become impossible to ignore—and even harder not to cater to.

Now, regulators and exchanges are leaning in. For example, last week the SEC approved eliminating the Pattern Day Trader (PDT) rule, which required a $25,000 minimum for investors making four or more trades within five business days.

We spoke with Robinhood Chief Brokerage Officer Steve Quirk about what these changes mean, and what comes next for retail investors.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s your reaction to the elimination of the PDT rule?

This rule being gone is a big boon for every brokerage firm, but especially Robinhood, because this is our sweet spot.

The rule never really made sense in the first place. It didn’t exist in other asset classes like crypto or futures. To me, the biggest benefit of having this rule gone is: Now, if I’m a newer investor with a smaller account, I’m on a level playing field with people who are wealthier and have a large account, which is the way it should be. You shouldn’t have rules that basically punish people in the early stage of investing.

Click here to keep reading about how deregulation will affect retail investors, and why the future is 24/7 trading.

Wall Street professionals, beware: There’s a new competitor trying to steal your clients, and her name is Sky. She’s fluent in both English and Spanish, fielding client questions around the clock while rocking a professional blazer and a no-nonsense haircut.

Also, Sky isn’t human: She’s Citigroup’s new AI agent, built to help manage roughly $676 billion in client investment assets in the firm’s wealth management division. Powered using Google Cloud and DeepMind, she’s designed to learn from each interaction—becoming more personalized, proactive, and embedded in clients’ financial lives over time.

Wall Street’s AI push

Citi isn’t alone: All across the Street, banks are pouring billions into AI as they race to automate, augment, and outcompete.

• JPMorgan: Spent nearly $20 billion on technology this year, up 10% year over year, while reorganizing its commercial and investment bank to maximize AI usage internally.
• Bank of America: Invested $13 billion in new tech last year and plans to increase that by another 10%. Its virtual assistant Erica has handled more than 3.2 billion client interactions since launch, with over 90% of employees now using internal versions of the tool.
• Wells Fargo: While the firm is not mandating AI adoption, CEO Charles Scharf says generative AI tools have already boosted engineer productivity by up to 35%.
• Goldman Sachs: Set aside roughly $6 billion for tech this year, while partnering with Anthropic to build AI agents focused on trade processing and client onboarding.
• Morgan Stanley: The firm says tools like DevGen.AI have saved over 280,000 hours in just six months, with 72% of interns using tools like ChatGPT regularly.

The trade off

For now, Wall Street executives frame AI as a productivity tool—not a replacement for workers.

But the data tells a different story. The six largest US banks cut roughly 15,000 jobs in the first quarter, with all of them pointing, at least in part, to AI-driven efficiency gains—while reporting an 18% year over year increase in collective profits. Citigroup has gone even further, pledging to reduce its workforce by 20,000 as part of what it calls a broader “productivity and efficiency journey.”

Call it productivity, call it innovation—but on Wall Street, artificial intelligence is starting to have a very real impact.—SY

• Google just rolled out two new chips for AI training to help it better compete with Nvidia.
• A crypto billionaire just accused Trump’s family crypto business of “criminal extortion.”
• Here’s what Wall Street will be looking for when Tesla reports earnings later this afternoon.
• Switzerland lightened previously proposed capital rules for UBS, but will require $20 billion in new capital from the bank.
• A new ETF for memory storage stocks just brought in a staggering $1 billion in only 10 days.
• Here are the juiciest tidbits from SpaceX’s leaked financials.

Economic reports: Just a handful worth watching, including weekly initial jobless claims, as well as flash services and manufacturing PMI readings.

Earnings announcements: A tsunami of earnings arrives with SK hynix, Intel, American Express, SAP, Thermo Fisher Scientific, NextEra Energy, Blackstone, Union Pacific, Honeywell International, Lockheed Martin, Newmont, Sanofi, Comcast, Freeport-McMoRan, Digital Realty Trust, Baker Hughes, Nokia, Nasdaq, DNB Bank, PG&E, Keurig Dr Pepper, Dow, and American Airlines.

Everything else: The NFL draft starts tomorrow, which means the New York Jets get yet another opportunity to ruin a young quarterback’s hopes and dreams.