Crystal Kim

1 week ago | thedailyupside.com | Crystal Kim

De Beers, caught between a rock and a hard market, is dropping its lab-grown jewelry brand. The world’s largest diamond producer on Thursday said it plans to shutter LightBox and is in discussions with potential buyers to sell off assets, including inventory. The decision aligns with its majority owner, UK-listed Anglo American, restructuring its business from a diversified model to a more focused one. Anglo American plans to spin off or sell De Beers, though timing remains unclear.

1 week ago | thedailyupside.com | Crystal Kim

One small step for SpaceX; one giant leap for Elon Musk’s fever dreams. Musk’s space company is getting a boost to fulfill its long-publicized mission to Mars. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday approved SpaceX’s request to quintuple annual Starship launches out of its home base at the southern tip of Texas, which, as of Saturday, has its own city — a testing site, perhaps, before eventual Mars colonization.

1 week ago | thedailyupside.com | Crystal Kim

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s the US breaking past Mach 5 — flying at speeds five times faster than the speed of sound — and catching up to China and Russia in hypersonic military technology. The Department of Defense on Monday announced that its Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) completed two flights of a recoverable hypersonic test vessel, marking the nation’s return to experimenting with such aircraft for the first time since 1968.

1 month ago | thedailyupside.com | Crystal Kim

Coffee’s for closers, and few are willing to pour the java until President Trump takes the first sip. Tariff-induced uncertainty and related market jitters have stalled what was expected to be a rebound year for mergers and acquisitions, and dealmakers are now reportedly eyeing the second half of 2025 to resume talks. Expectations for a revival in M&A activity were heightened in late 2024/early 2025, with dealmakers and industry experts believing that Trump 2.0 would set the stage.

1 month ago | thedailyupside.com | Crystal Kim

Not even the penguins were spared last week when President Trump unveiled across-the-board tariffs on more than 180 countries, including the biggest US trading partners and remote islands home to mostly flightless birds. Major stock indices sank in response, with the S&P 500 notching its in market value since the onset of the pandemic on Thursday. US Treasury yields fell, gold’s rally stalled, and the US dollar — usually stronger amid turmoil — weakened.