I had a chance to speak with several business leaders at a roundtable convened by Edward Jones Managing Partner Penny Pennington recently at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Her concern was, “how do we help future generations build wealth in this uncertain economy?” With challenges like high home prices and an uncertain job market, she takes a holistic view of the customer. “We’re a health and wellbeing company.”

The theme of investing took many forms. Bev Anderson, CEO of BECU credit union, focused on creating financial opportunities, while Gallup CEO Jon Clifton talked about the need for better global indicators of how we feel amid a rise in negative emotions. Southern Company CEO Chris Womack is expanding his energy infrastructure amid surging demand at the country’s second-largest utility. Optimism about the power of technology and innovation was mixed with worries about geopolitics and the state of civil society.

In an era of growing complexity and rapid change, face-to-face conversations have become even more important for sharing ideas and building trusted relationships.  That’s why the dinners hosted by CEO Initiative members around the country have been so valuable. It’s why I’m excited by our upcoming Fortune Global Forum on October 26 and 27 in Riyadh.

Among the CEOs who have confirmed their attendance, so far, are Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, Ed Bastian of Delta Air Lines, Tony Elumelu of United Bank for Africa, Jane Fraser of Citigroup, Mahindra & Mahindra Anish Shah, Catherine MacGregor of ENGIE, Honeywell’s Vimal Kapur, Gilberto Tomazoni of JBS, and Jenny Johnson of Franklin Templeton. You can find out more here and click here if you’d like to apply to attend.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

Trump reportedly sent Epstein a birthday note

According to a must-read investigation by the WSJ, the note to Jeffrey Epstein featured a cartoon of a naked woman and said, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” The president denied writing the letter. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said. On social media, he added, “I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.” He also asked the attorney general to release “any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval,” on Epstein. Here is a timeline of the relationship between Trump and Epstein.

How Sam Altman became Trump’s best AI buddy

Initially cut out of the president’s circle by Elon Musk, Altman has been quietly cultivating his relationship with the president, the WSJ reports. With Musk out of the way, Altman is now more influential in the White House. The maneuvering required Altman to renounce his former public dislike of Trump. 

Trump vs. corn syrup

President Trump’s announcement Wednesday claiming that Coca-Cola would substitute corn syrup for raw sugar in their products “cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs … all with no nutritional benefit,” the CEO of the Corn Refiners Association said on Wednesday. The announcement also caused significant dips in the stock prices of some corn syrup manufacturers between Wednesday and Thursday.

Morgan Stanley on tariffs

Morgan Stanley’s head of US policy, Monica Guerra, describes President Trump’s tariffs as a “mosaic” and “idiosyncratic.” Here’s how much she thinks they’ll bring to the U.S. Treasury—and how they could fuel higher inflation. 

Europe tightens sanctions on Russia

The EU will impose a new set of sanctions on Russia targeting its oil, gas and banking sectors. Twenty more banks will be cut from the SWIFT payments system and there will be new restrictions on Russian oil refined outside of Russia.

Meta poaches more AI talent from Apple

Former Apple employees Mark Lee and Tom Gunter will join Meta’s Superintelligence Labs, according to Bloomberg. They will join Ruoming Pang, the former head of Apple’s large language model unit, who joined Meta a few weeks ago. Pang was reportedly offered $200 million in compensation to make the move.

Deep dive on the growth of private credit

JPMorgan recently dedicated $50 billion to debt financing for clients doing acquisitions and other deals. Apollo, Ares, and KKR are extending credit that they originate independently to lock in borrowers for years. In exchange for tying up that long-term money, borrowers are willing to pay higher interest rates than they would get from banks.

Fortune 500 Power Moves

• Kenvue (No. 281) appointed Kirk L. Perry as interim CEO, effective July 14, following the sudden resignation of former CEO Thibaut Mongon. Perry most recently served as President and CEO of Circana. 
• Henry Schein (No. 333) announced that Stanley M. Bergman will retire as CEO at the end of the year. Schein’s departure comes after 45 years at the company and 35 years as CEO. 
• Old Republic International (No. 463) appointed Alan Pavlic as CEO, effective immediately. Pavlic joined the company in 2005 and has served as President since 2013. 

The markets

S&P 500 futures ticked up 0.14% this morning, premarket. The index closed up 0.54% yesterday. STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.4% in early trading. The UK’s FTSE 100 was up 0.32% this morning, placing it above 9,000, which would be an all-time high if it holds. China’s CSI 300 was up 0.6%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.21%. Bitcoin is still above $118K.

From the analysts

ING on the Fed: “Firmer retail sales and subdued jobless claims numbers suggest the Fed will keep rates on hold for now as officials assess the impact of tariffs on inflation,” per James Knightley.

Oxford Economics on jobless claims: “Continued claims continued their march higher in the week July 5, underscoring how unemployed workers are finding it difficult to find new jobs in a labor market where hiring is slow. Claims for benefits by federal employees posted the largest one-week increase since February. We expect these claims will rise further now that Supreme Court has cleared the way to proceed with layoffs of federal workers while legal challenges continue,” Nancy Vanden Houten.

WARC on Reddit’s revenue and user growth: “Reddit has demonstrated remarkable year-on-year growth with global advertising revenue projected to reach $1.8 billion in 2025 (+49.6%) and grow to $2.5 billion by 2026 (+39.0%), positioning itself as a formidable competitor to established Big Tech and digital platforms. … The platform’s advertising reach has grown to 606 million users — representing nearly one in 14 people worldwide, according to Datareportal analysis, surpassing X’s reach (586 million) and approaching Snapchat (709 million).”

Around the watercooler

Amazon Ring’s founder is back as CEO with a hard pivot to AI. How Jamie Siminoff went from ‘Shark Tank’ reject to $1 billion brand by Sydney Lake

The safety net companies put in place for themselves to stave off higher prices induced by tariffs is fraying by Paolo Confino

How much is AI really replacing jobs? Goldman Sachs looks under the hood and has 3 takeaways to defuse the hype by Nick Lichtenberg and Fortune Intelligence

Coinbase’s new super app Base is a game changer—and could become a serious money maker by Jeff John Roberts

CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.

Swollen legs led to President Donald Trump being diagnosed with what’s called chronic venous insufficiency. It’s a fairly common condition among older adults but requires a thorough checkup to rule out more serious causes of swelling in the legs. Here are some things to know.

The merger discussions began during the first quarter of this year, according to a person familiar with the talks who isn’t authorized to discuss them publicly. It would combine the largest and smallest of the country’s six major freight railroads.

Both railroads declined to comment.

Within the industry there is widespread debate over whether such a merger would be approved by the Surface Transportation Board even though those regulators approved the deal that created CPKC railroad two years ago with the Canadian Pacific’s $31 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern railroad.

That merger combined the two smallest major railroads in North America and left only six major freight railroads. But it was the first major rail merger approved in more than two decades.

The bar for railroad mergers in the U.S. was raised substantially at the start of the century after a disastrous combination of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific in 1996 that snarled rail traffic for an extended period, followed by the 1999 split of Conrail between Norfolk Southern and CSX, which created backups in the East.

To be approved, any major rail merger must show it will enhance competition and serve the public interest under the 2001 rules. The CPKC merger was not judged under those rules because Kansas City Southern had an exemption from them as the smallest major freight railroad at the time.

Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena talked earlier this year about the potential benefits of such a merger because it would streamline deliveries all across the country by eliminating the delays that come along with one railroad handing shipments over to another. Plus it would simplify shipping for the companies that rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products.

But in the past, some shippers have raised concerns about the consequences of being left with even fewer options to ship their goods because the major railroads are already so powerful.

Some investors have long argued that the industry should eventually consolidate down to two East-West railroads crossing the United States alongside the two railroads that already cross Canada. But regulators have been skeptical and taken a cautious approach. Any proposed deal would face a lengthy STB review. That board is currently evenly split between two Republicans and two Democrats with one seat open.

Citi Research analyst Ariel Rosa said in a research note that a major transcontinental railroad merger “would likely prove costly and time consuming, risking a years-long distraction to management, while facing significant pushback from regulators, politicians, employee unions, competitors, customers, and other stakeholders.”

Union Pacific, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska, generated $24.3 billion revenue last year as its more than 30.000 employees delivered freight all across the western United States. Norfolk Southern reported $12.1 billion revenue and has roughly 20,000 employees and its headquarters is in Atlanta.

Norfolk Southern stock gained 3.7% during the day Thursday and rose another 4.7% to hit $282.50 in after-market trading following the Journal’s story.