Robinhood, the popular commission-free trading platform with tens of millions of users across the United States, experienced a service disruption Thursday morning that left some investors unable to access their accounts, execute trades, or monitor positions — all during one of the most consequential trading sessions of the year, as tech stocks surged and chip stocks rocketed on the back of a landmark Intel-Apple semiconductor partnership announcement and the signing of a formal U.S.-Iran peace agreement.

Robinhood was having problems earlier Thursday and recovered — the incident lasted approximately 27 minutes, according to outage tracking data. Reports of users being locked out began circulating on social media around 9:48 a.m. Eastern Time, with the hashtags #Robinhood and #RobinhoodDown spreading rapidly on X as frustrated retail traders found themselves unable to act while the market moved sharply in their favor.

The timing could not have been more damaging. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each climbed 0.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 271 points, as Intel led chip stocks higher following President Donald Trump’s announcement that the company had agreed to partner with Apple on designing chips in the U.S. For Robinhood’s user base — largely composed of retail investors, younger traders, and active options participants — missing even minutes of that window carried real financial consequences.

A Critical Moment to Be Locked Out

The disruption struck at the worst possible moment for traders who had spent the prior 24 hours watching the market plunge on hawkish Federal Reserve signals, only to see a powerful rebound materialize Thursday morning driven by geopolitical relief and a blockbuster domestic tech deal.

Intel surged 9% in the premarket after Trump said the company will partner with Apple on designing chips in the U.S., while fellow semiconductor names such as Nvidia and Micron Technology were also higher by more than 1% and more than 5%, respectively. The iShares Semiconductor ETF jumped more than 4%.

For traders who had been waiting to buy into the chip rally, or who held options positions with time-sensitive strike prices, the inability to log in and execute orders represented a direct financial harm — not merely an inconvenience. Social media posts during the outage window reflected a high degree of alarm. Users flooded social media with messages including “Why is Robinhood down today and when will the system be fixed?” and “IS ANYONES ROBINHOOD APP NOT WORKING PROPERLY ????”

A Recurring Pattern Under Pressure

Thursday’s disruption, while brief, adds to a documented pattern of Robinhood experiencing service issues during periods of heightened market activity — precisely the moments when platform reliability matters most. According to outage tracking data, Robinhood’s most recent logged incident before Thursday was on June 12, 2026, when an app disruption lasting 27 minutes was recorded. Prior to that, service disruptions were logged on October 20, 2025, lasting 1 hour and 19 minutes, and on October 6, 2025, lasting 27 minutes.

The company’s most infamous outage remains a March 2020 incident that has become a cautionary tale in fintech circles. Robinhood saw a system-wide outage all day on a Monday amid a rebound from the prior week’s selloff, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 1,293.96 points higher that day — one of its biggest gains in years. The company’s iOS, Android, and web apps were all down from Monday morning until the close of trading. Users called Robinhood’s handling of that outage “absurd,” criticizing its “lack of transparency” and “canned responses.”

The Broader Stakes for Robinhood

The irony of Thursday’s outage is sharpened by the fact that Robinhood itself has been on a strong run. The stock gained 6% in recent days on strong interest in its prediction markets tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, multiple bullish analyst actions from Deutsche Bank, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Goldman Sachs — all of which raised their price targets on the stock.

The rally was also supported by strong May operating data, which showed platform assets climbed to $377 billion and equity trading volumes rose 75%. An insider purchase of $20 million worth of shares in early June further reinforced market confidence in the company’s trajectory. Robinhood also recently received approval to act as an underwriter for initial public offerings, expanding its capabilities well beyond its origins as a commission-free trading app.

That context makes the timing of Thursday’s disruption particularly awkward. A platform boasting $377 billion in assets under management, positioning itself as a serious institutional-grade brokerage capable of underwriting IPOs, found itself unable to serve some users during one of the biggest single-session rallies in chip stocks in months.

The Retail Investor Problem

Robinhood’s outages, whenever they occur, raise a pointed and recurring question about the obligations of retail-facing trading platforms to their users — particularly during volatile markets when milliseconds can determine whether a trade is profitable or disastrous.

Robinhood experienced a significant outage affecting user access and trading capabilities, causing frustration among investors during market hours. The outage adds to a series of recent technical challenges for financial technology providers, reinforcing the need for continuous investment in system reliability and customer communication.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, known as FINRA, has previously sanctioned Robinhood over trading-related compliance failures. A history of outages during peak trading windows has drawn repeated scrutiny from regulators and consumer advocates who argue that retail investors deserve the same quality of execution reliability that institutional traders receive from their brokerages.

Robinhood has not issued a formal public statement about the Thursday morning disruption. The company’s status page, which retired its traditional format, directs users to its @AskRobinhood account on X for real-time updates on system performance. The official status page listed no incidents reported for the day.

Markets Close Friday for Juneteenth

Thursday’s session was the final full trading day of the week, with U.S. markets set to be closed on Friday, June 19, in observance of Juneteenth, a federal holiday. That closure means traders who were locked out of Thursday morning’s rally have no immediate recourse to recapture positions before a three-day weekend, adding to the financial sting of the disruption.

For Robinhood, the episode is another reminder that as the platform scales in ambition — IPO underwriting, prediction markets, institutional services — the reliability of its core trading infrastructure remains the foundation on which all of those ambitions rest. When that foundation cracks, even briefly, the consequences land hardest on the retail investors the company built its brand on serving.

The bond is expected to be at least $20 billion, and the calls may kick off on Monday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. Plans and timing may change, they said.

Musk’s rocket, satellite and AI conglomerate is planning to issue investment-grade US dollar bonds for the first time. The bond proceeds would refinance a temporary $20 billion bridge loan that matures in September 2027.

The bridge loan makes up the bulk of SpaceX’s $29.1 billion of long-term debt as of March 31, the company said in its IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley provided the bridge financing and are expected to run the deal, the people said. SpaceX and Bank of America didn’t respond to requests for comment. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
SpaceX’s historic initial public offering turned the start-up into one of the world’s most valuable public companies and turned its founder into the world’s first trillionaire. The company’s embrace of AI with the acquisition of Musk’s xAI in February made the listing somewhat of a referendum on the IPO prospects of competitors Anthropic PBC and OpenAI, both of which plan to go public as soon as this year.
The company has told investors it has lined up investment-grade ratings from three major bond graders, paving the way for cheaper borrowing as it continues to raise financing after its IPO.

Musk has utilized debt markets extensively to buy or grow his businesses, securing billions in bank commitments and structuring complex financings. But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. His 2022 buyout of Twitter loaded the company with roughly $12.5 billion of borrowings, creating a notorious hung debt quagmire for Wall Street banks who were initially unable to sell it to investors. They ultimately succeeded in doing so last year.

“The company will likely want to establish a track record in debt markets soon,” said CreditSight’s analyst Matt Woodruff ahead of the potential bond sale. “They will need money down the road for capital expenditure so from that perspective, the sooner the better,” he said.

In its filing, SpaceX said capex will increase “substantially” in the future and that it planned to use “a range of debt and equity financing solutions” to fund future investments.

SpaceX had a net loss of $4.28 billion on revenue of $4.69 billion for the first quarter, compared with a net loss of $528 million on revenue of about $4 billion a year earlier.

But it has some key contracts that will generate future revenue, including a deal with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which has agreed to pay SpaceX $30 billion for computing power under a cloud services deal that runs through mid-2029. It also has a roughly $45 billion deal with Anthropic PBC over about the next three years.

GameStop Corp. finds itself at one of the most turbulent crossroads in its already chaotic modern history. The company that became the defining symbol of the retail investor revolution is simultaneously grappling with a shareholder lawsuit seeking to block what would be one of the largest executive compensation packages ever proposed, a stalled hostile takeover attempt against a company five times its own size, and a stock price that continues to trade modestly while analysts and investors try to price in an extraordinarily uncertain future.

Shares of GameStop traded at $21.54 on Thursday morning, up a modest 0.12%, as the company’s many moving parts continued to generate headlines without delivering the transformational momentum Chief Executive Ryan Cohen has spent years promising.

The Lawsuit: Shareholders Push Back on a Historic Pay Package

A GameStop investor has filed a lawsuit seeking to block a vote on Cohen’s proposed $35 billion compensation package, arguing that investors haven’t been given enough information to understand exactly what they’re being asked to approve.

According to Bloomberg, the lawsuit centers on disclosure concerns. The shareholder claims key details about the structure, valuation, and long-term consequences of the package were not adequately explained in materials distributed ahead of the vote. The suit seeks to halt or postpone the shareholder meeting until additional information is provided.

A $35 billion compensation package would rank Cohen’s potential payout among the largest ever put before shareholders. Corporate governance experts have long argued that mega-pay plans require extensive disclosures so investors can determine whether executive rewards are truly tied to company performance.

The compensation structure itself is tied to performance milestones. Under his January compensation package, Cohen stands to receive options on more than 171 million GameStop shares if he manages to push the company’s market capitalization to $100 billion — a tenfold increase from current levels. That target is staggering given GameStop’s current trajectory, and the lawsuit reflects growing shareholder skepticism that the plan’s terms have been adequately disclosed or justified.

The eBay Gambit: Bold, Rejected, and Still Unresolved

The compensation lawsuit arrives in the direct wake of Cohen’s most audacious and publicly humiliating strategic setback: a $56 billion hostile takeover bid for eBay that the e-commerce giant’s board rejected swiftly and sharply.

In a letter sent in May, GameStop proposed to acquire all common stock of eBay at $125.00 per share, comprising 50% cash and 50% GameStop common stock, representing a 46% premium to eBay’s unaffected closing price and a 27% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price. The aggregate undiluted equity value was approximately $55.5 billion.

On May 12, 2026, eBay officially rejected Ryan Cohen’s aggressive takeover attempt. In a sharply worded letter to Cohen, eBay Chairman Paul Pressler called the unsolicited offer “neither credible nor attractive.”

Cohen did not retreat quietly. After the board rejected the proposal, Cohen launched a hostile bid, taking the offer directly to eBay shareholders. In a television interview, Cohen addressed the financing skepticism directly, telling interviewers the cash consideration would be funded from GameStop’s balance sheet and a highly confident letter from TD Securities for up to $20 billion in third-party acquisition financing.

The strategic logic Cohen has advanced is a vision of GameStop as an e-commerce and collectibles powerhouse. GameStop projected it would deliver $2 billion of annualized cost reductions within twelve months of closing, including approximately $1.2 billion from sales and marketing, $300 million from product development, and $500 million from general and administrative expenses. The company also argued its approximately 1,600 U.S. locations would give eBay a national network for authentication, intake, fulfillment, and live commerce.

Record Earnings, Massive Cash, and a Pivot to Collectibles

What makes GameStop’s position unusual is that beneath the drama of hostile bids and compensation fights sits a company that has, by conventional financial metrics, performed remarkably well in recent quarters.

GameStop reported first-quarter 2026 results showing net sales rose 14% year-over-year to $835.3 million, driven by collectibles. Net income reached a record $389.6 million, and operating income was $143.3 million, the highest first-quarter level on record. Liquidity totaled $9.7 billion, including $8.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.

On June 2, 2026, the board approved a new $2.0 billion share repurchase authorization through June 2, 2029, replacing the 2019 program. That buyback, funded from the company’s enormous cash reserves, represents a direct return of capital to shareholders — a conventional move that stands in stark contrast to the unconventional eBay gambit playing out simultaneously.

GameStop launched Power Packs, a digital trading card platform, in April 2026, with packs starting at $25 and ranging up to $2,500. Cards are PSA-graded, stored in the PSA Vault, and can be sold back instantly, shipped home, or added to a collection. Launch categories include Pokémon, Football, Basketball, and Baseball. The launch signals that Cohen’s collectibles strategy is not merely rhetoric — it is being built out with specific product lines that give GameStop a credible presence in one of retail’s fastest-growing categories.

Bitcoin, Warrants, and a Company Still Reinventing Itself

GameStop’s balance sheet transformation extends to cryptocurrency. GameStop renewed an options deal that ties up nearly all its Bitcoin, with a covered-call strategy attached to its holdings. The Bitcoin position, which had been valued at hundreds of millions of dollars in prior quarters, represents yet another dimension of the company’s ongoing experiment in nontraditional asset deployment.

The company also distributed warrants to shareholders in October 2025. Eligible holders of record as of October 3, 2025 received one warrant per 10 shares. Each warrant permits the purchase of one share at a $32.00 exercise price and is exercisable through October 30, 2026.

What Comes Next

The intersection of the $35 billion compensation lawsuit, the ongoing eBay hostile campaign, record earnings, a $2 billion buyback, and a collectibles-driven transformation makes GameStop one of the most complex and contested investment narratives on Wall Street.

GameStop’s $8.4 billion cash position covers most of its market cap, offering significant downside protection and acquisition optionality, according to analysts, who note that the company’s core fundamentals have improved dramatically even as its strategic ambitions remain deeply polarizing.

For retail investors who drove GameStop’s original short squeeze in 2021, the company’s current chapter offers something simultaneously familiar and strange: a CEO willing to swing for the fences, a market that isn’t sure what to make of it, and a stock that is, for now, waiting for clarity.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., is backing President Donald Trump’s newly announced agreement with Iran aimed at formally ending the conflict between the U.S. and Tehran, while also raising questions about the economic commitments tied to the deal and whether similar attention is being paid to struggling American communities.

Khanna joined FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria” to discuss the agreement, which includes commitments related to Iran’s future economic development and reconstruction and has drawn criticism and praise from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) speaking during a House Armed Services Committee hearing (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Khanna said he supports ending the conflict through diplomacy, but argued the agreement comes with tradeoffs that deserve closer scrutiny. He pointed to provisions he said could require raising roughly $300 billion for Iran’s economic development and reconstruction, though he noted the funds would not come directly from U.S. taxpayers.

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“We’re going to be on the hook to raise $300 billion for Iran’s economic development and reconstruction, not U.S. taxpayer money, but raising that money. Why aren’t we focused on the economic development and reconstruction of Middleton, Ohio? Johnstown, Pennsylvania,” Khanna said. 

The comments reflect a broader debate in Washington over how the U.S. balances foreign policy priorities with domestic economic concerns. Communities across parts of the industrial Midwest have spent decades grappling with factory closures, job losses and population decline, making investment in manufacturing and economic development a recurring political issue.

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Khanna argued that while Trump has promoted efforts to revive American industry, more should be done to support manufacturing regions.

“What about the heartland and the building up of places that were industrialized? That simply hasn’t happened,” Khanna said.

Despite his concerns, Khanna urged fellow Democrats to support the agreement, saying he believes diplomacy remains preferable to a prolonged conflict.

“Americans are tired of these wars. They don’t want wars in the Middle East. They don’t want to be dragged in,” Khanna said. “They want diplomacy. Diplomacy actually is better than these wars.”

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ATLANTA — With World Cup elimination looming over Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Czechia and South Africa collided Thursday in what amounts to a must-win Group A fixture for both nations, their respective opening-round defeats having stripped away any margin for error just one week into the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Seven days into the 2026 FIFA World Cup and both Czechia and South Africa already find themselves staring down elimination. Neither side picked up a single point on Matchday 1, and with Mexico moving clear at the top of Group A and South Korea sitting second after their 2-1 victory over the Czechs, Thursday’s clash at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta has become, bluntly, a knockout match in the group stage.

Given the format of the tournament, where eight of 12 teams that finish third will also qualify for the knockouts, this game offers hope for both teams. But the mathematics are unforgiving. Whoever loses here faces near-certain elimination before the final matchday even arrives.

How Both Teams Got Here

The circumstances surrounding each team’s opening defeat make their meeting all the more charged. For Czechia, the loss to South Korea on June 11 was one of bitter self-destruction after a promising start. The Czech Republic went in front in the 59th minute with a header from captain Ladislav Krejčí to the right of the net from six yards out after a long throw-in from Vladimir Coufal. That lead lasted barely eight minutes. It was 1-1 in the 67th minute when Hwang In-beom received the ball from Lee Kang-in before turning back onto his right foot and scooping the ball over the advancing Czech goalkeeper Matěj Kovář into the right of the net. In the 80th minute, Hwang In-beom crossed low from the right and Oh Hyeon-gyu finished from six yards out to put South Korea 2-1 in front.

A Tomas Soucek effort was additionally ruled out for offside, and goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu produced a stunning late save to deny Michal Sadilek from point-blank range. Czechia had their chances. They squandered them.

South Africa’s story was even more calamitous. Mexico went in front in the 9th minute when Julián Quiñones scored with a low right-footed finish through the legs of South African goalkeeper Ronwen Williams from just inside the penalty area after Sphephelo Sithole was caught in possession on the edge of the penalty area by Erik Lira. Four minutes into the second half, South Africa’s Sphephelo Sithole was sent off after fouling Mexico’s Brian Gutiérrez when he was going through on goal.

The chaos did not end there. In the 73rd minute, South African substitute Themba Zwane was sent off for a slap in the face of Mexican forward Roberto Alvarado. The Bafana Bafana were reduced to nine men and ultimately fell 2-0, their performance so devoid of attacking intent that it generated a national debate back home about their tactics and leadership.

The Suspensions That Could Define the Match

South Africa’s disciplinary catastrophe against Mexico carries direct consequences for Thursday’s contest. Czechia’s chances are boosted by South Africa being without Yaya Sithole and Themba Zwane, who were both shown red cards as they lost 2-0 to co-hosts Mexico in the opening game of the tournament.

The mood in the Bafana Bafana camp ahead of this fixture is uncomfortable, and that is putting it mildly. The 2-0 defeat to Mexico was damaging enough as a result. The manner of it — three red cards across the match, a formation that surprised even the team’s closest observers, and a performance that left the country’s most respected football voices shaking their heads — has created a pressure cooker heading into Atlanta.

Coach Hugo Broos, who faced heavy criticism for deploying a defensive 5-4-1 formation against Mexico that yielded next to nothing offensively, is expected to make significant changes. Thalente Mbatha could replace Sithole in the center of the field, while Broos could turn to a 4-3-3 system, with Oswin Appollis and Relebohile Mofokeng coming into the XI on the wings.

The Tactical Battle

Czechia enter the match as the higher-ranked side and, statistically, the unluckier team from Matchday 1. Czechia’s qualification story, built on nerve, late drama, and belief, suggests a group capable of responding positively under pressure. The 74-year-old Koubek, who became the oldest manager at a World Cup upon his appointment in December 2025, guided this side through two play-off shoot-outs to reach their first finals since 2006, surviving against Republic of Ireland and then Denmark in an extraordinary penalty sequence that saw goalkeeper Matej Kovar save a decisive spot-kick.

For 66 minutes in their World Cup opener against South Korea, Czechia’s strategy was perfect, as Krejčí scored the opening goal from Coufal’s throw-in. The limitations of this style of play came to the fore in the next 14 minutes as South Korea scored twice as Czechia faded.

Patrik Schick will be his side’s main attacking threat in the final third, the Bayer Leverkusen striker having scored six goals at his previous two major tournaments. Tomáš Souček, who scored an offside goal against South Korea, will also provide offensive support from deliveries.

A Historic Managerial Footnote

Beyond the stakes of the match itself, Thursday’s fixture carries an unusual historical footnote. In Czechia’s Miroslav Koubek, aged 74 years and 290 days, and South Africa’s Hugo Broos, aged 74 years and 69 days, this will be the first match in World Cup history to see both head coaches aged over 70. Two veterans of European football, separated by weeks in age, now find their late-career legacies defined by what happens in Atlanta.

The Group A Picture

South Africa only have a 24.9% chance of making it through to the knockout rounds according to the Opta supercomputer, and a positive result against Czechia will be key to keeping that possibility alive.

Czechia and South Africa have only met once before, in a 2-2 draw at the Confederations Cup in 1997. South Africa’s most recent match against European opposition at the World Cup was a memorable 2-1 victory over France that dumped Les Bleus out of the 2010 World Cup.

The final matchday in Group A will see Czechia take on Mexico in Mexico City and South Africa face South Korea in Monterrey, both on June 24. For either team to reach that round with genuine hope of advancement, three points from Thursday’s clash at Mercedes-Benz Stadium is the minimum requirement.

The match is being televised on FOX in the United States, with kickoff scheduled for noon Eastern Time.