Continental

US Seizes Iranian Ship; Cursor Pursues $2B Round

CNBC's Morning Squawk reports that the U.S. Navy intercepted and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, the Touska, raising renewed Middle East tensions and lifting oil prices. Kevin Warsh, President Trump's pick to chair the Federal Reserve and a former Fed governor with deep Silicon Valley ties, will face a Senate confirmation hearing. The auto retail sector is consolidating, with the top 150 dealers capturing a growing share of new vehicle sales. AI-focused startup Cursor is in discussions for a $2 billion fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation expected from Nvidia and Thrive Capital. Separately, Nvidia is prioritizing data‑center AI chips over gaming products, shifting its revenue mix toward data‑center business.

Kalshi's DC Ad Push Amid Prediction-Market Regulation

CNBC's Morning Squawk highlights market moves and a Washington push by prediction-market operator Kalshi. Kalshi opened a Washington, D.C. office in January and has launched a local billboard campaign emphasizing its ban on insider trading and compliance with U.S. law, part of an effort to differentiate from rival Polymarket as members of Congress introduce at least eight bills to regulate prediction markets. The newsletter also notes Bank of America and Morgan Stanley beat expectations in early earnings, Broadcom and Meta expanded a partnership tied to Meta's custom AI chips, and reports that United Airlines CEO pitched a potential merger with American Airlines earlier this year. CNBC discloses it holds a minority investment in Kalshi.

Make People Stop Scrolling in One Second

The article explains the copywriting tactic called a "pattern interrupt"—an unexpected first line or formatting technique designed to halt scrolling and force attention. It cites United Airlines’ viral “Relax Row” post (the line: “The entire row is alllllll yours.”) as an example that reportedly reached 33 million views, and the author says pattern interrupts were a core tactic used to grow Wiz’s LinkedIn page from zero to 400K followers with some posts exceeding 1M impressions. The piece describes specific devices (e.g., stretched words, placing periods after each word) and offers nine proven pattern-interrupt examples with copy-pasteable first lines aimed at improving social post engagement.