ANZ expects the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to lift its policy rate by 25 basis points to 5.0% at its Aug. 27 meeting to rein in inflation that remains above target. While headline inflation has eased over the past three months, July inflation of 6.2% is still well above the central bank’s 3%–4% goal. The BSP has raised rates twice this year, leaving the benchmark rate at 4.75%.

Four top AI researchers left Alphabet’s Google, and the stock closed down 4.03% at $362.43, wiping about $186 billion off its market value on above-average trading volume. The decline outpaced the broader market, with the Nasdaq Composite down 0.8%, the S&P 500 off 0.2%, and the Dow ending at a record. CEO Sundar Pichai said Google will still act as a “founding investor” in the effort.

Ripple said it has voted in support of a major amendment slated for the XRP Ledger 3.3.0 upgrade. The change is described as a protocol-governance-level technical update, though the report did not detail its contents. The upgrade includes optimizations to ledger functionality and will be activated only after validator voting reaches consensus.

Rocket Lab’s Space Systems revenue more than doubled year over year, lifting the company’s overall backlog to $2.36 billion. The larger backlog is positioned to support continued revenue growth and margin expansion.

Strategy (MSTR) rose 6% to $118 on Aug. 21, extending its five-session gain to 27%. The total crypto market cap climbed from $2.1 trillion on Aug. 19 to $2.5 trillion, while Bitcoin moved above $79,000 for the first time since May 2026 and surpassed Meta in market-cap rankings. Other crypto-linked stocks also advanced, with Coinbase (COIN) up 6.81% to $184 and Circle (CRCL) up 7% to $89.

The U.S. Treasury has issued more than $100 billion in tariff refunds since May, exceeding half of the total revenue collected from IEEPA tariffs over the same period. Refunds hit $21.97 billion in May, topping that month’s collections for the first time, and surged to $49.18 billion in June, pushing net customs revenue to negative $25.56 billion. Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found tariffs lifted prices of pharmaceuticals and household utensils by more than 4%. The jump in refunds is undermining the tariffs’ fiscal payoff.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit overturned the Department of Transportation’s decision to terminate Delta Air Lines’ immunized joint venture with Aeromexico, allowing the partnership to continue. The court said the DOT focused only on the Mexico City market rather than the broader U.S.–Mexico market analysis used when the pact was first approved in 2016. On U.S.–Mexico routes, American Airlines holds just over a 20% seat share, compared with just under 20% for the Delta–Aeromexico venture, while Mexico’s low-cost carrier Volaris has 19%, according to Cirium schedule data. The joint venture resumed after Mexico was returned to the FAA’s Category 1 safety rating in 2023.

U.S. stocks rose, with the S&P 500 up 0.37%, the Dow up 0.67%, and the Nasdaq 100 up 0.10%, as steady crude prices lifted sentiment. Bitcoin climbed more than 5% to a three-month high and is up more than 20% for the week, with more than $2 billion in short positions liquidated in the perpetual futures market since Wednesday. Markets are pricing in a 35% probability of a 25-basis-point Fed rate hike in September. European equities also advanced, with the Euro Stoxx 50 up 0.45%.