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🔍Scoops Spotlight
Breaking down the latest news impacting your life, business, and money.
Scoops Team
May 01, 2026
Hey friends - it’s May. I know, I had no idea either.
Welcome back to the weekly Scoops Spotlight, where we’ll serve up a little summary of the most important business and money news of the week with the company scoops that got the most community reactions.
🌎 The Big Picture
The big story this week was no major change in direction. Stocks are still soaring, borrowing costs aren’t coming down, and big corporations are making more money than ever. One really nice piece of news is that the AI job-stealing headlines are exaggerated.
Stocks finished April by climbing to new record highs.
Strong corporate profits and solid spending gave investors just enough to feel good about things, even with a messy economic backdrop. The broad S&P 500 index finished the month up 10.4%, its best monthly run since November 2020, and the Nasdaq popped 15.3%, its strongest April since 2020.
Financial reports from America's biggest companies have driven most of the optimism, with S&P 500 companies on track for the best revenue growth in years and the best profit margins on record, according to FactSet. The latest updates from Big Tech showed that the main thing driving the economy, AI spending, hasn't let up. And the Commerce Department also confirmed that the US economy accelerated this year after a slow fourth quarter.
For regular folks, the picture's still mixed. The economy's growing, but it doesn't feel even across the board. Energy costs are still very high thanks to ongoing tensions in the Middle East, and borrowing rates are staying stubbornly high. So, investors are excited about corporate profits and are broadly looking past some of the risks from rising costs, with the consensus assumption that the conflict in the Middle East is on a positive path.
It's not getting any cheaper to borrow money, but savings accounts will keep paying well.
The Federal Reserve kept borrowing costs unchanged for the third meeting in a row, and the vote made clear that policymakers are genuinely split on what comes next. The central bank kept its baseline rate range at 3.50-3.75% for the third meeting in a row, leaving borrowing costs roughly where they have been since the end of last year, with eight members voting to hold and four dissenting for opposite reasons. One governor wanted to cut rates immediately, while three regional bank presidents opposed any language suggesting cuts were coming at all. That much dissent has not happened since 1992, showing how uncertain policymakers are right now.
The Federal Reserve started bringing down interest rates last year to restrict borrowing and spending less, as inflation finally started to calm down. However, the ongoing Middle East conflict pushed gasoline prices up 21.2% in a single month, the largest jump on record, driving the cost of living higher and raising concerns for policymakers. Until energy prices settle, the Fed does not see a clear path to cutting rates. Meanwhile, Jerome Powell is stepping down as chair, with Kevin Warsh expected to be confirmed by the Senate the week of May 11. How Warsh leads the committee, and whether energy costs cool off, will shape whether borrowing finally gets cheaper later this year for businesses, homeowners, and spenders.
AI is spreading through American businesses, but it hasn't actually had a big impact on workers yet.
The Census Bureau released new data from its Business Trends and Outlook Survey covering November 2025 through January 2026, offering the most detailed look yet at how companies are actually using the technology. About 18% of firms reported using AI in a business function during that period, a share that rises to 32% when weighted by how many people those companies employ, meaning larger businesses are leading adoption. Large firms in finance, professional services, and information are the heaviest users, with adoption rates ranging from 50% to 60%.
Even among companies that do use AI, most are applying it to a narrow set of tasks, most often writing, editing, and searching for information. Only about 2% to 3% of all businesses reported using AI to automate a task that an employee previously handled. Just 1% of firms changed their staffing levels because of AI, with increases and decreases happening in roughly equal numbers. The biggest reason most businesses have not adopted AI is straightforward: they do not see it as useful to their work.
While this data captures a single moment early in a long adoption process, it should calm some of the headline-induced anxiety about AI sparking mass layoffs.
How are you feeling about the economy? |
🏠The Companies Everyone’s Talking About
 Spirit Airlines is close to a $500 million government loan that could give the US a 90% stake. | Spirit Airlines is fighting to survive a second bankruptcy in under two years, and the federal government may end up owning most of it. The Trump administration is working on a $500 million loan that could give the government a 90% stake in the budget carrier once it emerges from bankruptcy. A jump in jet fuel costs, tied to the conflict in the Middle East, pushed the airline toward possible shutdown just as it was emerging from its most recent bankruptcy. Spirit has already cut its flight volumes roughly in half from a year ago, and some industry watchers say $500 million may not be enough to keep it flying for long. |
 Amazon's cloud business is growing at its fastest pace in years as AI companies pour money into its infrastructure. | Amazon's cloud division is growing at its fastest pace in over three years. The surge is driven by artificial intelligence companies that have committed hundreds of billions to future infrastructure spending. The e-commerce and technology giant is pouring $200 billion into data centers this year, a bet so large it has wiped out almost all of its spare cash. Amazon's own AI chips have already lined up over $225 billion in customer orders, putting it in the rare position of competing with the dominant chipmaker that powers most of the AI world. CEO Andy Jassy said the early years of building this kind of infrastructure always squeeze cash flow, but called the company "unusually well positioned" for the AI boom now in its early stages. |
 Meta is pouring more money than ever into AI, even as users dip and Wall Street questions the payoff. | Meta is going all-in on artificial intelligence at a scale that is changing how the company spends money. The social media giant raised its full-year spending target to as much as $145 billion. The jump comes from higher chip prices and its push to build the massive data centers needed to train and run AI. The company is also cutting roughly 8,000 jobs to offset rising costs. Daily users across Meta's apps fell from the previous quarter, the first decline the company has reported, partly due to government internet restrictions in Iran and Russia. Revenue grew at its fastest pace since 2021. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted he does not have a precise plan for how all this spending will eventually turn a profit, even as the company prepares to take on tens of billions in new debt to fund it. |
 Alphabet's cloud and search businesses are both surging, fueled by booming demand for AI tools. | Alphabet had its strongest quarter ever for Google Cloud, its business of renting computing power and software to other companies. Google Cloud passed $20 billion in quarterly sales, up 63% from a year ago, as businesses rushed to buy AI software and computing power. Search queries hit an all-time high after Google added AI-generated answers to its results, easing fears that chatbot rivals would eat into its core business. The internet giant is spending heavily to keep up, raising its 2026 infrastructure budget to as much as $190 billion, nearly double what it spent in 2025. Even with that, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company still cannot make enough computing power to meet customer demand, with much larger spending planned for 2027. |
 Intel is bouncing back as huge AI demand for its server chips fuels its first real growth in years. | Intel is growing again, powered by huge demand for the server chips that run AI behind the scenes. Sales to data center customers jumped 22% from a year ago, as companies building AI tools rediscovered Intel's chips as a key part of the puzzle. |
âť” The Big Question of the Week
How often do you use AI tools? |
Scoops app users: We have taken the beta app offline for a short period for some major updates. Can’t wait to show you all what we’ve been working on! Reach out if you have any questions.
We’re going to switch up the content in this spotlight for a bit to make sure you all have the info you need to master your week.
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