CNBC Daily Open: Trump takes the stage — without his longtime teleprompter operator

Hello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC's Daily Open. U.S. President Donald Trump is currently giving a primetime speech on Thursday focusing on election security. Netflix and Alphabet dropped overnight in an otherwise solid earnings season so far in the U.S, while chip stocks sold-off. Read on! U.S. President Donald Trump is currently giving a primetime speech stateside, focusing on election security with a new teleprompter operator, after the earlier one came under investigation by federal regulators and was suspended. The probe is in connection with bets the person allegedly made on the prediction market platform Kalshi related to statements Trump would make. The operator allegedly made more than $90,000 in profits on the trades, although most of that money was frozen by Kalshi after the bets were flagged as suspicious. Overseas, Iran has threatened to tear up Trump's script in the Middle East. A spokesperson for Iran's top military command said that if Trump targets Iranian infrastructure, Tehran would "crush" key targets in the Middle East. The spokesperson added that "under no circumstances and in no way will we allow America, as a foreign and extra-regional country, to interfere in the Strait of Hormuz." In the markets though, investors have scripts of their own to revise. Netflix shares fell more than 8% in after-hours trading Thursday as the company's earnings forecast disappointed investors. The company also said it would offer fewer updates on its engagement metrics, namely, the "What We Watched" reports, which provide a picture of engagement. Netflix said it will now publish the report annually instead of semiannually, adding the move was to keep the focus on financial metrics like revenue and operating profit. Alphabet shares also fell 4% on reports that its latest Gemini 3.5 Pro model was months behind schedule. That delay is reportedly due to the model's coding capabilities, in particular, were short of internal expectations. U.S. markets ended the day in negative territory, with all three major indexes posting losses despite solid earnings reports in other sectors. Of the 40 S&P 500 companies that have already reported, more than 87% topped Wall Street's estimates. Asia markets were also trading lower Friday, with tech names in Japan selling off. — Lim Hui Jie Short sellers load up against SpaceX as stock drops below IPO price Short sellers are rapidly increasing their bets against SpaceX, driving bearish positioning to nearly one-third of the company's public float as the struggling stock hovers below its IPO offering price. About 185 million SpaceX shares are now sold short, representing roughly 29% of the company's publicly tradable float and about $25 billion in bearish wagers, according to S3 Partners. The position has ballooned from an estimated 40 million shares, or roughly 5% to 7% of the float, just three weeks ago. The surge in short interest comes as SpaceX shares have struggled after an initially strong debut. The stock has fallen about 20% in July and briefly slipped below its $135 IPO price on Wednesday for the first time. The stock last traded around $131 apiece on Thursday. — Yun Li