A wave of initial public offerings expected after Labor Day is bringing a burst of activity to Wall Street. Fund managers and analysts say their calendars are filling up with meetings with companies eager to test investor appetite. Chief among them is smart-ring maker Oura, targeting a fall listing that could fetch a valuation well above $11 billion. Dunkin' owner Inspire Brands is looking at an offering as early as the end of this year. Coming on the heels of Space X's $86 billion offering in June—and with AI powerhouse Anthropic waiting in the wings—the U.S. IPO market is on track for a record year.

South Korea had the world's hottest stock market for most of the past year, powered by the AI boom. Driven by memory-chip makers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix—which soared to trillion-dollar valuations—the benchmark Kospi index more than tripled in value. Then came the crash. The Kospi plummeted around 40% over six weeks in June and July, erasing roughly $2.5 trillion in market value. The pain fell hardest on South Korea's individual investors, known as "ants."

The fight against Flock Safety is getting louder and more sophisticated, even as the company's AI-enabled cameras continue to spread across America. Flock has 120,000 cameras in 49 states that capture 20 billion license plates a month. The company says it is giving police a powerful tool to catch criminals. But bipartisan public anger is now aimed at Flock's spreading camera network, spilling into midterm races from Florida to Rhode Island to San Francisco.