Marketplace Morning Report

Oil prices are still heading up this morning, but a bit more slowly after tensions in the Middle East appear to be easing. Earlier today, Israel and Iran attacked each other for the first time since the ceasefire in April. What’s behind these rising oil prices, and why are traders bidding up crude? Also in the show: a preview of May inflation data and encouragement to work from home in World Cup host cities.

There are about 700 hospitals at risk of closure across rural communities in the U.S. Financial headwinds are mounting, with disappearing federal subsidies and cuts to Medicaid. Alabama is a state familiar with hospital closures and at risk for more. This morning, host Kimberly Adams visits Thomasville Regional Medical Center, a hospital that looks frozen in time but has been closed for almost two years, to learn what happens to a community's economy and access to healthcare when vital resources disappear.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its May jobs report earlier this morning. The economy created 172,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate stayed at 4.3%, and the April number was revised up by 64,000 jobs. Who's doing all this hiring? Also on the program, global food prices stabilized last month, but we're not out of the woods yet. And we'll check in on the momentum of the $100 billion wedding industry.

SpaceX is expected to go public next week in what could be the biggest initial public offering ever. Anthropic has also filed for an IPO, likely later this year; OpenAI is moving in that direction, too. With all the hype around these companies, should retail investors — or regular people, for that matter — get in on these IPOs? We do the numbers so you don't have to. Plus, migrant workers in Italy are organizing for better conditions, and Anthropic wants coordinated plans for slowing AI development.

SpaceX is set to go public next Friday. If all goes according to plan, the company is seeking a valuation of nearly $2 trillion. That would be the biggest initial public offering on record, and it would make CEO Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. We'll learn more. Then, as part of Marketplace's "What's That Like?" series, we head to Zigong, China, to learn what it takes to be a master lantern artisan.