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☆ Morning Bid: Get ready for the debt ceiling rally
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Kevin BucklandEuropean shares look poised to rally after a wave of optimism that a U.S. debt ceiling deal could be reached as soon as the weekend, which lifted stocks on Wall Street and in Asia. Analysts highlighted how both parties agreed to new, smaller teams to continue negotiations, which they took as a sign that discussions have moved to a more advanced stage. Cash available at the U.S. Treasury general account, used to pay for all official U.S. obligations, is draining fast as extraordinary measures are exhausted, pending a debt ceiling deal to raise the limit. The Nasdaq is on the cusp of a 13-month peak, and the Dax is hovering near its highest since January of last year. Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Edmund KlamannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Morning Bid: Debt ceiling drama aside, world economy looks shaky
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Naomi RovnickRisk appetite has perked up on global markets thanks to optimism that U.S. Democrats and Republicans are nearing a deal to raise the debt ceiling and avoid an economically catastrophic default. But while a debt ceiling reprieve could boost markets in coming days, the backdrop of a lacklustre global economy is unchanged, with its twin engines, China and the United States, sputtering. Citi's China economic surprise index is at its lowest since January (.CESICNY), a further sign that the growth outlook has weakened. The S&P 500 is trading at a rich 18 times forecast earnings, buoyed by the tech mega-stocks that dominate the index. Developments that could affect markets on Thursday:* Economic events: U.S. initial jobless claims, U.S. existing home sales, Philly Fed business index.

☆ SVB’s Greg Becker Tells His Story
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/greg-becker-senate-testimony-silicon-valley-bank-failure-federal-reserve-michael-barr-a754a32d

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Say goodbye to the US car market as we know it, TikTok will pay for AR filters, and YouTubers share how they make money
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and I'm taking a few days off to watch my best friend graduate with their PhD. (Don't worry, my colleagues in London will be bringing you your daily dose of tech news while I'm away.) Pharmacy startup TruePill is searching for its panacea. Employees told to "drink the Kool-Aid" at Larry Page's startup. Current and former employees told Insider about the recent turmoil.

Berkshire acquired 9.92 million shares in Capital One, a stake worth $954 million based on the closing price on March 31, regulatory filings showed on Monday. The bank's shares have shed around 15% since early March as the banking crisis has clobbered shares of U.S. regional lenders. Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank are the three banks that have so far collapsed during the current crisis. The KBW Regional Banking Index (.KRX) fell 0.38%. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr said the central bank was "carefully considering" rule changes for larger regional banks, including requiring them to account for unrealized losses on their banks when considering capital levels.

☆ Morning Bid: Europe has a data fest, and growth worries
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Vidya RanganathanTuesday's a busy day for European markets. We get preliminary growth numbers for the euro zone, inflation in Italy, jobless data for Britain and, crucially, the German economic sentiment ZEW survey. No surprises are seen in euro zone GDP data - rather, analysts assume the tepid pace seen in the fourth quarter hasn't picked up. That leaves the German ZEW survey for May in the spotlight. UK labour market data is a biggie too for sterling this week, offering insight into the headline pay growth that the hawkish Bank of England is eyeing.

"I believe it was a series of unprecedented events that all came together in the fastest bank run in history," Becker told the Senate Banking Committee. "I was the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, I take responsibility for what ultimately happened," Becker said. Executives from Signature Bank also testified alongside Becker on Tuesday, pushing back on assertions from lawmakers that the bank had weak corporate governance. "I don't believe that there was mismanagement at the bank," said Eric Howell, the former president of Signature Bank. The bank tried to cover the loss by raising capital, but in announcing the transaction helped fuel a bank run.

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Amazon Web Services salaries, Elon Musk returns to Tesla, and a ‘secret’ ChatGPT prompt library
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and I don't dream of labor (I do occasionally have dreams about writing the newsletter). And hiring managers told my colleague Aki Ito that it's currently incredibly difficult to find and hire enough qualified people. The country that wins the competition over the batteries of the future will not only control the electric vehicle market. Lopez gives us a front-seat look at the landscape of the critical EV battery market. A leaked email revealed that Musk now wants to approve all new hires — including contractors — at Tesla.

☆ DeSantis pledges he would 'clean house' at the FBI as president in response to Durham report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Special counsel John Durham slammed the FBI over its Trump-Russia investigation in a new report. DeSantis said the report showed "I was right," because he'd defended Trump as a US congressman. "What I would do is clean house top to bottom in these agencies," he said of the FBI and others. The report was published Monday and overseen by Special Counsel John Durham — who was appointed by former President Trump's attorney general Bill Barr — and was the conclusion of a four-yearlong investigation into the 2016 election. The FBI opened its investigation in July 2016 and Special Counsel Robert Mueller took over in 2017.

☆ Morning bid: Biden, Republicans set for debt ceiling face-off
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 16 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Samuel Indyk. President Joe Biden and senior Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, are to sit down on Tuesday in an attempt to thrash out a deal to raise the debt limit and avoid a catastrophic default. That relative calm has been reflected in the latest Bank of America fund manager survey for May. Equity allocations rose to a five-month high, while a vast majority (71%) expect the U.S. to agree on a deal to raise the debt ceiling before the so-called "X-date". Away from the debt ceiling and the Federal Reserve's data dependency will be tested with the latest retail sales and industrial production figures.

☆ Trump is weaponizing the Russia report he demanded -- even though it lacks bombshells
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Another Trump ally, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, argued the report showed the “rule of law in America is subservient to political outcomes. In another politically sensitive part of his report, Durham found that the FBI did not pursue allegations against Clinton with the same vigor with which they acted against Trump. He pointed out that the Trump investigation was launched at a time when Russia was attacking Democratic National Committee servers and had used stolen information to attack Clinton. The investigation was only launched after the bureau received evidence from a friendly foreign government that the Trump campaign had been offered help by the Russians. But all Trump needed from the report was a headline and a general narrative of suspicion against the FBI.

WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - Top U.S. banking regulators plan to tell lawmakers the government will be open to future bank mergers, but are committed to establishing tougher rules after recent turmoil. Barr maintained his commitment to overhauling bank rules to ensure firms do not escape stricter oversight because they are smaller or viewed as less risky. "The prudential regulation and supervision of these institutions merits additional attention, particularly with respect to capital, liquidity, and interest rate risk," he said in prepared testimony. While vowing to draft tougher rules, the agencies have also been criticized for not identifying and preventing weaknesses before the lenders failed. In prepared testimony, he said rapid interest rate increases and social media-fueled rumors drove the "unprecedented" bank run that sank his firm.

☆ US special counsel faults FBI's handling of 2016 Trump-Russia probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Sarah N. Lynch | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The FBI lacked “actual evidence” to investigate Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and relied too heavily on tips provided by Trump’s political opponents to fuel the probe, U.S. Special Counsel John Durham concluded in a report released on Monday. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at his final campaign event at the Devos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. November 8, 2016. That Crossfire Hurricane investigation would later be handed over to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who in March 2019 concluded there was no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. In his new 306-page report, Durham concluded that U.S. intelligence and law enforcement did not possess any “actual evidence” of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia prior to launching Crossfire Hurricane. He also accused the bureau of treating the 2016 Trump probe differently from other politically sensitive investigations, including several involving Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

☆ Singapore's sovereign wealth fund is looking to invest more in the secondary market, as other VC funds look to sell
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund is keen on doing more in the secondary market, where private stakes in startups and VC funds change hands. That means there's pressure on distributions, which is the cash returned to VC and startup investors. GIC has a private-equity team that specializes in the secondary market. There's been a growing number of secondary funds and exchanges that help founders, employees, and even investors and VC funds sell their startup shares. So as some VC funds look to sell in the secondary market now, GIC has more freedom to be a buyer.

☆ DeepMind cofounder says Google should be 'pretty worried' because old school search engines will be gone in a decade. 'That moment is done.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Alistair Barr | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman has a chilling warning for Google, his former employer: The internet as we know it will fundamentally change and "old school" Search will be gone in a decade. During his final period at Google, Suleyman worked on LaMDA, a large language model. With or without Google, the search experience will evolve to be conversational and interactive, Suleyman said on the No Priors podcast. There will be business AIs, government AIs, nonprofit AIs, political AIs, influencer AIs, brand AIs. Now, that's going to become much more dynamic, and interactive.

☆ Special counsel appointed by Trump's attorney general says FBI had no basis for investigating Trump's links to Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Special Counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI didn't have sufficient evidence to open its investigation into Donald Trump's connections with Russia, according to a report published by the Justice Department on Monday. For nearly four years, Durham — appointed by former President Trump's attorney general Bill Barr — investigated the origins of the FBI's investigation into links between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. In his 300-page report, he found that it had no basis for opening the investigation in the first place. The FBI investigation, with the code name Crossfire Hurricane, was opened in July 2016 to examine Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election. "After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe!"

☆ 10 Things in Tech: 'I saw a quantum computer,' Gen Zer learns data analytics on YouTube, and Ford's Ranger Raptor
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Google's AI demonstration showed how Big Tech keeps on winning. Lots of startups are throwing their hat into the generative AI race. But it looks like Big Tech has a leg up on the competition. And it makes competitors even more dependent on Big Tech companies. My colleague Hugh Langley highlights how size and reach, not just quality, will win the AI race and breaks down how Big Tech is set to reap most of the spoils.

☆ Stock futures are little changed as traders await Tuesday debt ceiling negotiations: Live updates
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on April 10, 2023 in New York City. Futures tied to the S&P 500 slipped 0.05%, while Nasdaq 100 futures inched lower by 0.08%. Investors are anxiously awaiting progress on a deal to raise the debt ceiling before June 1, which is the earliest date the Treasury Department has said the U.S. could default on its debt obligations. Biden has so far maintained that raising the debt ceiling is non-negotiable. McCarthy, however, has pushed for talks to broker a deal to raise the debt ceiling be tied to spending cuts.

☆ Special counsel John Durham concludes FBI never should have launched full Trump-Russia probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Zachary Cohen Devan Cole Tierney Sneed Evan Perez Hannah Rabinowitz Jeremy Herb Marshall Cohen | Zachary Cohen | Devan Cole | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

“Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump,” Durham wrote, while quoting in a footnote previously known texts between Strzok and Lisa Page, then an FBI attorney. Witness testimony exposed the FBI’s overreliance on the dossier as it sought court approval to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser in 2016. Mixed results over 3+ yearsBarr tapped Durham in 2019 to review the origins of the Russia probe, and the scope of Durham’s work grew over the years. Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which inherited the initial Russia probe, released a detailed accounting of Russia’s effort to interfere in the 2016 election. Mueller found no evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but investigators documented numerous contacts between Trump associates and Russians.

☆ Special counsel issues report criticizing FBI for launching Trump-Russia investigation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Ken Dilanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The special counsel who spent four years investigating the Trump-Russia probe accused the FBI of acting negligently by opening the investigation based on vague and insufficient information in a sweeping 300-page report made public Monday. The FBI responded to the report, indicating that the missteps identified by Durham have already been addressed. Durham's report examines in painstaking detail various aspects of the now infamous FBI investigation code-named "Crossfire Hurricane," which led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Durham's investigation found that at the time, neither the FBI nor CIA had any intelligence suggesting an improper relationship between Trump and Russia. Durham appears to suggest that the intelligence information should have given the FBI pause in its pursuit of allegations involving the Trump campaign.

☆ Stocks week ahead: SVB and Signature Bank execs are set to testify next week
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is holding three hearings this coming week centered around the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March. ET : Greg Becker, former chief executive, Silicon Valley Bank; Scott Shay, former chairman and co-founder, Signature Bank and Eric Howell, former president, Signature Bank. ET : Mark Bialek, inspector general, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Paul Kupiec, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute and more. Since then, the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have released reports detailing management missteps at SVB and Signature Bank, as well as federal regulators’ own mistakes in properly addressing red flags preceding the banks’ demises. A separate report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Friday shows that American households are becoming increasingly frugal.

☆ 10 Things in Tech: TikTok is transforming comedy, Microsoft’s futuristic doctor visits, and Elon Musk announces a new Twitter CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

My colleague Lakshmi Varanasi tested a buzzy AI service called Runway that can generate full videos from just a text prompt. She found that using Runway feels similar to using OpenAI's controversial Dall-E 2 or Stable Diffusion — impressive but not perfect. Check out the photos and videos Runway generated for her here. In other news:In a conference presentation, Andrea Barrett, a physician assistant and Nuance consultant, demonstrates products using generative AI. Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday that he's picked a new CEO for Twitter.

☆ Voting technology company Smartmatic subpoenas Trump campaign as part of $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —The voting technology company Smartmatic has subpoenaed Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign for a wide array of documents as part of its $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News over its airing of election lies. Once served, the Trump campaign can fight it in court. CNN reached out to Trump’s 2024 campaign for comment and was directed to the 2020 campaign. It was unclear who, if anyone, was still affiliated with the 2020 campaign. A New York judge in 2022 rejected Fox News’ motion to dismiss Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit, allowing the case to move forward to discovery.

☆ New York Is Full of Empty Offices After Covid. Make Way for the Playground City. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Edward L. Glaeser | Carlo Ratti | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +20 min

We are witnessing the dawn of a new kind of urban area: the Playground City. The transformation toward the Playground City will not happen on its own. To draw people into the Playground City, we need to show, not tell. 6.Engage citizensGovernments should empower citizens to participate directly in making the Playground City. The Playground City sees people as both a means and an end, and it should involve them in the process of its creation.

☆ How Singapore's giant sovereign wealth fund is investing in generative AI technology
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

As CEO of GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, he must keep the country's savings growing ahead of inflation. AI retoolingThe 2 investors were most animated when discussing the recent explosion of generative AI technology, including large language models. Chris Emanuel, head of the Technology Investment Group at GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GICThere's already a generative AI startup feeding frenzy among venture capital funds. Secondary market actionFinally, GIC is keen on doing more in the secondary market, where private stakes in startups and VC funds change hands. That means general partners, the people running VC funds, already know GIC and are more comfortable dealing with the organization, Lim explained.

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