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☆ From inflation to mortgages: What last week’s data says about the economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Elisabeth Buchwald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, showed that inflation was double the target in May (more on inflation shortly). Wednesday’s Consumer Price Index showed that annual inflation slowed from 4% to 3% in June, the lowest level since March 2021. Then on Thursday came Producer Price Index data, which measures the average change in prices that businesses pay to suppliers. That data showed annual wholesale inflation cooled last month to the lowest level in nearly three years. And June of last year was monumental: Annual inflation soared to 9.1%, the highest in more than 40 years largely because of record-high energy costs,” she wrote.

Persons: Michael Scott, Price, ”, Mary Daly, “ It’s, Alicia Wallace, Freddie Mac, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase, can’t, Dimon, “, — CNN’s Bryan Mena, Matt Egan Organizations: New, New York CNN, Reserve, ” San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, University of Michigan, JPMorgan, CNN Locations: New York, ” San Francisco

The San Francisco federal court had ruled in favor of Microsoft on Tuesday, saying the FTC had failed to show the deal would be illegal under antitrust law. "The FTC asks this Court to enjoin the merger at issue pending resolution of the FTC’s appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The FTC had said it was seeking a preliminary injunction to temporarily stop the deal until an internal FTC judge could assess it. It is rare for a merger fight to go to an appeals court. The agency settled with the companies before the appeals court made a decision.

Persons: We're, Brad Smith, Jacqueline Scott Corley, Corley, Diane Bartz, David Shepardson, Kanishka Singh, Tim Ahmann, Josie Kao, Jamie Freed Organizations: U.S . Federal Trade Commission, Microsoft, Activision, San, FTC, Ninth Circuit, Appeals, Nintendo, Britain's, Markets Authority, Foods, Oats, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, Britain, California

☆ Stability AI is sued by co-founder who says he was duped in to selling stake for $100
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Hodes, a self-described "world-renowned thought leader" in artificial intelligence, said Stability AI and Mostaque also never revealed their talks with venture capital firms before Mostaque bought his stake in October 2021 and May 2022. Stability AI said in an email: "The suit is without merit and we will aggressively defend our position." He said he had worked "countless hours" since early 2020 at Stability AI, including on an ultimately unsuccessful project to help governments respond faster to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stability AI describes itself as the "world's leading open source generative AI company," whose technology is open to the public, as opposed to at closed source companies. In May, the stock photo provider Getty Images asked a London court to stop Stability AI from selling its image-generation system in Britain, citing alleged copyright violations.

Persons: Cyrus Hodes, Emad Mostaque, Mostaque, Hodes, Harvard University's John F, Jonathan Stempel, Matthew Lewis Organizations: YORK, United Arab, Harvard University's, Kennedy School of Government, Getty, Bloomberg News, Court, Northern District of, Thomson Locations: San Francisco federal, London, Hodes, United Arab Emirates, Britain, U.S, Northern District, Northern District of California, New York

☆ San Francisco Fed president: ‘It’s really too early to declare victory on inflation’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Elisabeth Buchwald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Despite promising signs that inflation is abating, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly said the fight against price increases isn’t over. But she cautioned, “It’s really too early to declare victory on inflation.”The latest Consumer Price Index report published on Wednesday showed that annual inflation slowed from 4% to 3% in June, the lowest level since March 2021. However, the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, showed that inflation was double its 2% target in May. Daly acknowledged there’s a risk the Fed will raise rates higher than what’s ultimately needed to get inflation down to 2%. Daly, who will be voting on interest rates at the Fed’s meetings next year, said she wouldn’t necessarily consider cutting rates once inflation hits 2%.

Persons: Mary Daly, ” Daly, “ It’s, Daly, there’s, “ can’t, ”, Daly’s, James Bullard Organizations: New, New York CNN, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, CNBC, Louis Federal Reserve Bank Locations: New York, San, St

☆ Twitter owes ex-employees $500 million in severance, lawsuit claims
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

But Twitter only gave laid-off workers at most one month of severance pay, and many of them did not receive anything, McMillian claims. Twitter laid off more than half of its workforce as a cost-cutting measure after Musk acquired the company in October. The lawsuit accuses Twitter and Musk of violating a federal law regulating employee benefit plans. Twitter has already been sued for allegedly failing to pay severance, but those cases involve breach of contract claims and not the benefits law. A pending lawsuit filed last month accuses Twitter of also failing to pay millions of dollars in bonuses it owes to remaining employees.

Persons: Elon Musk, Courtney McMillian, McMillian, Musk Organizations: Elon, Twitter Locations: San Francisco federal

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Elon Musk, Courtney McMillian, McMillian, Musk, Daniel Wiessner, Alexia Garamfalvi, Bill Berkrot Organizations: Elon, Twitter, REUTERS, Thomson Locations: San Francisco federal, Albany , New York

The Fed has raised interest rates by 5 percentage points since March 2022 to bring down the highest U.S. inflation in four decades. "We may end up doing less because we need to do less; we may end up doing just that; we could end up doing more. Fed policymakers are widely expected to deliver a rate hike at their meeting later this month, a move that would bring the policy rate to the 5.25%-5.50% range. That could buttress the case that price pressures are weakening, which in turn could take some pressure off the central bank to hike rates again. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, speaking at yet another event on Monday, repeated his view that the Fed can be "patient" on rates and allow restrictive policy to bring down inflation without further action by the central bank.

Persons: Mary Daly, Daly, Jerome Powell, Ann Saphir, Michael Barr, Raphael Bostic, Loretta Mester, Mester, Dan Burns, Howard Schneider, Paul Simao Organizations: Federal Reserve, San Francisco Fed, Brookings Institution, San Francisco Federal, REUTERS, New York Fed, Atlanta Fed, Cleveland Fed, Thomson Locations: U.S, San Francisco , California

☆ Sarah Silverman sues OpenAI and Meta alleging copyright infringement
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors are suing Meta and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, alleging the companies’ AI language models were trained on copyrighted materials from their books without their knowledge or consent. A new crop of AI tools has gained tremendous attention in recent months for their ability to generate written work and images in response to user prompts. The large language models underpinning these tools are trained on vast troves of online data. The complaint against Meta similarly claims that the company used the authors’ copyrighted books to train LLaMA, the set of large language models released by Meta in February. The legal action from Silverman isn’t the first to focus on how large language models are trained.

Persons: Sarah Silverman, OpenAI, Silverman, ”, Christopher Golden, Richard Kadrey, ChatGPT, “, Meta, Silverman isn’t, Sam Altman, “ We’re Organizations: CNN, Meta, OpenAI, Facebook Locations: San Francisco federal

☆ San Francisco Fed president: Silicon Valley Bank’s failure wasn’t our fault
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Washington, DC CNN —Silicon Valley Bank failed because regulators were far too slow to take action, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly said Monday in her first extended remarks about the collapse. SVB operated in Daly’s district before the regional bank’s stunningly rapid failure in March, but she noted she doesn’t have a supervising role. Daly said the supervisors at the San Francisco Fed simply report issues to the Fed’s Board of Governors, which is ultimately responsible for fixing any regulatory issues. “My job is to support the supervision that the vice chair of supervision has set out, so how do I do that? The possibility of a rate hike in September remains unclear, though Powell said he wouldn’t take consecutive rate hikes off the table.

Persons: Mary Daly, SVB, ” Daly, Michael Barr, Democratic Sen, Elizabeth Warren, Daly, Jerome Powell, Warren, ”, Barr, it’s, It’s, Powell, Loretta Mester, Mester, “, Raphael Bostic, ” Bostic, ” — CNN’s Elisabeth Buchwald Organizations: DC CNN, Valley Bank, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, Brookings Institution, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, Democratic, San Francisco Fed, Fed’s, of Governors, Fed, San Francisco, Cleveland Fed, University of California, Atlanta Fed, trickling, Cobb County Chamber of Commerce Locations: Washington, Daly’s district, Washington ,, San Francisco Fed, San Diego, Cobb County, Atlanta

July 9 (Reuters) - Comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Meta Platforms (META.O) and OpenAI for allegedly using their content without permission to train artificial intelligence language models. The proposed class action lawsuits filed by Silverman, Richard Kadrey and Christopher Golden in San Francisco federal court Friday allege Facebook parent company Meta and ChatGPT maker OpenAI used copyrighted material to train chat bots. Meta and OpenAI, a private company backed by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday. Silverman, Kadrey and Golden allege Meta and OpenAI used their books without authorization to develop their so-called large language models, which their makers pitch as powerful tools for automating tasks by replicating human conversation. The lawsuit against OpenAI alleges that summaries of the plaintiffs’ work generated by ChatGPT indicate the bot was trained on their copyrighted content.

Persons: Sarah Silverman, Silverman, Richard Kadrey, Christopher Golden, OpenAI, Kadrey, Jack Queen, Lincoln Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Microsoft Corp, Thomson Locations: San Francisco federal

☆ Authors sue OpenAI, allege their books were used to train ChatGPT without their consent
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Two authors filed a lawsuit against OpenAI last week alleging that their copyrighted books were used to train the company's artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, without their consent. They allege the summaries are "only possible" if ChatGPT was trained on their books, which would be a violation of copyright law. OpenAI doesn't reveal what precise data was used for training ChatGPT, but the company said it generally crawled the web, including the use of archived books and Wikipedia. The complaint references exhibits of the summaries that ChatGPT generated, and it notes that the chatbot gets some things wrong. "At no point did ChatGPT reproduce any of the copyright management information Plaintiffs included with their published works," the complaint said.

Persons: OpenAI, Paul Tremblay, Mona Awad, ChatGPT, Tremblay, Awad, Sam Altman Organizations: Microsoft, San Locations: San Francisco, San Francisco federal

Massachusetts-based writers Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad said ChatGPT mined data copied from thousands of books without permission, infringing the authors' copyrights. Several legal challenges have been filed over material used to train cutting-edge AI systems. ChatGPT and other generative AI systems create content using large amounts of data scraped from the internet. Tremblay and Awad's lawsuit said books are a "key ingredient" because they offer the "best examples of high-quality longform writing." The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of money damages on behalf of a nationwide class of copyright owners whose works OpenAI allegedly misused.

Persons: OpenAI, Paul Tremblay, Mona Awad, Matthew Butterick, Microsoft's, ChatGPT, Tremblay, Awad, Blake Brittain, David Bario, Richard Chang Organizations: OpenAI, Microsoft Corp, Stability, Thomson Locations: San Francisco federal, . Massachusetts, Washington

☆ Oil dips on demand worries as more rate hikes likely
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Arathy Somasekhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

More U.S. interest rate hikes also seemed likelier. San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly said two more rate hikes this year was a "very reasonable" projection. The Bank of England rate rise triggered fund liquidation and energy producers were moving to a "hedge now" mentality, Kissler added. Higher interest rates increase borrowing costs for businesses and consumers, which could slow economic growth and reduce oil demand. Risk-aversion among investors also boosted the value of the U.S. dollar, which pressures oil prices by making the commodity more expensive for other currency holders.

Persons: Brent, Mary Daly, Dennis Kissler, China's, Alex Lawler, Sudarshan, Philippa Fletcher, Kirsten Donovan, Louise Heavens, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Fed's Daly Bank of, HOUSTON, . West Texas, Bank of England, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, EU, BOK, The Bank of, U.S ., Thomson Locations: Norway, Switzerland, San, China, Saudi, OPEC

Last week Fed policymakers decided to hold the policy rate steady at the current 5%-5.25% range, interrupting what had been a string of 10 straight increases aimed at stomping inflation. The unemployment rate has crept up to 3.7% but is lower than the 4% rate Fed policymakers estimate is consistent with a fully employed American workforce on a sustainable basis. That's one more reason, she said, to slow down on rate hikes. "No wonder there's a couple of extra rate hikes," Daly said. Two more quarter-point rate hikes this year, Daly said, is "a very reasonable projection at this point," she said.

Persons: Florence Lo, Mary Daly, Daly, what's, Banks, I've, Ann Saphir, Dan Burns, Andrea Ricci Organizations: REUTERS, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, Reuters, Thomson

The lawyers said in the filing that the $725 million settlement is the largest data-privacy recovery in history and the largest private settlement Facebook has ever agreed to. Meta and an outside lawyer for the company from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the fee request on Thursday. While a 25% fee amounts to $181,250,000, the fees paid from the settlement fund would be about $180,449,782, the lawyers wrote. The company and its outside law firm, Gibson Dunn, already paid about $800,217 in sanctions, which can be deducted from the total fees, they wrote. The company did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which the judge granted preliminary approval of in March.

Persons: Keller Rohrback, Fonti, Auld, Derek Loeser, Lesley Weaver, Bleichmar Fonti, Dunn, Crutcher, Gibson Dunn, Vince Chhabria, Meta, Read, Sara Merken, Leigh Jones Organizations: San, Facebook, Meta, Gibson, U.S, Cambridge, Thomson Locations: San Francisco federal

Companies Twitter Inc FollowJune 21 (Reuters) - Twitter Inc is facing a lawsuit claiming it failed to pay workers millions of dollars in promised bonuses, adding to a pile of court cases filed since Elon Musk acquired the social media company. Schobinger says that before and after Musk purchased Twitter last year, the company promised employees that they would receive 50% of their target bonuses for 2022. But those payments never materialized, according to the lawsuit, which accuses Twitter of breach of contract. Twitter in those cases is accused of failing to pay promised severance and targeting female employees and workers with disabilities for layoffs, among other claims. Many landlords, vendors and consultants have also sued Twitter over unpaid bills, some of which Musk inherited when he bought the company.

Persons: Elon Musk, Mark Schobinger, Schobinger, Musk, Shannon Liss, Riordan, Parag Agrawal, Daniel Wiessner, Alexia Garamfalvi, Conor Humphries Organizations: Twitter, Elon, X Corp, Thomson Locations: San Francisco federal, Delaware, Albany , New York

☆ Twitter accused of failing to pay millions in employee bonuses after Musk takeover
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The suit is seeking class action status for former and current Twitter employees who did not receive their 2022 bonus. In the months leading up to Musk completing his acquisition of Twitter, company executives repeatedly promised employees that 2022 bonuses would be paid out at 50% of the target, according to the complaint. Despite the promises, however, Twitter has yet to pay out bonuses, the lawsuit says. Liss-Riordan previously brought multiple proposed class action suits against Twitter, including on behalf of female employees and disabled employees. Twitter has denied the breach of contract allegations in the lawsuit brought by former employees about remote work and severance.

Persons: Elon Musk, Mark Schobinger, ” Shannon Liss, Riordan, Musk, Schobinger, Twitter’s, Musk’s Organizations: CNN, Twitter, Liss Locations: San Francisco federal, Schobinger

A trial in the copyright infringement case had been set to begin on Monday. YouTube and Schneider agreed to end the case with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled. YouTube denied the allegations and said it goes "above and beyond" to protect copyrights. In a win for YouTube, U.S. District Judge James Donato last month refused to certify the lawsuit as a class action. The case is Schneider v. YouTube LLC, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No.

Persons: Maria Schneider, Schneider's, Schneider, District Judge James Donato, Joshua Schiller, Philip Korologos, Boies Schiller, George Zelcs, Stephen Tillery, David Kramer, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich, Rosati Read, Blake Brittain Organizations: YouTube, Schneider's San, District, Northern, Northern District of, Thomson Locations: Schneider's San Francisco, infringers, U.S, Northern District, Northern District of California, Washington

☆ Gap settles Patagonia trademark lawsuit over 'iconic' pocket design
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Andrew Goudsward | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 1 (Reuters) - Outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia Inc has settled its lawsuit accusing Gap Inc (GPS.N) of illegally copying the "iconic" snapped flap pocket that the company has long featured on its fleece outerwear. The outfitter alleged the jackets were intended to confuse shoppers into believing they were Patagonia products or that Patagonia let the retailer use its trademarks. Gap denied the claims and argued in court filings that Patagonia had waited too long to bring the lawsuit. Gap also filed a counterclaim asking a judge to rule that the design of Patagonia’s Snap-T pullover fleece is not legally protected. (This story has been corrected to say "Patagonia products" not "Gap products" in paragraph 5)Reporting by Andrew GoudswardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Andrew Goudsward Organizations: Patagonia Inc, Gap Inc, Thomson Locations: Patagonia, San Francisco federal

Sonos last year won a limited import ban on some Google devices from the ITC, which Google has appealed. Google has countered with its own patent lawsuits in California and at the ITC, accusing Sonos of incorporating the tech company's technology into its smart speakers. The jury found Google infringed one of Sonos' two patents at issue in the trial. A Google spokesperson said on Friday the case was a "narrow dispute about some very specific features that are not commonly used," and that the company was considering its next steps. A Sonos spokesperson said the verdict "re-affirms that Google is a serial infringer of our patent portfolio."

☆ Morning Bid: Tech politics, debt cap brinkmanship
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Well-choreographed brinkmanship over the debt ceiling standoff looks set to go down to the wire, while technology firms have once again become a battleground in tense geopolitics. As AI-fueled U.S. technology stocks have led the way this year, the S&P (.SPX) has gained almost 10% this year and hit its highest level in nine months on Friday. Minneapolis Fed chief Neel Kashkari said on Sunday he could support holding rates steady at the next meeting. Futures markets see more than an 80% chance of a June pause and still price almost 50bp of cuts by yearend. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

May 22 (Reuters) - First Citizens BancShares Inc (FCNCA.O), which acquired Silicon Valley Bank following its collapse, sued HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBA.L) on Monday, accusing it of poaching more than 40 of the failed bank's employees in order to launch its own U.S. venture banking business. The lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court says HSBC violated federal law by hiring away the workers so it could gain access to Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) trade secrets including information about clients in the tech and healthcare sectors. First Citizens in the lawsuit said it is seeking more than $1 billion in damages. First Citizens later in March purchased SVB's assets and deposits for up to $500 million in stock - a fraction of what the bank was worth before it failed. In April, HSBC had said it had hired dozens of Silicon Valley Bank employees to help the bank establish a dedicated practice focused on serving companies in technology and healthcare and investors who support them.

The private plaintiffs sued Microsoft in California federal court in December to enjoin the deal, which they called harmful to competition. Corley pushed back on the gamers' allegation that Microsoft would limit availability of the game. A lawyer for the gamers said on Monday they will press on with their challenge to the deal despite losing this preliminary round. Corley dismissed the gamers' first lawsuit in March, ruling that plaintiffs had not offered adequate factual support for claims that the deal would violate U.S. antitrust law. The case is DeMartini v. Microsoft Corp, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

☆ AMERICAS Debt cap tick-tock leaves eerie calm
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The issue dominated much of the G7 finance chiefs meeting in Japan. Dimon claimed any technical default could cause financial panic and JPMorgan had convened a 'war room' internally to deal with the issue. "It's very unfortunate, it's time-consuming, hopefully it won't happen, but it affects contracts, collateral, clearing houses, clients," Dimon said. Chinese stocks underperformed, with the G7 meeting mulling restrictions on investment to the world's second-biggest economy. Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill speaksReuters GraphicsJobless claimsReuters GraphicsReuters GraphicsBy Mike Dolan, editing by Christina Fincher, <a href="mailto:mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com" target="_blank">mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com</a>.

A judge said that amount was excessive and ordered a second trial on damages after Diaz rejected a reduced award of $15 million. "There is no other explanation for the extraordinary gap between the first and second jury's damages verdicts," his lawyers wrote. Diaz also renewed a motion for a mistrial on similar grounds, which the judge had denied in the middle of the retrial. The U.S. Supreme Court has said punitive damages should be no more than nine times the amount of other damages. Lawyers for Tesla and Diaz did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

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