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[1/3] Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at the Google I/O 2023 conference, in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 10, 2023. Called the Search Generative Experience, the revamped Google can craft responses to open-ended queries while retaining its recognizable list of links to the Web. "We are reimagining all of our core products, including search," Sundar Pichai, Alphabet's CEO, said after he took the stage at the event. Generative AI can, using past data, create brand new content like fully formed text, images and software code. WHAT OUTFIT TO WEARWith the embedded AI, Google still looks and acts like its familiar empty search bar.

May 10 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google on Wednesday began unveiling more artificial intelligence in its products to answer the latest competition from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), which has threatened its perch atop the nearly $300 billion search advertising market. He said Google is integrating generative AI into search. For years the top portal to the internet, Google has found its position in question since rivals began exploiting generative AI as an alternative way to present content from the web. That has represented a technological affront and a business one: Microsoft said every percentage point of share it gained in search advertising could draw another $2 billion in revenue. Pichai said earlier this year that generative AI to distill complex queries would come to Google Search, as would more perspectives, "like blogs from people who play both piano and guitar."

Both sides blame each other for high drug prices. Senator Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, is a fierce critic of both industries and will likely grill the executives. Optum Rx CEO Heather Cianfrocco will say manufacturers alone set the drug prices and abuse patent protections to stifle competition, her written testimony shows. Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi all said in March they were cutting list prices by more than 70% for some insulin products. Uninsured people often have to pay full list prices, an average of $900 a month, forcing many to ration or skip doses.

☆ China's BYD cuts starting price for Seal EV; aims to extend lead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHANGHAI, May 10 (Reuters) - BYD Co Ltd (002594.SZ), on Wednesday cut the starting price of its best-selling Seal sedan by 10%, as the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant seeks to extend its lead in the world's largest auto market with lower-priced products. That includes a rear-wheel drive Seal Champion Edition with a 550-km (342-mile) driving range per charge at a starting price of 189,800 yuan ($27,459). BYD, China's best-selling electrified vehicle maker, launched the Seal sedan under its Ocean series in July 2022 with a sporty design style and intelligent features. The EV price war is also drawing sales away from internal combustion engine vehicles as the price gap between the technologies narrows. It has outgrown Germany's Volkswagen as the best-selling passenger vehicle brand in China in the last two quarters.

Google already has a Bard chatbot that competes with ChatGPT, the chatbot from OpenAI that has generated huge excitement among users with its humanlike responses. The company says that traditional Google search should still be used for finding and seeking information, such as locating something to purchase. WHAT ARE THE UPDATES TO GOOGLE SEARCH? With the enhanced search termed the Search Generative Experience, Google's home page still looks and acts like its familiar search bar. CAN I TRY THE NEW GOOGLE SEARCH NOW?

☆ China's BYD launches lower-priced versions of Seal EV; aims to extend lead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHANGHAI, May 10 (Reuters) - BYD Co Ltd (002594.SZ), launched on Wednesday five lower-priced versions of its Seal sedan, as the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant seeks to extend its lead in the world's largest market for new-energy cars. That is also 18% cheaper than the rear-wheel drive version of Tesla Inc's (TSLA.O) Model 3 in China with a driving range of 556 kilometres, against which the Seal model seeks to compete. China's EV market is in the throes of a price war started by Tesla earlier this year, with several EV makers including BYD following the U.S. automaker's example by cutting prices for best-selling models this year to defend market share. The EV price war is also drawing sales away from internal combustion engine vehicles as the price gap between the technologies narrows. BYD has so far led the new energy vehicle (NEV) market with its various offerings of battery-only and plug-in hybrid models priced under 300,000 yuan.

☆ FDA reviewers raise doubts over data on Sarepta's gene therapy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Leroy Leo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's staff reviewers raised concerns over limited data on Sarepta Therapeutics Inc's (SRPT.O) gene therapy for a muscle-wasting disorder, ahead of a meeting of the agency's advisers on Friday. The agency's staff on Wednesday highlighted several issues with the data and said that existing studies did not provide "unambigious evidence" that the gene therapy will benefit patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The FDA also highlighted that DMD, a rare disorder that mainly affects young boys, is an urgent unmet medical need. The advisory committee's vote on Friday and an eventual decision by the FDA is seen as a test of the agency's accelerated approval pathway for gene therapies. Sarepta has three drugs available for the disease for people with different types of genetic mutations but they have to be given as weekly intravenous infusion, while the experimental gene therapy is a one-time treatment.

May 10 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google on Wednesday is expected to unveil more artificial intelligence in its products to answer the latest competition from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), which has threatened its perch atop the nearly $300-billion search advertising market. For years the top portal to the internet, Google has found its position in question since rivals began exploiting generative AI as an alternative way to present content from the web. That has represented a technological affront and a business one: Microsoft said every percentage point of share it gained in search advertising could draw another $2 billion in revenue. Sundar Pichai, Alphabet's chief executive, this year said generative AI to distill complex queries would come to Google Search, as would more perspectives, "like blogs from people who play both piano and guitar." At Wednesday's conference, it is expected to announce a more powerful AI model known as PaLM 2, CNBC reported.

Shares of SUV maker Fisker and truck maker Nikola Corp (NKLA.O), which reported early on Tuesday, fell 7% and 13%, respectively. Shares of Lucid, which makes luxury sedans, dropped 6% on Tuesday after its results late on Monday. Fisker lowered its annual production target to between 32,000 and 36,000 vehicles from its earlier target of 42,400 cars, blaming supply-chain issues and an "updated timing" for roadworthiness certification. The company, which started production of its Ocean SUV just in November and has $652.5 million in cash, also posted a larger-than-expected loss. For Nikola, cash burn came in at $240 million as it produced 63 vehicles.

Yields on U.S. short-dated Treasury bills , jumped sharply as investors sold off bonds, which mature as early as June. That weighed on shares of high-growth companies, including Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), which fell about 0.5% each. ET, Dow e-minis were down 82 points, or 0.24%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 15.25 points, or 0.37%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 73.25 points, or 0.55%. Chip-gear maker Skyworks Solutions Inc's (SWKS.O) shares tumbled 11.7% after forecasting current-quarter revenue and earnings below estimates. Shares of other Apple suppliers including Qualcomm (QCOM.O) and Qorvo (QRVO.O) fell 0.9% and 2.3%, respectively.

☆ Facebook is wrong to say news lacks economic value, says Canada PM Trudeau
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Ismail Shakil | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Speaking to a parliamentary committee about the Trudeau government's legislation on Monday, a Meta official said news has a social value, but not an economic value to the company. "If we are being asked to compensate these publishers for material that has no economic value to us, that's where the problem is," Meta's head of public policy in Canada, Rachel Curran, told the committee. Facebook's stance against paying news content "shows how deeply irresponsible and out of touch they are," Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. Their main objection is paying for links to news articles posted on their websites that they say would be unsustainable for their businesses. "Someone reporting on the horrors in Bucha (in Ukraine) is not trying to get likes on their Facebook page," Trudeau said.

☆ Aramco Q1 profit falls 19% to $31.9 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Saudi Arabian Oil Co FollowDUBAI, May 9 (Reuters) - Saudi oil giant Aramco (2222.SE) posted first-quarter net profit of 119.54 billion riyals ($31.88 billion) on Tuesday, a fall of about 19% from the previous year. Net profit was 3.75% higher than in the fourth quarter but also below analysts' median forecast of $30.8 billion, according to Refinitiv data. The world's top oil exporter will pay $19.5 billion in dividends for the first quarter, in line with the previous quarter. CEO Amin Nasser in a statement said Aramco was looking at introducing performance-linked dividends, in addition to its base distribution. Aramco reached deals to expand its downstream business abroad in the first quarter, including investments in China and completing a $2.76 billion acquisition of Valvoline Inc's products business.

☆ Alphabet-backed Anthropic outlines the moral values behind its AI bot
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The moral values guidelines, which Anthropic calls Claude's constitution, draw from several sources, including the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and even Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) data privacy rules. Anthropic was founded by former executives from Microsoft Corp-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI to focus on creating safe AI systems that will not, for example, tell users how to build a weapon or use racially biased language. Co-founder Dario Amodei was one of several AI executives who met with Biden last week to discuss potential dangers of AI. Anthropic takes a different approach, giving its Open AI competitor Claude a set of written moral values to read and learn from as it makes decisions on how to respond to questions. "In a few months, I predict that politicians will be quite focused on what the values are of different AI systems, and approaches like constitutional AI will help with that discussion because we can just write down the values," Clark said.

May 8 (Reuters) - Electric vehicle (EV) maker Lucid Group Inc (LCID.O) reported lower-than-expected first-quarter revenue on Monday and trimmed its 2023 production forecast as a price war sparked by Tesla, rising interest rates and recession fears hurt sales. Shares in the maker of the Air luxury sedan dropped about 9% in after hours trade. The company reported quarterly revenue of $149.4 million, compared with analysts' average estimate of $209.9 million, according to Refinitiv. Chief Financial Officer Sherry House said the company had $4.1 billion in liquidity, enough to fund the luxury EV maker at least into the second quarter of next year. The EV maker is set to unveil its Gravity sport utility vehicle later this year ahead of its launch in 2024.

For most of the day, stocks struggled for direction amid disappointing earnings from Tyson Foods and Catalent and a short-lived rebound in regional banks. The struggle for a clearer direction comes after a rally on Friday, when U.S. jobs data pointed to a resilient labor market. Producer prices, weekly jobless claims and consumer sentiment data are all lined up for the week. Shares of regional banks tumbled for much of last week on worries tied to the collapse of First Republic Bank. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc's Class B shares rose after posting a $35.5 billion first-quarter profit, boosted by gains from stocks such as Apple.

☆ Warren Buffett's rival for attention at Berkshire weekend: Squishmallows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Investors and guests walk by a Squishmallow display during the Berkshire Hathaway Inc in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. May 5, 2023. On Friday, the start of Berkshire Hathaway Inc's (BRKa.N) three-day shareholder weekend, thousands thronged a convention hall in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, for five hours to buy discounted products from many Berkshire-owned brands. For many, the $9.99 Squishmallows featuring Buffett and Munger, made by Berkshire's recently acquired toy company Jazwares, were the must-have memento. About 10,000 Buffett and Munger Squishmallows were sold, and by Monday they were fetching as much as $255 at auction on eBay. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Omaha, Nebraska Editing by Megan Davies and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The struggle for a clearer direction comes after a rally on Friday, when U.S. jobs data pointed to a resilient labor market. Producer prices, weekly jobless claims and consumer sentiment data are all lined up for the week. A rally in regional banks' shares proved short-lived, with PacWest Bancorp (PACW.O) rising 5.6% after gaining as much as about 30% earlier in the session after the lender sharply cut its quarterly dividend to boost capital. Shares of regional banks tumbled for much of last week on worries tied to the collapse of First Republic Bank. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc's Class B shares rose 0.9% after posting a $35.5 billion first-quarter profit, boosted by gains from stocks such as Apple.

Producer prices, weekly jobless claims and consumer sentiment data are all lined up through the week. "The bigger picture is inflation will remain higher for longer and that we are heading into a recession. The KBW Regional Banking index (.KRX) fell 2.2% after posting its best single-day performance in seven weeks on Friday. Shares of regional banks tumbled for much of last week on worries tied to the collapse of First Republic Bank. The S&P index recorded 10 new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 47 new highs and 53 new lows.

Regional bank shares stretched gains from a rebound on Friday, with PacWest Bancorp (PACW.O) jumping 33% premarket after the company announced quarterly dividend. Shares of such banks tumbled for much of last week on worries tied to the collapse of First Republic Bank. ET, Dow e-minis were up 67 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 6 points, or 0.14%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 4.25 points, or 0.03%. Data on producer prices, weekly jobless claims and on consumer sentiment are all lined up through the week. On earnings, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc's Class B shares rose 1.5% after the company posting a $35.5 billion first-quarter profit, reflecting gains from stocks such as Apple.

On the other end, regional banks' shares stretched gains from a rebound on Friday, with PacWest Bancorp (PACW.O) jumping 19.9% after the lender sharply cut its quarterly dividend to boost capital. Shares of such banks tumbled for much of last week on worries tied to the collapse of First Republic Bank. "We're in an information vacuum right now, waiting for the next inflation data. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc's Class B shares rose 1.2% after posting a $35.5 billion first-quarter profit, reflecting gains from stocks such as Apple. The S&P index recorded seven new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 31 new highs and 23 new lows.

☆ Seven US senators raise concerns about Tesla use of forced arbitration clauses
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Companies Tesla Inc FollowWASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - A group of seven U.S. senators on Monday questioned Tesla Inc's (TSLA.O) use of forced arbitration clauses in employee and consumer contracts, arguing that they prevent bringing discrimination claims and consumer safety complaints to court. Tesla has said it does not tolerate workplace discrimination and takes worker complaints seriously. The senators cited an ongoing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation into reports of “phantom braking" in Tesla vehicles. The senators sought answers to detailed questions by June 8 about Tesla's use of forced arbitration. The senators said arbitration clauses may keep"potential safety flaws from the public eye and limited regulatory authorities’ ability to protect Tesla customers and employees and hold Tesla publicly accountable."

The buyout consortium has turned to other private equity firms to help fund the deal as direct lenders, one of the sources added. There is no certainty that Warburg Pincus and Advent will successfully complete negotiations to acquire the unit and Baxter may still opt to sell to another bidder or keep the business, according to the sources. Baxter, Warburg and Advent did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Baxter's biopharma solutions unit supports drugmakers in the formulation, development and commercialization of drugs typically given by infusion or injection, such as biologics and vaccines. The company said dialysis operations, which are a part of Baxter's renal care unit, had become a drag on its margin.

OMAHA, Nebraska, May 6 (Reuters) - Warren Buffet on Saturday said he is more comfortable with Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) deploying capital in Japan than Taiwan, reflecting the growing tensions between the United States and China. The billionaire investor contrasted Berkshire's recently increased investments in five Japanese trading houses with its recent U-turn on a multi-billion dollar investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, or TSMC (2330.TW). "It's a marvelous company," Buffett said at Berkshire’s annual meeting, referring to Taiwan Semiconductor. But "I would feel better about capital that we've got deployed in Japan than in Taiwan.... That's the reality." Tensions between the U.S. and China have simmered in recent months, with some investors worried that China might invade Taiwan.

☆ Buffett says Apple is Berkshire portfolio's best business
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

OMAHA/NEW YORK May 6 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett said on Saturday that Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is a better business than any other in Berkshire Hathaway Inc's (BRKa.N) portfolio. "Apple is different than the other businesses we own. It just happens to be a better business," said Buffett during Berkshire's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Berkshire has recently held a 5.6% stake in Apple, and Buffett said it could buy more. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Omaha, Nebraska and Carolina Mandl in New York; editing by Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

OMAHA, Nebraska, May 6 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett on Saturday offered a vote of confidence in the United States, saying he could not imagine the government letting it default on its debt and risk letting the world's financial system "go into turmoil." Buffett, 92, who is Berkshire's chairman and chief executive, and Charlie Munger, 99, a vice chairman, are answering five hours of shareholder questions at the meeting. Many recognized it could be one of their last chances to see Buffett and Munger, given their advanced ages. Yongsheng Zhao, who lives in Shanghai and is a researcher for an asset management firm, said he showed up at midnight to attend his eighth Berkshire meeting. "I am inspired by their passion and normalcy," he said, referring to Buffett and Munger.

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