Good morning. US stock futures dipped slightly in Thursday morning trading as investors assessed retail sales data that pointed to a strong US economy.  

"It isn't a bubble until the public, brokerage community, financial institutions, pension funds and even the universities are all involved"

Arnold Van Den Berg

Top News

Big Tech bosses called to speak up

•  Chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan issued a subpoena to the chief executives of Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft requesting documents and communication on matters pertaining to free speech.

• "These subpoenas are the first step towards holding Big Tech accountable" Jordan's office said in a statement.

CBO: US not out the woods from default possibility

• Lawmakers failure to raise the debt limit could lead to a payment default for the federal government as early as July as cautioned by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

• The Treasury Department is currently using accounting maneuvers to keep making good on federal obligations after hitting the statutory debt ceiling last month.

More battery charging access for EV owners

• The Biden Administration announced that Tesla will grant access to a portion of its US charging network to electric vehicles produced by competitors as part of a $7.5 billion federal initiative to increase the utilization of EVs and reduce carbon emissions.

• Tesla has 17,711 superchargers accounting for about 60% of total US fast chargers that can add hundreds of miles of driving range in an hour or less.

In Other News

Taxman scores against LVMH 

•  France's tax investigators scored a victory against fashion powerhouse LVMH as the country's supreme court ruled that a previous verdict, which deemed the 2019 raid of the company's headquarters unlawful, must be reconsidered.

• Investigators launched the probe by arguing that LVMH was trying to avoid taxes by claiming it carried out some operations in Belgium rather than France.

Smells like marijuana...advertising 

• Twitter made history by becoming the first social media platform in the United States to permit cannabis companies to promote their brands and products.

• Twitter said it will permit cannabis companies to advertise as long as they have proper license, pass through its approval process, only target jurisdictions where they are licensed to operate and do not target people below 21 years old.

SPACs go splat!  

• After a two-year period that raised over $245 billion, the "blank-check company" craze appears to have come to a halt with only a few sponsors gathering investor funds in 2023.

• Just seven special-purpose acquisition companies have debuted or filed for an initial public offering this year, compared with over 50 during the same stretch in 2022, and roughly 337 in 2021 when the SPAC mania was at its peak.

Key Economic Events

• Thursday - Fed's Mester Discusses The Economy, Fed's Bullard Speaks

• Friday - Fed's Barkin Discusses The US Labor Market

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