🧠 Is The Brain The Next Tech Frontier?

Good morning. US stock futures dipped in Tuesday morning trading as investors analyzed the latest corporate earnings with the Federal Reserve policy meeting on the horizon.

🦾 Musk: First brain implant successfully completed

📝 Our report: Elon Musk proudly announced that his startup Neuralink has successfully given the first human patient a brain implant, bringing us closer to a future where we can navigate computers with our thoughts. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Musk said that the patient is recovering well, and that initial results of the procedure were promising.  

 🔑 Key points:

• Neuralink’s brain implant aims to help people with traumatic injuries operate computers using only their thoughts. In May, the company said it had received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct its first human trials.

• Late last year Neuralink said it was recruiting patients with quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for the trial.

• Musk said that Neuralink had good results for neuron spike detection — that means the company is getting recordings from the patient’s brain, said Kip Ludwig, co-director of the Wisconsin Institute for Translational Neuroengineering at the University of Wisconsin.

💡 So what: Neuralink's success marks a significant milestone in the development of brain implants and their potential applications. It opens up possibilities for medical treatments, such as restoring motor function for people with paralysis or addressing neurological disorders. Additionally, it hints at a future where brain-computer interfaces enable seamless interaction between humans and technology, potentially revolutionizing fields like communication, education, and entertainment.

Tuesday - Consumer Confidence

Wednesday - Fed Interest Rate Decision

Thursday - US Productivity

Friday - US Unemployment Rate

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🤖 Amazon walks away from iRobot acquisition

WHAT: Amazon's dreams of snagging Roomba maker iRobot for a cool $1.4 billion got swept away faster than a Roomba navigating a cluttered room, as European Union regulators threatened to play referee and block the deal. Amazon’s move, which comes with a $94 million termination fee to be paid to iRobot, follows a similar decision recently by Adobe Inc. to walk away from a planned $20 billion acquisition of startup Figma Inc. after locking horns with antitrust regulators in the EU and the UK.

WHY: The decision is a sign of the intense pressure Amazon is facing to prove its actions don’t harm competition as its influence grows in retail, cloud-computing and entertainment. Antitrust regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have been keen to ensure that the biggest US tech companies don’t snap up innovative startups before they have a chance to become formidable competitors on their own.

💰 EU tightens limits on crypto firms from outside bloc

WHAT: The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has come up with a quirky idea for crypto companies outside the EU: they can only serve customers within the bloc under strict conditions. "The proposed guidance confirms ESMA's previous message that the provision of crypto-asset services by a third-country firm is limited under MiCA to cases where the client is the exclusive initiator of the service," ESMA said in a statement.

WHY: The latest EU proposals on how crypto firms and regulators should apply the law in practice cover crypto asset firms from outside the EU that want to offer services to EU customers directly, rather than from a physical base inside the bloc.

🧾 Walmart offers stock grants to retain managers

WHAT: Walmart, the retail giant hailing from Bentonville, Arkansas, and boasting nearly 4,700 U.S. stores, has unveiled a sweet deal for its store managers: starting this fiscal year, they'll be cashing in on up to $20,000 worth of Walmart stock grants annually. The moves follow an announcement made by the discounter earlier in the month that it would raise the starting base pay for store managers, while redesigning its bonus plan to emphasize profits more with these leaders.

WHY: Walmart said the amount of the annual stock grant is based on the store format. U.S. managers of the sprawling supercenters, which run about 180,000 square feet, will receive $20,000 in stock grants. Those leading the smaller Neighborhood Market stores — as well as the so-called “division 1” stores, which sell mostly general merchandise — will get $15,000 in stock grants.

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