Good morning. US stock futures were flat in Wednesday morning trading as investors digested the final set of reports for the earnings season.

"I can calculate the motion of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people"

Isaac Newton

Top News

Biden team takes swipe at YouTube

WHAT: President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has some strong words for YouTube. They’re calling a decision by YouTube to lay off the fact checking on past election fraud claims “reckless” and that such actions could potentially lead to violence.

WHY: YouTube recently said the platform would stop removing content that might have spread false claims related to US presidential elections in 2020 and before.

A changing of the guard in the golf industry

WHAT: Hold on to your golf clubs folks! After a year of intense rivalry, the PGA Tour is merging with upstart Saudi Arabian golf league LIV in what can only be described as a deal no one saw coming. The arrangement will put the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV under one new collectively owned organization yet to be named.

WHY: Backed by the Saudi Investment Public Fund, LIV Golf took over the golf world in 2022 by offering lucrative contracts to players, with some reportedly worth more than $100 million.

Coinbase faces SEC wrath

WHAT: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is at it again! This time, they’ve fixed their eyes on crypto industry heavyweight Coinbase, accusing the company of running an illegal exchange, and evading its rules by letting users trade numerous crypto tokens that were actually unregistered securities.

WHY: The SEC moved against Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange, after Chair Gary Gensler repeatedly argued that most tokens are subject to his agency’s oversight, and that swaths of the industry have been breaking the law.

In Other News

We’re not going public

 WHAT: If you were holding your breath thinking you’d get in on some of the ChatGPT action in the public market, you might want to start breathing again. CEO of OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, Sam Altman said there’s no likely scenario in which the company goes public anytime soon. Altman was responding to questions at a conference held in Abu Dhabi recently.

WHY: OpenAI has so far raised $10 billion from Microsoft at a valuation of almost $30 billion as it continues to invest in building computing capacity.

Boeing halts airplane shipments on defect concern

WHAT: Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner is having a serious case of delivery nightmares once again. This time it appears to be because of some wonky tail fittings. The company said it is inspecting fittings on part of the tail called the horizontal stabilizer for a “noncomforming condition”.

WHY: The 787 and 737 Max have both been plagued by production defects that have sporadically held up deliveries and left airlines without planes that they expected to have for the peak summer season.

Pfizer, Moderna in hot water over Covid-19 vaccine patents

WHAT: Well, well, well, it looks like we’ve got a biotech brawl on our hands! Biotech firm Promosome has sued Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech, claiming their Covid-19 vaccines are patent imposters. Promosome accused the companies of copying technology that allows for doses of mRNA that are small enough to use safely and effectively in vaccines.

WHY: The lawsuits add to a web of patent disputes between biotech companies over technology used in the Coronavirus shots, including a case brought last year in Massachusetts by Moderna against Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.

Key Economic Events

• Wednesday - MBA Mortgage Applications

• Thursday - Initial Jobless Claims

• Friday - No Major Economic News

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