Good morning. US stock futures ticked higher in Friday morning trading as quarterly reports from some of the biggest banks rolled in.

"One thing I’ve learned is to make few decisions. Sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing."

Lou Simpson

Top News

Hollywood goes on strike

WHAT: It’s lights, camera and strike in Hollywood! Hollywood actors will join their fellow writers in strike action after ongoing talks with studios broke down, leading to the first dual work stoppage in 63 years and forcing many production halts across the US and abroad.

WHY: Both SAG-AFTRA, which represents over 160,000 film and television actors, and the Writers Guild of America are demanding increases in base pay and residuals in the streaming TV era, plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence.

IMF warns of slowing momentum

WHAT: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a global growth update that’s both exciting and a tad bit unpredictable. According to its most recent briefing note, the IMF said the first quarter of the year saw growth that was slightly better than expected, but recent data has shown a mixed bag, with some parts of the global economy showing resilience while others show signs of slowing momentum.

WHY: The IMF did not indicate any changes to its April 2023 global GDP growth forecast of 2.8% — down from 3.4% in 2022 — but said that risks were mostly tilted to the downside.

Fed exec: Too early to declare inflation dead

WHAT: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly is waving a caution flag and saying it’s way too early to declare victory over inflation. In an interview on CNBC, Daly said she was in a “wait and see mode” as she remained determined to bring inflation down to 2%.

WHY: Data on the consumer price index for June, released earlier this week, showed price increases slowed again, but remain above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

In Other News

Twitter rolls out revenue sharing for creators

WHAT: Twitter is rolling out the red carpet for its content creators! The company announced that select creators on the platform now have a shot at dipping their beaks into the advertising revenue pond. To qualify, creators need to be verified users with at least 5 million impressions on their posts in each of the last three months.

WHY: Twitter is trying to draw more content creators to the platform. Earlier this year the company allowed users to offer paid subscriptions to their content on the platform.

Crypto victory

WHAT: Ripple Labs has come out on top in a legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A judge declared Ripple’s innocence, stating that they did not break any federal securities laws by selling their crypto token XRP. The ruling was the first win for a cryptocurrency company in a case brought by the SEC.

WHY: While the decision is specific to the facts of the case, it will likely provide ammunition for other crypto firms battling the securities regulator over whether their products fall under the SEC’s jurisdiction.

FTC takes on OpenAI

WHAT: The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided to turn up the heat on OpenAI, the parent company of AI chatbot, ChatGPT. They’ve launched an investigation into claims that OpenAI ran afoul of consumer protection laws by putting personal reputations and data at risk. The FTC also sent a 20-page demand for records about how OpenAI deals with risks tied to its AI models.

WHY: In a series of tweets, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the latest version of the company’s technology, GPT-4, was built on years of safety research and the systems were designed to learn about the world and not private individuals.

Key Economic Events

• Friday - U. Of. Mich. Sentiment

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