Good morning. US stock futures dipped in Friday morning trading as some of the biggest banks began reporting earnings to kick off earnings season

"A lifetime of investment research has taught me to become more humble about making predictions"

John Templeton

Top News

US inflation continues downward trend

• The annual inflation rate in the US slowed for a sixth straight month to 6.5% in December of 2022, the lowest since October 2021.

• Authorities in the US have been fighting to stabilise prices, which took off in 2021 as the economy roared back to life after pandemic lockdowns and companies facing shortages and rising costs hiked prices.

SEC takes action against crypto exchanges

• The US Securities and Exchange Commission said it charged crypto exchanges Genesis and Gemini with illegally selling securities to hundreds of thousands of investors through their crypto lending program.

• In November 2022, Genesis told investors they could not withdraw their crypto assets as volatility in the crypto markets prompted a liquidity crunch.

US fiscal deficit widens

• The US government's budget deficit widened by about 12% for the first quarter of the fiscal year, setting the stage for an intense political battle over the state of current fiscal policy.

• The Treasury Department reported that the budget deficit for the last quarter of 2022 reached $421 billion, primarily due to rising expenses associated with higher inflation

In Other News

Fined in France!

• French authorities levied a 5 million euros fine on TikTok for shortcomings linked to the short video platform's handling of online tracking known as "cookies".

• French data protection watchdog CNIL found that for tiktok.com's users, it was not easy to refuse online trackers as to accept them, adding that internet users were not sufficiently informed about TikTok's use of the cookies.

Recession? What recession?

• International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said there is mounting evidence that the United States can avoid recession this year and achieve a "soft landing" for its economy.

• Georgieva noted that US labor markets remained resilient and consumer demand remained strong despite increases in interest rates to fight inflation.

Opening Day...for tax-filing season

• The Internal Revenue Service has announced that the US tax-filing season will commence on Monday 23 January.

• The IRS said it expects to receive more than 168 million individual tax returns this year, with taxpayers having until April 18th to file their returns without requesting an extension.

Key Economic Events

• Friday - U. Of. Mich. Sentiment

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