📈 The US Economy Shows No Signs Off...

Good morning. US stock futures fell in Friday morning trading as investors weighed a slate of mostly disappointing quarterly earnings reports.

🪧 US GDP grows at faster than expected pace

📝 Our report: Looks like the US economy put on its turbo boosters and raced ahead faster than anyone expected in the last quarter of 2023, leaving recession predictions in the dust! Fourth quarter figures, released by the Commerce Department showed an economy that has managed to easily skirt a recession that many forecasters had thought was inevitable.  

 🔑 Key points:

• Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced, increased at a 3.3% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data adjusted seasonally and for inflation.

• In addition to the better than expected GDP move, there also was some progress on inflation. Core prices for personal consumption expenditures, which the Federal Reserve prefers as a longer-term inflation measure, rose 2% for the period, while the headline rate was 1.7%.

• The U.S. economy for all of 2023 accelerated at a 2.5% annualized pace, well ahead of the Wall Street outlook at the beginning of the year for few if any gains and better than the 1.9% increase in 2022.

💡 So what: U.S. GDP growth is considered a positive sign for the economy. It reflects increasing economic activity, which can lead to higher incomes, more job opportunities, and improved standards of living for individuals. GDP growth indicates that businesses are producing more goods and services, consumers are spending more, and investments are increasing. However, the impact of GDP growth can vary depending on factors such as the distribution of wealth, inflation rates, and the sustainability of growth over time.

Friday - Personal Income, Personal Spending

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🤖 FTC probes Big Tech over AI partnerships

WHAT: Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoftfound themselves in the spotlight as the US Federal Trade Commission fired off inquiries about their cozy relationships with artificial intelligence startups Anthropic and OpenAI. The probe focuses on more than $19 billion in investments by Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet’s Google, a series of transactions that cemented alliances between the world’s cloud-services giants and the leading developers of artificial intelligence software.

WHY: Antitrust enforcers across the world have become concerned as many of the most promising AI startups now depend heavily on the old guard of dominant tech companies for their financing and infrastructure needs.

📱 Apple plays nice with regulators in EU

WHAT: Apple is gearing up for a series of overhauls in the European Union (EU), an attempt to dodge the onslaught of EU regulators. The company announced that it was rolling out a makeover for its iOS, Safari, and App Store lineup: for the first time, customers can snag software from places other than the App Store. They’ll also be able to use alternative payment systems and more easily choose a new default web browser — addressing two frequent complaints of developers and lawmakers.

WHY: The sweeping changes — coming in March as part of Apple’s iOS 17.4 operating system — is a direct response to the EU’s new Digital Markets Act, which imposes rigid restrictions on the largest tech firms and boosts the EU commission’s powers as the region’s antitrust enforcer.

💰 Amazon spends big on data centers

WHAT: Amazon's AWS is gearing up to drop a whopping $10 billion on two shiny new data center complexes in Mississippi, doubling down on their cloud empire. Amazon said it has invested $2.3 billion in the state since 2010 to build its infrastructure including five fulfillment and sortation centers.

WHY: AWS' Mississippi expansion plan comes days after it announced a more than $15 billion investment in Japan, and Google's move to set up a data center just outside of London for $1 billion.

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