Good morning. US stock futures were mixed in Friday morning trading as investors digested news that several major banks agreed to bail out First Republic.

"The stock market is like the weather in that if you don't like the current conditions all you have to do is wait a while"

Lou Simpson

Top News

No rush to top up oil reserves

• The Biden Administration declared that although oil prices have dropped recently, the US will not hastily replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) but remains committed to doing so.

• The SPR, which was designed to shield the US from oil supply disruptions is currently at 371.6 million barrels, its lowest level since the 1980s after the historic release of 180 million barrels in 2022 to tame rising oil prices linked to the Ukraine war.

Bankers bail out bankers

• Top American banks are joining forces to save struggling First Republic, a San Francisco-based lender, by providing $30 billion of uninsured deposits.

• The extraordinary infusion from 11 of the nation's largest banks, including JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, is an attempt to stop a slide for the California lender that began during last week's failure of Silicon Valley Bank.

ECB continues hiking rates

• The European Central Bank announced a further rate hike of 50 basis points, also signaling that it was ready to provide additional liquidity to banks if needed.

• ECB officials were also keen to stress that the situation in the Eurozone was different from the US as there was less "deposit concentration" and European banks remained well-capitalized.

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In Other News

Another day, another TikTok ban...

• The New Zealand government said they will prohibit TikTok on devices that have access to the nation's parliamentary network due to cybersecurity worries.

• TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny due to fears that user data from the app could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests.

Food fight!

• Over 50 American agriculture and food organizations appealed to Congress requesting the passage of legislation to allow the US to negotiate additional free-trade agreements.

• The groups, representing a wide variety of US agricultural exports said effort by the Biden Administration to open new export markets were insufficient to compete with deals forged by the EU, China and other countries.

So, tell us how this ad thing works...

• The US Federal Trade Commission requested information from social media and video streaming companies including Meta, TikTok and YouTube on how the platforms screen for misleading advertisements.

• The regulator is seeking to restrict paid commercial advertising that is deceptive or exposes consumers to fraudulent healthcare products, financial scams, counterfeit goods or other fraud.

Key Economic Events

• Friday - U. Of. Mich. Sentiment

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