WORLD
Elon Musk meets with Chuck Schumer on Capitol Hill as senate looks into AI
Just as he did on a previous visit, Musk, the chief executive officer of SpaceX, Tesla Inc. and Twitter Inc., slipped in quietly. On Jan. 27, he stopped at the offices of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and spoke to other top congressional Republicans. He also met with House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.
WORLD
Why flying is so expensive and likely to remain that way
For one, there’s a lack of planes. Airlines idled large portions of their fleets because travel demand was so lackluster during the pandemic that they weren’t needed. Now they can’t bring them back fast enough — it takes 100 working hours to ready the biggest jets for service after being parked away.
WORLD
Donald Trump rematch may be Joe Biden’s best bet, polls show
Joe Biden, 80, trailed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 44, in nine of the dozen most recent polls with hypothetical match-ups in the RealClearPolitics average of surveys.
WORLD
Microsoft’s headache-inducing Army goggles delayed for at least two years
Microsoft’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS, is expected to provide a “heads-up display” for US ground forces, similar to that for fighter pilots. It’s based on the company’s HoloLens “mixed reality” goggles.
TECHNOLOGY
Amazon starts round of layoffs in AWS cloud division
Amazon Web Services personnel in the US, Canada and Costa Rica whose jobs were being eliminated were notified early Wednesday, the unit’s chief said in an email to staff.
TECHNOLOGY
UK blocks Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision deal
The Competition and Markets Authority said its concerns couldn’t be solved by remedies such as the sale of blockbuster title Call of Duty or so-called behavioural remedies involving promises to permit rivals to offer the game on their platforms.
TRENDS
Freddie Mercury’s worldly possessions will be sold at auction
It’s expected to bring in more than £6 million ($7.4 million), although the lots are still being catalogued, so totals and estimates could change.
INDIA
India to triple renewables auctions as 2030 green target looms
A new federal government timeline outlines plans to strike agreements on installations of a total of 50 gigawatts of solar and wind projects during the year through March 2024. That compares with an average of 15 gigawatts auctioned annually in the last five fiscal years, according to BloombergNEF.
MARKETS
Heat waves, cyclones impacting stock markets across Asia
India’s hottest February in more than a century, following a spike in cattle deaths caused by a viral skin disease, fuelled a rare drop in dairy production in the world’s largest milk-producing nation
WORLD
OpenAI offers new privacy options for ChatGPT
The startup said Tuesday that ChatGPT users can now turn off their chat histories by clicking a toggle switch in their account settings.
WORLD
Microsoft sees AI shaking up search while Google calms investors
In their respective earnings calls on Tuesday, the tech giants, which are becoming rivals in the competition for the future of search, offered up starkly different assessments of just how much disruption is in store for the market.
WORLD
US-listed China stocks see $100 billion wipeout in jittery month
American depositary receipts of internet giants from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to JD.com Inc. slid Tuesday and sent the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index lower for a sixth straight session, notching the benchmark’s longest streak of losses in more than a year.
WORLD
‘Fear Gauge’ owner eyes more short-term tools after one-day VIX
On Monday, Cboe Global Markets Inc., the firm behind the Cboe Volatility Index (ticker VIX), known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” started the VIX1D Index, which measures volatility over a single day. This followed the exchange’s expansion of “zero-day-to-expiry” options, or 0DTE, in 2022.
WORLD
Apple plans AI-powered health coaching service, mood tracker and iPad health app
The new coaching service — codenamed Quartz — is designed to keep users motivated to exercise, improve eating habits and help them sleep better, according to people with knowledge of the project.
BUSINESS
3M to cut 6,000 jobs in CEO’s latest move to blunt sliding sales
While 3M Chief Executive Officer Mike Roman said in a statement that these actions would further simplify operations and improve profitability, investors mostly shrugged.
WORLD
You’re Doing Points and Miles All Wrong, Says Barbara Corcoran
Undeterred, she borrowed $1,000 and started a minuscule NYC real estate company, the Corcoran Group, which she eventually sold in 2001 for $66 million. “All my best successes come on the heels of failure,” she says.
WORLD
China’s Deepening Selloff Shows Investors Are Losing Confidence
The MSCI China Index lost as much as 2.6% Tuesday, set for a sixth day of declines in its longest-losing run since October.
WORLD
India Renews Push for Easier Visa Norms for Its Companies in UK
This is in addition to New Delhi’s longstanding pitch for more visas for Indian workers, two people said.
BUSINESS
Nestle Sales Growth Accelerates, Helped by Price Hikes
Sales rose 9.3% on an organic basis in the first quarter, 2 percentage points faster than analysts’ estimates, making this one of Nestle’s biggest beats in years. The stock rose as much as 1.8% in Zurich.
WORLD
Italy Stands Out to Moody’s as Only Country Risking Junk
In a report surveying how nations have dealt with downgrades to junk over the past three decades, the euro zone’s third-biggest economy was highlighted as a prominent candidate for such a status adjustment.
ENVIRONMENT
Inventor of Blue Jeans Channels a New Water-Saving Idea
Levi Strauss & Co. has been forced to address water scarcity more aggressively than most, thanks to the great thirst of the jeans-making process.
WORLD
Tucker Carlson: The biggest allegations from recent lawsuits
The litigation had resulted in the disclosure of many of Carlson’s messages, some of which were critical of Fox management.
WORLD
Rolex Daytona prices outperform after brand debuts new model
Prices for the most recent Daytona model have gained 4% since March 27, when Rolex discontinued it and unveiled a new version of the timepiece made famous by actor and racing car enthusiast Paul Newman.
WORLD
Bitcoin ‘halving’ due in 2024 spurs predictions of $50,000 level
The largest digital asset has climbed 67% since Dec. 31 in a partial revival from an epic rout in 2022. While the token at the moment is struggling in the vicinity of $30,000, halving holds the potential to trigger an advance of at least 81%, according to Bloomberg Intelligence and Matrixport.
