Morning Reads
- Who’s Afraid of $100 Oil?
- Can the U.S. Make Solar Panels? This Company Thinks So.
- Slowing, Graying and in Debt, Can China’s Industrial Heartland Be Revived?
- Ford Tried to Sell the Electric Mustang to China the Tesla Way—It Didn’t Work
- Teetering China Property Giants Undercut Xi’s Revival Push
- World’s Mega-Rich Are Betting on US Renters to Grow Their Billions
- The Very Rich Are Often Bad Investors. Here’s Why
- Only Richest 20% of Americans Still Have Excess Pandemic Savings
- Banks in EU Largely Comply with ‘Basel Endgame’, Says Watchdog
- Bond Traders Roiled by Fed See US Shutdown as Next Big Wild Card
- Shutdown Would Blindfold Fed in Piloting Course on Rates
- Dimon Warns World Not Ready for 7% Fed Rate
- Wall Street Echoes Fed’s View on Growth, Higher-for-Longer Rates
- UAW Fight Against Billions in Buybacks Forces Investor Rethink
- Why Biden and Trump Are Courting Striking Autoworkers
- Auto CEOs Make 300 Times What Workers Make. How That Stacks Up
- Why Ford Has Been More Willing to Work With the UAW Than GM or Stellantis
- Corporate America Promised to Hire a Lot More People of Color. It Actually Did
- Cisco’s $28 Billion Splunk Deal May Ignite Software Deal Frenzy
- As Its U.S. Shop Opens, TikTok’s Chinese Merchants Struggle to Sell Their Mops and Soap Dispensers
- Sam Bankman-Fried’s Trial to Test Dueling Explanations for FTX’s Collapse
Todays Open Interest Change
PREMIUM
Prepper
New strides are being made on the AI front as many of the revolution's promising technologies start to become commercialized. Spotify (SPOT) is the latest company to utilize OpenAI's newly released voice generation technology, in the hope of attracting new users, audiences and revenue. Prior artificial intelligence efforts at Spotify centered more around personalization technology, like AI DJ, but the new voice cloning feature can go on to impact many industries and bring down the barriers of the spoken word on an international scale.
How it works: Podcasts originally recorded in English will now be available in other languages, while keeping the speaker's "distinctive speech characteristics." While the project is still in the pilot phase, the new tech is capable of crafting realistic synthetic voices from just a few seconds of real speech. Episodes are currently available for podcasters including Kristen Bell, Lex Fridman and Steven Bartlett, with AI-powered voice translations into Spanish. French and German will be added soon, as well as more episodes with podcasters Bill Simmons, Dax Shepard, Monica Padman and Trevor Noah.
"By matching the creator’s own voice, Voice Translation gives listeners around the world the power to discover and be inspired by new podcasters in a more authentic way than ever before,” noted Ziad Sultan, Spotify VP of Personalization. "We believe that a thoughtful approach to AI can help build deeper connections between listeners and creators, a key component of Spotify's mission to unlock the potential of human creativity."
What to watch: The announcement coincided with several big developments, including Amazon (AMZN) investing up to $4B in AI startup Anthropic, Getty (GETY) launching a generative AI tool for images, and Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI outlining that ChatGPT can now "see, hear, and speak." The latter even referenced the collaboration with Spotify (SPOT), saying it opened the door to many creative and accessibility-focused applications. There are fresh risks, however, with the new capabilities granting access for "malicious actors to impersonate public figures or commit fraud."
Credit negative
Ratings agency Moody's has weighed in on the standoff in the U.S. over federal spending, saying a government shutdown would be "credit negative" for the country's sovereign rating. "While a short-lived shutdown would be unlikely to disrupt the economy, it would underscore the weakness of U.S. governance strength," Moody's cautioned, highlighting the risk of intensifying political polarization. Recall that Fitch had cut its rating on the U.S. to reflect its growing debt burden and governance issues. A majority of WSB subscribers also feel that a shutdown is likely with Republicans divided on a stopgap spending bill. Take the WSB survey here. (14 comments)
Pressing pause
As the United Auto Workers' strike against Detroit automakers continues, Ford (F) has halted construction of its $3.5B electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall, Michigan. "We're pausing work and limiting spending on construction on the Marshall project until we're confident about our ability to competitively operate the plant," said spokesperson T.R. Reid. Over the weekend, Ford warned that there were still significant gaps in its talks with the UAW. "We believe the UAW strike and ensuing pay raise is capable of driving Ford's stock down as much as 10%," said Investing Group Leader Livy Investment Research, adding that wage hikes could drive a $6B wipeout from Ford's market cap. (91 comments)
How high?
The world may not be prepared for the Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate rising to 7%, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon warned, adding that could be the worst case with stagflation. "If they're going to have lower volumes and higher rates, there will be stress in the system," he declared. Dimon also called on clients to be prepared, saying "Warren Buffet says you find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out. That will be the tide going out." His comments contrast with the wider consensus that the Fed is nearing the end of its tightening cycle, with the FOMC's dot plot only projecting one more rate hike in the cards. (27 comments)
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan -1.1%. Hong Kong -1.5%. China -0.4%. India -0.1%.
In Europe, at midday, London +0.1%. Paris -0.7%. Frankfurt -0.6%.
Futures at 7:00, Dow -0.4%. S&P -0.5%. Nasdaq -0.5%. Crude -0.7% to $89.05. Gold -0.3% at $1,931.20. Bitcoin +0.5% to $26,236.
Ten-year Treasury Yield -3 bps to 4.51%.
Today's Economic Calendar
9:00 S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index
9:00 FHFA House Price Index
10:00 Consumer Confidence
10:00 New Home Sales
10:00 Richmond Fed Mfg. Index
1:00 PM Results of $48B, 2-Year Note Auction
1:00 PM Money Supply
1:30 PM Fed's Bowman's speech
Companies reporting earnings today »
What else is happening...
Goldman: Expensive oil a 'manageable headwind,' won't derail economy.
IEA: Delaying emission cuts will make net zero target impossible.
3M (MMM) weighs restarting PFAS manufacturing at Belgium plant.
Citi lists 20 stocks on pullback to consider for long-term investing.
Morgan Stanley: Pratt engine uncertainties merit caution over RTX.
Sizzling nuclear stocks rally to 52-week highs across the board.
Pfizer (PFE) resumes production at North Carolina plant hit by tornado.
Deutsche Bank's (DB) DWS to pay $25M to settle SEC probes.
Alcoa (AA) names operating chief William Oplinger as new CEO.
Is Nvidia's (NVDA) decline over GPU concerns a buying opportunity?