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Investors See Hope for a Debt Limit Deal

Investors held their breath Friday morning as there were signs the White House and House Republicans were nearing a deal to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a government default. Equity futures showed a modest gain while yields on Treasury bills that mature on June 8 have fallen, suggesting bond traders expect a deal soon. ing.

Reports say a compromise could be reached as early as Friday, paving the way for a parliamentary vote as early as Tuesday. Of course, it’s tackling problems, and this is Washington, so there can still be a lot of roadblocks.

How close is “close”? Negotiators have narrowed their differences, leaving just $70 billion in spending cuts to reach a deal. According to Reuters. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Thursday that he would stay in Washington over Memorial Day weekend to ensure a deal is struck.

New details suggest that both parties could emerge victorious to some extent.

  • There will be a cap on domestic spending over two years, but how much is still a bottleneck. (Republicans originally wanted 10 years.) In line with President Biden’s budget request, the defense budget would be allowed a 3% annual increase.

  • A Republican win would give Congress back $10 billion of the $80 billion it allocated to the IRS to strengthen enforcement.

  • Stricter working requirements for social safety net programs and a review of how domestic energy and power projects are approved are still under consideration.

It is still unclear whether such a deal would find sufficient support in Congress. Right-wing includes Republicans Utah Senator Mike Lee 35 members of Congress associated with House Liberal Caucus demanding further spending cuts. on the left, Representative Pramila JayapalWashington Democrats, who lead the 101-member House Progressive Caucus, expected a “huge backlash” if the White House complied with Republican demands.

“I don’t think everyone will be happy at the end of the day,” McCarthy told reporters.

The stakes are getting higher and higher. the finance ministry said on Wednesday. its cash balance Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the government could run out of cash as early as June 1.

Meanwhile, Wall Street is also eyeing other economic trends. At 8:30 a.m. ET, the Department of Commerce will release the latest consumer spending data tracking inflation. A strong outlook could help convince the Fed to be less aggressive about raising rates next month.

The Supreme Court further restricts EPA’s powers. The High Court has limited the agency’s powers over wetlands in its second ruling in the past year to limit the regulator’s powers.but Judge Brett Kavanaugh He sided with his liberal colleagues, warning that the majority-backed test to determine EPA jurisdiction contradicts previous Supreme Court rulings and could cause further contamination.

Carl Icahn claims partial parliamentary seats in the fight against Illumina. Shareholders of a genetic-sequencing company backed the efforts of activist investors. dismiss the chairmanHowever, they rejected his two other director nominations. Illumina shares fell 9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, shares in Mr. Icahn’s exchange-traded investment vehicle plunged Thursday after criticism from short-sellers. lowest in recent years.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is on the side of environmental activists. $1.4 Trillion Investors Pledge Support Chevron and ExxonMobil Shareholder Proposals He called on both countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the Norwegian fund has been criticized by activists for not making similar demands on European oil giants BP and Total.

Elon Musk’s brain implant company can conduct human clinical trials. FDA Have Neuralink test your device Brain signals can be decoded and linked to computers. Musk’s startup, one of the most ambitious in the emerging sector, faces intense scrutiny for: animal cruelty accusation.

It’s official: Lazard announced Peter Orzag, who heads the core financial advisory business, announced Friday that he will succeed Ken Jacobs as CEO, effective October 1, after 14 years in the role. He plans to remain as Executive Chairman and continue advising clients). )

Orzag, a former Obama administration official and a regular on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, will oversee a 175-year-old financial institution with a long history of advising on large corporate deals. We are facing a big challenge.

Orzag had been a potential successor for some time. Lazard declined to say when succession planning began, but Orzag, 54, said in a letter to employees Friday morning that the move follows “a selection process that we have been working on for quite some time.” said it was.

An economist by training, he rose through the ranks in Washington and Wall Street, working for both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and Citigroup, helping run one of the world’s leading independent banks. given a history.

But he faces tough times for investment banks. Refinitiv said sales for the year through Thursday were down 40% from a year earlier. And rising interest rates, increasingly stringent antitrust enforcement, and a slowing economy are driving a resurgence in large-scale mergers and acquisitions. Not likely any time soon.

This hit Lazard. The company said last month: 10 percent headcount reduction of its workforce. Since then, the bank’s shares have fallen 11%. It’s not the only company to cut jobs, but rivals such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Orszag’s top priority is growing Lazard’s wealth management business. The company manages over $200 billion in assets and represents 40 percent of its business. Wealth management is gaining popularity among Wall Street banks as a stable source of income that can offset the volatility of investment banking. Orzag told employees that growth could come from acquisitions.

In an internal memo, Orzag also wrote that the company’s culture “must continue to evolve to support our growth and ambitions while maintaining many of the outstanding qualities that remind us of our roots.” there is (One of his priorities he mentioned was “diversity and flexibility to work from home.”)

The company plans to announce other management changes by October. One notable name is former City rainmaker Ray McGuire, whom Lazard hired in March.


Jim Farley, CEO of Ford. At a Twitter Space event announcing a charging station partnership with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Thursday, Farley said electric car makers are rethinking battery design to reduce charging times and vehicle prices. I admit that I may need to.


Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, has become the latest tech executive to call on governments to enact new rules to crack down on the development of artificial intelligence. His call comes amid a boom in commercial initiatives aimed at the technological advancements that drive the stock market’s spectacular rally.

It’s the latest sign the tech industry is betting on outreach to regulators as the best way to avoid more onerous regulations, but it’s unclear whether governments will craft the rules these companies want.

‘Governments need to act faster’ Smith told The Times’ David McCabe that measures such as requiring an emergency brake on AI systems used in critical infrastructure and requiring licenses to create “sophisticated” AI models. Proposed.

But Smith also acknowledged that AI developers need to show restraint in developing new products that could have wide-ranging negative societal impacts, and Microsoft will pass the blame on to government regulators. He said he was not. “There is no waiver of responsibility,” he said.

This message echoes the call of other AI executives. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, which counts Microsoft as a top investor and business partner, told lawmakers last week that Congress should create a new AI regulator. . And Alphabet Executive Director Sundar Pichai told transatlantic regulators: work together Create effective new rules.

Aggressively seeking more regulation is a strategy used by other industries, such as social media and cryptocurrencies, with mixed results. Congress has enacted few new laws to regulate social networks, which has surprised some lawmakers.

But AI executives’ leniency with new regulations has its limits. Altman warned Thursday that OpenAI could: Pull services like ChatGPT from the European market If Brussels goes ahead with a broad AI bill. “We will try to comply, but if we fail to do so, we will cease operations,” he said.

Other AI News: JPMorgan Chase is develop a chatbot According to CNBC, this is to help clients make investment decisions. And technology evangelist Kathy Wood missed out on $560 billion in paper profits. Selling Nvidia stake at the beginning of this year.

Information of sale

policy

  • The Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot keep windfall from seizing private property and selling it to collect tax liabilities. (New York Times)

  • Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and China’s Commerce Secretary Wang Wentao met during the meeting. Tensions over China’s ban American chip maker Micron. (WSJ)

  • The SEC’s record-breaking $279 million whistleblower bounty was reportedly paid to tipsters whose evidence led to the charges. Bribery settlement against Ericsson. (WSJ)

best of the rest

  • judgement dismissed lawsuit against Leon Black, Apollo co-founder, billionaire accused of sexual misconduct. (FT)

  • Unpaid taxes and missing expensive bottles of wine: Customers want to know what happened at the iconic New York wine store, Shelly Lehman. (New York Times)

  • Google co-founder and billionaire Sergey Brin’s plans include: bring back the airship. (Bloomberg Business Week)

  • Some spot energy prices fell in Finland this week due to heavy nuclear and hydropower generation. became negative. (insider)

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