Morning Market Download from Invincible Money

Personal finance + economics + markets

Finance in 5 minute a day to help you make better money decisions.

Economy
The chance of a U.S. recession is now at 67%, however, most people believe we’re already in a recession.

The Employment Cost Index (ECI) rose 1.2% for Q1, above expectations. Wages and salaries increased by 1.2% as well.

The PCE Price Index, which the Fed uses to measure inflation, rose 4.2% YoY, with 40% of the components that make up the index still increasing 5-10%.

News
Pinecone raises $100M with $750M valuation. Pinecone is the leading vector database company, which helps other companies add vector search to production applications. For example, to find similar images based on content or style.

A Biotech firm in Utah is the first to implant a device into the brains of 50 people that has helped them use a computer, direct a wheelchair or even feel. Elon Musk’s Neuralink is still waiting for FDA approval.

The Godfather of AI has left Google and joined the growing number of scientists warning about the dangers of AI, even as we rapidly approach AGI (Artificial General Intelligence).

SpaceX announced it will spend $2B on further development of the Starship. The recent first launch has been viewed as a success and the next one is expected in June. The company also announced they don’t need further outside funding.

Stocks

First Republic Bank becomes the 2nd largest U.S. bank failure as it is sold to JPMorgan Chase. This sale may have held off or avoided a banking crisis escalation. JPMorgan is assuming all $92B in deposits and $173B in loans and $30B in securities.

Amazon is working on a large language model (LLM) to beef up Alexa. After no improving Alexa or Siri in many years, the companies are now revamping them using powerful models that can answer complex questions )See: ChatGPT). You weren’t the only one to notice that they don’t work that great after all these years.

CEO Satya Nadella said,

“Whether it’s Cortana or Alexa or Google Assistant or Siri, all these just don’t work.”

Microsoft is launching an AI-powered desiger tool similar to Canva.

Over half the S&P have reported earnings and so far 79% have beaten EPS estimates and 74% have beaten revenue estimates.

Jack Dorsey said Twitter “went south” after Elon Musk bought the company. Elon, however, said it’s now break even and continues to streamline the company after cutting 80% of its staff.

Crypto

Bitcoin daily transactions reached a new all-time high on Sunday.

Mastercard aims to define verification standards with a new product. Looks like Mastercard and Visa are still very much interested in crypto.

The U.S. House will be introducing 2 new crypto bills within the next 2 months. The bills will address securities and commodities regimes.

Personal Finance

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Legal Stuff
Nothing in this newsletter is financial advice. Always do your own research and think for yourself.