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The World
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and Jordan this week. He “will be entering a diplomatic maelstrom that will likely complicate his mission. Jordan announced Wednesday that it had recalled its ambassador to Israel and would not permit Israel’s ambassador to Jordan to return to the country.” (Associated Press)
President Biden has told Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. thinks the Israeli PM might not survive the current crisis. “The topic of Netanyahu’s short political shelf life has come up in recent White House meetings involving Biden, according to two senior administration officials. That has included discussions that have taken place since Biden’s trip to Israel, where he met with Netanyahu.” (Politico)
Talks are underway to establish a multinational force in Gaza following the end of the current war, according to Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), in “the clearest sign yet that the U.S. and its partners are seriously weighing deploying foreign troops to the enclave.” (Politico)
Taiwan says China “sent 43 warplanes and seven naval vessels near the island” in a 24-hour period this week. Taiwan's Defense Ministry says it “monitored the situation, scrambled jet fighters, dispatched ships and activated land-based missile systems. These were all standard responses to Chinese military activities.” (DW)
“The number of ships allowed to cross the Panama Canal each day will be slashed in the coming months as climate change increasingly rocks global trade.” The number of crossings permitted daily was reduced from 36 to 31 this year, and the canal authority says it will now “limit crossings to 25 bookings per day starting later this week and gradually reduce it before reaching just 18 per day from February next year.” (Financial Times)
For the first time ever, more than one million Americans are waiting for the Social Security Administration to process an initial disability claim. According to Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA), who chairs the House Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee, “it currently takes 220 days for claims to be decided, on average, which is more than 100 days longer than it did in 2019.” That is also “more than 150 days longer than the Social Security Administration’s standard for minimum level of performance.” (CNBC)
“Gallup’s preliminary reading on the 2023 holiday retail season finds Americans predicting they will spend an average $923 on Christmas or other holiday gifts, just shy of the $932 they estimated at the same time a year ago. The public’s holiday spending intentions were similar to today's in 2019 before sinking closer to $800 in the first two years of the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021.” (Gallup)
Economy
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged. The benchmark federal funds rate of 5.25%-5.5% is at a 22-year high, but the Fed “kept the door open to potentially raising them later to keep slowing inflation.” The Fed has now “skipped a rate hike for two consecutive meetings, making it the longest period without an increase since they began to lift rates from near zero in March 2022.” (Wall Street Journal)
Federal Chairman Jerome Powell “said that market borrowing costs would need to be sustainably higher for that to bear on future central bank monetary policy choices.” (Reuters)
U.S. job openings rose to 9.6 million in September, up from 9.5 million in August “and a sign that the U.S. job market remains strong.” Layoffs were down to 1.5 million from 1.7 million in August, “more evidence that workers enjoy an unusual degree of job security. The number of Americans quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence they can find better pay elsewhere — was virtually unchanged.” (Associated Press)
About 403,000 U.S. jobs “will be created by the 210 major energy projects announced since the Inflation Reduction Act took effect in mid-2022,” according to Environmental Entrepreneurs, a business group that advocates for clean energy. (Associated Press)
Toyota has announced a wage increase for non-union U.S. factory workers “just days after the United Auto Workers union won major pay and benefit hikes from the Detroit Three automakers.” Toyota “is also cutting the amount of time needed for U.S. production workers to reach top pay from eight years to four years.” (Reuters)
Toyota “has enjoyed a rapid recovery in profitability driven by a weak yen and price hikes, with its profit margin outpacing Tesla’s during the April-September period for the first time in more than two years.” Toyota announced a net profit margin of 11.8% for the period. (Nikkei Asia)
CVS Health beat third-quarter forecasts “thanks partially to its growing pharmacy benefits management side, but the health care giant is cautious about next year.” Interim CFO Tom Cowhey said it “would be ‘prudent for investors to ground their expectations’ for adjusted earnings at the low end of a range of $8.50 to $8.70 per share. That’s also what the company expects for full-year earnings this year.” (Associated Press)
Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and similar drugs that are being used for weight loss are rattling markets. Krispy Kreme shares fell this week over worries that the medications will shrink demand for donuts, and “beer and snack stocks are plummeting. Walmart said it's taken a hit on food sales. Clothing brands could see a boost from slimmed-down shoppers eager to update their wardrobes. Airlines are already calculating how much lighter flyers will save them on fuel costs.” (Axios)
“The reaction on Wall Street has been extreme, creating opportunities for cooler heads, some analysts and investors say. ‘It’s the AI of healthcare,’ said Emily Evans, health-policy analyst at Hedgeye Risk Management, noting that the market is acting as though a host of other diseases will suddenly be cured.” (Wall Street Journal)
JPMorgan Chase is seeking a partner “to grow its private credit business and accelerate its push into one of the hottest areas in leveraged finance.” JPMorgan has spoken with prospective partners “including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments and alternative asset managers” in recent months. (Bloomberg)
Technology
Draft guidelines for federal agencies to implement the White House executive order on AI were released by the OMB. The guidance “pays special attention to two broad directives within the executive order: increasing AI talent in the government and making the federal government’s AI use more transparent.” OMB Director Shalanda Young said, “Agencies must increase their capacity to successfully and responsibly adopt AI, including generative AI, into their operations.” (Politico)
Chinese scientists have produced a chip that can perform AI task 3,000 times faster than Nvidia’s A100. While the new chip “cannot immediately replace those used in devices such as computers or smartphones, it may soon be used in wearable devices, electric cars or smart factories and help boost China’s competitiveness in the mass application of artificial intelligence.” (South China Morning Post)
China’s top social media platforms will start requiring influencers with more than 500,000 followers to display their real names, “breaking one of the last pillars of online anonymity in China.” The move by Douyin and Weibo “comes amid recent efforts by online content regulators to ‘purify’ China’s cyberspace and censor digital discourse on sensitive topics like politics and finance.” (Semafor)
AI image tools “have a tendency to spin up disturbing clichés” based on stereotypes. These do not “reflect the real world; they stem from the data that trains the technology. Grabbed from the internet, these troves can be toxic — rife with pornography, misogyny, violence and bigotry.” While Stability AI, which makes image generator Stable Diffusion XL, says it has “made a significant investment in reducing bias in its latest model…these efforts haven’t stopped it from defaulting to cartoonish tropes.” (Washington Post)
Computer Science Courses Are on the Rise—But Girls Are Still Half as Likely to Take It: Overall, 57.5 percent of high schools offer foundational computer science courses, a 4.5 percentage point jump over last year, the largest since 2018. But only 5.8 percent of high school students are enrolled in those courses in the 35 states where data is available. That percentage is similar to the percentage a year ago. There are also gaps in access with respect to race, gender, English learner and special education status, geography, and income, Code[dot]org found. For instance, 89 percent of Asian students and 82 percent of white students can take foundational computer science courses, whereas 67 percent of Native American students have such access. (Education Week)
DoorDash reported revenue grew 27% to $2.16 billion, reflecting continued steady growth in orders for the restaurant-delivery service. (The Information)
Airbnb Misses Fourth Quarter Outlook, Citing Travel Volatility. (Bloomberg)
Smart Links
Can Global Leaders Get a Handle on A.I.? U.K. Summit Makes a Start. (New York Times)
Apple Has Plans to Eventually, Maybe Revolutionize Health Care. (Bloomberg)
Yen flirts with new 33-year low as U.S. interest rate outlook stays high. (Nikkei Asia)
Netflix says its ad-supported plan now has 15 million monthly active users. (Los Angeles Times)
Offshore Wind Firm Cancels N.J. Projects, as Industry’s Prospects Dim. (New York Times)
How does Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates really make its money? (New York Times)
Jobs, Rib-Eyes and Worries: How Exxon’s Giant Oil Discovery Is Transforming Guyana. (Wall Street Journal)
After decades of dreams, a commercial spaceplane is almost ready to fly. (Ars Technica)