📈 Rivian surprises

Good morning.

The Fast Five → Biden’s defiant State of the Union, Powell tells Senate "not far" from confidence needed to cut rates, US layoffs reach the highest in a year, Congress plows forward with TikTok bill, and Rivian surprises with smaller, cheaper electric SUVs…

Calendar:

• Today: US nonfarm payrolls, unemployment rate, 8:30a ET

Your 5-minute briefing for Friday, March 8:

BEFORE THE OPEN

PRE-MARKET

MARKETS

• US stocks rallied to fresh all-time highs thanks to hopes over easing inflation

• Europe's Stoxx 600 rose 1% after the ECB left rates unchanged but lowered its inflation forecast

• US 10Y yields slid to its lowest in about a month, before steadying

EARNINGS

• Costco shares fell ~4% after missing Q2 revenue estimates on weak discretionary spending, though it posted YoY sales growth and strong gains in e-commerce (link)

• Broadcom beat Q1 revenue estimates on AI-driven demand, but kept its FY sales guidance unchanged (link)

• Kroger shares jumped ~10% after forecasting stronger-than-expected FY profit thanks to customer resilience (link)

• Full calendar here

NEWS BRIEFING

A Defiant Biden’s State of the Union

Powell to Senate: "Not far" from Confidence Needed to Cut Rates

• Number of weak US banks jump by 18% to 52 (link)

• US bank profits dropped 44% in Q4 on bank failure-related costs (link)

• US layoffs reach highest since last March (link)

• Rivian surprises with R3 and R3X electric SUVs (link)

• Goldman expects US share buybacks to top $1T in 2025 (link)

• ECB signals June rate cut and lowers inflation forecast (link)

• China intensifies push to ‘Delete America’ from its technology (link)

• Leveraged 2x Nvidia ETF sees record inflows (link)

• NYCB lost 7% of deposits in the past month, slashes dividend to 1¢ (link)

• Furious Congress plows forward with TikTok bill after user revolt (link)

• ECB is actively monitoring CRE as main risk to financial stability (link)

• Small US firms remain optimistic even with high debt burdens (link)

• BIS cracks down on big banks gaming capital requirements (link)

• Biotech VCs see room for growth in obesity drug market (link)

• Moody's places NYCB on 'review for upgrade' (link)

• Chemours execs improperly shifted cash flows to boost pay (link)

• Ray Dalio wants Taylor Swift for President (link)

• Netflix to stream Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul (link)

CRYPTO

• Terraform Labs’ Do Kwon will be extradited to South Korea instead of the US (link)

• FTX settled with BlockFi for up to $874M over disputes stemming from their collapses (link)

• SEC defers decision on spot Bitcoin ETF options trading (link)

You Can Sponsor this Newsletter details here.​

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DAILY SHARES

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