📈 Strange pairing

Good morning.

The Fast Five → Yellen launches contentious economic meetings with China, Ford postpones rollout of new EVs as demand wanes, bipartisan $78B tax deal hits GOP roadblock, silver prices settle near a three-year high, and Alphabet reportedly weighing offer for HubSpot (a strange pairing)…

Calendar: (all times ET)

• Today: Unemployment rate, 8:30am

Your 5-minute briefing for Friday, April 5:

BEFORE THE OPEN

PRE-MARKET

MARKETS

• All three major US indexes fell over 1% yesterday as investors reacted to hawkish commentary from Fed officials

• The S&P had its worst day since mid-February

• The Dow fell for a fourth-straight day for its worst performance since March 2023

• Brent oil topped $90 bpd on flaring Middle East tensions

• FX volatility is at its lowest in four years

EARNINGS

• Lamb Weston shares plunged ~20% after missing Q3 earnings and revenue estimates due to a slower-than-expected switch to a new software system (link)

• Full calendar here

NEWS BRIEFING

Yellen Launches Contentious Meetings on Chinese Excess Production Threat

Ford Postpones Rollout of Some New EVs as Demand Wanes

• Fed’s Kashkari floats possibility of no rate cuts this year (link)

• Bipartisan $78B tax deal hits GOP roadblock in US Senate (link)

• Silver prices settle near a three-year high (link)

• Alphabet and HubSpot deal rumors fly (a strange pairing) (link)

• JPMorgan named new heads of IB and capital markets in leadership reshuffle (link)

• Layoffs increased 7% to highest level since January 2023 (link)

• Actively managed US equity funds saw best out-performance since 2007 in Q1 (link)

• YouTube said OpenAI training Sora with its videos would break rules (link)

• Elon Musk boosts AI engineer pay in ‘craziest talent war’ (link)

• BlackRock CEO pay fell 18% to $27M in 2023 (link)

• Jefferies and Sumitomo expand IB alliance into Canada (link)

• Nomura aims to boost US credit portfolio to $50B in 10 years (link)

• SEC accepts pause on climate rule (link)

• Cboe seeks SEC approval for ETF share class of mutual funds (link)

• Amazon relied on Indian contractors to identify purchases in AI stores (link)

CRYPTO

• Crypto trading volume hit an ATH in March (link)

• PayPal enabled PYUSD stablecoin for cross-border money transfers (link)

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BULLISH BITES

🤖 Inside look: YC’s latest Demo Day shows fascinating wagers on healthcare, chip design, AI and more.

🖥 Breakthrough: Microsoft and Quantinuum say they’ve ushered in the next era of quantum computing.

🌜 All relative: The White House tells NASA to create a new time zone for the Moon.

⌚️ En vogue: Nice watch—love the dent! Why stylish guys want beat-up Rolexes and Cartiers.

DAILY SHARES

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