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Top stories today:
- Fed cuts rates by 25 bps to 4.25% - 4.50%, fewer rate cuts next year
- Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge on TikTok ban law
- Trump torpedoes $110B Continuing Resolution after Elonās criticism
- OpenAI expands ChatGPT access to landline, WhatsApp
- Elon taps executive from Boring, ex-Trump aide for DOGE staffing
- Perplexity closes $500M round at $9B valuation
0. Data and calendar
All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).
All times are ET.
Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing todayās newsletter (beware of the few hallucinations):
1. Fed cuts rates by 25 bps to 4.25% - 4.50%, as Powell indicates fewer rate cuts next year
āFor additional cuts, weāre going to be looking for further progress on inflation,ā Powell said.
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The Fedās ādot plotā showed 2 quarter-point cuts for 2025, while 3 were expected, reaching a range of 3.75% - 4% by the 2025-end
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissented, favoring no change in rates.
The USD climbed to its highest level since 2022
+0.9% in Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index following the rate cuts announced.
The S&P 500 was -3%, the worst since 2020 for a Fed-decision day
Relatedly, Powell commented on BTC, saying Fed cannot hold the crypto and not looking for its stockpiling.
BTC -2% to $102K.
2. Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge on TikTok ban law
Jan. 10: SCOTUS will hear the oral arguments.
Whether the ban violates the First Amendment is what TikTok should be prepared to argue, the Supreme Court said.
April: Congress passed the law giving TikTok the sell-or-ban ultimatum of 9 months.
Dec. 6: D.C. Circuit judges denied overturning the law.
Jan. 19: the law will come into effect.
3. Trump torpedoes $110B Continuing Resolution after Elonās strong criticism
āEver seen a bigger piece of pork,ā Elon said while posting a printed copy of the bill.
The bill includes $110B in new spending for disaster relief, health care policy extenders, a pay raise for members of Congress, among other things.
Speaker Johnson is weighing removing the $110B and passing a āclean CRā.
Mar. 14: until when this bill would fund the government.
Meanwhile, a $895B defense bill (+1% YoY) was passed by the Senate by 85 to 14.
