Alibaba Unveils ChatGPT Challenger

Market Movers

• Alibaba touts ChatGPT challenger ahead of main event. The company’s cloud computing unit is offering invitation codes to some corporate customers so they can try out the large language model called “Tongyi Qianwen.”* Alibaba Cloud’s website for the service is only in Chinese for now, suggesting it could be used primarily to process queries in the e-commerce giant’s home language.

• Walmart sues credit-card partner Capital One. Walmart alleged that Capital One didn’t provide the customer service it was obligated to offer, such as replacing lost cards promptly. It also alleged that Capital One didn’t promptly post some transactions and payments* to cardholders’ accounts. Capital One says Walmart’s lawsuit is an attempt to renegotiate the economic terms of the partnership.

• McDonald’s cuts pay packages, closes offices alongside layoffs across chain. The restructuring moves included role changes or promotions for other employees, including nearly 10 U.S. officers working across operations, finance, and marketing. Among those laid off were senior employees* who had worked at McDonald’s for decades as well as those who held positions at the company for just a few years.

• Apple’s Irish operation profits rise to $69.3 billion. The pre-tax profit reported by Apple Operations International Limited and its international subsidiaries surpassed the $67.7 billion recorded a year earlier.* That group of Apple companies incurred operating expenses of $26.9 billion in the year ending last September.

• Home sales are cooling — but the competition is red hot. New listings plunged 21.8% from a year ago, marking one of the most significant annual drops* since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a new analysis of housing inventory by Redfin. This is partly due to  few new homes hitting the market, with would-be homesellers sitting on the bench while mortgage rates hover above 6 percent.

What to Watch

• Analysts predict $7 trillion global GDP increase from A.I. Emerging generative AI tools could drive a 7% rise in the world’s gross domestic product* (GDP) worth nearly $7 trillion, increasing worker productivity as much as 1.5 percent over a decade, according to Goldman Sachs Research (GSR).

• Exxon Mobil eyes potential megadeal with shale driller Pioneer. Discussions between the two companies about a potential deal have been informal, but after posting record profits in 2022, Exxon is flush with cash and has been exploring options* that could reshape a swath of the U.S. oil-and-gas industry while pushing Exxon deeper into West Texas shale.

• Lawmakers meet with Apple, Disney CEOs about China. High-profile tech and media executives shared their experiences of working in and competing with China with lawmakers. Over the three-day trip that kicked off on Wednesday, lawmakers were scheduled to meet with Disney CEO Bob Iger and Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as high-level executives from Google, Microsoft, Palantir and scale A.I.

• Toyota to sell 1.5 million EVs by 2026, roll out 10 new models. Toyota Motor Corp.’s new CEO Koji Sato said it will release 10 new EV models by 2026* and sell 1.5 million battery electric vehicles annually while “strengthening hybrids and plug-in hybrids” in order to honor its pledge to halve emissions by 2035 and become carbon neutral by 2050.

• We're close to a recession, says Tony Dwyer. If we look back and note the three periods of 1966, 1995, 2016, and 2017, those periods of soft Landing didn't have yield curve inversions, the conference board leading economic indicators weren't here, and the lending standards weren't as tight. So just based on that data we're going into a recession. Source(1:22:01)