Top Stories Thursday, Dec. 29

Reuters

Elon Musk gave a much-needed pep talk to Tesla Inc TSLA employees through an email as the stock remains on track to close 2022 as the worst-performing mega-cap stock of the year.
Musk gave out a rallying cry, calling employees to ramp up deliveries for the fourth quarter.
"Please go all out for the next few days and volunteer to help deliver if at all possible. It will make a real difference!"

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, will reportedly plead to criminal charges alleging that he defrauded investors and misused billions of dollars in customer funds.
The 30-year-old is scheduled to be arraigned on January 3, 2023, in front of U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in a Manhattan federal courtroom.
Kaplan was assigned to the case after the original judge recused herself due to a conflict of interest, as her husband's law firm had previously advised FTX.

A U.S. appeals court revived a suit charging Alphabet Inc's GOOG GOOGL Google and other companies of violating the privacy of children below 13 years.
Google and other companies allegedly tracked the children's YouTube activity without parental consent to send them targeted advertising.
The lawsuit alleged that Google's data collection violated similar state laws and that YouTube content providers like Hasbro Inc HAS, Mattel Inc MAT, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc WBD Cartoon Network, and Comcast Corp CMCSA DreamWorks Animation lured children to their channels.

Novartis AG NVS will pay $245 million to end antitrust litigation accusing the company of trying to delay the U.S. launch of generic versions of its Exforge, which treats hypertension to lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of strokes.
Novartis and Endo International Plc's ENDPQ Par Pharmaceutical unit accused the parties of entering an illegal "reverse payment" agreement to delay launches of generic versions of Exforge for two years after patent expiry.

China's State Administration for Market Regulation reportedly said Honda Motor Co Ltd HMC would recall 200,000 hybrid vehicles.
The recall is a result of faulty brake pedal sensors in some vehicles, which is caused due to the lubricating oil.
The callback involves 105,608 hybrid vehicles produced by Honda's venture with Dongfeng Motor Group Co from October 8, 2018, to September 7, 2020.

Wall Street Journal

Amazon.Com Inc AMZN warehouse in Moreno Valley, California, or ONT8, failed to garner enough proof of support for federal officials to call an election, to the disappointment of its thousands of workers.
Inside ONT8, Nannette Plascencia said that she had faced several obstacles as she sought to organize co-workers.
Some of the initial workers Plascencia talked to have left, she added. Amazon says many employees who leave, come back and reapply.

Consumers continue to spend more, but on a cautious note on the biggest food-delivery apps, DoorDash Inc DASH and Uber Technologies Inc UBER Uber Eats.
People switched to in-store pickups, ordering fewer dishes and changing what they get delivered.
In November, DoorDash CFO Prabir Adarkar said delivery remained part of people's daily life who had just adjusted their behavior on pandemic recovery.

Financial Times

Exxon Mobil Corp XOM has reportedly sued the European Union to remove the bloc's new windfall tax on oil groups.
Oil companies have reported record quarterly profits benefiting from high energy prices due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, leading to further calls to tax the sector.
Exxon spokesperson Casey Norton said that the windfall profits tax is "counter-productive," discourages investments, and undermines investor confidence.

Bloomberg

China looked further to tighten supervision over its battered online education sector.
China's move indicated its lack of preparation to unshackle the private tutoring arena despite loosening curbs on tech giants.
Edtech companies plunged after the Ministry of Education published a new set of restrictions that limit the fees and operating times of private tutoring services for primary and middle school students.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd TSM kicked off mass production of next-generation chips Thursday, ensuring the island's status as the linchpin of critical technology.
The primary chipmaker for Apple Inc AAPL began bulk production of advanced 3-nm chips at its Tainan campus in southern Taiwan.

BYD Co, Ltd BYDDF BYDDY bumped up pricing for its popular Dolphin model and scrapped an entry-level version of the vehicle, despite automobile demand in the nation reflected signs of cooling down.
Warren Buffett-backed BYD said 2023 pricing for its Dolphin subcompact hatchback would start from 116,800 yuan ($16,745) and extend to 136,800 yuan.

Benzinga

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Corp LMT company, filed a formal protest asking the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the U.S. Army's decision on the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) contract.
Based on a thorough review of the information and feedback provided by the Army, Lockheed Martin Sikorsky is challenging the FLRAA decision.
The company says that the data and discussions indicate that the proposals were not consistently evaluated.

For those Twitter users experiencing troubles with login and malfunctioning alerts, Elon Musk says the microblogging site should "feel faster" now.
Hours after #TwitterDown started trending on the platform as users complained about the site not functioning properly, Musk took to Twitter to share that "significant" backend server architecture has been introduced.

Elon Musk Tells Employees Tesla Will Be 'Most Valuable Company On Earth, Sam Bankman-Fried Set To Enter Plea On Fraud Case, Twitter 'Should Feel Faster': Today's Top Stories