Morning Brief: Top Stories Dominating Financial Media on Friday, March 11

CNBC

• EU, UK Launches Antitrust Investigations On Google, Meta
  • EU and U.K. antitrust regulators launched parallel investigations into Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL unit Google and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc FB over a 2018 ad deal, CNBC reports.
  • Meta’s non-exclusive bidding agreement with Google and the similar contracts with other bidding platforms have helped increase competition for ad placements, Meta admitted.

Reuters

• US, G7 Allies To Revoke Russia’s ‘Most Favored Nation’ Status
  • The U.S., along with the Group of Seven nations and the European Union, will move to revoke Russia’s “most favored nation” status over its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported, citing multiple people familiar with the situation stated.
  • U.S. President Joe Biden will announce the plans at the White House at 10:15 a.m. EST on Friday, March 11, the report cited an unidentified source.

• Toyota To Cut Production Over Chip Crunch
  • Toyota TM plans to reduce domestic production by about 20% in April, about 10% in May, and about 5% in June from an earlier production plan, the report noted.
  • Toyota produced 2.88 million vehicles in Japan last year.

• Goldman Sachs Trims US Growth Forecast On Rising Commodity Prices
  • The investment bank cut its annualized growth forecast to 2.9% against a previous expectation of 3.1%.
  • It expects fourth-quarter real gross domestic product growth of 1.75% against an earlier forecast of 2%.

• WHO Recommended Ukraine’s Health Ministry To Destroy High-Threat Pathogens To Prevent Disease Spread
  • The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in its public health laboratories to prevent “any potential spills,” the agency told Reuters.
  • Ukraine has public health laboratories researching how to mitigate the threats of dangerous diseases, including COVID-19. Its labs have backing from the U.S., the European Union, and the WHO.

WSJ

• Biden, Democrats Fall Short On Voters’ Key Issues
  • The Wall Street Journal poll concluded that President Biden failed to satisfy 57% of voters despite an appreciation for his response to the Russian - Ukraine crisis and a recent State of the Union speech.
  • The poll results were consistent with WSJ’s previous poll taken during mid-November.
  • Biden’s fellow Democrats also lost ground to Republicans on several issues related to improving education and the COVID-19 response.

• Falling Chip Prices Are Making 5G Phones More Affordable
  • The falling price of the 5G phone specialized semiconductors helped make faster mobile service affordable to more lower-income consumers globally, the Wall Street Journal reports. The trend could likely continue over the next two years.
  • Counterpoint Research observed that the average price of a 5G system-on-a-chip costs $40 - $45 and could reach $20 late this year or early next year. It saw mobile-phone makers putting 5G chips in devices with a retail price of around $150.

Bloomberg

• US Banking Giants JPMorgan, Goldman Exit Russia Over Ukraine Crisis, Others May Follow
  • Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS and JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM announced they were unwinding their Russian businesses, becoming the first major U.S. banks to exit following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reported by Bloomberg.
  • “Goldman Sachs is winding down its business in Russia in compliance with regulatory and licensing requirements,” the bank said in an emailed statement.
  • JPM said in a statement: “In compliance with directives by governments around the world, we have been actively unwinding Russian business and have not been pursuing any new business in Russia,” Reuters reported.

• Rihanna’s Lingerie Company Savage X Fenty Mulls $3 Billion IPO
  • Fashion entrepreneur and pop singer Rihanna is working with advisers on taking her lingerie company Savage X Fenty public through an initial offering that could value the Company at $3 billion.
  • The Company is working with banks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS and Morgan Stanley MS to value its worth and gauge demand.

• DiDi Had To Postpone Its IPO After Jack Ma’s Ant: Bloomberg
  • DiDi Global Inc DIDI had to pull the brakes on its Hong Kong listing as it failed to satisfy China’s concerns over sensitive data leak, Bloomberg reports.
  • Uber Technologies Inc’s UBER Chinese counterpart remained vulnerable to the possible derailing of its listing plans and regulatory penalties.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons