Morning Brief: Top Financial Stories Dominating on Thursday, June 2

Reuters

Amazon.com, Inc AMZN looks to cease operating its Kindle e-book store in China from the end of June 2023, Reuters reports based on the e-commerce giant’s official WeChat account.
China’s customers will no longer be able to purchase new e-books from June 2023 for reasons undisclosed.

Japanese multinational Toshiba Corp TOSYY has received eight proposals for privatization and two to form capital alliances that would make it remain listed.
The company’s board of directors and a special committee have previously sought proposals for strategic alternatives after the shareholders voted against a proposed restructuring plan.
The proposals received are not legally binding ones.

Delta Air Lines Inc DAL and United Airlines Holdings Inc UAL downplayed the prospect of a U.S. economic recession, saying a shift in consumer spending from goods to services would keep their businesses afloat, reported Reuters.
Delta Airlines lifted its June quarter’s revenue guidance but on a lower capacity than planned.
“The demand is off the charts,” Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian told the Bernstein Conference.

Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members may increase oil supply to compensate for a reduction in Russian output, which may relieve pressure on growing global inflation and pave the way for U.S. President Joe Biden’s historic visit to Riyadh, reported Reuters.
According to Two OPEC+ sources, the group worked on making up for a drop in Russian oil output.
According to an OPEC+ source familiar with Russia’s position, Moscow could consent to other producers upping output to compensate for Russia’s lower output but not necessarily making up the entire gap.

Wall Street Journal

Partners Pfizer, Inc PFE and BioNTech SE BNTX urged the FDA to authorize three vaccine doses for children below five.
The companies previously asserted that three doses of the shot were 80% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19. The results were pending peer-review by independent experts.
The Food and Drug Administration also weighed a request from Moderna, Inc MRNA.
U.S.’s last remaining group of people, or the 19 million young children, would get access to the vaccine on clearance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bloomberg

Abdul Latif Jameel, an early Rivian Automotive, Inc RIVN backer, committed to investing up to $220 million (₹17 billion) in India’s battery-powered two and three-wheeler vehicles through EV maker Greaves Electric Mobility.
The Saudi family-owned group will initially pay $150 million (₹11.6 billion) for a 35.8% stake in India’s Greaves Cotton Ltd subsidiary to foray into the fourth-largest automobile market.
The investment will help Greaves Electric expand its business locally and potentially expand in regions including Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Benzinga

Ford Motor Co F CEO Jim Farley said on Wednesday the legacy automaker has a far higher relative price for distribution than electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc TSLA.
Farley said Ford’s distribution model per unit is $2,000 more expensive than that of Elon Musk-led Tesla and Ford has the potential to reverse those costs.
“The first is the distribution model. We think our distribution model today is about $2,000 per unit, more expensive than Tesla,” Farley told investors at the Alliance Bernstein 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference.

Twitter Inc’s TWTR said it is saying “goodbye” to its TweetDeck app for Apple Inc AAPL computers beginning July 1. Mac users left in the lurch still have some options at their disposal.
TweetDeck On Web: TweetDeck’s handle on Twitter said users could use the app on the web instead of the discontinued Mac version. TweetDeck also pointed to their new preview, which is available by invitation only.

Terraform Labs, the company behind Terra LUNA/USD, has reportedly laundered $4.8 million through a South Korean shell company.
According to a report from South Korean publication KBS News, a former developer at Terraform Labs told the publication that Terraform Labs had ties to a “blockchain consulting firm K” based in Seoul.
The employee said that “Company K” was “operated under a borrowed name by Terra.”

Ever since Sheryl Sandberg said she would be stepping down as Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Inc’s FB chief operating officer, rumor mills have been working overtime on what the next phase of her career would be herald.
Sandberg suggested that she would focus more on her foundation and philanthropic work through her Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, named after herself and her deceased husband and former Insider Monkey CEO, Dave Goldberg.
The foundation works for the cause of women and helps companies build inclusive workplaces, and helps people build resilience and find meaning in the face of adversity.

Hackers purportedly linked to the Chinese government are exploiting a recently discovered vulnerability in Microsoft Corporation’s MSFT Office.
A tweet by cybersecurity platform Proofpoint named a hacker group labeled “TA413” using the vulnerability to deliver Zip Archives containing Word documents that use the technique.
“Campaigns impersonate the “Women Empowerments Desk” of the Central Tibetan Administration and use the domain tibet-gov.web[.]app,” said Proofpoint.

General Motors Co GM on Wednesday revealed a lower price for its 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EV as it looks to boost sales after being slammed by a huge recall due to fire risks that shut down sales and production for several months of the last year.
Detroit, Michigan-based GM said the Bolt EV will be available at a starting price of $26,595 while the bigger Bolt EUV will be priced at $28,195.
GM has slashed the prices by $5,900 per vehicle for the Bolt EV and $6,300 for the EUV.

Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOGL subsidiary Google says it is merging its Meet and Duo video conferencing applications.
The announcement was made in a blog post by Javier Soltero, vice president and general manager for Google Workspace on Wednesday.
Soltero said Google would be adding all Meet features to Duo in the coming weeks, and later in the year, Duo will be renamed Google Meet.

The Solana SOL/USD network was forced to stop block production for four hours on Wednesday.
Validators reported the issue around 1 p.m. ET on the Solana Status Twitter page.
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko told users that the network would restart as soon as possible once the durable nonce feature had been disabled.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons