Political EARTHQUAKE in Argentina sparks MASSIVE inflation

WORD ON THE STREET 

• Musk/Zuck Matchup Enters Bumfights Territory – Someone just force these guys to fight in an alley with a sharpened stick or something. After Mark Zuckerberg taunted that Elon Musk clearly isn’t serious about fighting him in an MMA matchup, Musk accused the Meta Platforms frontman of running away. Musk said that “there was some hasty bag packing at the Zuckerberg residence today! Traveling my a&#,” he posted on X. (This is a family friendly site, so expletive deleted).

• Asian Hedge Funds Bleeding Out – Funds in the Asia Pacific region have lost $3.7 billion in outflows in the first half of 2023 as the Chinese market continues to stumble. It has performed the worst of all four major regions in the world market. Not surprisingly, China is dragging down the whole region.

• Get Woke, Go Broke? – Target’s sales declined in the second quarter with comparable sales down 5.4% and revenue down almost 5% from last year. Target slashed its full year guidance – but the stock was still up, as earnings beat expectations. Remember, not everything fits neatly into a political narrative.

• Cisco Spikes After Earnings Improvement – CSCO was another stock with mixed results. The fiscal outlook for 2024 was below expectations – but an earnings call turned it around in after-hours trading. Revenue and earnings were above expectations as the stock surged more than 2%.

HOT SPOTS: What’s Going on in Geopolitics

• China’s Premier On The Defensive – Premier Li Qiang said that his government would work hard to meet the 5% economic growth target for the year, despite rising skepticism that it is still possible. What may be most significant is what was not said – no mention of the country’s struggling real estate market. That is where the real crisis could begin.
  

• Russia Slams Ukraine’s Grain Supplies Again – The Russian military continues to hammer away at Ukraine’s grain storage facilities and ports even as Ukraine’s military slogs forward in a counteroffensive. Russian drones continued to duel with Ukraine’s air defensives. However, at least one Ukrainian grain ship has taken to the Black Sea.

• Kim Jong Un Wants More Weapons – Whatever, it’s not like North Korea builds anything else (other than Bitcoin hackers). Kim Jong Un called for a “drastic boost” in weapons production, especially missiles. North Korea continues to threaten military action, though the United States, South Korea, and Japan are also unveiling a new missile defensive system for collective security to counter it

CUTTING EDGE: What‘s Happening In Tech

• ChatGPT Has Liberal Bias– It’s not your imagination. According to a new paper from researchers at the University of East Anglia, ChatGPT shows a liberal bias, perhaps because of the data and responses it is trained on. The chatbot has a “significant and systemic political bias toward the Democrats in the U.S., Lula in Brazil, and the Labour Party in the U.K.,” they said.

• Massive Hack In Massachusetts – Don’t worry anon, your information is safe with the government. About 134,000 people may have had their medical and personal identification information stolen after a “worldwide data security incident.” The file-transfer program MOVEit was compromised, and those who received services from the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services may have been compromised as well. The state is notifying those affected.

• Lyft CEO Buys In Big – CEO David Risher has bought 100,000 shares of Lyft worth more than $1.1 million. “I expect this to be very successful,” he said. “I am putting my money where my mouth is because I want people to understand, I have real skin in the game. I want to see this company succeed.

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