Good morning. Here’s what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
Tech rebound: Technology shares in the US rebounded overnight, lifting the main US indexes, after Nvidia struck a multi-year deal to sell Meta millions of its current and future AI chips, while fresh data showed the US economy is holding up. The Dow was 0.32% higher in afternoon trading, the S&P 500 was 0.64% higher and the Nasdaq was up 1.03%. The gains followed an AI-led selloff that had rocked sectors from software to trucking earlier this month. US industrial production posted its largest gain in nearly a year in January, December business equipment orders topped forecasts and housing starts climbed to a five-month high. Separately, the Financial Times reported Christine Lagarde is expected to leave the European Central Bank before her term ends in October 2027, though an ECB spokesperson said she has not taken any decision regarding the end of her term. (WSJ)(Bloomberg)(Reuters)(FT)
2.
Algorithm bull: French President Emmanuel Macron labelled the free speech defence used by social media platforms “pure bull$**t,” directly challenging a key foreign policy position of US President Donald Trump. Speaking in New Delhi on Wednesday, Macron argued that algorithmic opacity undermined any genuine free speech claim. “Free speech is pure bull$**t if nobody knows how you are guided to this so-called free speech, especially when it is guided from one hate speech to another,” he said. The remarks come as Australia’s ban on under-16s using social media inspires a wave of potential copycat laws, with the UK, Germany and other European nations now weighing similar moves that could significantly hit the advertising revenue of Meta, Snap, X, TikTok and YouTube. The US has pushed back. It recently imposed visa bans on a former European official and activists over online hate speech moderation, actions secretary of state Marco Rubio framed as resistance to the “global censorship-industrial complex.” (Bloomberg)
