The markets: The S&P 500 ticked up to 5,918.25 yesterday, shrugging off notes from the U.S. Fed’s November meeting that indicate officials think inflation will remain above 2%. That would imply the Fed will go slower for longer on expected rate cuts. “The Federal Reserve meeting minutes reflect the rather chaotic swings of view that occur under Fed Chair Powell,” according to a note sent to clients by UBS’s Paul Donovan this morning, seen by Fortune.
Today: Fires in Los Angeles have left five people dead, 2,000 homes destroyed, and 130,000 evacuated in the Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, and Malibu. Celebrities have watched their homes burn down on their security cameras. Billy Crystal and Paris Hilton’s houses have been destroyed. The damages are estimated at more than $50 billion. The median home value in the region is $2 million. LA Times coverage here.
CEO Daily insight: Chief execs react to Zuckerberg’s message to Trump
I had flashbacks this week when Mark Zuckerberg complained about “politically biased” fact-checkers, “legacy media” writing “nonstop” about misinformation, and the danger of becoming “arbiters of truth.” (Put aside for a minute whether the Meta CEO is right to ditch fact-checking because content moderation on his platforms allegedly went too far. There are no doubt examples where it did.)
I was struck by Zuckerberg’s code words and signals of support for the incoming Trump administration. He cited alleged censorship by the U.S. government over the past four years and praised Texas as a state less plagued by bias than California. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and other leaders are using terms that originated on the campaign trail. Match that with a president who threatens journalists with lawsuits and has the ability to shrug off criminal prosecutions, and you can see how this might foster an environment of self-censorship.
I first witnessed that as a student at the University of Nairobi, when my Ugandan professor, visibly scarred from having his skull cracked as a journalist under Idi Amin, explained the concept of “development journalism” as he crossed out a reference to Kenya as a one-party state.
Moreover, as my former boss Norm Pearlstine argued this week in the Columbia Journalism Review, “the prospect of Trump controlling the White House, Congress, and Supreme Court has frightened owners of once-proud news organizations.” So I decided to ask a few CEOs what they make of the messaging from Zuckerberg and other tech leaders right now. Here’s what some of them had to say — anonymously, of course:
“Free speech is not a loaded term. This country was built on dissent and debate.”
“Every business leader treads carefully when there are new faces in government. The test will be what happens when there’s a disagreement.”
“Your industry can be biased so encouraging free speech is important.”
“Let’s wait and see!”
Also on the radar
President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on 34 felony counts in the Stormy Daniels hush money case on Friday. But he asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and block the hearing. Trump is not likely to get a prison term.
Elon Musk privately asked allies how to get rid of UK prime minister Keir Starmer, according to the FT. There are few further details. Starmer has a large majority in the British parliament and the legal right to govern for five years — making Musk’s quest quixotic at best. The FT also analysed Musk’s posts on X and found that among 616 recent tweets he wrote about UK politics 225 times, often after reading a handful of right-leaning accounts. “Including replies, he has posted more than 1180 times in seven days,” the FT said.
The bond market is watching: Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes hit 4.71% on Wednesday, up from 3.62% in mid-September. Investors appear to be positioning for a world in which President Trump’s tax cuts and trade tariffs make U.S. fiscal deficits worse. Remember: The stock market reacts to things but the bond market decides things.
Moscow likely happy about Greenland flap. The idea of Trump expanding U.S. influence into Arctic territories would validate Russia’s own expansion into the area.
Some staff at Meta are not on board with Zuck’s no-censorship plan. Older employees remember what it was like at Facebook in the early years before there was any content moderation.
A man tried to enter the Capitol, where former president Jimmy Carter’s body is currently lying in state, carrying a machete. He faces multiple criminal charges.
Big news from Pluto: The dwarf planet’s biggest moon, Charon may have crashed into Pluto, in a grinding collision lasting just a few hours, and then separated before becoming trapped in orbit.
From the analysts
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Wells Fargo Chief Investment Officer (Wealth & Investment Management) Darrell Cronk sent clients a 15-point list of “advice I would give to my younger self.” No.1: “Human beings are often emotional rather than objective investors. They tend to sell low and buy high, and at the time, they believe it to be for good reasons. It cannot be otherwise, or else they would not do it,” according to a copy seen by Fortune.
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Goldman Sachs says global growth, interest rates, and the diminishing prospect of recession means equities are “priced for perfection” — for now. “While we expect equity markets to make further progress over the year as a whole – largely driven by earnings – they are increasingly vulnerable to a correction driven either by further rises in bond yields and/or disappointments on growth in economic data or earnings,” according to a note seen by Fortune.
- Going viral amongst finance types: A long essay by Paul Tucker at Engelsberg Ideas that argues technological advances and liberalism used to go hand in hand but recently the switch has flipped: We’re now in an era where technology reinforces authoritarian power. Credit to Panmure Liberum’s Joachim Klement for surfacing it.
More news below.
Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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