Transcript Below:
CONWAY GITTENS: I’m Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.
Wall Street is finding some relief Tuesday after the latest inflation numbers. The Producer Price Index rose just 0.2 percent in December, cooler than expected. Excluding food and energy - prices were flat. According to the report, headline inflation was up 3.3 percent from the same time last year, which was softer than the previous two months. Investors are looking ahead to another report on inflation out Wednesday for clues into the Federal Reserve’s next move.
In other news, the future of TikTok in America is in doubt and now Elon Musk’s name has been thrown into the mix.
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The Chinese government is mulling an idea that would sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to Elon Musk, according to reporting by Bloomberg. The popular social media app could face a ban on January 19th if it does not comply with a U.S. law to split from Chinese parent company ByteDance.
As the world’s richest man, Musk certainly has the money to do a deal. He already owns X, formerly known as Twitter. A deal would give Musk access to more than 170 million TikTok users in the U.S. That kind of number would go a long way when it comes to commanding ad dollars that he can’t do with just X. Musk could also use the large troves of data produced by TikTok to fuel his artificial intelligence company, xAI.
In addition, Musk has the ear of President-elect Donald Trump, who originally wanted to ban TikTok the first time he was president - but has since changed his tune.
So far there’s been no response from Musk on the Bloomberg report. ByteDance has been quiet, as well. Meanwhile, time is running out for TikTok. Early indications from the Supreme Court suggest the Justices will deny ByteDance’s legal challenge to the ban.
That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.
Related: ByteDance is sticking point for Supreme Court as TikTok ban looms
