5 Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day: Americas

Good morning. Tech stocks struggle after Meta disappointment, earnings season continues apace and traders wait for US GDP data. Here’s what’ [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Good morning. Tech stocks struggle after Meta disappointment, earnings season continues apace and traders wait for US GDP data. Here’s what’s moving markets. — [David Goodman]( Want to receive this newsletter in Spanish? [Sign up to get the Five Things: Spanish Edition newsletter](. Tech Problems Technology[stocks led declines]( in US equity futures Thursday after Facebook parent Meta’s [disappointing outlook]( highlighted the limitations of the AI-fueled rally. Meta’s spending forecast, coupled with slower sales growth than anticipated, sent the shares tumbling as much as 19% in extended trading. Alphabet, which reports earnings later along with Microsoft, also dropped in early trading. Earnings Rush Elsewhere, traders are processing a deluge of corporate updates on the busiest day of the earnings season. In Europe, [Hermes shares]( are falling even as the firm bucked a slowdown in luxury goods, while [Nestle]( dropped after it was hit by cooler demand in North America. [Unilever]( and [AstraZeneca]( led gains [in the UK]( after reporting strong results, while there was more mixed news from banking giants [Barclays](, [Deutsche Bank]( and [BNP](. As well as the tech firms mentioned earlier, Bristol Myers, Comcast, American Air, Intel and Snap are among those reporting earnings in the US. Mining Merger The most significant company news of the day didn’t stem from an earnings report, though. In a move that could spark the biggest shakeup in the mining industry in over a decade, [BHP Group proposed a takeover of Anglo American]( that values its peer at £31.1 billion. The deal would catapult the combined company’s copper production far beyond its rivals. Anglo shares jumped 13% in London on Thursday morning to £24.91 apiece, for a market value of £30.5 billion, while BHP fell 3.7%. US GDP The other big focus this morning is the US growth report. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict GDP [likely cooled to around 2.5% in the first quarter](, with the figures still potentially suggesting persistent inflationary pressures. Traders have been scaling back their expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts for weeks, so any deeper signs the economy is starting to sputter may be enough so spark a partial reversal. As well as that data, bond traders are gearing up for a $44 billion sale of US seven-year notes — the final tranche of supply in what’s been a heavy week of auctions. Yen Watch In the world of FX, the yen is still the biggest story, with the currency extending losses after weakening beyond 155 per dollar for the first time in more than three decades on Wednesday. The drop [heightens the chances of intervention]( ahead of Bank of Japan’s policy decision Friday, when the central bank is forecast to keep its interest rate settings unchanged. What we’ve been reading This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours. - UBS analyst who [took on Evergrande]( now bullish on China property. - [Dollar wrecking ball]( forces investors to seek covers in exporters. - European real estate deals slump to[lowest level in 13 years](. - [Spanish beauty billionaires]( seek IPO to ease family succession. - Jefferies CEO sells $65 million of shares [to purchase yacht](. And finally, here's what Tracy’s interested in this morning Regardless of what you think about the recent [US move to ban TikTok]( or force its Chinese owner to divest, there are some good old-fashioned [economic reasons]( to be following the saga. Perhaps the most interesting is that we might be about to see a pretty big economic experiment unfold in real-time. As Paul Donovan, UBS’s global chief economist put it yesterday, a TikTok ban “potentially removes the economic activity generated by US content creators (influencers reportedly have an average income of over $120,000 — albeit with a very uneven income distribution.) This economic activity may be underreported in official data, but it still takes place.” There are still so many questions about some of the more opaque and informal areas of the economy, many of which have apparently boomed in recent years, including their overall economic impact and wealth effects. So, while much ink has been spilled on the “influencer economy,” there’s still a lot of debate over how big or important it really is. The same goes for other things like the gig economy and crypto, all of which are unlikely to be well-captured in current economic statistics. Although, in the case of crypto, there have been some attempts to quantify its impact. A 2023 Harvard Business School [paper](, for instance, found evidence that crypto wealth leads to higher house prices. The paper’s authors concluded that their results “indicate that cryptocurrencies have substantial spillover effects on the real economy through consumption and investment into other asset classes.” TikTok is obviously used by millions, just a fraction of whom make real money off the platform. It’s worth noting here too, that TikTok itself has claimed that the company contributed more than [$24 billion to US GDP]( last year. But while history is littered with social networks that have come and gone (and been replaced: MySpace anyone?,) it’s rare for a platform of TikTok’s size and scale to fall out of favor that fast. So it will be interesting to see what, if anything, a ban ends up revealing about this particular economic segment. Tracy Alloway is the co-host of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast. Follow her on X [@tracyalloway]( Like Bloomberg's Five Things? [Subscribe for unlimited access]( to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. [Bloomberg Markets Wrap: The latest on what's moving global markets. Tap to read.]( Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Five Things to Start Your Day: Americas Edition newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. 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