TikTok, Bytedance seek temporary halt to US ban

It's now time for Business Matters with Don Ma. Don, thanks for joining us. Good to see you. Yeah, glad to be back. We missed you Friday. I missed you guys. Well, I'm glad to hear. Okay, let me start off with Apple here. So apparently Apple has beat out Microsoft as America's best-run company, and this is based on the annual management top 250 rankings. Now, the list grades companies in five categories, and that is customer satisfaction, innovation, social responsibility, employee engagement and development, and financial strength. So Apple started the year with dragging iPhone sales and smartphone competition from China. Then the company ended up beating Wall Street expectations in the second quarter. Tech companies continue to hold most top spots on the list this year, rounding out the top five are Nvidia, Microsoft, Intel, and MasterCard. Over in Europe, markets reached near six-week highs today, led by mining and luxury stocks. Meanwhile, energy shares along with oil prices rose after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled the country. U.S. benchmark crude oil jumped 75 cents to around $68 a barrel. And the fall of the Assad regime raised fears of a new wave of instability in a region already gripped by war. Traders were looking ahead to U.S. inflation data on Wednesday, and this is to gauge the pace of the Federal Reserve's potential rate cuts. Now, the European side, Central Bank, that is, widely expected to lower rates by 25 basis points on Thursday. The House will vote this week on a defense bill that includes $3 billion of funding to replace Chinese telecom equipment in U.S. networks. Now, the funding addresses a shortfall under the 2019 Secure Communications Act targeting Huawei and ZTE technology. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel says more than 125 U.S. carriers need funding to meet the June 2025 removal deadline, which, by the way, is crucial for national security because without support, rural areas risk losing critical services. And intelligence officials recently revealed Chinese hackers have compromised U.S. telecom networks. Hackers reportedly targeted senior politicians' communications, and this is raising urgent cybersecurity concerns. TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, are seeking a temporary halt to a potential ban. And a law requires ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19th, or it might be banned in the U.S. The companies filed the emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. They argue that without the order, the law will take effect and shut down TikTok. The app said that it's one of the nation's most popular speech platforms for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users. On Friday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the law. The companies argued the Supreme Court is likely to take the case and reverse course. They also said a delay would give the incoming Trump administration time to determine its position. President-elect Trump has vowed to prevent a ban. It's not clear, though, if the Supreme Court will take up the case. Global ad spending could reach $1 trillion this year, and that's based on a forecast from WPP's Group M. Ad Age analyzed recent reports and found that advertising growth continues to outpace global economic growth, and AI is expected to be a driver in that. As the technology makes advertising more effective and efficient. Ad Age also noted that the U.S. is expected to stay the leading country for ad spend. Now, New York's Fifth Avenue is getting a $150 million makeover. Mayor Eric Adams announced that the area from Bryant Park to Central Park will be transformed into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard. It's going to get expanded sidewalks, improved lighting and seating, and new greenery in a statement. City Hall said the area currently can accommodate about 23,000 pedestrians at peak hours. Officials hope to double that. City Hall also said the project would pay for itself in a matter of years through increased property tax and sales tax revenue. Legal trouble for Apple. The New York Times is reporting that Apple is being sued for failing to implement a tool to detect child sexual abuse content on iCloud. Apple abandoned a project to flag child sexual abuse material after it received immediate backlash over privacy concerns. Now, a lawsuit filed in Northern California is seeking damages of about $1 billion for about 2,700 victims of child sexual abuse. And the fourth time may be the charm for Macy's. Another activist investor is pushing the struggling department store to make changes to boost its slumping stock. Barreton Capital has partnered with private equity firm Thor Equities, and they're calling on Macy's to trim costs, beef up buybacks, and consider selling its luxury brands. This is the fourth activist push on Macy's in the past decade. The department store is standing by its plans to close struggling stores and reinvest. From what's next for Bitcoin to the European Central Bank's next move, these are the stories to watch in business and finance in the coming week. Take a look. The ECB is expected to deliver its fourth quarter point rate cut on Thursday with more cuts anticipated. For ECB policymakers, their last meeting in October must seem a lifetime ago. Since then, Donald Trump's U.S. election win means the Euro area likely faces renewed economic pain from tariffs and governments in France and Germany have collapsed. A pickup in inflation means a bigger rate cut is unlikely. Australia's central bank is in a tight spot as it meets on Tuesday. The economy is sputtering, the currency is at four-month lows, and yet inflation is sufficiently persistent to make repeated rate cuts unlikely. The Bank of Canada, by contrast, has said inflation is a thing of the past and more cuts could be in the offing. The market is split on whether its Wednesday meeting Markets gaming out the trajectory for Federal Reserve policy in the coming months get a U.S. inflation reading on Wednesday. Expectations are towards another 25 basis points cut later in December. But the path ahead is less clear. The economy has proved stronger than expected and Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said there is little reason to hurry the pace of cuts. There is something inevitable in Bitcoin's record surge past $100,000 after Trump's election promises to make America the crypto capital of the planet. While $100,000 is just a number, it's one that the faithful and the skeptical regard as a major milestone towards the cryptocurrency's 16-year journey towards legitimacy. While numbers like $150,000 are already being mentioned for 2025, the token is flashing overbought on daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly charts. Coming out of retirement, CNBC is reporting that Stellantis executive Tim Kuniskis is returning to once again lead the Ram Trucks brand. And this is effective immediately. His return comes about one week after CEO Carlos Taveras suddenly resigned amid disappointing sales and differing views with the board of directors. Stellantis owns several car brands, including Chrysler, Jeep, Fiat, and Peugeot. Now it's time to sell the U.S. dollar, potentially. That's what Morgan Stanley, one of the biggest investment banks in the world, is telling investors. The dollar is being fueled by growth in the economy and promised tariffs from President-elect Trump. But in a note, MarketWatch is reporting that analysts said much of the good news for the U.S. dollar has already been factored into the current price. So instead, Morgan Stanley suggesting here that investors buy Australian dollars and British pounds. Meanwhile, despite sanctions against Russia and efforts by U.S. businesses to avoid semiconductor sales to the country, a Bloomberg report says that American-made chips are still making their way to the Russian military. NTD Sean Marshall has details. An accumulation of records shows details on how semiconductor technology is able to make its way from the United States to Russia. The records obtained by Bloomberg show the steps that suppliers to Russia's military can take to obtain components from U.S. chipmaker Texas Instruments and without the company's knowledge. So it's very difficult for chip companies to completely control their distribution network and where their chips are going. But that's the challenge. The CEO of FutureWealth LLC says things like this have been happening for a long time, ever since the semiconductor industry started. It's becoming a more bigger problem now because it's now going into highly sensitive applications, military equipment and stuff like that. So I think that's the real concern that's bringing up this issue to the forefront now. Websites are what makes a lot of sanctioned and banned technology available. Bloomberg confirmed that access to sites, which are blocked in many Western countries, is possible inside Russia through VPNs that can hide a user's location and data. Bloomberg was also able to review a Russian distributor's database that showed delivery routes leading from Texas Instruments to Russia through third countries. If Russia could do this, then other countries like China could probably do it as well. And not just for the more common chips, but also for the most advanced ones used for AI development. They want the NVIDIA chips for the AI development. So they're already doing it. And I think this is a real, more of a bigger issue, not just restricted to Russia, but China, North Korea, Iran. I mean, these are all the countries that want the best semiconductors that the US has to offer to create applications that potentially could be threatening for us. During a Senate hearing in September, Texas Instruments Assistant General Counsel said, quote, I want to be very clear, TI strongly opposes the use of our chips in Russian military equipment. Any shipments of TI products into Russia are illicit and unauthorized. Sean Marshall, NTD News. Now let's turn to the heated trade battle between the US and China. Earlier today, Beijing announced an investigation into US chipmaker NVIDIA and citing suspicions of violating Chinese anti-monopoly laws. The move follows Washington's recent export controls on microchips to China. Now, Chinese regulators did not give further details on how the company might have violated Chinese antitrust laws. China is also looking into NVIDIA's acquisition of a US-Israeli chipmaker, which Beijing approved four years ago. NVIDIA is the world's top chipmaker by market cap. Stocks dipped after the news broke. NDD reached out to NVIDIA for comment. Last week, President Biden imposed restrictions on exporting American-made chips and related technologies to China. That's to prevent Beijing from using American know-how to advance its own military. In response, China slapped restrictions on shipping critical minerals to the US. Leading associates in China's key industries also warned Chinese companies that the US chips are unsafe, which could lead to a mass boycott. The investigation on NVIDIA is also seen as part of China's protests against the Washington ban. President-elect Trump said yesterday that he's willing to work with Democrats on a solution for DREAMers. Now, DREAMers are immigrants who were illegally brought into the US as children. Here's the story. We have to do something about the DREAMers. In an NBC interview Sunday, President-elect Trump expressed sympathy for DREAMers, children who were brought into the US illegally and have grown up in the country. These are middle-aged people now. They don't even speak the language of their country. They've become successful. They have great jobs. In some cases, they have small businesses. In some cases, they might have large businesses. Trump says he wants to work with Democrats to come up with a plan. It gives me hope because I think, you know, we have been listening to news where we hear the words mass deportation. Attorney Tamina Watson is the author of The Startup Visa, US Immigration Guide for Startups and Founders. She works with business-owning DREAMers who wish to remain anonymous. One particular client had arrived at the age of, you know, he was less than 10 years old, I'd say. But at this point, this person has a very important logistical business that generates over a million dollars in revenue per year. This person hires, you know, close to 100 people. Watson says business-owning DREAMers contribute substantially to the economy. A recent estimate says there are about 3.4 million DREAMers in America, around 1% of the total population. In 2012, then-President Obama established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, which temporarily protects them from deportation. Lawmakers are still debating what to do with DREAMers, leaving their fate in limbo. Volkswagen workers said management had one last chance to compromise or risk strikes. VW employees walked off the job at nine German sites while thousands marched in Wolfsburg. The latest negotiations come as Europe's largest carmaker seeks ways to cut costs at home. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned the automaker against factory closures over the weekend. Workers have dismissed any wage cuts or planned closures. Volkswagen insists that capacity and wage cuts are needed to compete with cheaper Asian rivals. Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD recently said it hired close to 200,000 new employees between August and October. The company's stock is among the worst performers among European carmakers, falling by nearly 25% this year. Omnicom Group has struck a more than $13 billion all-stock deal to buy rival Interpublic Group. Acquisition will make the company the world's largest advertising agency, and the deal is expected to attract regulatory scrutiny. The merger will result in revenue of more than $25 billion based on 2023 data. Omnicom is valued at $20 billion and owns brands, for example, BBDO and TBWA. Interpublic owns McCain, Weber, Shandwick, and Media Brands, among others. Omnicom shareholders will own 60% of the combined company, while Interpublic investors will own the rest. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025 and generate annual cost savings of $750 million. American Airlines will continue suspending flights into Haiti. This comes after gunfire hit one of its planes while flying over Port-au-Prince last month. A spokesperson for the airline released a statement saying in part that American Airlines had made the difficult decision to suspend daily service between Miami and Port-au-Prince. The airline said it was proud of its more than 50-year commitment to Haiti and will continue to assess safety, security, and customer demand in evaluating a return to service. American Airlines did not indicate when it might resume service. Taco Bell is testing a new cafe concept that isn't focused on tacos. The restaurant will instead focus on the chain's beverages, one recently opened in San Diego. It's called Live Live Mas Cafe and features a menu that includes milkshakes, coffees, and its trademark Mountain Dew Baja Blast. Experts say the new beverage chain can help Taco Bell attract younger customers and diversify its audience. McDonald's launched a similar concept a year ago called Cosmix. It also features beverages as well as snacks aimed at younger customers. All right, onto Wall Street now. Main indexes finished lower today and this was fueled by a decline in AI leader NVIDIA. It weighed on tech stocks. NVIDIA fell after China's market regulator launched an investigation into the chip maker and AMD or Advanced Micro Devices slipped after Bank of America Global Research downgraded its rating on the stock. And Comcast also declined after forecasting a loss of more than 100,000 broadband subscribers in the fourth quarter. That's denting the communications services sector. So Wall Street's main indexes, despite all that, started December on a positive note with the benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ both gaining in the first week. And with that, everything in today's business matters. Back to you guys. A lot of great stuff today, Don. What's of interest to me is the potential expansion of pedestrian pathways in Fifth Avenue from Bryant Park up to Central Park. I know from experience last year and trying to bring my daughter for her birthday and all her besties, it's a lot of fun. There's a lot of people, but you know, it'd be nice to not have to walk like this when you try to look at, you know, the tree and you go walking around the area, check out St. Patrick's Cathedral. So I'm happy about that myself. I don't know about you guys. Yeah, I mean, I think it's definitely going to help with the crowding situation over there. A lot of shops, right? People want to shop and, you know, do things there. But I think on certain days you'll still have crowds despite the expanded sidewalks, but it'll definitely help with the situation. It'll increase traffic into the stores and potentially boost revenue as well for some of these shops. So it's a win-win scenario. Yeah, I mean, as a pedestrian, definitely it's a win. But as someone who occasionally has to drive some through the city, you know, driving through the city as of now is already bad enough. I'm not sure what they've got planned for drivers in this area, but I can't imagine it's going to help with the driver experience. Well, it seems to be right in line with the congestion pricing, which either people are going to spend more or less people are going to drive. But generally the greening of the city when they put those benches and art installations and put more plant life in the city, I'm in support of, yeah. Yeah, but the most painful period will be the transition period. Yeah, the construction period. Always is. Well, we'll keep an eye on that. And Don, thanks for all those stories. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Thank you, Don. Thank you.