#tech-earnings

#tech-earnings

With over 3 billion people using Facebook and Instagram, Meta Platforms has built a powerhouse advertising business. It is widening its competitive moat by using AI-powered ad tools to deliver better recommendations and more effective ad targeting for advertisers. This is increasing return on ad spending and, in turn, driving higher ad pricing, which helped drive a 26% year-over-year increase in the company's revenue last quarter.

U.S. stocks signaled another rally on Sunday night after the Trump administration negotiated a framework for a trade deal with China that should avoid mutual assured destruction. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered rough outlines of an agreement that include China easing rare earth export restrictions and buying "significant" amounts of U.S. soybeans in exchange for President Donald Trump removing his threat of adding 100% tariffs on China.

Midterm watch... The Wall Street Journal reported that Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI's Greg Brockman are among those who've helped launch a new super PAC network, called Leading the Future. The focus, of course, is AI. Ultimately, this isn't a surprise-on one hand, the $100 million already mobilized to shape AI policy and regulation feels like a lot, but that number absolutely dwarfs the billions a16z manages and that OpenAI has raised.