European Official Warns That Americans Can Be Silenced By EU Online Speech Laws

Bessent Convenes G20 Finance Chiefs To Confront China's $1.2 Trillion Trade Surplus Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet with G20 finance ministers and central bank governors later today in Asheville, North Carolina, to discuss strategies for reviving economic growth, correcting global imbalances, reassessing trade relationships with China, and addressing the sovereign debt mess. The agenda today will also include plans to deepen Iran's economic isolation, Reuters reported, citing a senior US Treasury official. The discussions signal a continuation of the financial-pressure campaign Bessent unveiled last week (read here). "The world cannot have...

Pimco's Top-Performing 60/40 Fund Bets AI's Next Winners Are In Asia, From Chips To Rare Earths Emmanuel Sharef, who oversees Pacific Investment Management Co.'s flagship Balanced Income and Growth Fund, spoke with Bloomberg about how the next leg of the artificial-intelligence boom could be concentrated in Asian stocks and beyond.  Wealthy clients in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and mainland China have been piling into the $19 billion fund, which has outperformed 97% of its peers during the past three years. The fund is underweight most hyperscalers and members of the Magnificent Seven...

Meta Plunges After Boosting Capex Outlook Again On "Higher Component Pricing" The last of the giga-caps to report today, the increasingly more misnamed Meta Platforms, had some good news to report for the just completed Q1. It also had bad news, and judging by the plunge in the stock price, the market is focusing on the latter.  First, the good news: the company reported revenue and EPS both of which beat estimates, and guided Q2 revenues which came in roughly in line with estimates. Here is the breakdown.  EPS $10.44 vs. $6.43...