A Nation of Suspects

OpenAI Files Confidentially For IPO, Joining SpaceX and Anthropic In Capitalizing On AI Frenzy The rush by AI companies to go public before the window closes (i.e., "market conditions" emerge) entered its final lap late on Monday, when OpenAI joined its two mega peers in filing for a blockbuster IPO that could value the ChatGPT creator at more than $1tn as it races rival Anthropic to list its shares publicly, following an imminent offering by SpaceX. OpenAI said it had confidentially submitted a draft IPO prospectus to the US Securities and...

US Services Surveys Disappoint In April Amid Stench Of Stagflation Despite Manufacturing surveys solid (and US factory orders surging), expectations are for the Services sector surveys today to show stagflationary signals (weak growth, surging prices). S&P Global's Services PMI disappointed in April (final), falling from its flash print of 51.3 to 51.0, but still up from multi-year lows below 50 in March, showing just marginal activity growth despite weak drop in sales volumes. ISM Services PMI also disappointed in April, falling from 54.0 to 53.6 (vs 53.7 exp) amid tumbling new orders and...

Air Freight Rates To Spike As Iran War Escalates By Eric Kulisch of FreightWaves The war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran on Saturday is already disrupting air cargo traffic in the Middle East, a key freight corridor between Asia and Europe where two of the world’s largest cargo airlines are based, and raising the potential for a rise in air freight rates.  Airlines are suspending flights, rerouting traffic around the conflict zone and unable to use key transload hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar because of retaliatory...