When Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg leaked to the media earlier this week that he was presenting a criminal case against Donald Trump to a grand jury, it wasn’t a huge surprise. Bragg was always going to have to indict Trump eventually; he appeared to simply be trying to avoid going first. Once Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced that indictments were “imminent” in her criminal case against Trump, Bragg appeared to suddenly decide that it was time for him to get his act together as well.

The question then became just how serious Bragg is about moving quickly on indicting Trump. After all, the only thing he has to do is present his case to the grand jury, and then have the grand jury vote on it. If he already has a grand jury in place, he could indict Trump within weeks or days if he really wants to move that quickly.

Now we’re seeing signs that Bragg may indeed finally be moving with haste. Trump Organization Controller Jeffrey McConney is now testifying against Donald Trump to the grand jury, according to ABC News. This is a big deal, both because McConney is a longtime Trump insider who knows the money trail, and also because McConney has already cooperated with the Manhattan DA’s office multiple times. He testified against Allen Weisselberg, and he testified against the Trump Organization itself – both resulting in convictions.

This all suggests that the Manhattan DA really is serious about criminally indicting Donald Trump for campaign finance fraud in relation to the Stormy Daniels payments. Michael Cohen, a key figure in this case, met with the Manhattan DA’s office two weeks ago and has since publicly signaled his expectation that Donald Trump will be indicted.

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The United States on Thursday called on the Sudanese government to use all available legal means to reverse a decision this week to release a Sudanese man facing the death penalty in connection with the killing of a U.S. diplomat in 2008.

Abdelraouf Abuzeid was found guilty, along with others, in the killing of American John Granville and a Sudanese colleague, who both worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development and were killed by gunmen in Khartoum.

“We call on the Sudanese government to exercise all available legal means to reverse this decision and to re-arrest Abuzeid,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

A gauge of global stocks climbed for a third straight day and longer-dated U.S. Treasury yields were flat on Thursday, as policy announcements from a host of central banks added to optimism that the cycles of interest rate hike cycles may be near an end.

After the U.S. Federal Reserve raised rates by 25 basis points (bps) on Wednesday, as was widely expected, markets rallied following comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledging the “disinflationary” process may have begun.

The European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England (BoE) hiked by 50 basis points each on Thursday, with the BoE signaling the tide was turning against inflation and the ECB indicating at least one more hike was on the horizon.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rallied, with the S&P 500 touching its highest intraday level since Aug. 26 and the Nasdaq hitting its highest since Sept. 12, getting an additional boost from a 27.06% surge in Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) following its quarterly results and $40 billion buyback announcement.

“The market has a different outlook. Judging from past forecasts, the Fed is pretty awful. Also, the Fed knows the economy is slowing but Fed Chairs never come out and say these things,” Steven Blitz, Chief U.S. Economist at TS Lombard told the Reuters Global Markets Forum.

“So the market sees through this, and after being fooled in 2021 into believing no hikes into 2024 and they are not as readily willing to be fooled into believing no cuts until 2024.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 37.98 points, or 0.11%, to 34,054.98 while the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 68.63 points, or 1.67%, to 4,187.84 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 426.53 points, or 3.61%, to 12,242.85.

On the economic front, weekly initial jobless claims dropped to a nine-month low, showing the labor market remains strong, while worker productivity in the fourth quarter accelerated. Investors will eye the January payrolls report on Friday for further signs of labor market strength.

After the closing bell, earnings from heavyweights Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) are scheduled to be released. With 46% of the S&P 500 having reported results, earnings for the quarter are expected to decline from the year-ago period, according to Refinitiv data, compared with a 1.6% expected decline at the start of the year.

European stocks also jumped, with the STOXX 600 closing at its highest level since April 21 as it notched its biggest one-day percentage gain in a month.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) rose 1.35% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) gained 1.31%. The MSCI index hit its highest intraday level since May 5 and was on track for its ninth gain in the past ten sessions.

Benchmark 10-year notes were unchanged to 3.398% after yields earlier had moved lower.

The dollar bounced, however, from its biggest one-day percentage drop in nearly a month on Wednesday, while the euro also weakened following the ECB announcement.

The dollar index rose 0.674%, with the euro down 0.64% to $1.0919.

The Japanese yen strengthened 0.34% versus the greenback at 128.51 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.2249, down 1.03% on the day.

In commodities, oil prices were slightly higher, with U.S. crude recently rose 0.37% to $76.69 per barrel and Brent at $82.99, up 0.18% on the day.

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Under pressure from Afghanistan’s Taliban administration, the United Nations is delivering some food aid using men only, prompting warnings from donors and humanitarian groups that it could be seen as giving in to an internationally condemned ban on most female aid workers.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths acknowledged to reporters this week that women are not involved in some food aid activities, which the World Food Programme described as “operational adjustments” to allow it to continue its work, and he said the situation was inadequate.

“There are still activities that are ongoing where men-only (are), for example, delivering food, but it can’t work,” Griffiths said on Monday after he visited Afghanistan last week.

The issue illustrates a delicate balancing act facing the world body since the ban was imposed on Dec. 24: how to stand firm on women’s rights while finding ways to continue working in Afghanistan, where some 28 million people – two thirds of the population – need help, with six million on the brink of famine.

The Taliban, which seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, says it respects women’s rights in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic law. It has since excluded women from parks, high school and university, and said women should not leave the home without a male relative and must cover their faces.

While women are still allowed to work for the United Nations, its operations are suffering because U.N. officials said 70% of the humanitarian response is implemented by local and international aid groups that are covered by the ban.

Any potential change to the U.N. approach to food aid following the ban has alarmed some donor nations and aid groups.

The United States – a key donor to aid efforts in Afghanistan – is concerned that some U.N. agencies may be considering an all-male aid delivery model, deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Lisa Carty, said on Wednesday during a briefing by Griffiths to U.N. member states.

“This could effectively cut off access to aid to women in need,” Carty said. “It could signal international agencies’ acquiescence to the Taliban’s unacceptable conditions thus normalizing the suppression with repercussions for humanitarian settings elsewhere.”

The International Rescue Committee said in an operational note on Wednesday that the role of women was “an operational necessity,” adding: “Without female staff at all levels and across all sectors, we cannot accurately assess needs and deliver aid and programs at the necessary scale.”

Griffiths stressed that Afghan women need to work in food aid distribution to ensure supplies reached the most vulnerable – women and girls.

“There’s absolute conviction that programs should all include women,” Griffiths said on Wednesday. “This may not be always needed in every single point of delivery, but they should include women, and even when they don’t there should be absolute clarity of reaching all members of society.”

The United Nations has appealed for $4.6 billion to fund the aid operation in Afghanistan in 2023. Griffiths said monitoring of programs would be ramped up to ensure they reach everyone.

“Aid delivery without participation of women cannot be normalized,” Deputy British U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki said.

When asked about the remarks Griffiths made on Monday, a WFP spokesperson said some changes had been made to operations after the ban was imposed.

“Where it is safe for them to do so, female partner staff continue to attend distributions and monitor assistance. Where needed, WFP has made operational adjustments to continue its life-saving assistance,” the spokesperson told Reuters.

The United Nations has managed to secure some health and education exemptions to the ban. Griffiths and the heads of some international aid groups met Taliban officials last week to push for more, including in the areas of cash and food aid distribution.

Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General Jan Egeland, who was U.N. aid chief from 2003-06, said if any organizations started male-only aid delivery programs that would make it difficult for groups like NRC to stay. He said NRC had been forced to freeze its aid efforts until women can resume work.

“It sets a precedent in Afghanistan and in the wider world that we will live to regret,” he told Reuters. “The hardliners would say ‘We won, we can do it without you’.”

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 jumped and touched roughly five-month highs on Thursday as a more dovish-than-expected message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell boosted equities and Meta Platforms shares soared on rigorous cost controls.

The Dow slipped, weighed down by declines in some big healthcare stocks.

Shares of megacap stocks Apple (AAPL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) also were gaining strongly ahead of their results due after the market closes.

Investors were still digesting the Fed’s policy decision on Wednesday and comments from Powell, who acknowledged progress in the fight against inflation and appeared reluctant to push back against the rally in stocks and bonds.

“Markets are just reacting to I think a more dovish press conference from Powell yesterday,” said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial. “I think the market got out of that Fed meeting still hoping that conditions can be easier at the end of the year.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 88.57 points, or 0.26%, to 34,004.39, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 60.52 points, or 1.47%, to 4,179.73 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 399.57 points, or 3.38%, to 12,215.89.

After a bruising 2022, U.S. stock markets have made a strong start to the year, with tech and other stocks that lagged last year leading the rebound amid hopes that the Fed will temper its aggressive rate hikes, which in turn could alleviate some pressure on equity valuations.

Those trends continued on Thursday. The communications services sector jumped over 6%, led by a 26% gain for Facebook parent Meta. The company revealed stricter cost controls this year and a $40 billion share buyback, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2023 the “year of efficiency.”

“I think that encapsulates what investors want to hear from tech companies this year,” Saglimbene said. “They want to hear that it is a year of efficiency, they are getting out ahead of a slowdown in the economy.”

The consumer discretionary (.SPLRCD) and tech (.SPLRCT) sectors rose 3.9% and 2.9%, respectively.

The energy sector (.SPNY), one of last year’s standout performers, fell 3%, while healthcare (.SPXHC) dropped 1%.

UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N) shares fell 5.6% after the U.S. government proposed Medicare Advantage reimbursement rates below analyst estimates, and the stock weighed down the Dow. A 3.9% decline in Merck (MRK.N) shares, after the drugmaker forecast 2023 earnings below Wall Street estimates, also dragged on the blue chip index.

Shares of drugmaker Eli Lilly (LLY.N) fell 6% after sales of its closely watched diabetes drug missed estimates.

Data showed jobless claims fell last week to a nine-month low, highlighting the labor market’s resilience, ahead of monthly U.S. employment numbers on Friday.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.70-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.12-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 35 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 140 new highs and 11 new lows.

The Hungarian foreign minister accused the United States ambassador to Budapest on Thursday of attempting to interfere in Hungary’s interior affairs, amid a increasing diplomatic rift involving the U.S. and the Central European country.

At a news convention in Budapest, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto lashed out at remarks in Politico this 7 days in which Ambassador David Pressman referred to Hungary’s tactic to the war in neighboring Ukraine as pushing “policies endorsed by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.”

Szijjarto stated it is “absolutely irrelevant what (Pressman) or any other ambassador thinks about the domestic political method in Hungary, since it has very little to do with him.”

“It is not his position to interfere in Hungary’s internal affairs,” Szijjarto reported.

HUNGARIAN Prime MINISTER States EUROPEAN Nations around the world WITH ‘RACE-MIXING’ ARE ‘NO Extended NATIONS’

Pressman, an appointee of the Biden administration who previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for Unique Political Affairs, has confronted major headwinds since taking office in Hungary in August past yr.

Local media faithful to the ideal-wing govt of populist Key Minister Viktor Orban have accused the diplomat of meddling in Hungary’s judiciary, and of pushing American colonialism.

The U.S. ambassador claimed how he sights Hungary’s policies and Hungary’s foreign minister responded declaring his comments are “fully irrelevant.” 

(Fox News)

Considering the fact that getting workplace, Pressman has been vocal about a increasing wave of anti-American sentiment in Hungary, and on the reluctance of Orban’s authorities to sign up for the European Union in imposing sanctions on Moscow for its war in Ukraine. Creating on Twitter in January, Pressman asked, “How does guarding Russian oligarchs from sanctions provide Hungary and Hungarians?”

Still Hungary’s govt, which had an amicable connection with the U.S. administration beneath previous President Donald Trump, has insisted that sanctions are hurting European international locations a lot more than Russia, and declared that only negotiations in between Moscow and Washington — and not the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine — can deliver an stop to the war.

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On Thursday, Szijjarto explained Pressman would “have a really tricky task in phrases of doing the job correctly to boost cooperation” between Hungary and the U.S. if he criticized Budapest’s guidelines.

“That period is around. Hungary is a sovereign place,” Szijjarto explained. “No a person from outside the house can explain to us how to live.”

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Amazon

• Amazon started drone delivery in one town in California and one in Texas in December. 
• As of mid-January, the company had made deliveries to fewer than 10 houses, The Information reported.
• The FAA is blocking Amazon’s drones from flying over people or roads without case by case permission, according to The Information.

Since December, residents in Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas who order products on Amazon have had a chance of receiving them by drone. 

But as of mid-January, only two households in California had received a total of three deliveries between them, and around five households in Texas had received packages, The Information reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the project. 

The paltry numbers are surprising given the fanfare the company has drummed up about drone delivery. 

In 2020, Insider reported that Amazon’s Prime Air was issued an approval certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, to use “unmanned aircraft systems” in a commercial operation. However, the FAA actually included dozens of conditions and limitations that affect its ability to operate, which the company has downplayed until recently. In the summer of 2022, Amazon announced that it had decided upon Lockeford and, subsequently, College Station, as its test sites for drone delivery.

By December 2022, Amazon had begun making deliveries to customers in the two towns. 

But a recent report by The Information’s Theo Wayt which examined FAA records, along with comments from FAA representatives, and Amazon employees and representatives, found that the FAA is “blocking Amazon’s drones from flying over roads or people without case-by-case permission.” 

That’s curtailed the number of deliveries Amazon’s Prime Air can make. 

One reason might be because Amazon’s drones are pretty heavy, coming in at 80 lbs when empty, even though the packages it can carry have a weight limit of 5 lbs. 

“The possibility of Amazon’s nearly-90-pound drone falling from the sky onto our home, onto our car, onto our children was nerve-wracking,” Insider reported Amina Alikhan, a College Station resident, saying at a public meeting last summer. 

A spokesperson for the FAA provided Insider with an exemption the FAA issued to Amazon on November 9, 2022 that maintains many of the restrictions it originally put in place in an exemption it issued the company in 2020, largely preventing the company from flying over roads and people without permission. 

However, the FAA’s exemption to Alphabet’s Wing, and Walmart’s drone delivery partners Flytrex and Zipline — whose drones range between 10 lbs to 40 lbs empty — allow them to fly over roadways, according to The Information. 

Added to that, Amazon’s drones have crashed several times during testing, with one igniting an “acres-wide brush fire” in 2021 Insider reported.    

Amazon’s rolling layoffs — the largest in the company’s history— have also drastically whittled down the company’s drone safety teams in Lockeford, College Station, and the test site in Pendleton, Oregon where the fire occurred, Insider reported, citing comments from former and current employees. 

Amazon did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for a comment. 

Nic Antaya/Getty Images

• The Detroit Pistons played the Dallas Mavericks Monday night, and were unable to leave Dallas due to icy conditions.
• NBA games have rarely been postponed due to weather in recent years compared to the number of games missed due to COVID outbreaks.
• The New Orleans Pelicans have also changed travel plans in an effort to make it to Dallas to play a Thursday game.

A Wednesday game between the Washington Wizards and Detroit Pistons was postponed after the Pistons were stranded at the Dallas airport for seven hours and couldn’t make it home in time.

Icy weather and low temperatures have caused thousands of flights to be canceled this week across Texas as airlines struggle with the latest winter storm to rock Texas. The Pistons had been in Dallas since early in the week for a game against the Mavericks Monday night, and originally planned to fly back to Detroit early Wednesday and to play the Wizards that night.

James Edwards, who covers the Pistons for The Athletic, reported that the NBA initially planned to delay the tipoff if the Pistons could take off later in the morning or early afternoon. However, the team still was unable to leave and was forced to return to their hotel after seven hours at the airport. The game was later postponed, according to ESPN.

A second game potentially could be affected this week, as the New Orleans Pelicans still have not arrived in Dallas for their Thursday night game against the Mavericks. The Pelicans stayed in Denver an extra day after playing the Nuggets Tuesday, hoping weather conditions would improve enough to allow them to fly into Dallas.

Over the course of the pandemic, NBA games routinely were postponed or canceled due to COVID outbreaks among players. Historically, the NBA has postponed or canceled games in the wake of substantial news events like  the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and then-President John F. Kennedy, or during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.

Winter storms can force the league to postpone games as a last resort when the safety of fans or teams is a concern. Notably, the deadly winter storm that caused billions of dollars in damage and killed dozens of Texans in February 2021, caused the postponement of multiple NBA games, as well as several college basketball and NHL games.

The NBA has not yet announced the new date for Pistons-Wizards.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

• Mark Zuckerberg says this will be the ‘year of efficiency’ at Meta, and he’s the ‘Chopper in Chief.’
• His comments reflect a new reality for tech: The era of deep pockets and endless perks is over.
• The challenge will be cutting back on spending without sacrificing future innovation.

Once upon a time, there was a small search startup named Google. It was up against powerhouses like Yahoo and Microsoft in the fast-growing market to help people find exactly what they were looking for.

To recruit the talent it needed, Google offered first-class employee perks that would become the stuff of legend: free meals, massages, ping-pong tables, artisanal coffee, and the freedom to use as much as 20% of their time for personal projects that may or may not turn into actual products. 

Success wasn’t quite overnight, but it was close. And as Google grew into the juggernaut that it is today, other companies took notice. Pampering employees and empowering them to chase wild ideas — driverless cars, delivery drones, hot-air balloons that provide internet connectivity — became the norm across Silicon Valley. 

This model worked splendidly for many companies, right up until it didn’t. In recent months, layoffs have swept just about every major tech company (except, notably, Apple), even as Google itself has pared back on its so-called moonshots in a drive to cut costs amid a larger economic slowdown.

Enter Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta, who officially rang in the new era on Wednesday when he declared that 2023 would be the “year of efficiency” at the social network, naming himself the “Chopper-in-Chief.” 

His comments on Wednesday’s earnings call officially cement this as the reality check for the tech industry at large, and give a likely preview of what’s to come after Google’s parent company, Alphabet — and also Amazon and Apple — all report earnings after the bell on Thursday.

“It’s been a rapid phase-change, to take a step back and say, ‘okay, we can’t treat everything like it’s hyper-growth,'” Zuckerberg said on the earnings call. “We have a lot of things now that a lot of people use and that support a large amount of business and we should operate somewhat differently.”

Facebook is ‘flattening’ its structure and cutting more jobs

First and foremost, Zuckerberg said that the company’s recent round of 11,000 layoffs were only the tip of the iceberg, with more to come.

He further suggested that the company was looking to “flatten” its organizational structure by “removing some layers of middle management.” In a more technical sense, the company disclosed that it cut its forecast for capital expenses in the next quarter by $4 billion, largely thanks to a new and more efficient data center design. 

Even before the earnings call, Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew “Boz” Bosworth wrote in a blog post his belief that corporate philanthropy and worker perks — both hallmarks of Facebook’s work culture — could “create drag” on a company, slowing it down at crucial moments. 

Add it all up, and it becomes clear that Meta is at the vanguard of a new zeitgeist that’s gripping Silicon Valley. Instead of throwing money and manpower at problems, Zuckerberg shows that Meta is now learning to live within its means. After years of defying gravity, the tech giants are going to have to start playing by the same rules as any other company in any other sector by reining in costs and being extra-thoughtful about their business.

Tech companies will have to balance innovation with cost-cutting

The tradeoffs of this new, more pragmatic approach, however, may not make themselves known for some time. We’ve already seen a harsh human cost in the form of tens of thousands of people losing their livelihoods, with many more cuts likely to come. For those who remain, perks will be stripped back as a new culture of efficiency upends the tech office culture to which they’ve grown accustomed over the last two decades or so.

Another tradeoff might come in the form of future innovation. While Zuckerberg said that Meta will continue to invest in its Reality Labs virtual-reality division, which lost over $13 billion in the last quarter alone, he indicated that the unit wouldn’t be automatically safe from future cost-cutting or layoffs.

Zuckerberg has bet the proverbial farm on the metaverse, and now has to strike the delicate balance between future investment and appeasing Wall Street. Other tech companies will likely be making similar calculations in the year to come.

Wall Street, for its part, seems happy with Zuckerberg’s approach as laid out on the earnings call: At the time of writing, Meta’s stock was up some 26% on the day to $193 a share. That’s not quite to the lofty heights of its 52-week high of $248, but it’s far better than its low over the same period of $88.09.

On the other hand, Zuckerberg said that there could be some silver linings to this new approach for Meta’s remaining employees.

“What makes you a better company over time is being able to execute and do more because you’re operating more efficiently,” Zuckerberg said on the call. “We’re in a different environment now where a lot of what we do, it makes sense to focus on the efficiency a lot more than we had previously and make sure we can work effectively. For what it’s worth, I think it’ll be a more fun place for people to work because they can get more stuff done.”