US FINANCIAL MARKET

Wall Street Gets Relief After Inflation Report: Markets Wrap – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• Wall Street traders fearing another disappointing inflation report got a degree of relief after the Federal Reserve’s favored price gauge was on spot with estimates.
• Stocks and bonds rose as the core personal consumption expenditures gauge added to bets the central bank will be able to lower rates this year. That’s after a jump in consumer and producer prices made traders pare their Fed-cut wagers.
• While the PCE is still above the central bank’s 2% target — giving credence to Fed’s wait-and-see approach — the data helped allay concerns about a more significant rise in prices.
• The S&P 500 extended its February advance, with Nvidia leading gains in megacaps. Dell Technologies — which has more than doubled since the start of 2023 — will report earnings after the close.
• Treasury 10-year yields declined three basis points to 4.23%. The dollar fell. Swap contracts anticipate a first Fed cut in June. Bitcoin topped $63,000.
• Treasury yields retreated from near their highest levels of the year. The move was further aided by a bigger-than-expected jump in new jobless claims indicating labor-market softening, and by anticipation of bond-buying related to the turn of the month.
• Also, bond-market positioning indicators before Thursday’s data suggested that traders had exhausted their capacity for wagers on higher yields in the absence of new information. Traders this week abandoned bets on 2024 easing exceeding the three quarter-point cuts that Fed policy makers have forecast, potentially limiting the scope for higher rates in the short term.

Salesforce beats on earnings but forecasts single-digit revenue growth for the year – CNBC, 2/29/2024

• Salesforce shares initially slid as much as 6% but then went up 1% in extended trading Wednesday after the business software maker issued a light revenue forecast for the new fiscal year.
• Revenue: $9.29 billion vs. $9.22 billion expected.
• Professional services revenue declined 9%.
• The company reported net income of $1.45 billion, or $1.47 per share, compared with a loss of $98 million, or 10 cents per share.
• Earnings per share: $2.29 adjusted vs. $2.26 expected.
• It will start paying a dividend at 40 cents per share.
• Salesforce called for adjusted fiscal first-quarter earnings of $2.37 to $2.39 per share, with $9.12 billion to $9.17 billion in revenue.
• Analysts polled by LSEG had been expecting $2.20 in adjusted earnings per share on $9.15 billion in revenue.
• For the new 2025 fiscal year, Salesforce said it sees adjusted earnings of $9.68 to $9.76 per share and $37.7 billion to $38.0 billion in revenue.
• The revenue figure implies 8.6% growth at the middle of the range.
• Analysts had expected $9.57 per share, along with $38.62 billion in revenue.

Snowflake’s Frank Slootman to Retire From CEO Role, Will Remain Board Chair – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• Snowflake tumbled in late trading after the software maker delivered a disappointing sales forecast and announced that Chief Executive Officer Frank Slootman is stepping down from the role.
• The challenge of reinvigorating Snowflake will fall to the company’s senior vice president of AI, Sridhar Ramaswamy, who is taking over the CEO role.
• He joined Snowflake last year with the company’s acquisition of Neeva, an AI-powered search engine.
• Ramaswamy previously ran Google’s ad products.
• In the fiscal fourth quarter, product revenue increased 33% to $738.1 million.
• Snowflake now has 461 customers that spent more than $1 million over a trailing 12-month period, up from 436 the previous quarter.
• Remaining performance obligations — another key benchmark of growth — were $5.2 billion, topping estimates.
• Profit, excluding some items, was 35 cents a share in the period, which ended Jan. 31.
• That compared with the average projection of 18 cents.
• Product revenue — a closely watched measure — will be $745 million to $750 million in the first quarter, Snowflake said in a statement Wednesday. Analysts had predicted $769.5 million on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
• A full-year forecast also fell well short of projections.

Okta Earnings Have Wall Street Impressed. Analysts Say the Stock Can Keep Flying. – Barron’s, 2/29/2024

• Security software company Okta posted solid results and an upbeat outlook, prompting analysts to raise their stock price projections.
• Okta reported 63 cents in adjusted earnings for the fiscal fourth quarter ended in January on revenue of $605 million.
• Wall Street’s consensus was for 51 cents on $587 million.
• After the market closed on Wednesday, Okta, which secures customer logins, said it may make up to $2.51 billion in revenue in the fiscal year ending January 2025.
• That was ahead of the management’s previous forecast and more than the FactSet consensus of $2.48 billion.

Best Buy Stock Rises After Sales Drop Less Than Expected – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• Best Buy stock got a boost after the retailer posted a smaller quarterly sales decline than analysts had expected.
• Sales slid to $14.65 billion from $14.74 billion last year, above analyst forecasts for $14.56 billion, according to FactSet.
• Total quarterly sales were only slightly lower than a year earlier, thanks to an extra selling week.
• Stripping that out, comparable sales declined 4.8%.
• Analysts had braced for a steeper 5.4% drop, according to FactSet.
• Online sales dropped about 5%.
• The electronics giant said weak demand for big-ticket items such as appliances, cellphones and tablets weighed on revenue in its U.S. stores, with some relief from growth in the gaming category.
• Per-share adjusted earnings, which strip out one-time items, of $2.72 a share topped analyst projections by 20 cents.
• The company guided for comparable sales to fall as much as 3% in the new fiscal year, or be at best flat.
• Also Thursday, Best Buy lifted its quarterly dividend by 2 cents to 94 cents a share.
• Revenue to drop to $41.3 billion to $42.6 billion, in line with current analyst estimates for $42.33 billion, according to FactSet.
• Adjusted earnings of $5.75 to $6.20 a share. Analysts are currently looking for $6.16 a share.

HP Reports Sales That Miss Estimates With PC Slump Dragging On – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• HP reported quarterly revenue that missed estimates, battered by the ongoing slump in personal computer sales.
• Revenue declined 4.4% to $13.2 billion in the period ended Jan. 31, compared with analysts’ average projection of $13.6 billion.
• Instead, consumer sales slipped 1% to $2.76 billion and commercial PC revenue declined 5% to $6.05 billion, the Palo Alto, California-based company said Wednesday in a statement. Both units performed worse than expected.
• Printer division revenue was in line with estimates at $4.38 billion.
• Profit, excluding some items, was 81 cents a share, in line with while Wall Street estimates.
• HP maintained its previous outlook for the current year ending in October 2024.
• Adjusted profit is projected at $3.25 to $3.65 a share.
• Free cash flow will be $3.1 billion to $3.6 billion.

Paramount Predicts End of Ad Slump After Fourth-Quarter Drop – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• Paramount Global, the parent of CBS, MTV and other networks, said fourth-quarter sales fell 6% to $7.64 billion, the result of shrinking advertising on traditional TV channels.
• While revenue came in below analysts’ expectations of $7.89 billion, the company posted better-than-expected earnings of 4 cents a share, excluding some items, according to a statement Wednesday.
• Wall Street was forecasting a break-even quarter.
• Subscribers to the Paramount+ streaming service rose to 67.5 million, increasing 4.1 million from the prior quarter and beating Wall Street estimates.
• The New York media giant registered a loss of $490 million in its streaming business, beating projections.
• Revenue grew to $1.87 billion.
• Advertising at Paramount’s traditional TV business fell 15% in the fourth quarter, leading to a 12% decline in sales and operating income for the unit that generates nearly all of its profit.
• The business earned $1.14 billion on sales of $5.17 billion in the quarter.
• Paramount’s namesake film studio struggled as well, with sales down 31% to $647 million and profit tumbling 72% to $24 million.

C3.ai’s stock pops after earnings show growth accelerating – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• C3.ai shares popped in extended trading Wednesday after the company, which makes enterprise artificial-intelligence software, showed that it lost less money than expected in the most recent quarter.
• The company reported a fiscal third-quarter net loss of $73 million, or 60 cents a share, whereas it posted a loss of $63.2 million, or 57 cents a share, in the year-before period. On an adjusted basis, C3.ai lost 13 cents a share, while analysts were modeling an adjusted loss of 28 cents a share.
• C3.ai posted revenue of $78.4 million, up from $66.7 million a year before, whereas analysts were modeling $76.1 million.
• Growth accelerated to 18% from 17% in the fiscal second quarter.
• For the fiscal fourth quarter, C3.ai models $82 million to $86 million in revenue, while the FactSet consensus was for $83.9 million.
• C3.ai said it closed 50 agreements, including 29 new pilots, in the most recent quarter.

AMC Theaters Cuts CEO’s Target Pay by 25% After a Dismal 2023 – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• AMC Entertainment Holdings is cutting the target pay of Chief Executive Officer Adam Aron by 25% this year as a result of the theater chain’s 2023 financial performance.
• The board and Aron agreed to the reduction in the wake of AMC’s results in 2023, which was “not a good year for our shareholders,” the CEO said on a conference call Wednesday with analysts.
• Fourth-quarter sales rose 12% $1.1 billion, fueled by two concert movies — Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé. That beat analysts’ estimates of $1.05 billion.
• Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came to $42.5 million, missing the $46.7 million analysts were forecasting.
• The company reported a loss of 54 cents a share, excluding some items, less than the 67-cent loss seen by analysts.
• The company raised about $325.5 million through the sale of 40 million shares last September, a move that it said would address a cash crunch as the movie-theater industry rebounds.

Apple Shareholders Reject AI Report Proposal – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• Apple shareholders rejected a proposal that would require the company to disclose its activities with artificial intelligence.
• The proposal, brought by AFL-CIO Equity Index Funds, would have required the company to generate a report on its use of AI in operations and to disclose any ethical guidelines adopted by the company.
• Apple, disclosing the results of its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, said the proposal had failed.
• The meeting comes shortly after Apple shut down its effort to build an electric vehicle.
• The company plans to shift some employees to Apple’s artificial intelligence group.
• Chief Executive Tim Cook has said the company is working on generative AI and will announce progress later this year.

Tech Layoffs Keep Coming. Why Is Head Count Barely Budging? – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• Never mind the layoffs: Some of the biggest U.S. tech companies have swelled their ranks much more than they have trimmed them.
• Microsoft, Alphabet and Netflix each employed 50% more people than before the pandemic, year-end disclosures show. Not far behind is Meta Platforms, and Amazon.com has nearly doubled its workforce since 2019, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows.
• Since late 2022, these companies have said they would cut more than 70,000 jobs combined. Continued hiring, acquisitions and past recruiting binges have more than offset the recent wave of reductions.
• All six companies also had their businesses expand sharply by other measures since 2019, increasing revenue in every case faster than they added workers.
• Amazon more than doubled sales since 2019, while Meta and Alphabet came close. Apple trailed the pack, with 47% sales growth over the four-year period.
• Revenue per employee—a measure of productivity—was higher in 2023 for all the companies than it was before the pandemic.

Ford rolls out Tesla Supercharging for EVs. Here’s what drivers need to know – CNBC, 2/29/2024

• Ford Motor is rolling out Tesla Supercharging capabilities to owners of its electric vehicles in the U.S. and Canada.
• The launch begins Thursday, but is expected to be supply constrained at the start.
• The Detroit automaker was the first to announce a deal with Tesla to utilize the EV maker’s Supercharger network.
• In the meantime, an adapter is needed to connect non-Tesla vehicles, which utilize different charging technology, to Tesla’s network.
• Ford says the partnership will more than double access to fast chargers for its owners — but it may take some time to distribute the adapters to all customers.

SEC Investigating Whether OpenAI Investors Were Misled – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• The Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing internal communications by OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman as part of an investigation into whether the company’s investors were misled.
• The regulator, whose probe hasn’t previously been reported, has been seeking internal records from current and former OpenAI officials and directors, and sent a subpoena to OpenAI in December, according to people familiar with the matter.
• That followed the OpenAI board’s decision in November to fire Altman as CEO and oust him from the board.
• At the time, directors said Altman hadn’t been “consistently candid in his communications,” but didn’t elaborate.
• Altman returned as CEO less than two weeks later as part of a deal that also entailed a reconstituted board, which he hasn’t joined.
• SEC officials based in New York are conducting the investigation and have asked that some senior OpenAI officials preserve internal documents.

US ECONOMY & POLITICS

Fed’s Preferred Inflation Metric Increases by Most in a Year – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• The Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of underlying inflation rose in January at the fastest pace in nearly a year, helping explain policymakers’ patient approach to start cutting interest rates.
• The so-called core personal consumption expenditures price index, which strips out the volatile food and energy components, increased 0.4% from December, data out Thursday showed.
• From a year ago, it advanced 2.8%.
• Real disposable income, the main supporter of spending, was little changed.

• The core PCE data, on a six-month annualized basis, registered at 2.5% in January, rebounding above the Fed’s 2% target after briefly trailing it in the prior two months.
• Policymakers pay close attention to services inflation excluding housing and energy, which tends to be more sticky.
• That metric increased 0.6% from a month ago, the most since March 2022.
• Costs for portfolio management — which climbed by the most in three years — and accommodation led the advance.
• Wages and salaries advanced 0.4%.

US Pending Home Sales Fall by Most Since August as Borrowing Costs Creep Up – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• Pending US sales of previously-owned homes unexpectedly declined in January by the most in five months as elevated mortgage rates kept a lid on housing demand.
• A gauge of contract signings from the National Association of Realtors decreased 4.9% to 74.3, after surging to an eight-month high in December.
• The decline was steeper than all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
• A brief retreat in mortgage rates below 7% boosted new-home sales, as well as closings on existing houses last month.
• The index of contract signings decreased 7.3% in the South, the nation’s biggest housing market.
• Pending sales also fell 7.6% in the Midwest, but climbed 0.8% in the Northeast and 0.5% in the West.

Chicago business activity index slumps in February – Market Watch, 2/29/2024

• The Chicago Business Barometer, also known as the Chicago PMI, fell to 44 in February from 46 in the prior month.
• Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal forecast a 48 reading.
• Economists expect the national IMF factory index to rise to 49.5% in February from 49.1 in the prior month.

Fed Officials Emphasize Data to Guide Pace of Interest-Rate Cuts – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• Three Federal Reserve officials said the pace of interest-rate cuts will depend on incoming economic data, suggesting the path to lower borrowing costs may look different than in previous rate-cutting cycles.
• Boston Fed President Susan Collins and New York’s John Williams said the Fed’s first rate cut will likely be appropriate “later this year,” while Atlanta’s Raphael Bostic said he’s currently penciling in a cut for sometime this summer.
• But the policymakers also offered some insight into how the Fed will assess the timing of future rate reductions.
• “With respect to rate cuts and pace, it’s got to be driven by economic conditions, as well as inflation,” Williams told reporters Wednesday, adding that in the past officials have gotten into regular patterns.
• “It’s not going to be calendar based, and not be on a specific fixed schedule, but focused on the data.”
• “We always say we will be data dependent,” Bostic said Wednesday.
• “The data will be the guide that tells us how much or how fast or when we should actually move our policy.”
• “It will likely become appropriate to begin easing policy later this year,” Collins said Wednesday.
• “When this happens, a methodical, forward-looking approach to reducing rates gradually should provide the necessary flexibility to manage risks, while promoting stable prices and maximum employment.”

House to Vote on Bill Averting Government Shutdown Over Some Republicans’ Complaints – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• House lawmakers are set to vote on a stopgap spending bill that would avert a partial government shutdown this weekend, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) forced once again to turn to a coalition made up mostly of Democrats to pass it.
• Johnson will meet behind closed doors Thursday morning with his fractured Republican conference ahead of the vote, scheduled for the afternoon.
• The disunity means Johnson will have to bypass normal procedures and instead bring the bill to the floor using a special approach that requires a two-thirds supermajority, rather than a simple majority.
• Then the Senate must pass the bill, too, before it heads to President Biden’s desk.
• Lawmakers are aiming to get the extension into law before funding for some government departments expires after Friday.

President’s Physical Gives Only Partial View of Commander in Chief’s Health – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• For decades, the public release of the president’s annual physical has provided a window into the White House inhabitant’s well-being, listing their medications, weight and at times signaling a benign condition.
• But it typically offers a fairly narrow update that hasn’t revealed bombshells about any president’s health, and it is often framed by the administration to portray the president in robust condition.
• Even before the results were released, Biden said there was “nothing different” in his physical this year from last year.
• Later, the White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, declared the 81-year-old Biden to be “fit for duty,” as the president’s age appears to be among his biggest impediments to re-election.
• The report did disclose that Biden uses a positive airway pressure machine at night to treat sleep apnea and reiterated that he underwent a dental root canal in June.
• Biden didn’t undergo a cognitive screening because O’Connor and the president’s neurologist didn’t believe it was necessary, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Mitch McConnell to Quit as Top Senate Republican as Party Shifts Toward Trump – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in history, said Wednesday he would step down from his leadership role in November, yielding to both the pressures of age and the rapid changes in the Republican Party.
• As the top Senate Republican since 2007, the Kentucky lawmaker wielded brass-knuckled tactics to install conservatives on the Supreme Court, defeat campaign-finance measures and see through the passage of major tax cuts in 2017.
• But as former President Donald Trump, a McConnell critic, marches toward the 2024 GOP nomination, the Senate leader has fallen out of step with major elements of his conference, most recently over his support for aid to Ukraine and his backing of a muscular U.S. role abroad.
• “Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
• “I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them. That said, I believe more strongly than ever that America’s global leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan discussed.”

How Panera Bread Ducked California’s New $20 Minimum Wage Law – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• Billionaire Greg Flynn, who made his fortune running one of the world’s largest restaurant franchise operations, is getting a new boost from sourdough loaves and brioche buns.
• That’s because a California law that’s about to raise the state minimum wage at fast-food spots to $20 an hour from $16 offers an unusual exemption for chains that bake bread and sell it as a standalone item.
• Governor Gavin Newsom pushed for that break, according to people familiar with the matter.
• Among the main beneficiaries is Flynn, a longtime Newsom donor whose California holdings include two dozen Panera Bread locations.
• The specificity of the exemption has puzzled observers for months, especially after the governor told reporters last year that it came about as “part of the sausage-making” of politics.
• In response to detailed questions, Newsom’s office said the wage law was the “result of countless hours of negotiations with dozens of stakeholders over two years” — and will make a real difference for hundreds of thousands of Californians.

Biden Amasses Cash Stockpile as Trump Bleeds Money in 2024 Fight – Bloomberg, 2/29/2024

• President Joe Biden faces a number of obstacles on the road to reelection. Money won’t likely be one of them.
• Groups allied with Biden have already committed to spending more than $700 million to help him beat Donald Trump in the 2024 election, according to a political strategist familiar with national fundraising. That’s in addition to the $130 million his campaign reported having on hand at the start of February.
• Trump’s financial situation, by comparison, is starting to show cracks. His campaign spent more than it raised in January and allied political action committees are spending millions on his legal defense that would otherwise go to reelection efforts. The Republican National Committee’s fundraising also lags behind its Democratic counterpart.
• On top of that, Trump’s personal finances may be strained after court orders to pay a combined $540 million in damages from both a civil fraud suit and a defamation case.
• Spending this cycle is on track to surpass the $14.4 billion record set in 2020, according to OpenSecrets.

EUROPE & WORLD

Air France-KLM Posts Loss After Israel-Hamas War, Rising Costs Take Toll – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• Air France-KLM’s losses were worse than analysts expected for the fourth quarter after the Israel-Hamas war disrupted travel to the Middle East and its expenses continued to rise.
• Revenue climbed 3.9% to EUR7.41 billion in the quarter, when Air France-KLM handled 22.3 million passengers, 6.4% more than in the previous year.
• The company also posted an operating loss of EUR56 million compared with a profit of EUR134 million for the same period the prior year.
• The Franco-Dutch carrier group on Thursday posted a net loss of 256 million euros ($277.5 million) for the three months to the end of December compared with profit of EUR496 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.
• The group was expected to post a net loss of EUR82 million, operating profit of EUR88 million and revenue of EUR7.45 billion, according to a market consensus provided by the company based on estimates from 15 analysts.
• Israel’s war with Hamas has been raging since Oct. 7.
• The company said the conflict had disrupted travel to the Middle East, including Egypt and Lebanon.
• It also singled out instability in Africa, where some countries have succumbed to military coups in recent months.
• However, the carrier also had to grapple with an increase in disruption costs of EUR70 million and took a EUR30 million hit related to its employee share plan.
• In the current quarter, the company expects costs to increase 4% on year due to disruption in the first two months of 2024 and a one-time payment to KLM staff.
• For the full year, it expects costs to rise between 1% and 2% from 2023.

German Inflation Fell More Than Expected in February – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• German inflation fell for a second straight month in February, coming in slightly lower than expected, likely a relief for European Central Bank policymakers despite services inflation remaining relatively sticky.
• Consumer prices were 2.5% higher in February than in the same month a year earlier, compared with 2.9% in January, measured by national standards, data from the German statistics office Destatis showed Thursday.
• The rate was a little below expectations of 2.6%, according to a consensus of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. Inflation rose 0.4% on-month, also marginally below expectations of 0.5%.
• However, core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, held steady at 3.4% in February, according to Destatis. Services inflation also was stable, again at 3.4%, indicating that price pressures in the sector remain persistent.
• German inflation is a significant contributor to eurozone data, which is due to be released at 1000 GMT on Friday. On an EU-harmonized basis, German inflation ticked down to 2.7% from 3.1% in January, the same as consensus forecasts.

Death Toll in Gaza Passes 30,000 – New York Times, 2/29/2024

• The death toll in Gaza passed a somber milestone on Thursday as the local health ministry reported that more than 30,000 people had been killed in the war since Oct. 7.
• The number of deaths since Israel launched its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza had already surpassed the tolls of any previous Arab conflict with Israel when it rose above 20,000 in December.
• Many experts say the official toll is very likely an undercount, given the difficulty of accurately tallying deaths amid unrelenting fighting, communications disruptions, a collapsing medical system and people still believed to be under rubble.
• Still, the reported figure is staggering — roughly one person killed for every 73 Palestinians in Gaza, whose population is about 2.2 million.
• The figures provided by the Gazan health ministry do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
• Many international observers have said they believe that the ministry’s overall toll is reliable, while the proportion of Hamas-affiliated fighters among those killed remains unclear.

Israeli Forces Fire on Crowds Surrounding Gaza Aid Trucks – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• Israeli troops opened fire on crowds of Palestinians gathered around aid trucks in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military and Gaza health officials said, causing mass casualties and threatening to upend delicate negotiations to reach a cease-fire soon.
• Several eyewitnesses said Israeli soldiers and tanks fired at people gathered to wait for aid deliveries near the Nabulsi roundabout in northern Gaza, with some saying the shooting started before trucks arrived.
• The Israeli military said crowds surrounded trucks carrying aid, resulting in Palestinians trampling each other and being run over by the trucks.
• An Israeli military official said soldiers had responded with live fire to what it called a threat from the crowd, and that the incident was under review.
• The Palestinian health ministry said more than 100 people were killed and more than 700 injured in the incident.

Chinese Automakers Pose U.S. National-Security Threat, Biden Says – Wall Street Journal, 2/29/2024

• President Biden ordered the Commerce Department to open an investigation into foreign-made software in cars, citing Chinese technology as a potential national-security risk.
• Chinese efforts to dominate the global auto industry posed clear security risks to the U.S., he said Thursday.
• “Connected vehicles from China could collect sensitive data about our citizens and our infrastructure and send this data back to the People’s Republic of China,” Biden said in a statement.
• “These vehicles could be remotely accessed or disabled.”
• Last week, the White House revealed plans to invest more than $20 billion in maritime security, raising concerns that China-built cranes with advanced software at many of the nation’s ports posed a potential national-security risk.
• In the statement, Biden said Chinese automakers were seeking to flood the U.S. market.

Factmonster – TODAY in HISTORY

• Three women, Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, were the first to be accused of witchcraft in Salem, Mass. (1692)
• George Washington proclaimed Jay’s Treaty in effect. (1796)
• General Douglas MacArthur led the invasion of the Admiralty Islands. (1944)
• Robert McNamara resigned as Secretary of Defense in the wake of the Tet offensive. (1968)

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