Good morning. Intel soars on a team-up with Nvidia. Live Nation and Ticketmaster face an FTC lawsuit. And American Express jacks up the annual fee on its Platinum card. Listen to the day’s top stories.
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Teaming up with a fierce rival, Nvidia will invest $5 billion in ailing Intel and said the two will co-develop chips for PCs and data centers. The surge in Intel shares lifted the US government’s roughly 10% stake to about $13 billion. The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Russell 2000 and the Dow all closed at record highs for the first time since 2021.
Donald Trump indicated he could further extend the China trade truce when he speaks with President Xi Jinping. The call—the first direct engagement between the leaders since June—is set for 9 a.m. Friday Washington time. Also on the agenda: more discussions about brokering a sale for TikTok’s US operations. But Bloomberg Opinion’s Dave Lee raises an issue about the pact: with China set to retain control of the algorithm, it’s hard to argue that the platform is “no longer being controlled by a foreign adversary,” as US law demands.
Adani’s cleared of some allegations. India’s securities market regulator said there is no evidence that the Adani Group used the so-called related party transactions to route funds into its listed units. The conglomerate had repeatedly denied the accusations first made by the now-defunct Hindenburg.
Who’s up next? Japan’s ruling party must decide on its future direction with a new leader following Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation after humiliating election results. Former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi threw her hat into the ring on Thursday and rival Yoshimasa Hayashi vowed to ensure that real wages grow at a sustained pace of about 1%. Here are some of the others in the running to be top dog.
Getting the kids to work. Samsung, SK and Hyundai Motor announced plans to hire thousands of workers this year, signaling South Korea’s top conglomerates are responding to President Lee Jae Myung’s call to tackle the nation’s declining youth employment.
Deep Dive: Ticket Trouble
Festivalgoers during the 2025 Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California. Photographer: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
It’s time to face the music. The US Federal Trade Commission slapped Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary with a lawsuit alleging that they have failed to stem the use of automated ticketing bots and large-scale resale operations that drive prices higher for consumers.
If the ticket seller is found guilty, it’s set to face some heavy fines. Live Nation could be on the hook for billions of dollars as the law allows potential penalties of $53,000 per violation.
The FTC has redoubled its scrutiny of ticket sales under the Trump administration after the White House issued an executive order in March directing the agency to prioritize enforcement of the BOTS Act.
A lawsuit over ticket-scalping bots would add to the company’s existing string of legal woes. The Justice Department and dozens of states filed a lawsuit seeking to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster that’s scheduled for trial in March.
The DOJ also has an ongoing criminal antitrust probe into whether Live Nation colluded with rivals at the onset of the pandemic over refund policies for canceled concerts.
When it comes to AI, many smaller Asian nations are wary of having to pick a side and further entrench the supremacy of US or Chinese tech giants, Catherine Thorbecke writes. For most countries, this moonshot risks becoming an expensive exercise in futility.
