Elon Musk offers buy OpenAI, Ukraine war over?, Inflation higher than expected (Recap ep303)

This week, Marcello talks about a group led by Elon Musk offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit controlling OpenAI, though Sam Altman turned down the bid and countered with an offer to buy Twitter for $9 billion. Inflation came in higher than expected at 3%, reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s stance to hold off on interest rate cuts for now. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been in talks with both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, raising questions about whether the war in Ukraine could soon come to an end.

U.S. President Trump's trade advisers were finalizing plans on Wednesday, for the reciprocal tariffs the U.S. President has vowed to impose on every country that charges duties on U.S. imports, increasing fears of a widening global trade war & threatening to add to already virulent U.S. inflation.  Trade ministers of the 27-country European Union were due to meet by video conference to determine their response after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said tariff moves against the bloc won’t go unanswered.
U.S. President Trump discussed the war in Ukraine on Wednesday in phone calls with Russian President Putin & Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, the new U.S. president's 1st major step towards diplomacy, over a war he has promised to end. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump's Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders borders was unrealistic & the U.S. administration did not see NATO membership for Ukraine as part of a solution to the war. Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine & has demanded Ukraine cede even more territory & be rendered permanently neutral, under any peace deal.
Russia may be forced to throttle back its oil output in the coming months as U.S. sanctions hamper its access to tankers to sail to Asia & Ukrainian drone attacks hamper its refineries. The U.S. imposed sanctions last month that targeted 180 tankers. There is a growing glut of crude in Russia due to falling exports & reduced refining production which can only be addressed by lowering output, at present 9M barrels a day. Russia has little storage capacity & Ukraine has attacked some of these facilities with drones in recent weeks, to improve its bargaining position amid expectations that U.S. President Trump will press Russian leader Putin to negotiate an end to the war.  
Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by +4.4% in 2024, marking its fastest growth since 2021, government data indicated early Friday.The economy had expanded by only +1.8% in 2023. For Q4 alone, Singapore’s GDP grew +5% year on year, higher than the +4.7% forecast by analysts, but lower than the +5.7% expansion seen in the previous quarter. The +5% growth figure also surpassed advance estimates of +4.3% announced on Jan. 2.
The Fed reported on Friday that U.S. industrial output had strong gains for a 2nd consecutive month, rising +0.5% in January.  The gain was above expectations of a +0.3% rise & comes after a strong +1% gain in Dec. Economists had expected industrial production to rise by +0.3% compared to the 0.9% advance originally reported for the previous month. The bigger than expected increase by industrial production reflected a 7.2% spike by utilities output, as cold temperatures boosted the demand for heating. Meanwhile, the Fed said mining output slumped by 1.2% & manufacturing output edged down by -0.1% amid a 5.2% plunge by motor vehicles & parts production.
The gold market was seeing some renewed volatility on Friday & headed lower, while weak U.S. consumption data highlights growing risks for the U.S. economy. The gold market was already seeing some selling pressure ahead of the report & profit-taking picked up momentum in the initial reaction.