Finance
Stock market today: Dow hits fresh record, stocks close out strong week as inflation cools
Stocks traded mixed on Friday but closed the week on a high as investors embraced an inflation report seen as crucial to the Federal Reserve’s next decision on interest rate cuts.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained 0.3% and finished with a fresh record. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) lost 0.1%, but is coming off a record-high close from the prior session. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) sank about 0.4%.
Despite the mixed trading on Friday, the stock gauges all recorded wins for the week after confidence in the economy returned to the market. The Dow and the S&P added about 0.7%, while the Nasdaq rose 1%.
A solid GDP reading, combined with continued cooling in inflation, has cemented growing conviction that the Fed can nail a “soft landing” as it embarks on a rate-cutting campaign.
The August reading of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, the inflation metric favored by the Fed, showed continued cooling in price pressures. The “core” PCE index, which is most closely watched by policymakers, rose 0.1% month over month, lower than Wall Street forecasts.
The PCE reading appeared to goose up bets on another jumbo-sized rate cut from the Fed next month. More than half of traders — around 52% — now expect a 50 basis point cut.
Read more: What the Fed rate cut means for bank accounts, CDs, loans, and credit cards
Elsewhere, China added to its stream of stimulus measures, boosting markets once again. Mainland stocks scored their biggest weekly win since 2008, and luxury stocks are set for their best week in years as hopes for Chinese demand rise. Meanwhile, shares of Alibaba (BABA, 9988.HK), JD.com (JD, 9618.HK), and Meituan (3690.HK, MPNGY) surged amid the buying spree.
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Zuckerberg faces deposition in AI copyright lawsuit from Sarah Silverman and other authors
One of the most important debates sparked over the sudden rise of generative AI tools is whether the process of training large language models using existing artistic works is a new form of copyright infringement.
An array of authors, media outlets and other creative professionals have sued to stop AI companies from using their content on the internet, arguing that their works are being used without compensation in order to advance a new technology and market opportunities.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will soon play a direct role in one of the most important lawsuits tackling this subject. Earlier this week a US District Court judge overseeing a suit brought by authors including Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates rejected Meta’s bid to prevent the deposition of Zuckerberg, the Associated Press reported Friday.
Meta had tried to block Zuckerberg’s deposition by arguing that he does not have unique knowledge of the company’s AI operations and other Meta employees could provide the same information. Zuckerberg’s participation will likely draw even more attention to the legal matter, similar to his high-profile appearances on Capitol Hill during Congressional hearings on the role of social media in society.
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New PCE reading supports case for smaller Fed rate cut in November
Change in core PCE since 2018 A fresh reading on inflation Friday keeps the Federal Reserve on track to continue cutting interest rates this fall, likely in 25 basis point increments, reports Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger.
The result means that a bigger 50 basis point cut may be hard to justify at the Fed’s next meeting in November, according to some Fed watchers.
The fact that core inflation year-over-year is holding the level of the last two months, and not dropping, lines up more with a scenario for a smaller cut — lest the job market substantially weaken between now and November.
“The core year-over-year at 2.7% suggests that another round of 50 basis points needs to come under careful scrutiny unless the labor market suggests weakness,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial.
The consensus among Fed officials outlined last week is for two more 25 basis point rate cuts in 2024.
Read more here
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Major issues to watch in the 2026 Oregon legislative session
Oregon lawmakers will convene beginning on Feb. 2 in a short legislative session. Here are the major issues they will focus on.
Legislators passed a bill March 5 to modify forthcoming changes to Oregon’s campaign finance system despite outcry from good government groups who say the bill creates new loopholes.
Those groups were key in creating House Bill 4024, which was created and passed in 2024 in place of warring ballot measures seeking to overhaul the system.
That legislation included new limits on contributions, including capping individual spending on statewide candidates each cycle at $3,300, and other changes. Parts of the bill were set to go into effect in 2027 and 2028.
Under the new proposal, House Bill 4018, the limits would still begin in 2027, but disclosure requirements and penalties would be pushed to 2031. It also gives the Secretary of State money to update the campaign finance system, but far less than the office previously thought it might need.
Representatives voted 39-19 to pass the bill. A few hours later, the Senate passed it 20-9.
Fourteen of the “no” votes in the House were Democrats, including Reps. Tom Andersen, D-Salem, and Lesly Muñoz, D-Woodburn.
Muñoz told the Statesman Journal she voted against the bill after hearing from people upset with the bill’s process.
Six Democratic senators cast a “no” vote on HB 4018.
Oregon campaign finance reform advocates say they were left out of negotiations
After working together in 2024, advocates said Speaker of the House Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, “ghosted” them.
Good government groups said the bill does far more than address necessary technical fixes to HB 4024.
HB 4018 is “a complete betrayal of the deal that was made two years ago,” Norman Turrill of Oregon’s League of Women Voters said.
Should the bill be signed by Gov. Tina Kotek, the groups said they will push their own changes through a 2028 ballot initiative.
Those advocates have outlined at least 11 different changes they believe the bill creates. The bill’s contents were first shared through a Feb. 9 amendment that was posted after 5 p.m., hours before it received a public hearing in an 8 a.m. work session on Feb. 10 and later, Feb. 12.
Secretary of State Tobias Read told legislators in January his office was requesting $25 million as a placeholder to fund a new campaign finance system for the state. Read was not secretary of state when House Bill 2024 was passed and his office is now working to implement the bill’s changes on a fast approaching deadline.
An additional amendment to the bill instead gives the Secretary of State’s Office $1.5 million for staff, some of whom would be tasked with updating the state’s current system.
House members agreed March 4 to send the bill back to committee, presumably to be amended. A 5 p.m. committee meeting was canceled about an hour after initially being announced.
A work session on HB 4018 was moved to the next morning. After an hour of delay, legislators convened and finished the meeting, moving the bill back to the floor without any changes, in less than three minutes.
A new campaign finance bill, Senate Bill 1502, was introduced and scheduled for a public hearing and work session March 4.
The bill is “very simple,” Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, said. It tells the Secretary of State’s Office to draft a bill for the 2027 session with necessary campaign finance improvements from HB 4024 and HB 4018.
Three senators voted against the bill March 5. It now moves to the House. Legislators have a March 8 deadline to end the session.
“SB 1502 would not correct the severe damage to campaign finance reform that will occur, if HB 4018 B is enacted in this session,” Dan Meek of Honest Elections Oregon wrote in submitted testimony.
Lawmakers appear unsatisfied, but supportive, toward Oregon campaign finance bill
House Majority Leader Ben Bowman, D-Tigard, said HB 4018 made positive changes but acknowledged it was “a challenging vote for many of us.”
“We are implementing this whole new system that is new for all of us, and there are a lot of opinions and there are a lot of details to figure out,” House Minority Leader Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, said. Elmer and Bowman carried the bill in the House. “With that being said, we’re moving forward in good faith, knowing that we’ll also be coming back next year to make sure that those details and all those kinks are worked out.”
Rep. Mark Gamba, D-Milwaukie, said he was concerned about the bill and the “non-inclusive process” that led to it.
Gamba pointed to a letter from the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center that states in part that the bill “would substantially revise critical campaign finance reforms enacted two years ago in Oregon” and weaken the state’s campaign finance law.
The current bill is not the only possibility for moving forward, Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, told lawmakers. Proposed amendments that would have extended implementation timelines without the additional changes were ignored, he said.
“House Bill 4024 and this bill, 4018, have two things in common. One, they were thrown together in a few days behind closed doors, mostly by organizations who dominate campaign funding in the current system,” Golden said. “And two, very few legislators understand what is actually in these bills.”
He urged lawmakers to abandon the system created in House Bill 4024 as an “uncomfortably expensive learning experience” and develop a new plan based on successful programs in other states.
Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, also spoke against the bill on the Senate floor.
“The concern that I had and that my constituents had was technical changes are one thing, but it should not be increasing the amount of money that candidates can take in or hold or carry over,” Gelser Blouin said. “Unfortunately, as it’s drafted, this bill does all of those things.”
HB 4024 is too complicated and “unimplementable” without the fixes in HB 4018, Starr said.
Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, agreed, saying HB 4018 and SB 1502 give reassurance about a system he has concerns about.
“If there were no cameras and the lights were off, I think most people would agree this is not the bill we want,” Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, said.
Some lawmakers expressed similar feelings of discontentment with the bill in Ways and Means and one of its subcommittees on March 3, but said they felt it was important to make some progress on the issue. Discussions could happen again in 2027, they said.
Rep. Nancy Nathanson, D-Eugene, who ultimately voted in favor of the bill, said March 3 supporting it “is a very painful choice to make.”
Statesman Journal reporter Dianne Lugo contributed to this report.
Anastasia Mason covers state government for the Statesman Journal. Reach her at acmason@statesmanjournal.com or 971-208-5615.
Finance
Paramount ally RedBird says using Middle East money to help buy Warner Bros. could be a good idea
- Last year, Paramount said it would use $24 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar to help buy WBD.
- Now that Paramount has won that deal, it won’t say whether that’s still the plan.
- A key Paramount backer suggests that Gulf money would be a good thing for this deal.
We still don’t know if Paramount intends to use billions of dollars from Gulf states like Saudi Arabia to help it buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
But if Paramount does end up doing that, it wouldn’t be a bad thing, says a key Paramount backer.
That update comes via Gerry Cardinale, who heads up RedBird Capital Partners, the private equity company that helped finance Larry and David Ellison’s acquisition of Paramount last year and is doing the same with their WBD deal now.
In a podcast with Puck’s Matt Belloni published Wednesday night, Cardinale wouldn’t comment directly on Paramount’s previously disclosed plans to use $24 billion from sovereign wealth funds controlled by Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar to help buy WBD.
Instead, he reiterated Paramount’s current messaging on the deal’s financing: The $47 billion in equity Paramount will use to buy WBD will be “backstopped” by the Ellison family and RedBird — meaning they are ultimately on the hook to pay up. The rest of the $81 billion deal will be financed with debt.
Cardinale also acknowledged what Paramount has disclosed in its current disclosure documents: It intends to sell portions of that $47 billion commitment to other investors: “We haven’t syndicated anything at this time,” he said. “We do expect to syndicate with strategic, domestic, and foreign investors. But at the end of the day, that alchemy shouldn’t matter because it’ll be done in the right way.”
And when asked about concerns about Middle Eastern countries owning part of a media conglomerate that includes assets like CNN, Cardinale suggested that could be a plus.
“I think we want to be a global company,” he said. “You look at what’s going on right now geopolitically. What’s going on right now geopolitically out of the Middle East wouldn’t be, the positives of that would not be happening without some of those sovereigns that you’re referring to.”
He continued:
“The world is changing. We can stick our head in the sand and pretend it’s not, or we can embrace globalization and the derivative benefits both geopolitically and otherwise that come from that. Content generation coming out of Hollywood is one of America’s greatest exports. I firmly embrace the global nature and orientation that we bring to this from a capital standpoint, from a footprint standpoint, etc. At the end of the day, I do understand some of the concerns that you’ve raised, but that will work itself out between signing and closing because at the end of the day, worst-case scenario, Ellison and RedBird are 100% of this thing.”
All of which suggests to me that Paramount still intends to use money from Gulf-based sovereign wealth funds to buy WBD.
What I don’t understand is why the company won’t say that out loud. Does that mean it’s still negotiating with potential investors? Or that it’s reticent to disclose outside investors, for whatever reason, until it has to? A Paramount rep declined to comment.
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