Iraq Ends All Dollar Cash Withdrawals By 2024
Iraq will ban cash withdrawals and transactions in U.S. dollars as of Jan 1, 2024 in the latest push to curb the misuse of its hard currency reserves in financial crimes and the evasion of U.S. sanctions on Iran, a top Iraqi central bank official said.
New Counteroffer By GM To End Strike
General Motors (GM.N) said yesterday that it had made a counteroffer to the United Auto Workers (UAW) in a bid to end a strike. Meanwhile, UAW President Shawn Fain is scheduled for an update on the status of the talks with the Detroit Three automakers at later today.
Soaring Treasury Yields Creates Turbulence
A selloff in U.S. government bonds is jolting everything from stocks to the real estate market, as investors recalibrate their portfolios amid a surge in Treasury yields to their highest levels in more than a decade and a half.
Today’s News
Elon Musk’s X Corp. gave bankers an update on its efforts to reinvigorate growth while three-tiered tests are being conducted for its premium service that would allow the company to charge customers based on the number of ads shown.
The premium plan, which currently costs USD 7.99 a month, would be split into Basic, Standard and Plus variations as part of the effort, the company told debt holders during the briefing yesterday, according to a person familiar with the matter. X also said that — while advertisers are returning to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, they’re allocating smaller budgets compared to before.
During the briefing, Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino gave a generally upbeat view of the company. Revenue is growing in the high single digits quarter-over-quarter across advertising, data licensing and subscriptions, she said.
Yaccarino added that this is excluding the cost of servicing debt as the company has already achieved a cash flow positive and it should reach that milestone even when debt is included by the back half of 2024.
The three-tiered plan would let the company woo consumers who may not want to pay the full price for premium service. Musk has also floated the idea of charging everyone who uses X a small fee, a move he said would help weed out bots within the system.
Other related news include:
U.S. SEC Seeks Compliance With Musk Testimony
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to force Elon Musk to testify as it investigates the billionaire’s purchases of Twitter Inc. shares ahead of his takeover of the social media platform.
The Wall Street regulator claimed that Musk had failed to appear to testify last month as requested and asked a judge to force him to. The agency is reviewing Musk’s statements and disclosures about the stock transactions, according to a filing by the agency in federal court in San Francisco.
U.S. SEC Probes Into Twitter Inc. Takeover
As part of a probe into his USD 44 billion takeover of social media giant Twitter, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk is being questioned on the events that transpired prior to the takeover of Twitter Inc., now known as X.
In May 2022, the SEC said it was looking into Musk’s disclosure of his stake in Twitter, questioning if the appropriate paperwork was filed accordingly. However, the filing made yesterday claimed that it subpoenaed Musk in May 2023 requiring him to provide a testimony at the SEC’s San Francisco office, and that Musk had agreed to appear on Sept 15. Instead, Musk raised “several spurious objections” two days ahead of the supposed testimony and told the SEC he would not appear due to the objections.
Trump And Musk Clash Over Account Suspensions
A lawyer for Donald Trump has pleaded to a U.S. appeals court to revive his lawsuit claiming that the social media platform formerly known as Twitter has violated his and other users’ free-speech rights when it imposed the suspension of their accounts.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is weighing on revoking the suspension and reinstating a proposed class action that Trump and other former Twitter users filed in 2021 regarding the matter.
