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Last year, Instagram launched teen accounts, which default all teens into automatic protections for who can contact them and the content they can see. And we'll continue adding new safeguards for teens to help give parents peace of mind. Explore teen accounts, automatic protections, and all of our ongoing work@instagram.com Teenaccounts.
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A federal judge dismisses the government's antitrust case against Mehta. Plus, President Trump says Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knew Nothing about the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
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You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it.
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And the House votes to release government files about Jeffrey Epstein. It's Tuesday, November 18th. I'm Alex Osola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of what's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. A federal judge has dismissed the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case against Meta platforms. And the FTC filed its suit in 2020, dating back to the first Trump administration, claiming that Meta operated as a monopoly after its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, and that the Facebook owner's products don't compete with TikTok and YouTube. The judge's dismissal of the case deals a blow to one of the government's marquee antitrust lawsuits against big technology companies. WSJ reporter Megan Bobrovski joins me now to discuss the case and its implications. Megan, I want to start by talking about Meta. What does this dismissal mean for the company and what it can do?
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D
Yeah. So this is basically best case scenario for Meta. There are no restrictions. They don't have to do anything or change anything. They can just keep operating as normal. And where it is, a big win for them is they can continue to pursue their huge AI buildout without any restrictions coming from this litigation.
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One of the key points of this case seems to have been past actions versus present status. What does this case show about how the tech world has changed?
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This tells you how slowly litigation moves. This case was filed years ago. By the time that it actually got to court, Meta was in a very different place and now has a lot of other competitors. Well, that's what they argued, right? YouTube, TikTok, what. What Meta's products are used for evolved quite drastically over the time that this case was brought to the point where they were actually making the argument in court that people don't connect with their friends and family on its apps, which is kind of different from an argument they might have been making five years ago. The judge ultimately agreed with Meta that the FTC did not prove that the current conditions that Meta is operating in are a monopoly.
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That was Wall Street Journal reporter Megan Bobrowski. Thanks, Megan.
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Thanks for having me.
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In Washington during a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, at the White House today, President Trump said that MBS, quote, knew nothing about the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, even though the CIA concluded at the time that the royal had ordered his killing. Here's Trump speaking in the Oval Office today, answering a reporter question about Khashoggi.
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You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happened, but he knew nothing about it.
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Mbs added that quote, it's really painful to hear anyone losing his life for no real purpose or not in a legal way. He says his country conducted an investigation to ensure nothing like the assassination happens again. Khashoggi was a Saudi dissident and US Resident who repeatedly spoke out against the kingdom's repressive regime. His grisly murder in a Saudi consulate in Turkey led to intense blowback in Washington, with members of both parties calling for the US to break ties with the kingdom. Also today, MBS said his country would look to invest $1 trillion in the US economy, while Trump brushed aside questions about his family's business ties to Saudi Arabia. And on Capitol Hill, the House has passed a bill that would require the Justice Department to release government files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The vote was almost unanimous, with just one vote against Republican Louisiana Representative Clay Higgins. It's a milestone in the long running fight that has divided Republicans. Trump blasted the effort for months, calling it a Democratic driven campaign to embarrass Republicans and distract from GOP policy wins. But as it became clear that dozens of Republicans were likely to break ranks and support the measure to force the Justice Department to release documents, Trump reversed course. He said he supported the passage of the bill and would sign it into law if it got to his desk. While continuing to call it a hoax. The measure now goes to the Senate, which could vote as soon as this evening. In other political news, a federal court has blocked a new Texas congressional map that was designed to add as many as five new Republican House seats ahead of next year's midterm elections. The court ordered that the midterm races use districts drawn in 2021. Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the state will appeal the order to the U.S. supreme Court. Coming up, what Latin America's political turn to the right means for its relationship with the US And China. That's after the break.
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US markets dropped for a fourth straight session, with the Dow tumbling 1.1% and the S&P ending down about 0.8%. Home Depot's latest earnings report dragged on the Dow. Home Depot said profit fell in the third quarter and cut its outlook for the year. Economic uncertainty, high interest rates and a stagnant housing market are making homeowners delay remodeling projects. Home Depot stock fell 6% today and worries about tech valuations weighed on tech stocks, with the NASDAQ dropping 1.2%. WSJ markets reporter David Uberti says investors are still jittery about whether all this investment in AI will pay off.
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It's continued trepidation among investors that the AI boom that has propelled markets and to some extent the US Economy this year is potentially running out of steam and there's a lot of cross currents that go beneath that. This could be investors taking profits from what has been really, really great market in recent months, but it could also be people trimming their bets in the lead up to Nvidia's earnings.
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David says Nvidia is seen as the linchpin for the entire AI boom and people see it as a barometer for what comes next, Nvidia reports after the closing bell tomorrow. He says that will give investors more clarity along with a delayed government report on September US Jobs that comes out on Thursday.
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So those things in concert will answer two key questions in investors minds. First and foremost, is the AI boom running out steam to some respect? And secondly, is the broader economy around which this AI boom is happening, is that slowing as slowly as we thought it was before the government shut down?
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An index that tracks chip stocks fell into correction territory this morning, but David says the broader market is still a.
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Ways off, so a correction is typically seen as a 10% drawdown from a recent high in broader indexes. We've gotten about halfway there, more or less at various points earlier this morning. That said, if you look at specific names within AI broadly, some important players have reached that level if not exceeded it. Nvidia at one point earlier today was something like 9% and change down from its recent high. Oracle, Core Weave, they have fallen even further in recent weeks. So you really see this situation emerging where investors are parsing a little bit more closely who will be the winners and losers in this fight. And to this point it's really unclear.
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And speaking of AI, Nvidia and Microsoft said today that they will invest up to $15 billion in Anthropic, a competitor to OpenAI. Anthropic, meanwhile, is purchasing $30 billion in computing capacity from Microsoft's cloud computing business Azure, which runs on Nvidia's AI Systems. Polish officials say Russia is behind a Saturday explosion on the Polish rail network. They say two Ukrainian men collaborated with Russian security services to carry out the attack, which almost caused a packed commuter train to veer off the tracks. Western officials say Russia is seeking to destabilize NATO members through covert acts of sabotage. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in acts of sabotage in Europe, and airlines and jet engine makers are deploying new measures to curb instances of toxic fumes leaking into cockpits and cabins. The efforts follow a Wall Street Journal report in September that leaks of oil and other aircraft fluids into engines have surged in recent years. The first round of presidential elections in Chile show that conservative leaders are the ones getting heavy support. Recent elections in Argentina and Bolivia also show that voters are backing conservative ideas across Latin America. For more on what's driving that rightward turn, I'm joined now by WSJ reporter Samantha Pearson, who's based in Braz. Samantha, why are conservative ideas resonating with Latin Americans? What are some of the issues that they're worried about?
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One of the main reasons is crime, street violence. We've seen the rise of organized crime generally over South America. People are worried about how this trickles down into everyday life. So it's things like cell phone theft or getting robbed at the gas station. I would say that's the number one driver of this right wing sentiment across the region. There's obviously other themes. People are fed up with all the Venezuelan immigrants arriving across the region. The economy is an important topic as well. After many years of recession or poor economic growth, a lot of voters are ready to vote for a more business friendly candidate.
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What does this mean for these countries relationships with the U.S. so this actually.
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Provides a great opportunity for Washington right now. For the past 20 years or so, people here would say that Washington has more or less ignored South America as they focused on conflicts in the Middle east and elsewhere. We've seen unprecedented interest from Trump specifically. He's made it clear that he's going to be very active in the region. So he's focused on combating organized crime, immigration, but also Latin America and South America specifically is a very mineral rich region. Huge copper deposits here, rare earths, lithium. So really cultivating friendly governments in the region is key for the future of the U.S. economy and efforts to modernize these minerals are used in everything from electric cars to defence technology. So it's really vital for the US economy as well.
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And what does it mean for these nations relationships with China?
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So China's really had a head start. They've been extremely active in terms of signing trade deals, investing, also offering finance. There's a joke in South America that the Americans come to give lectures and sermon, then the Chinese come to build. And so it's obviously hard to reverse that. And it puts these governments in a tricky position because they do need China. Brazil, for example, it sells a lot of its commodities to China. It needs that money for investment in infrastructure still. So the key for these countries is kind of going to be walking that line between still doing business with China, but also pleasing Washington. So in theory, we could see Latin American countries pulling out of projects that really anger Washington. But I don't think Washington's going to be able to boot China out of South America.
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That was Wall Street Journal reporter Samantha Pearson. Thanks, Samantha.
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Thank you.
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And that's what's news for this Tuesday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bienname and Zoe Kulkin, with supervising producer Tali Arbel. I'm Alex Osola for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.
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Here's Vanguard's Andy Reid, head of behavioral economics research, explaining why humans aren't necessarily wired for investing success.
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Being an expert in investing is rare. It's the exception to the rule. The average American lacks foundational knowledge and they don't teach the stuff in schools. We're working on it, though. You've got people who are sort of, let's say, unskilled and unaware. So they're overconfident. They make really risky bets, they make more trades and they get worse performance.
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Get more insights from Vanguard on how you can navigate an uncertain market@vanguard.com.