The daily business briefing: May 26, 2023

Owners of Ford's EVs will have access to 12,000 Tesla Supercharger stations in 2024

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1. Biden, McCarthy near deal to raise debt limit
2. Ford, Tesla announce Ford EV owners will get access to Tesla Superchargers
3. JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon faces questioning about Epstein
4. Nvidia's AI boom lifts tech stocks
5. JPMorgan cuts 1,000 jobs at First Republic

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 26 May 2023

1. Biden, McCarthy near deal to raise debt limit

President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday appeared to be closing in on a deal to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and cap spending for two years. The two leaders met virtually with a June 1 deadline to avoid a catastrophic default. Biden said the two sides were still discussing where to make the cuts. "I don't believe the whole burden should fall back to middle class and working-class Americans," Biden said. Any agreement will take days to move through the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate, with lawmakers on both sides expected to object to elements of any compromise. "I don't think everybody's going to be happy at the end of the day," McCarthy said.

Ford CEO Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Thursday that owners of Ford's electric vehicles will have access to about 12,000 Tesla Supercharger stations starting in spring 2024. "We think this is a huge move for our industry and for all electric customers," Farley said during a Twitter Spaces audio chat with the Tesla CEO, who bought Twitter last year. Musk said he wanted to use Tesla's supercharger network to support sustainable transportation. Farley said Ford owners would pay for the access, possibly through a monthly subscription, although he and Musk didn't disclose the financial details of the deal. At first, Ford drivers will need an adaptor, but Ford will make Tesla's charging connector standard in 2025.

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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon faces questions under oath Friday about what he knew of the crimes of convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein, a longtime JPMorgan customer who died in jail awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. lender, had been trying to avoid the deposition, which will take place at its Manhattan headquarters, as it faces two high-profile lawsuits accusing it of ignoring signs that Epstein was trafficking teenage girls for sex because it was making money from its relationship with the well-connected financier. The cases have resulted in disclosures suggesting bank employees flagged Epstein's activity as suspicious. A bank executive said in a March deposition that Dimon alone supervised Jes Staley, the former bank executive who allegedly vouched for Epstein.

Nvidia shares jumped by 24% on Thursday and lifted tech stocks broadly after the chip maker released a strong outlook thanks to booming demand for advanced chips for artifical intelligence. "What is the oil of the future? Semiconductors," said Michelle Cluver, a portfolio strategist at Global X. "Artificial intelligence is a major theme driving markets right now." The boost sent the tech-heavy Nasdaq surging by 1.7%. The S&P 500 gained 0.9% on Thursday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.1%. U.S. stock futures struggled early Friday as investors awaited a deal to raise the debt limit and prevent a potential default that could devastate the economy. Futures tied to the Dow and the S&P 500 were down 0.1% at 6:30 a.m. ET. Nasdaq futures were flat.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Thursday told 1,000 First Republic Bank employees their jobs were being cut following its takeover of the failed regional lender. JPMorgan offered full-time or temporary jobs to about 85% of the roughly 7,000 people still working for First Republic when it collapsed, Bloomberg reported. Those given transitional jobs will have work for three months to a year, depending on their role, Bloomberg said, citing a person familiar with the matter. First Republic announced in April that it was cutting 25% of its workforce. Most of the people who didn't get offers from JPMorgan would have been affected by First Republic's cuts, but the bank failed before they were told.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.