The daily business briefing: January 9, 2024

1. Loose bolts found on some Boeing 737 Max jets

United and Alaska Airlines said Monday they found loose bolts on door plugs installed on several Boeing 737 Max 9 jets during inspections conducted after an Alaska Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing last week when a door plug blew out 10 minutes after takeoff. The National Transportation Safety Board also said the Alaska Airlines emergency, in which nobody was seriously injured, occurred after a warning light went off three times on the aircraft's recent flights. Due to the glitch, Alaska had barred the jet from carrying passengers on long flights over water. Door plugs fill doorways that aren't being used. They are held in place by 12 stop fittings that keep the door from becoming dislodged. NPR, CNBC

2. Tiger Woods and Nike split after 27-year partnership

Golf legend Tiger Woods on Monday announced the end of his longtime partnership with Nike. "Over 27 years ago I was fortunate to start a partnership with one of the most iconic brands in the world," the 15-time major champion wrote. "The days since have been filled with so many amazing moments and memories, if I started naming them, I could go on forever." Woods, who had worn Nike shoes and golf apparel since turning pro in August 1996, deflected speculation about a possible split with the athletic shoe and clothing brand in December, saying, "I'm still wearing their product." A renewal signed in 2013 was worth a reported $200 million. Nike confirmed the breakup on Instagram, thanking Woods for challenging "the entire institution of golf." Sports Illustrated, ESPN

3. Office vacancies rise to highest on record

Office space vacancies in major U.S. cities reached 19.6% in the fourth quarter of 2023, the highest level in four decades, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing data from Moody's Analytics. That was up from 18.8% a year earlier, and slightly above the previous record of 19.3% set in 1986 and 1991. Moody's has been collecting data on office vacancies since 1979. The rise reflected "years of overbuilding and shifting work habits that were accelerated by the pandemic," according to the Journal. The previous records came in office-market downturns in the 1980s and 1990s after years of overbuilding. Now, offices parks built in that era are struggling to attract tenants as businesses trim their footprints or leave for newer buildings. The Wall Street Journal

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4. Stock futures struggle after Monday gains

U.S. stock futures slipped early Tuesday after Monday's big gains. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down 0.4% at 7 a.m. ET as the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield ticked higher to above 4%. Nasdaq futures were down 0.6%. The Dow gained 0.6% on Monday, despite a plunge by Boeing shares following the grounding of the aircraft maker's popular 737 Max 9 jets due to an Alaska Airlines flight that lost a door-sized piece of the fuselage mid-flight. AJ Oden, global investment strategist at JPMorgan Private Bank, said stocks should hit "all-time highs at the end of 2024," but investors are trying to figure out how many times the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates as inflation cools. CNBC, Morningstar

5. OpenAI says New York Times copyright lawsuit 'without merit'

OpenAI called a New York Times copyright lawsuit against it "without merit" in a Monday blog post. The artificial-intelligence company said the Times manipulated prompts in its ChatGPT AI tool to get it to spit out excerpts of Times articles. The Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December, accusing them of using millions of the newspaper's articles to train chatbots. The Times was the first major U.S. media company to sue over AI copyright issues. OpenAI said it hoped to negotiate a partnership with the Times similar to its deal with The Associated Press and Axel Springer, the parent company of Politico and Business Insider. The Verge, The New York Times