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Trump names EJ Antoni to lead Bureau of Labor Statistics. (00:21) Musk threatens legal action against Apple (AAPL) over alleged antitrust violations. (01:30) GM plans renewed push into driverless personal vehicles – Bloomberg. (02:45)
This is an abridged transcript.
President Trump has announced his pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after firing the former head of the agency earlier this month.
Trump named EJ Antoni, chief economist of the conservative Heritage Foundation as his nominee to lead the agency. The position is subject to Senate confirmation.
Antoni has been vocal about his concerns with BLS jobs data and revisions.
“Our Economy is booming, and EJ will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Antoni would succeed Erika McEntarfer, whom Trump abruptly fired on August 1 after a BLS report showed weak job growth in July and substantial downward revisions to the prior two months.
Trump’s firing of McEntarfer shocked economists across the political spectrum, who immediately came to her defense and the BLS as an institution.
Elon Musk on Monday threatened legal action against Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), accusing it of antitrust violations over the App Store’s rankings of Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot from his startup xAI.
“Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take immediate legal action,” Musk wrote in a post on social media platform X.
“Why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps? Are you playing politics?” Musk said in a separate post.
Before threatening Apple with legal action, Musk had celebrated Grok’s rise to the fifth spot among the top free apps on the App Store, surpassing Google. The milestone came just weeks after xAI launched its latest chatbot, Grok 4.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last year partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its devices.
Musk’s feud with OpenAI dates back to his 2018 departure from its board; he is currently suing the Microsoft-backed (NASDAQ:MSFT) startup and CEO Sam Altman for straying from its founding mission.
General Motors (NYSE:GM) is reviving its autonomous driving program, tapping former Cruise employees to help design a driverless car for the consumer.
The program is being led by Sterling Anderson, a former Tesla (TSLA) autopilot lead.
According to a meeting between Anderson and employees revealed to Bloomberg, GM (NYSE:GM) is moving ahead with a driverless, eyes-free, vehicle with the ultimate goal of developing a car without a person at the wheel.
Anderson reportedly said plans include rehiring Cruise employees, and adding staff at GM’s (NYSE:GM) Mountain View, California office.
GM (GM) shuttered its majority-owned, money-losing, Cruise robotaxi business late last year and let go of ~1,000 Cruise employees, after a pedestrian accident led to the grounding of its entire fleet and regulatory scrutiny. At the time, the company said it was pivoting away from robotaxis to the development of hands-free driving for personal vehicles.
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Catalyst watch:
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Companies due to participate at the Deutsche Bank Transportation Conference include FedEx (FDX), C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW), United Parcel Service (UPS), and Norfolk Southern (NSC)
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Companies due to participate in the J.P. Morgan Auto Conference include Aptiv (APTV), Faraday Future (FFAI), Dana (DAN), and Camping World (CWH).
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Companies scheduled to participate at the two-day Oppenheimer Technology Internet & Communications Conference include IAC (IAC), Iridium (IRDM), and Valens Semiconductor (VLN).
Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green after the US and China agreed on Monday to extend their tariff truce by 90 days. Crude oil is up 0.1% at $64/barrel. Bitcoin is flat at $118,000. Gold is up 0.1% at $3,348.
The FTSE 100 is up 0.3% and the DAX is down 0.2%.
On today’s economic calendar:
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8:30 am CPI Consensus forecasts the July CPI to show a 0.2% increase MoM and a 2.8% annual increase, while core CPI is expected to rise 0.3% MoM and 3.1% YoY.
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10:00 am Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Barkin will speak on “Why the Consumer Matters” before the Health Management Academy.
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10:30 am Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Schmid will speak on monetary policy and the economic outlook before the Southern Economic Development Council Annual Conference.
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