Google Runs an Illegal Monopoly

THE PROFITS💸

• Google Runs an Illegal Monopoly

• The Mag 7 Loses Big

• The Inconvenience of Living in 2024

Read Time: 3.5 mins

THE BIG PROFITS💸
Google Runs an Illegal Monopoly
Google’s Alphabet shares were effected.

The Mag 7 Loses Big
S&P 500 experiencing its worst day since September 2022.

The Inconvenience of Living in 2024
Big Tech has increased their prices to ridiculous amounts.

Google

Google Runs An Illegal Monopoly

A U.S. federal judge ruled that Google's search engine holds an illegal monopoly, violating the Sherman Act by maintaining its dominance through exclusive distribution agreements.

This decision, favoring the DOJ in a suit filed in 2020, could lead to actions aimed at reducing Google's influence or potentially breaking up its business.

The ruling is a significant win for the DOJ in its efforts to regulate big tech companies, as similar investigations into Nvidia and Microsoft are also underway, with Apple under scrutiny for a potential smartphone market monopoly.

Following the ruling, Alphabet's shares dropped 4.5% to $159.25, though they remain up 14% for the year.

Stock Market

The Mag 7 Loses Big

The U.S. tech sector faced a significant downturn on Monday, with the S&P 500 experiencing its worst day since September 2022, dropping 3%.

The "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks were major decliners, collectively losing nearly $3 trillion in market capitalization since their highs in early July due to concerns about a weakening U.S. economy and overbought tech stocks.

Nvidia shares fell 6.4% amid reports of AI chip delays, Microsoft dropped 3.3% following underwhelming cloud revenue, and Alphabet declined 4.5% after reporting high AI spending and facing an antitrust ruling.

Despite these declines, Meta Platforms saw the smallest drop at 2.5%, maintaining some investor confidence due to its strong AI performance.

Big Tech

The Inconvenience of Living in 2024

A decade ago, using services like Uber and Airbnb was seen as affordable, convenient, and enjoyable.

However, as these startups have grown into major companies, their prices have surged significantly: Uber's average prices increased by 92% between 2018 and 2021, and Airbnb's daily booking rates rose by 36% from 2019 to 2022.

This shift away from the "millennial lifestyle subsidy" is driven by investors pushing for profitability, resulting in higher costs and customers returning to pre-app habits like using public transit, booking hotels, and cooking at home.

Companies are responding by offering deals and premium services to retain customers, but they may also resort to controversial strategies like surge pricing and gamification to maintain their user base.

Opinion Poll

Trending Now

THE DAILY ADVANTAGE

Small Rate Hike Causes Global Selloff: The global market drop on Monday was largely due to the unwinding of a popular carry trade, where investors borrowed Japanese yen at low interest rates to invest in higher-yield assets, exacerbated by the Bank of Japan's unexpected interest rate hike from 0.1% to 0.25%, which caused the yen to surge and forced investors to rapidly sell off assets to repay their yen-denominated loans.

Warren Buffetts Warning to Wall Street: Warren Buffett's recent selling of Berkshire's second-largest holding, totaling $56 billion in net-equity sales over 18 months, signals his clear warning to Wall Street that stocks are overvalued.

CashApp Payout Eligibility: If you're one of the 50 million CashApp users in the U.S., you might be eligible for a payout due to a recent settlement related to data breaches and claims that the company failed to adequately protect customer information.

To claim in the CashApp settlement, you must be a current or past customer whose personal information was obtained without consent or who experienced fraudulent transactions between August 23, 2018, and August 20, 2024.

To claim in the CashApp settlement, complete a form on the official settlement site, using your Notice ID and Confirmation Code if you have them, or apply without them if not. You'll need documentation like receipts or police reports to support your claim, and objections must be raised by November 1, 2024, with claims submitted by November 18, 2024, for potential payouts up to $2,500 following the final court hearing on December 16, 2024.

Artificial Intelligence

Generative AI’s Problem (From an Accuracy Perspective)

Generative AI is a massive industry worth $45 billion and only growing. With all of this money, you’d think AI and AI companies as a whole could find a way to make hands look, well, like hands. This is what we came across when trying to make “The Mag 7 Loses Big” segment.
Note: We entered the prompt: “Thumbs up pointed downward.”