Supreme Court will take up a challenge related to California's tough vehicle emissions standards WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it will take up a business-backed appeal that could make it easier to challenge federal regulations, acting in a dispute related to California’s nation-leading standards for vehicle emissions. The justices agreed Friday to hear an appeal filed by fuel producers who object to a waiver granted to California in 2022 by the Environmental Protection Agency during Joe Biden’s presidency. The waiver allows California to set more stringent emissions limits than the national standard. The case won’t be argued until the spring, when the Trump administration is certain to take a more industry-friendly approach to the issue. Musk says US is demanding he pay penalty over disclosures of his Twitter stock purchases DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk says the Securities and Exchange Commission wants him to pay a penalty or face charges involving what he disclosed — or failed to disclose — about his purchases of Twitter stock before he bought the social media platform in 2022. In a letter, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro tells the outgoing SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, that the commission’s demand for a monetary payment is a “misguided scheme” that won’t intimidate Musk. The letter also alleges that the commission reopened an investigation this week into Neuralink, Musk’s computer-to-human brain interface company. The SEC has not released the letter. Nor would it comment on it or confirm whether it has issued such a demand to Musk. Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide full Social Security benefits to millions of people. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer began the process on Thursday for a final vote on the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act. It would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people. The legislation has passed the House. The bill would add more strain on the Social Security Trust funds, which are already estimated to be unable to pay out full benefits beginning in 2035. The measure would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Saudi Arabia banned film for 35 years. The Red Sea festival is just one sign of the industry's rise JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — “My Driver and I” was supposed to be made in 2016, but was scuttled amid Saudi Arabia’s decades-long cinema ban. Eight years later, the landscape for film in the kingdom looks much different. And the star of “My Driver and I” now has an award. Roula Dakheelallah was named the winner of the Chopard Emerging Saudi Talent award at the Red Sea International Film Festival on Thursday. Both the award and the glitzy festival itself are signs of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to shaping a new film industry. The reopening of cinemas in 2018 after 35 years marked a cultural turning point for Saudi Arabia. Trump offers support for dockworkers union by saying ports shouldn't install more automated systems WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is offering his support for the dockworkers union before their contract expires next month at Eastern and Gulf Coast ports. He posted on social media Thursday that he met with union leaders and that any further “automation” of the ports would harm workers. He wrote that the “amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers.” The International Longshoremen’s Association has until Jan. 15 to negotiate a new contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies. The Maritime Alliance says the technology will improve worker safety and strengthen our supply chains, among other things. IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS leadership on Thursday announced that the agency has recovered $4.7 billion in back taxes and proceeds from a variety of crimes. The announcement comes under the backdrop of a promised reckoning from Republicans who will hold a majority over both chambers of the next Congress and have long called for rescinding the tens of billions of dollars in funding provided to the agency by Democrats. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said improvements made to the agency will help the incoming administration and new Republican majority congress achieve its goals of administering an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Unique among 'Person of the Year' designees, Donald Trump gets a fact-check from Time magazine Donald Trump got something this year that no other person designed Time magazine's Person of the Year had ever received. He got a fact-check of claims that the president-elect made in the interview accompanying the magazine's piece. Trump earned the recognition of the year's biggest newsmaker for the second time, also winning it in 2016 the first time he was elected president. But in a piece described as a “12-minute” read, Time called into question more than a dozen statements Trump made when speaking to the magazine's reporters, on issues like border size, autism and crowd size at a rally. Time said it has fact-checked other interviews in the past, but not for this annual feature. OpenAI's legal battle with Elon Musk reveals internal turmoil over avoiding AI 'dictatorship' A 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and best avoid an artificial intelligence ‘dictatorship’ is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker’s ongoing conversion into a for-profit company. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. OpenAI is filing its response Friday. OpenAI's Altman will donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund LOS ANGELES (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships the incoming administration. A spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed the move on Friday. The announcement comes one day after Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it donated $1 million to the same fund. Amazon also said it plans to donate $1 million. China signals it's prepared to double down on support for the economy as Trump tariffs loom BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese leaders met this week to plot economic policy for the coming year and sketched out plans to raise government spending and relax Beijing's monetary policy. Analysts said the broad-brush plans from the annual Central Economic Work Conference were more of a recap of current policy than ambitious new initiatives at a time when the outlook is clouded by the President-elect Donald Trump's threats to sharply raise tariffs once he takes office. The ruling Communist Party did commit to raising China's deficit and to doing more to encourage consumer spending by bringing wage increases in line with the pace of economic growth. Here's a look at China's main priorities and their potential implications.Nigeria Secures $1.2 Billion Saudi Investment as Economic Diplomacy Yields Promising Gains
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AP Business SummaryBrief at 1:45 p.m. ESTBill Dennis's outburst just latest episode in ongoing friction with city staff and council
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Apple Faces Scrutiny as UK Regulator Probes Mobile Browser DominanceSlag Cement Market to See Booming Growth 2024-2031 with Boosted Revenue, Business Experts, Market Value Analysis, Size, Share, Growth
As in 2023, investors were once again captivated by the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in 2024. But not every stock has benefited. Sure, Nvidia and Broadcom have had great years, but not every AI beneficiary was as fortunate. Why would that be? For one, many traders look at results in the here and now. So, if a company had a near-term slip-up or a slowdown, their stocks were likely punished -- even if AI should provide a long-term tailwind for their business. The following three examples were laggards in 2024, but looking ahead to 2025, they appear to be excellent pickups on the dips . ASML Holdings There would be no AI semiconductors at all without the extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) tools provided by ASML Holdings ( ASML -0.65% ) , which has a monopoly on this crucial chipmaking technology. In that light, why would ASML's stock be down about 4% on the year and 35% from all-time highs? The market appears to be honing in on a few short-term concerns. The first is China, where ASML has seen a surge of older and less-sophisticated deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) sales in recent years, ahead of more stringent restrictions placed on equipment from China this year. Although ASML will continue selling to China, they will no longer be able to sell or service several types of machines, so that pull-in of China sales this year could lead to ASML's China revenue declining next year. In addition, while the AI market is booming, larger, mature chip markets, like smartphones and PCs, have continued to languish for longer than expected in their post-pandemic lull. That recently led some foundries to pull back a bit on their near-term spending plans. However, ASML still projects growth next year, even if it's lower than previously expected. More importantly, at the company's recent investor day, management kept its 2030 revenue and earnings targets intact. Advanced chip production will now require more EUV machines versus DUV machines, and EUV machines are higher-revenue and higher-margin for ASML. Even better, ASML's higher-priced high numerical aperture (NA) EUV machines, which go for about twice the price of the low-NA EUV machines in use today, have just started selling this year. The growth and increasing mix of advanced EUV machines should lead to margin expansion, fueling solid profit growth through this decade at least. With the long-term picture intact and ASML's competitive position nearly assured, long-term investors should buy this dip with both hands. MongoDB Artificial intelligence applications will have to reference lots of data and make sense of it all incredibly quickly, which will put a lot of importance on how that data is stored in a database. MongoDB ( MDB 0.26% ) has a disruptive architecture for databases, called a document architecture, which allows for more intuitive organization of unstructured data than the traditional SQL (structured query language) database, which stores data in a more restrictive row-and-column format. If one thinks about the kinds of data relationships AI agents will have to retrieve and make sense of, MongoDB's document databases look increasingly better. Not only that, AI has recently made it much easier for enterprises to migrate legacy applications from traditional databases to MongoDB. To date, that has been a complex process leading to customer friction. Despite these positives, MongoDB's stock is down 35% year to date and more than 50% below its all-time high. Why would that be? According to management, the uncertain macro environment and companies figuring out what to do with AI have caused a slowdown in MongoDB Atlas usage. Basically, while companies are experimenting and learning about AI's potential, very few "killer app" AI software applications have caught on as of yet. However, as AI improves and companies increasingly figure out how to deploy AI applications, AI app usage should take off. As a majority of MongoDB's revenue comes from its usage-based Atlas database-as-a-service, MongoDB will see the benefit in the building and usage of AI apps. However, we are not quite at that stage. CEO Dev Ittycheria noted on the recent conference call with analysts that while many AI apps don't yet have good product-market fit, some are beginning to, with Ittycheria highlighting one such app built on MongoDB that has grown 10 times over the course of the year. As the AI revolution moves from the infrastructure buildout to software applications, MongoDB should see an acceleration in usage. Trading near a historically low price-to-sales ratio of around 10, MongoDB could see a bounce-back year in 2025. On Semiconductor Most don't equate On Semiconductor ( ON 1.08% ) with AI, as its biggest business is in power chips for the automotive industry . Specifically, onsemi is the current leader in producing chips from silicon carbide (SiC), a material that's somewhat difficult to produce but is much more conductive and heat-resistant than traditional silicon. SiC is thought to be crucial for future electric vehicles (EVs), and given the big slowdown in the EV market, onsemi is down 20% on the year and 40% off its all-time highs. But with the extreme electricity demands of AI data centers and the latest AI chips generating tons of heat, silicon carbide is now making its way into power control systems for AI data centers, too. This year, onsemi unveiled its EliteSiC 650V MOSFET for AI data centers, and management has invested early to get behind this trend. While AI data centers are a small portion of onsemi's revenues today, look for that to get bigger over time. Meanwhile, onsemi doesn't just make power chips; it makes sensors, too, especially for intelligent sensing needed in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for modern cars and trucks. And while 2024 was a down-cycle year for the auto industry overall, onsemi did land several large and important customer wins, including a huge multiyear deal with Volkswagen , the largest automaker in the world by revenue, and deals with Subaru and Denso , the world's second-largest auto systems supplier. At just 16.5 times bottom-of-the-cycle earnings, look for onsemi to outperform when the auto and EV markets recover and the company's chips make their way into more AI applications.