🌏 Trump’s Wall Street watchdog picks

Good morning, Quartz readers!

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Federal Reserve has big banks doing a delicate balancing act. Their net interest income number will reveal the quality of strategies for dealing with lower rates.

The Super Bowl is coming to Telemundo. It’s part of an NFL push to cultivate more Spanish-speaking fans.

Boeing is seeking to raise as much as $35 billion. It needs the cash to ride out a machinists’ strike that is in its second month.

Meanwhile, the planemaker is about to send out thousands of pink slips. Boeing is blaming the strike for layoffs affecting 10% of its workforce.

Taylor Swift is about to kick off a massive wave of Target runs. The singer is giving the retailer an exclusive sales window for a book detailing her Eras tour experience.

Who might Trump tap to be Wall Street’s watchdog?

The president of the United States makes a lot of decisions that affect the business community. Perhaps one of the biggest ones is picking someone to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees markets in everything from bonds to Bitcoin.

Donald Trump’s top picks for the job include a bumper crop of figures with ties to the world of cryptocurrency. Considering that Trump and his family have their own ties to the world of crypto — namely his sons’ World LIberty Financial project — the decision is likely of outsized importance to him.

Quartz’s William Gavin runs down some of the names in line to be SEC chair, among them a Robinhood executive and a regulator-cum-influencer known as “CryptoDad.” 

America doesn’t want to share its chips

There’s another conflict developing in the Middle East. It’s not about oil or territory or human rights, but semiconductors from the likes of Nvidia and AMD.

The U.S. government is weighing whether to limit exports of computer chips to countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Such a cap would come as those countries ramp up their own AI industries, with all the data center needs that would come with them.

What are the factors that might bring on a chip crunch abroad? Quartz’s Britney Nguyen explains the shift in U.S. foreign policy.

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SURPRISING DISCOVERIES

People really want to be in a union these days. The National Labor Relations board says election requests have more than doubled since 2021.

Luxury conglomerates are getting majorly undercut — by their own products. So-called “grey market” resellers buy goods that cost less in some countries and flip them in countries where they cost more. (paywall)

A feted pair of diplomats just made their way to Washington D.C. China sent a pair of pandas to the capital for the first time in 24 years after the last set left in November.

Starbucks sells more cold drinks than hot ones these days. Some analysts estimate the imbalance is skewed as much as 70-30. (paywall)

Baseball owners figured out how to lose less money on “horrible” contracts. They’re buying insurance policies that pay out if players play below expectations. (paywall)

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Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, SEC chair choices, and union election requests to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Melvin Backman and Kevin Ryan.