Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Donald Trump’s face-to-face meeting with Malcolm Turnbull. The Australian prime minister was the target of Trump’s ire during a phone call shortly after the US president’s inauguration. The two will meet in New York City to play nice and “reaffirm” their alliance.
HSBC reports quarterly earnings. Experts believe trading revenues will show continued improvement despite the uncertainty of Brexit.
Southeast Asian leaders meet with Rex Tillerson. The Association of South East Asian Nations will meet the US secretary of state in Washington, DC to discuss the US withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership, along with China’s ambitions in the South China Sea.
While you were sleeping
The FBI director is “mildly nauseous” that he might have helped elect Trump. James Comey testified that his decision to announce the reopening of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email was a difficult one. His intestinal discomfort came from the the idea he “might have had some impact on the election.”
Facebook exceeded expectations yet again. The tech giant’s quarterly results included a new record of 1.94 billion monthly active users, with revenue and profit higher than analysts projected. Earlier in the day, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the hiring of 3,000 workers to screen out objectionable content after a series of horrific videos were posted to Facebook.
Tesla’s loss widened as sales more than doubled. The electric carmaker said it’s on track to produce 5,000 of its mid-priced Model 3 sedans later this year, as it posted a $397.2 million first-quarter loss. Sales rose 123% to $2.3 billion.
Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron faced off in a televised debate. The two candidates tackled the EU, national security, and economics in a final showdown before the French presidential runoff election. Macron slammed Le Pen’s reactionary policies while the far-right candidate frequently interrupted him and called him arrogant.
The US Federal Reserve held steady. As expected, the Fed kept its benchmark target at 0.75% to 1%, indicating that future hikes will occur gradually. Officials noted that US economic activity has slowed and “household spending rose only modestly” in the last month.
Quartz obsession interlude
Josh Horwitz on Tencent’s secret advantage in artificial intelligence research. “Its flagship product, WeChat, is uniquely positioned to absorb users’ data … A core component of artificial intelligence research lies in teaching machines how to communicate with humans. And since it’s a chat app, WeChat is collecting countless messages each day that real people send to one another.” Read more here.
Markets haiku
Watching for murders / online. That’s one job better / given to robots.
Matters of debate
A woman’s higher status can hurt her marriage. But the odds of satisfaction are better if her spouse helps around the house.
Index funds are finally getting the respect they deserve. Human nature and hostility from Wall Street contributed to the delay.
The French election is nothing like Brexit or Trump. Marine Le Pen is much further behind in the polls.
Surprising discoveries
Autocratic leaders love building skyscrapers. Especially when they make no economic sense.
Private equity billionaires blame PR for their bad image. Attendees at an industry conference said their contributions to society are misunderstood.
Track and field authorities want to erase dozens of world records. They argue that a clean slate is needed due to insufficient anti-doping standards.
Some Canadian martinis were extra strong this month. Bombay Sapphire is issuing a recall for gin that was nearly twice as potent as advertised.
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