The EU’s tough new moderation rules are about to cover a lot more of the internet
The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a tough new piece of regulation that imposes new rules around content moderation and online advertising, is about to expand to cover huge swathes of the internet. Starting February 17th, the rules will apply to every online platform with users in the EU, in addition to the 19 Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) that have had to comply with the rules since last August. The DSA’s obligations include a ban on targeting underage users with ads based on their personal data, and targeting anyone based on sensitive data like sexual preferences or religious beliefs. When it comes to content moderation, sites will have to provide a reason to users when their content or account has been moderated, and offer them a way of complaining and challenging the decision. There are also rules around giving users the ability to flag illegal goods and services found on a platform. source : theverge
Productivity Gap
The US has remained ahead of the EU in labour productivity since the mid-1980s, with the gap growing between the US and EU in the early 2000s as mass adoption of information technology took off.
Tech Funds are on track to see inflows of $85 billion this year, an all-time high
source: BofA, barchart
Bitcoin is over $50k and retail trading volume on Coinbase is still 85% off its high.
Source: Bloomberg, Sam Callahan
Energy is the most de-correlated sector to Tech.
Source: BNP
There's two hotbeds for re-export of western goods to Russia in Central Asia and the Caucasus: Armenia (top left) and Georgia (bottom left).
Armenia stands out for massive direct exports to Russia (black), Georgia for a huge surge in exports to Russia's satellite economies blue). Source: Robin Brooks
On Wednesday, Nvidia, $NVDA, will report their Q4 2023 earnings results.
Since their last earnings report, on November 21st, the stock has gained an incredible 45% in value. Over these 3 months, the stock has added $600 BILLION in market cap. In other words, Nvidia has added an average of $10 billion PER TRADING DAY since their last earnings report. Can Nvidia continue its historic run? Source: The Kobeissi Letter
Six weeks into 2024, the bond market is struggling ... again.
YTD total return (through Feb 16) of the Bloomberg Agg Bond Index is -2.04% (blue line). Only 1980, 2018, and 2022 had a worse start. (Data started in 1976, so this is the 49th year of data). Source: Jim Bianco, Bianco Research
