TOP NEWS

• Meta takes aim at Twitter with Threads app, millions join

Meta Platforms on Wednesday launched a direct challenge to Twitter with Threads, garnering millions of users in
hours as it sought to take advantage of its rival's much-weakened state after a series of chaotic decisions from
owner Elon Musk.

• Yellen kicks off China visit with both sides locked in confrontation
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in Beijing to begin a four-day visit expected to focus on recalibrating
ties between the world's two largest economies, although both sides have low expectations for the outcome.

• Order limiting Biden officials' social media outreach on shaky legal ground, experts say
A federal judge's order restricting Biden administration officials from contacting social media companies about
moderating their content will face tough legal challenges on appeal, experts said

• Google accuses India antitrust body of protecting Amazon in Android probe

Google has accused India's antitrust body of ordering changes to its business model "only to protect" rival
Amazon, which complained about its struggles to develop a modified version of the Android system due to
Google's restrictions, legal papers show.

• Venture capital funding plunges globally in first half despite AI frenzy

Venture capital funding globally almost halved in the first six months of 2023, data from research firm PitchBook
showed, highlighting a lack of enthusiasm on the part of investors as well as less demand amid sharply higher
interest rates.

BEFORE THE BELL

U.S. stock index futures slid as investors digested minutes of the Federal Reserve's June meeting, while eyeing
the jobs data scheduled for release later in the day. European shares slumped as heightened concerns about an
economic slowdown and further rate hikes globally dented risk sentiment. Japan's Nikkei closed at a more than
one-week low, dragged down by chip-related firms. Hong Kong stocks fell 3%, tracking weakness in regional
markets and escalation in Sino-U.S. tensions. The dollar weakened, while gold prices rose. Oil prices were
steady as markets juggled supply and demand outlook.

STOCKS TO WATCH

Moves
• Vimeo Inc: The video-hosting platform Vimeo said on Wednesday that its CEO Anjali Sud will leave the company
next month to pursue other opportunities. Sud, a former Amazon executive, who joined the company nine years
ago as director of marketing, was at the helm of Vimeo for the past six years. Board member Adam Gross, a
former Salesforce and Dropbox executive, will take over as interim CEO, effective Sept. 1, while the company
looks for a permanent replacement.

In Other News
• Alphabet Inc & Amazon.com Inc: Google has accused India's antitrust body of ordering changes to its business
model "only to protect" rival Amazon, which complained about its struggles to develop a modified version of the
Android system due to Google's restrictions, legal papers show. Amazon told the CCI during the investigation that
Google's restrictions hindered development of its Android fork called Fire OS, and Google said the watchdog

REFINITIV' ~
1 Afl LSEG BUSIM31
MORNING NEWS CALL - U.S. EDITION July 6, 2023

unfairly relied on that in passing its adverse decision against it, the company said in the June 26 Supreme Court
filing. Separately, two lawmakers called on PwC Australia to name all the companies it sought to advise on the
basis of leaked government tax plans, after a report linked Google to the national scandal first exposed in January.

• American Airlines Group Inc & JetBlue Airways Corp: JetBlue Airways, seeking to protect a planned $3.8
billion purchase of Spirit Airlines, said on Wednesday it would follow a U.S. judge's May order that it end an
alliance with American Airlines. The New York-based carrier said while it "strongly" disagrees, it would not appeal
the court's ruling. JetBlue said terminating its alliance with American renders "entirely moot" the U.S. Justice
Department's (DOJ) objections that led it to file suit to block its merger deal with Spirit, which would be the biggest
in the U.S. airline industry since American and US Airways merged in 2013.

• Bank of America Corp: The bank said on Wednesday it planned to increase its quarterly common stock
dividend to 24 cents per share from 22 cents per share beginning in the third quarter of 2023. BofA, unlike other
major U.S. banks, had held back a decision on the dividend last week. BofA had cited a dialogue with the Fed to
understand differing results between the central bank's stress test and the companies' own under the Dodd-Frank
Act. The Fed's annual test showed major lenders, including BofA, have enough capital to weather a severe
economic slump, paving the way for them to buy back shares and issue dividends.

• Bank of Montreal: Abu Dhabi state holding firm ADQ and the Canadian bank plans to acquire minority equity
stakes in Sagard, a global multi-strategy alternative asset management firm with $14.5 billion in assets, they said
in a joint statement. As part of the deal, Canadian insurance-centered financial holding firm Great-West Lifeco will
increase an existing minority stake, they said, helping to drive Sagard's future growth, including mergers and
acquisitions. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to regulatory approvals. Power
Corporation of Canada will remain the controlling shareholder of Sagard.

• Barrick Gold Corp: The company's Tongon mine in Ivory Coast will continue operating until at least 2030
following a significant discovery of new deposits, its director general said. Barrick Gold planned to process gold
mined in Boundiali in Tongon. But the company is considering building a new mine in Boundiali in 2025 if the
deposit turns out to be larger than the one in Tongo, he added. The mine's output is expected to rise above
200,000 ounces of gold in 2023 and continue to increase gradually until at least 2026, Diarra said.

• Booking Holdings Inc: The online travel agency will on Friday try to convince European Union antitrust
regulators to allow its 1.63 billion euro acquisition of Sweden's Etraveli Group, despite concerns it could hurt
competition. Booking announced its bid for peer Etraveli, owner of the brands Gotogate and Mytrip and operator of
airline content distribution services provider TripStack, in November 2021. The European Commission said last
month the deal will make it harder for rivals to compete with market leader Booking, by reinforcing its position in
hotels and further expanding its reach into travel services like flights and car rentals. Booking's brands include
Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable.

• Coty Inc: The company said there will be no discussion of a Gucci licence deal in the next five years. "There will
be no discussion on the renewal of any of our licences before at least 5 years,” Coty CEO Sue Naby told
journalists in response to a question about whether Kering could take back a licence for beauty products for its
fashion label Gucci. Kering last week announced a deal to buy high end fragrance label Creed, marking its first
major step in building an in-house cosmetics business. Coty, which is exploring a secondary listing in Paris, is
holding an investor day in the French capital Thursday.

• Exxon Mobil Corp: Exxon Mobil on Wednesday signaled second-quarter operating profits fell sharply on lower
natural gas prices and weaker oil refining margins, according to a regulatory filing. Operating earnings dropped to
about $7.8 billion from $17.85 billion a year earlier, when surging oil and gas prices after Russia's invasion of
Ukraine boosted global energy results to record levels. Exxon's second-quarter outlook also slipped from record
first quarter profit of $11.4 billion, according to a Reuters compilation of estimates by business units. Results from
pumping oil and gas - Exxon's largest and most profitable business - fell about $2.2 billion from the $6.5 billion
delivered in the first quarter, the tally showed. Lower natural gas prices reduced operating profit by about $2 billion,
the filing showed. Additionally, Guyana's environmental regulator on Wednesday granted an Exxon Mobil-led
consortium approval to drill 35 new offshore exploration and appraisal wells as the group looks to expand its
production successes in the South American country.

• Meta Platforms Inc: The company on Wednesday launched a direct challenge to Twitter with Threads, garnering
millions of users in hours as it sought to take advantage of its rival's much-weakened state after a series of chaotic
decisions from owner Elon Musk. Those quick to join the new platform included celebrities such as Kim
Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez as well as prominent politicians such as Democratic U.S. Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Analysts have said Threads' ties to Instagram might give it a built-in user base and

REFINITIV. ~
2 An LSEG Business
MORNING NEWS CALL - U.S. EDITION July 6, 2023

advertising apparatus. That could siphon ad dollars from Twitter at a time when its new CEO is trying to revive its
struggling business. Much like Twitter, the app features short text posts that users can like, re-post and reply to,
although it does not include any direct message capabilities. Posts can be up to 500 characters long and include
links, photos and videos up to five minutes long, according to a Meta blog post.

• Microsoft Corp: ChatGPT's creator OpenAI plans to invest significant resources and create a new research
team that will seek to ensure its artificial intelligence remains safe for humans - eventually using AI to supervise
itself, it said on Wednesday. OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, is dedicating 20% of the compute power it has secured
over the next four years to solving this problem, they wrote. In addition, the company is forming a new team that
will organize around this effort, called the Superalignment team. The team's goal is to create a "human-level" AI
alignment researcher, and then scale it through vast amounts of compute power. OpenAI says that means they will
train AI systems using human feedback, train AI systems to assistant human evaluation, and then finally train AI
systems to actually do the alignment research. Separately, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said that the
metaverse, shared virtual worlds accessible via the internet, has not triggered any concerns so far or the need for
legislation to rein it in.

• Nokia Oyj: India's Reliance Jio Infocomm is likely to sign a contract worth $1.7 billion with Nokia this week to
purchase 5G network equipment, the Economic Times reported, citing people aware of the matter. The contract
could be signed as early as Thursday in Helsinki, Finland, where Nokia is headquartered, the report added. The
telecom arm of Reliance Industries had chosen Nokia as a major supplier in October last year as Jio geared up to
expand wireless services in India. The Economic Times said that HSBC, JP Morgan and Citigroup are among
those backing Jio's 5G-related purchases, while European export credit agency Finnvera will be issuing
guarantees to the lenders to extend offshore loans to Jio.

• NXP Semiconductors NV: The company said it expects no material impact on its business from new Chinese
export curbs on certain gallium and germanium products. “We have conducted an initial review of the Chinese
government’s announced plans to restrict exports of gallium and germanium. At this time, we do not anticipate a
material impact to NXP’s business,” the chipmaker said in an emailed statement. NXP, which is listed on Nasdaq
but headquartered in the Netherlands, makes some chips for the auto and communications sectors using gallium
or germanium.

• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd: The world's largest contract chipmaker, said it does not expect
any direct impact on its production from China's decision to restrict exports of two metals widely used in
semiconductors and electric vehicles. In a move that a top Chinese trade adviser warned was "just a start," Beijing
said on Monday it would limit exports of products made from the minor metals of gallium and germanium to protect
national security. "After evaluation, we do not expect the export restrictions on raw materials gallium and
germanium will have any direct impact on TSMC's production," Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co said in
an emailed statement.

• Ternium SA: The steelmaker said on Wednesday it had resumed operations at an iron ore mine in Mexico after
a more than five-month hiatus sparked by clashes between the firm and local community over the disappearance
of two environmental activists. "We have received a request to restart our operations from the community," the firm
said in a statement, adding the company had a respectful relation with the missing activists, who were both
community leaders. The activists, Antonio Diaz and Ricardo Lagunes, had voiced concerns in the past over the
harmful impact of the Aquila mine in western Michoacan state. Ternium has its permits in order, and resuming
operations will allow the community to benefit again from the mine's royalties, the company said.

• Toyota Motor Corp: The Japanese automaker plans to suspend operations at a packaging line for export-bound
components on Friday, the automaker said on Thursday, after a cyberattack at Japan's biggest port triggered a
system glitch and stalled work for more than two days. The port of Nagoya in central Japan, where Toyota exports
most of its cars, was hit by a ransomware attack on Tuesday morning and was unable to load and unload
containers from trailers. Toyota said it will decide whether to resume operations at the packaging plant based on
the port's operational status. At this point, the automaker foresees no immediate impact on operations at its
overseas vehicle plants.

POLL
Dollar to stay firm on expectations of resilient US economy
The U.S. dollar will hold its ground against most major currencies for the rest of the year despite expectations of
narrowing interest rate differentials as the U.S. economy stays resilient, according to FX strategists polled by
Reuters.

REFINITIV. ~
3 An LSEG Business
MORNING NEWS CALL - U.S. EDITION July 6, 2023

ANALYSTS' RECOMMENDATION
• Affirm Holdings Inc: Piper Sandler cuts rating to underweight from neutral, expecting tighter underwriting
standards, increased pricing, and the re-introduction of student debt payments to cause an incremental slowdown
in revenue growth of the company over the next year.

• American Equity Investment Life Holding Co: RBC raises target to $55 from $50, viewing the company's deal
to be acquired by Brookfield for $55/share as fair and justifiable to AEL shareholders.

• CoStar Group Inc: RBC raises target price to $95 from $85, saying it expects 2Q23 results and 3Q23 guidance
to be roughly in line with consensus and the company to reiterate FY23 guidance.

• Eastman Chemical Co: Piper Sandler cuts target price to $96 from $99, based on a slower trajectory for
recovery in key regional markets in Asia and the Europe, as well as some degree of margin erosion over the last
few months.

• Walmart Inc: Evercore ISI raises target price to $175 from $172, citing defensive growth with rising traffic, and
margin expansion potential.

ECONOMIC EVENTS (All timings in U.S. Eastern Time)

0815 ADP national employment for June: Expected 228,000; Prior 278,000
0830 International trade for May: Expected -$69.0 bln; Prior -$74.6 bln
0830 Goods trade balance (R) for May: Prior -$91.13 bln
0830 Initial jobless claims: Expected 245,000; Prior 239,000
0830 Jobless claims 4-week average: Prior 257,500
0830 Continued jobless claims: Expected 1.745 mln; Prior 1.742 mln
0945 S&P Global Composite Final PMI for June: Prior 53.0
0945 S&P Global Services Final PMI for June: Prior 54.1
1000 ISM N-Manufacturing PMI for June: Expected 51.0; Prior 50.3
1000 ISM N-Manufacturing Business Activity for June: Expected 51.9; Prior 51.5
1000 ISM N-Manufacturing Employment Index for June: Prior 49.2
1000 ISM N-Manufacturing New Orders Index for June: Prior 52.9
1000 ISM N-Manufacturing Price Paid Index for June: Prior 56.2
1000 JOLTS Job openings for May: Expected 9.935 mln; Prior 10.103 mln

CORPORATE EVENTS (All timings in U.S. Eastern Time)

1000 Iveric Bio Inc: Shareholders Meeting
1700 Kura Sushi USA Inc: Q3 earnings conference call
1700 Levi Strauss & Co: Q2 earnings conference call

EX-DIVIDENDS
American Eagle Outfitters Inc: Amount $0.10
American Express Co: Amount $0.60
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co: Amount $0.57
ChampionX Corp: Amount $0.08
Encore Wire Corp: Amount $0.02
General Dynamics Corp: Amount $1.32
Gentex Corp: Amount $0.12
Korn Ferry: Amount $0.18
Lennar Corp: Amount $0.37
Main Street Capital Corp: Amount $0.23
Marvell Technology Inc: Amount $0.06
Mastercard Inc: Amount $0.57
Morningstar Inc: Amount $0.37
NetApp Inc: Amount $0.50

REFINITIV. ~
4 An LSEG Business
MORNING NEWS CALL - U.S. EDITION July 6, 2023

Progressive Corp: Amount $0.10

Royal Gold Inc: Amount $0.37
Sysco Corp: Amount $0.50
Thor Industries Inc: Amount $0.45
Toll Brothers Inc: Amount $0.21

(All analysts' estimates are according to I/B/E/S Refinitiv data)

REFINITIV. ~
5 An LSEG Business