📈ServiceTitan Shares Surge 42%

☀️Good morning. It's Friday, Dec. 13, and we're covering, Asian Stocks Drop As China’s Economic Conference Disappoints, OpenAI Unveils Real-Time Video Capabilities For ChatGPT, Biden Grants 39 Pardons And Commutes Nearly 1,500 Sentences, and much more. First time reading? Sign up to get this newsletter: Sign up here.  

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MARKETS

Cryptocurrency Prices by Market Cap

• The global cryptocurrency market cap today is $3.6 Trillion, a 1.16% decrease in the last 24 hours.

• The total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours is $204.13B, which makes a 5.32% decrease.

• The total volume in Defi is currently $21.27B, 10.42% of the total crypto market 24-hours.

• The volume of all stablecoins is now $188.86B, which is 92.52% of the total market 24-hour volume.

• Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 54.90%, an increase of 0.07% over the day.

BlackRock Recommends Bitcoin Allocation Of Up to 2% In Multi-Asset Portfolios

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has recommended that investors allocate up to 2% of their multi-asset portfolios to Bitcoin. In a recent report, BlackRock suggested that a 1% to 2% exposure to Bitcoin is a reasonable range for diversification. The company's Bitcoin-focused ETF, IBIT, has surpassed $50 billion in assets under management and recently overtook its gold ETF in total assets. (Read Deeper)

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Asian Stocks Drop As China’s Economic Conference Disappoints

Asian stocks fell on Friday, with a lack of detailed policy measures from China's recent economic conference disappointing traders and weakening risk appetite ahead of the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting. The regional market is set for its worst week in nearly a month, as Japanese and Australian shares declined following a sell-off on Wall Street. The S&P 500 dropped 0.5% on Thursday as traders assessed higher-than-expected jobless claims against unexpectedly high producer price data.

Takeaway: Chinese and Hong Kong shares saw declines after the Central Economic Work Conference offered few specifics on fiscal stimulus, despite promises to boost consumption. The dollar index remained largely unchanged, maintaining gains from the previous sessions, while Australian and New Zealand yields rose. In India, government data revealed that inflation cooled in November, offering some relief to the newly-appointed central bank chief. (Read Deeper)

ServiceTitan Shares Surge 42% In Nasdaq Debut Following $625 Million IPO

ServiceTitan's shares surged 42% in their Nasdaq debut, following an initial public offering (IPO) that raised $625 million. The company, which provides cloud software to contractors, sold shares at $71 each, above the expected range, and closed at $101 per share, valuing the company at approximately $8.9 billion. Despite a net loss of $47 million for the latest quarter, ServiceTitan saw 24% year-over-year revenue growth.

Takeaway: ServiceTitan, founded in 2007 by Ara Mahdessian and Vahe Kuzoyan, has developed software to help contractors manage sales, scheduling, and customer communications. The company’s successful debut provides a much-needed boost to the public market for tech companies, which have been slow to take the leap since 2021. (Read Deeper)

TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE

OpenAI Unveils Real-Time Video Capabilities For ChatGPT

OpenAI has introduced a new feature for ChatGPT, enabling it to process and respond to live video feeds. Revealed during a livestream event, the update lets ChatGPT recognize objects through a smartphone camera and provide spoken feedback in real time. Users can request assistance with tasks like replying to messages or following instructions based on video input. The feature will roll out first to ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers, with enterprise and educational access planned for January 2025.

Takeaway: This advancement marks another leap in the evolution of AI tools, as OpenAI continues to lead the push into multimodal capabilities that process and respond to audio, images, and now live video. Such features aim to create more engaging and practical digital assistants for users. The announcement is part of OpenAI's "12 Days of Product Launches," during which the company has unveiled several innovations. (Read Deeper)

Microsoft Unveils Phi-4, AI Model Focused On Math Problem-Solving

Microsoft has launched Phi-4, the latest model in its Phi series of small generative AI systems. With 14 billion parameters, Phi-4 is designed to excel in math problem-solving and benefits from improved training data quality, including synthetic datasets and post-training refinements. Currently available only for research on the Azure AI Foundry platform, it competes with other compact models like GPT-4o Mini and Gemini 2.0 Flash.

Takeaway: The release reflects a growing focus on synthetic data as traditional pre-training datasets reach their limits. This marks the first Phi-series launch since Sébastien Bubeck, a key developer, departed Microsoft for OpenAI. Phi-4 highlights Microsoft’s continued innovation in creating efficient, high-performing AI models. (Read Deeper)

AROUND DE WORLD & POLITICS

Biden Grants 39 Pardons And Commutes Nearly 1,500 Sentences

President Joe Biden has issued 39 presidential pardons and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 individuals, marking the most clemency acts in a single day. The pardons were granted to those convicted of non-violent crimes, including veterans and community leaders who had shown rehabilitation. The commuted sentences include those who served under home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic or had excessively long sentences.

Takeaway: The commuted sentences affected 1,499 individuals, many of whom had been placed under home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden stated that these individuals "deserve a second chance," referring to those whose sentences were deemed excessively long due to outdated laws. Biden’s clemency actions follow his controversial decision earlier this month to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who faced charges related to tax fraud and gun crimes. (Read Deeper)

WHO Report: High Healthcare Costs Push 150 Million Africans Into Poverty

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that high healthcare costs are driving over 150 million Africans into poverty, with more than 200 million experiencing financial strain due to out-of-pocket payments. Released on Universal Health Coverage Day, the report highlights that half of the global population impoverished by healthcare costs resides in Africa. Medicines and outpatient care are the main contributors to financial hardship, especially for vulnerable groups like rural and older populations.

Takeaway: From 2000 to 2019, the number of Africans making catastrophic health payments (over 10% of household income) nearly doubled. Despite global progress reducing healthcare-related poverty, Africa has seen slower improvement. In 2019, out-of-pocket expenses accounted for over 25% of health spending in 31 African countries, exceeding 50% in 11. WHO recommends urgent action, including government investment in healthcare, exemptions for poor populations, and expanded health insurance, to mitigate financial hardship. (Read Deeper)

ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

Taylor Swift Breaks Record As Most Decorated Artist At Billboard Awards

Taylor Swift made history at the Billboard Music Awards, becoming the most decorated artist in the event’s history with 10 wins, surpassing Drake. She won major awards such as Top Artist and Top Billboard 200 Album, along with Top Female Artist and Top Hot 100 Artist. This marks another milestone in her successful career, adding to her recent Grammy record. Zach Bryan followed with five wins, including Top Rock Artist, while Morgan Wallen and Shaboozey also earned multiple honors. (Read Deeper)

Postecoglou Criticises Werner’s Performance After Europa League Draw At Rangers

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou criticized Timo Werner's performance in the 1-1 Europa League draw against Rangers, calling it "not acceptable." Werner struggled in the first half, losing possession 16 times, failing to win any duels, and completing only 69% of his passes. He was replaced at halftime by Dejan Kulusevski, who scored the equalizer. Postecoglou emphasized that with limited squad depth, every player, including Werner, must contribute at a high level. (Read Deeper)

PODCAST(WHAT WE ARE LISTENING TO)

• Rejection can feel like the end of the road, but for some, it’s the beginning of a billion-dollar journey. After being turned away by Y Combinator four times, I turned my side hustle into a $1.16 billion success story. (Listen)

EXTRA BREVITI

• Meta has introduced a new AI model, Meta Motivo, aimed at improving the Metaverse experience by controlling the movements of human-like digital agents. (Read Deeper)

• Elon Musk's net worth has surpassed $400 billion, driven by a 71% surge in Tesla's stock this year and the growing valuation of SpaceX. ( Read More )

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reopened its investigation into Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain-chip startup. (Read More)

• The Global AIDS program's survival is indeed significant, indicating ongoing commitment to combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic on a global scale. ( Read More )