Be in the know. 12 key reads for Friday…

  1. Advent and Stripe Abandon $50 Billion Pursuit of PayPal (bloomberg)
  2. PayPal Stock Drops 14% on Bid Collapse. 2 Reasons Its Turnaround Could Pay Off. (barrons)
  3. MiniMax boosts Alibaba cloud budget 220% to fuel next-gen AI models (scmp)
  4. Alibaba pushes into South America’s AI market with launch of Brazil data centres (scmp)
  5. Meituan Returns to Profit as Food-Delivery Competition Eases (wsj)
  6. China’s CXMT posts massive 870% revenue surge as ‘aggressive expansion’ pays off (scmp)
  7. Chinese Carmakers Grow Market Share in Europe With Hybrid Surge (bloomberg)
  8. FDA approves Pfizer-BioNTech XFG-targeted Covid-19 vaccine (investing)
  9. Trump Administration in Advanced Talks for Stake in Venezuelan Oil Fields (wsj)
  10. Ulta Beauty Raises Forecast as Sales Grow (wsj)
  11. Pimco Says ‘Too Much, Too Fast’ AI Debt Is Stoking Bond Yields (bloomberg)
  12. Why ‘equal weight’ S&P 500 funds are having a moment—and are up almost 16% this year alone (yahoo)