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Meta's threads draws advertiser interest and Twitter's IR,

plus warning signs for lenders ahead of next week's bank earnings.

Profits at these smaller lenders are expected to decline 23% this year,

and these sorts of banks are especially dependent on the interest income, which is the key way that

they make money. So across the board it's expected to be a really a tough environment, especially

for community banks. And we mark 100 days since the detention of our colleague, Evan Gershkowicz.

It's Friday, July 7th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM Edition

of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

The new micro-blogging app Threads from Facebook, parent Meta, has signed up more than 30 million

users in less than 24 hours. It has surged to the top of App Store download charts and become

a trending topic on Twitter, the social network that it hopes to upend. And while Threads is

for now, advertiser free, several ad agency executives expect that it could hold an edge over

competitors given its connection to Meta's existing ecosystem. However, our global tech editor,

Jason Dean, told me it's unclear just how much revenue could be on the table.

Twitter, the incumbent in this form of social media, has only ever, I think,

topped out around $5 billion in revenue the year before Musk bought it. That's not insignificant

to a company of Meta's size. It had $116 plus billion in revenue last year. So, in terms of a real

needle mover for Meta, they will have to get a lot of advertisers interested. This type of social

media platform, Twitter just has never taken off as an advertiser medium the way that Facebook

...