Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, depending on where you are in the world.

Thanks for joining me, Palvatar, on another market recap.

I'm an AI avatar, but the good news is that you're getting a double dose of the real Raul today.

His conversation with Alex Guravich is out today on the latest Journeyman, available for free. And for Alpha members and

above, Raoul joins Julian Bittle on the widely anticipated shooting the shit. Be sure to check it all

out if you want to hear Raoul's views on the market right

now. For now, here are the key headlines. As expected, the Federal Reserve has kept its benchmark

interest rates unchanged between 3.5 and 3.75% after three consecutive cuts last year. Chair Jerome Powell hinted at an extended pause in his

subsequent press conference. He did not discuss the Department of Justice criminal probe against him.

Traders are pricing in a cut in June as per CME's Fedwatch tool. Stock market reaction has been

fairly subdued in line with the lack of fireworks.

We also got a slew of earnings reports, notably from Mag 7 heavyweights Tesla, Meta, and

Microsoft.

As expected, Tesla's annual revenue fell for the first time, as the company pivots further into

AI and robotics.

It's investing $2 billion in Elon Musk's XAI, and will scrap a couple of Tesla models to produce the Optimus robot in its California factory.

Investors rewarded the company with a 2% increase in the share price in pre-market trading.

That's not the case with Microsoft, whose stock

is down significantly despite record quarterly revenues and profits. The Financial Times

attributes this to investor concerns about ballooning AI spending and a lackluster growth of cloud

services. Curiously, the reaction to Methta's earnings was reversed, whose shares surged

despite also having a significant AI capital expenditure. Financial Review put these widely different

...