Is the economy doing just fine?

Economy appears to be doing just fine: The Commerce Department reported US gross domestic product grew 4.9% in the third quarter, the fastest economic growth since 2021 (Axios)

Bitcoin futures are booming: Since launching its bitcoin futures product in 2017, The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has hit a record level of open interest in recent days, with 20,000 contracts, or effectively $3.4 billion in notional exposure (Axios)

Good Meta: Theads, Meta’s competitor to Elon Musk’s X has hit “just under” 100 million monthly users since it was released in early July, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday during his company’s quarterly earnings call. (Verge)

Bad Meta: Shares in Meta Platforms (META) fell 3.7% after the company warned about weaker spending on advertisements outweighing forecast-beating sales and profits. (Barrons)

Amazon beats: Amazon’s (AMZN) profit tripled to nearly $10 billion from July to September due to strong sales in its cloud-computing, advertising and retail units. The company’s revenue increased by 13% to $143.1 billion for Q3, beating Wall Street expectations. Shares rose 3%. (WSJ)

Apple Watches banned: A US federal trade agency found that Apple (AAPL) violated the patent of Masimo (MASI) in a ruling that could lead to an import ban for models of the company’s smartwatch; Biden administration has 60 days to overrule the trade commission’s decision. (Reuters)

Offer to take giant Hollywood agency private: Private-equity giant Silver Lake said it is working on a proposal to take private Endeavor Group Holdings (EDR), the owner of talent agencies WME and IMG. (Deadline)

Deliveries shrink: UPS (UPS) cut its 2023 revenue forecast for the second straight quarter yesterday as delivery demand continued to soften ahead of the key holiday season; shares sank 5% to the lowest level in three years (Yahoo)

Song fund restructuring: Hipgnosis (HPGSF) – the company that spent $2 billion for song assets by Neil Young, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc – is facing an uncertain future as 80% of its investors voted for major structural changes and rejected a proposal to sell off $440 million of its 65k-song catalog. (Variety)

Killings in the U.S. are dropping at a historic rate. Will anyone notice? (Los Angeles Times)

Inside ICE’s Database for Finding ‘Derogatory’ Online Speech (404 Media)

Sodium batteries offer an alternative to tricky lithium (Economist)

This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI (MIT Technology Review)