U.S. inflation falls to 6.5% / Hanwha Group invests $2.5B in Georgia / SEC charges Gemini and Genesis

Plus, Bitcoin rises above $19,000.

Inside.com Part of   Network January 12, 2023

Presented by

U.S. inflation fell to 6.5% in December, its sixth straight decline after peaking at 9.1% in June, and down from 7.1% reported in November. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 5.7% in December. More: Food prices rose 0.3% in December, and shelter rose 0.8%. Used car prices dropped 8.8% compared to last year. Airfare fell 3.1% in December but is still up nearly 30% YoY. U.S. stocks rose Thursday on the report, with the Dow gaining 217 points or 0.64%, the S&P 500 rising 0.34%, and the Nasdaq rising 0.64%.

South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group plans to invest $2.5B to build a solar-power manufacturing supply chain in the state of George. It is the largest foreign direct investment in U.S. solar manufacturing. More: Hanwha Group’s Qcells business plans to build solar manufacturing facilities in the Atlanta area that would manufacture 3.3 gigawatts of solar panels annually. This represents roughly 18% of U.S. solar demand in 2022. Qcells plans to manufacture all the main components that go into solar panels at the new facility, including solar cells, ingots, and wafers. These items are currently not produced in the U.S. Qcells already has a panel facility in Georgia; this new investment would add 2 gigawatts of solar-manufacturing capacity to its other Georgia location. The company plans to have both locations operational by 2025.

A message from MASTERWORKS $17.7 Billion Year Highlights Safe Haven Asset  For 2023, investors have one New Year's resolution: Stop. Losing. Money. From “transitory” inflation, to millennial Bernie Madoff, 2022 was a wild ride in the markets. That is, except for one market. The blue-chip art market. In fact, art auctions hauled in nearly $18 billion in 2022. The best year ever in a 277-year old market – all while financial markets tanked.  Now you’re probably wondering: “That's great, but how can someone like me get in on the action?” The answer is easily, with Masterworks.  Masterworks securitizes artworks by qualifying offerings with the SEC, allowing YOU to invest in shares of multi-million dollar paintings by names like Banksy.  Masterworks has also built a solid track record with all 11 of their exits netting a profit, the last 3 realizing +13.9%, +17.8%, and +21.5% net returns each. Inside readers can skip the waitlist to join. Skip The Waitlist See important Regulation A disclosures.

In a new Substack post, FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried denied federal allegations that he embezzled $8B in customer assets. Bankman-Fried claimed that the collapse of his hedge fund Alameda Research was due to the larger market downtown. More: Bankman-Fried compared the performance of FTX’s FTT tokens to that of Tesla stock and Bitcoin. Bankman-Fried is facing eight federal charges, including fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance charges. His trial is set to begin in October. Bankman-Fried also faces lawsuits from the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In the essay, Bankman-Fried claims FTX.US is solvent and that he doesn’t understand why U.S. customers haven’t gotten back their assets held in the company.

The SEC has charged crypto firms Gemini and Genesis for selling unregistered securities related to a high-yield product offered to customers. Gemini is a crypto exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins. Genesis is owned by Digital Currency Group and is led by Barry Silbert. More: Last week, Gemini President Cameron Winklevoss, in an open letter, accused Silbert of engaging in “bad faith stalling tactics.” The two exchanged words on Twitter over the $900M in Gemini customer assets frozen in Genesis’ Earn accounts. Following FTX’s collapse, Genesis halted new loan originations and redemptions. Gemini also suspended redemptions. The SEC estimated the account freezes have impacted more than 340,000 investors.

JPMorgan has shut down Frank, the college financial aid platform it spent $175M to purchase in 2021. The bank accuses Frank’s founder of creating about 4 million fake customer accounts. JPMorgan bought Frank aiming to strengthen its relationship with college students. More: JPMorgan said it discovered the fake accounts months after the purchase agreement was finalized. JPMorgan said it sent marketing emails to a batch of 400,000 Frank customers, and about 70% of the emails bounced back. JPMorgan filed a lawsuit in December accusing Frank founder Charlie Javice and another executive, Olivier Amar, of using fake customer accounts to mislead it. JPMorgan said it believed it was paying for a business deeply engaged with the college-aged market segment with 4.265 million customers. The bank said it received a business with less than 300,000 customers.

Walmart is partnering with Salesforce to offer its technology and services to other retailers. Walmart plans to offer its GoLocal delivery service, which drops off purchases at customers’ doors, and Store Assist, which helps employees accurately pick and pack orders for curbside pickup and delivery. More: Walmart will offer these services through Salesforce and on Walmart’s app store for businesses. Walmart CTO Suresh Kumar said the deal would help the retail giant improve its customer experience. Walmart launched its GoLocal service in 2021, and clients include Home Depot and Chico’s. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Quick Hits Delight your family, guests, or team like never before with Vestaboard, the award-winning messaging display. Learn more.* Prince Harry’s book “Spare” sold more than 1.4 million copies in the U.S., U.K., and Canada on its first release day. Publisher Penguin Random House said it is the largest first-day sales total for any nonfiction book it has ever published. The price of Bitcoin rose above $19,000 on Thursday for the first time since November 2022. The cryptocurrency is down more than 70% from its November 2021 all-time high of $68,990. Fast food chain Subway is exploring a sale that could value the company at more than $10B.  Lucid Group produced more vehicles in 2022 than expected. The luxury EV maker made more than 7,100 vehicles in 2022. The company had projected to produce 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles for the entire year. There’s a new email automation strategy that’s helping mailers double, even triple, their email open rates.* *This is sponsored content.

Upcoming Events January 12 - AMA with Gun.io - Building and managing software development teams w/ Deividi Silva (Watch On Demand) January 13 - AMA with LinearB - Improving workflow for developers w/ Ori Keren (Watch On Demand) January 16 - Inside Marketing Coffee Break (Register Here) January 18 - Inside Interview with Lacework - 4 Common Attack Paths in Cloud Security (Register Here) January 25 - Amanda Natividad speaks on zero-click content, how to measure it, and other trends to keep tabs on in 2023. (Register Here) * January 26 - Growth Experimentation Workshop: From Strategy to Process by GrowthHackers.com (Register Here) February 23 - Startups Book Club, February 2023 (Join The Club) *This is a sponsored listing.

Vanessa Omeokachie is a writer for Inside.com; she writes the daily Inside Business newsletter. Her interests include finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending concerts and music festivals, traveling, and exploring.  Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or on LinkedIn. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

Discover how to invest in the recession-resistant art market with 10-30% historical returns with Masterworks.

767 Bryant St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94107 Copyright © 2023 Inside.com

Did someone forward this email to you? Head over to inside.com to get your very own free subscription! You received this email because you subscribed to Inside Business. Click here to unsubscribe from Inside Business list or manage your subscriptions.