2024 Olympics: Paris Prepares for Sporting Spectacle Amid Challenges

Wall Street Breakfast: The Five Rings

The 2024 Paris Olympics are set to kick off today, with the opening ceremony taking place under a backdrop of heavy security. Tens of thousands of officers and soldiers have been deployed for the waterborne opening along the Seine, with a flotilla of boats scheduled to carry athletes representing 206 countries and territories. There have already been some security incidents ahead of the big show, with arson attacks disrupting France's high-speed rail system and many train routes being canceled along the network. Corporate angle: The Games will offer a big stage for U.S. companies associated with the Olympic Partner Program, like Airbnb (ABNB), Coca-Cola (KO), Intel (INTC), Procter & Gamble (PG) and Visa (V). The last time around, American sponsors shied away from the spotlight during the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, facing pressure over abuses related to China's minority Uyghur population, along with other human rights issues and authoritarian control. The U.S. government even boycotted the event by barring diplomatic personnel, causing many firms to lie low in their Olympic-themed commercials. There are big viewership opportunities, with billions of people estimated to tune in globally, creating a "catalyst for sports and sportswear and more awareness across a broad base of categories," according to analysts at Bernstein. For the host country, it can also offer greater visibility for tourism and foreign investment, as well as a chance to get big-ticket infrastructure projects over the line, though more nations have been sitting things out. In fact, the IOC was left with just two bidders (Paris and Los Angeles) for the latest Olympics and ended up awarding slots to both cities in 2024 and 2028. The economics: The price tag to host the Games has increased in recent years as more sports were added, requiring more new venues and related housing to accommodate athletes. White elephant stadiums have been seen in host cities, while many transportation and development upgrades have also soured, despite pledges to use existing facilities and avoid huge construction costs. "There has never been an Olympic Games that has made a profit," noted Robert Barney, director of the International Center for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario. "Fold in all the costs and revenues, including federal allotments, municipal allotments, provincial or state allotments, it's always been that a debt has to be paid somewhere." Former President Donald Trump, who once called bitcoin (BTC-USD) a scam, is set to show his support for the crypto industry this weekend as he headlines the world's largest bitcoin conference. Trump, as well as running mate J.D. Vance, have ramped up promises of lighter crypto regulation, as opposed to the Biden administration's crackdown that has upset the industry. Their campaign has even raised over $4M through crypto donations so far. Crypto sentiment has improved in July, benefiting in part from the "Trump Trade," with bitcoin up another 5% this morning to $67,200. (9 comments) U.S. GDP rose at an annualized rate of 2.8% in Q2, topping the +2.0% consensus estimate, and accelerating from Q1's 1.4% growth. The new data highlighted a resilient consumer and solid economic growth, while reflecting more business spending in the face of worries. The initial GDP estimate also seemed to suggest that inflation is continuing to subside, but slowly. Investors will get confirmation of that today as the Fed's favorite inflation gauge will provide a better picture of underlying price pressures and trends. (107 comments) JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has reportedly given asset and wealth management staff access to an in-house generative AI product that can do work like one of their own. The ChatGPT-like large language model, called LLM Suite, can help employees with writing, idea generation and summarizing documents. "Think of LLM Suite as a research analyst that can offer information, solutions and advice on a topic," JPMorgan said in an internal memo. CEO Jamie Dimon previously said the bank's AI use may "reduce certain job categories or roles, but it may create others as well." (6 comments)

Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: 2024 Olympics: Game On!

Here come the 2024 Olympic Games: Faster, Higher, Stronger and Debt. (00:25) OpenAI (MSFT) begins testing AI-powered search; GOOG slips. (01:34) Southwest Airlines (LUV) ditches open seating model to offer assigned seats in major policy shift. (02:48) The 2024 Paris Olympics are set to kick off today, with the opening ceremony taking place under a backdrop of heavy security. The Games will offer a big stage for U.S. companies associated with the Olympic Partner program, like Airbnb (ABNB), Coca-Cola (KO), Intel (INTC), Procter & Gamble (PG) and Visa (NYSE:V). The last time around, American sponsors shied away from the spotlight during the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. They faced pressure over human rights issues and authoritarian control. The U.S. government even boycotted the event by barring diplomatic personnel, causing many firms to lie low in their Olympic-themed commercials. According to analysts at Bernstein, there are big viewership opportunities for the 2024 Olympics with billions of people estimated to tune in globally, creating a "catalyst for sports and sportswear and more awareness across a broad base of categories." We're taking a closer look at the economics of the Games in the Wall Street Breakfast newsletter. Microsoft-backed (NASDAQ:MSFT) OpenAI has started testing SearchGPT, a prototype of new search features that combines its artificial intelligence models with information from the web. It's currently only available to a select group of users and publishers to acquire feedback. Those interested in signing up on the waiting list can go here. Google fell 3% on Thursday. Although there have been concerns that generative-AI search engines could affect publishers and content creators, OpenAI has addressed this issue. "Responses have clear, in-line, named attribution and links, so users know where information is coming from and can quickly engage with even more results in a sidebar with source links," OpenAI said. The number of gen-AI powered search engines is expanding. This week, Microsoft revealed it is adding gen-AI capabilities to Bing. Search leader Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) unleashed AI Overviews in May. Google continues to dominate the internet search race, accounting for 87% of all searches, according to the most recent data by Statista. Bing ranked second with 8%. And finally...this was all over social media on Thursday and people had very strong feelings one way or the other. You won't need to try to check-in on a Southwest Airlines flight the moment check-in is available to get group A or B seating. That's because Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) will begin offering assigned seats in a bid to transform customer experience and boost financial performance. After conducting extensive customer research, LUV has decided to offer assigned seats and premium seating options on all flights, thereby moving away from its open seating model - that has been in place for over 50 years. In addition to assigning seats, Southwest (LUV) will offer a premium, extended legroom portion of the cabin. While specific cabin layout details are still in design, the airline expects roughly one-third of seats across the fleet to offer extended legroom. Southwest (LUV) is also adding 24-hour operation capabilities, with the launch of overnight or redeye flights. The new cabin layout will require approvals from the FAA. Southwest expects to make bookings available in 2025. Barack and Michelle Obama endorse Kamala Harris for president Nvidia dethrones Tesla on IBKR's most-active list, CrowdStrike in at third after outage Lululemon downgraded as athleisure falling out of favor, Breezethrough leggings pulled Catalyst watch: Now let's take a look at the markets as of 6 am. Ahead of the opening bell today, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is down 0.4% at $77 per barrel. Bitcoin is up 4.8% at $67,000. In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is up 0.6% and the DAX is up 0.1%. The biggest movers for the day premarket: Coursera's (NYSE:COUR) stock skyrocketed by nearly 24% after reporting strong quarterly results, driven primarily by the surging demand for generative AI courses.