Appeals Court Upholds U.S. Ban of TikTok

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that TikTok can be banned in the U.S. over national security concerns, upholding a federal law requiring the popular social media app to shed its Chinese ownership to keep operating.

A three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., said Congress has the power to take action against TikTok to protect U.S. interests. The decision relied heavily on warnings from U.S. officials that the Chinese government can exert its will on the app’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, potentially giving it the ability to access U.S. users’ data and manipulate what they see on the platform.

Pharma rivals are piling into weight-loss meds as Americans double down

Prescription fills for weight-loss drugs including Novo Nordisk’sNVO $111.05 (0.29%) Wegovy and Eli Lilly’sLLY $808.50 (-2.79%) Zepbound have more than doubled this year in the US, according to GoodRxGDRX $4.96 (0.92%). Refills surged even as many Americans still lack insurance coverage for the injections, which cost an average of $1K a month out of pocket. Demand for weight-loss treatments has far outpaced supply with as many as 25K new people starting on the meds weekly.

Momentum unwind sinks US stocks

The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, the Nasdaq 100 gave back 0.8%, and the Russell 2000 retreated 0.7% to open the week.

China was a source of stock-market support, with the iShares MSCI China ETF MCHI $52.13 (7.81%) up 7.8% after Beijing pledged more monetary and fiscal stimulus next year.

US stocks that have exhibited strong positive momentum did terribly on Monday, continuing a trend that sees the group behave the opposite as Chinese stocks. The iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF MTUM $212.55 (-2.10%) fell 2.1%, lagging the S&P 500 by the most since July.

Nvidia NVDA $138.05 (-2.55%) dipped 2.6% after Chinese authorities opened a probe into the company.

Palantir PLTR $73.33 (-5.04%) had a topsy-turvy day, rallying more than 8% in the pre-market before giving it all back and then some. 

MicroStrategy MSTR $372.59 (-7.48%) slumped 7.5% after announcing that it had added an additional $2.1 billion in bitcoin to its digital hoard.

Communication services and utilities were the two worst-performing S&P 500 sector ETFs, while health care did the best.

• Fear of Trump tariffs is causing Americans to stockpile toilet paper, medicine, and food before prices rise

• Anthem BCBS is reversing its anesthesia policy after online outrage

• OpenAI launches its AI video-generator Sora for ChatGPT Plus and Pro users

• How to fix the health insurance industry everybody seems to hate

In 133 BCE, Rome became the first city in the world to reach a population of one million people.