Axios

Elon Musk is paving the way for a new chapter — and new leadership — at Tesla as the electric vehicle automaker grapples with a sharp slide on its stock price amid spillover drama from his Twitter management.

Why it matters: Tesla has enjoyed years of market dominance — both in stock price and in market share — but is suddenly facing questions over the health of its business.

Wyre, the crypto payments company once valued at $1.5 billion, has told employees that it is shutting down.

Why it matters: The company is yet another victim of the crypto crash and broad market slump.

Details: “We'll continue to do everything we can, but I want everyone to brace themselves for the fact that we will need to unwind the business over the next couple of weeks,” CEO Ioannis Giannaros wrote in an email to employees, a portion of which was seen by Axios.

• One former employee said they have not yet been informed of a severance package and that other workers are concerned that there will be none at all.
• On Dec. 31, former employee Michael Staib posted on LinkedIn about getting laid off, writing: "#Wyre won’t continue as a profitable business."

What they're saying: Giannaros told Axios via email: "We’re still operating but will be scaling back to plan our next steps." He did not comment further about the company's shutdown.

Flashback: Wyre was meant to be acquired by Bolt for $1.5 billion, but that deal was canceled in September.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional information.

Digital assets present eight particular dangers that banks should be aware of, according to three financial regulatory agencies.

Driving the news: In a joint statement Tuesday, major banking regulators, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation highlighted "key risks associated with crypto-assets."

Investors drove Apple's market value below $2 trillion during the first trading session of 2023, a year after propelling it to become, briefly, the first U.S. company to reach $3 trillion.

What's happening: Shares of Apple tumbled Tuesday morning by more than 4%, after a Nikkei Asia report reignited worries about demand for the company's products.

The largest Social Security payment increase in more than 40 years has arrived and will roll out to beneficiaries throughout January.

Why it matters: The 8.7% increase is the biggest jump in benefits since 1981 and an average of an additional $140 per month starting in January, according to the Social Security Administration.

Southwest Airlines apologized Tuesday for canceling over 15,000 flights during the holiday season and offered a $300 voucher in the first step of a long journey toward winning back customers' trust.

Why it matters: The Dallas-based airline's mass cancellations stranded tens of thousands of passengers, putting a large dent in its reputation for customer service. The company has since vowed to review every aspect of its operations, including its outdated scheduling technology, to prevent similar events in the future.

Disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, conspiracy, campaign finance law violations and money laundering in a New York federal court.

Why it matters: Since the crypto exchange began to unravel in early November, Bankman-Fried has publicly claimed he was unaware of the depth of the company's financial troubles, and those at trading firm Alameda Research, FTX's sister company.

The new year is invariably a time for taking stock of things and contemplating what may lie ahead. We spent our holiday break doing just that.

• Today, we share with you what we see as the most important mega-themes playing out in the economy in the coming 362 days — which we expect to cover in greater depth as the year proceeds.

Tesla's future sales could help answer a defining question of the social media age: how much Twitter reflects the real world versus distorting it.

The big picture: Elon Musk's Twitter purchase in October is amplifying his rightward shift. Think support for Ron DeSantis, belittling trans people and more.

One of the big stories of 2022 was the collapse in deal activity. IPOs, M&A, and corporate bond deals all shriveled as rising rates and economic uncertainty clobbered markets. But remarkably, private equity buyouts just wrapped their second-busiest year in more than a decade — check out that chart above.

The big picture: This is one example of the explosive growth of private markets — for both equity and debt — a trend that was well underway even before the pandemic.

New laws went into effect in California and Washington state on Sunday requiring employers to post salary ranges on job listings, following similar legislation enacted in Colorado and New York.

Why it matters: New York and California are major employment hubs for big companies, and have outsized influence when it comes to standard-setting for employers. Expect to see this catch on widely in the new year.

After one of the ugliest years in recent market memory, strap in for 2023.

The big picture: The path of markets this year hinges, as always, on economic growth, corporate profitability, and — most importantly — whether inflation abates and the Fed can stop raising interest rates.

Starbucks is ringing in 2023 with a new cold brew coffee and the launch of its winter menu Tuesday.

Why it matters: Cold coffee has been a hot seller for the Seattle-based company — with two out of three customers purchasing cold coffee, officials said during Starbucks' Investor Day last year.

Donald Trump Jr. has inked a multiyear podcast deal with Rumble Inc., the user-generated video platform that serves as a conservative alternative to YouTube, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: The deal brings momentum to Rumble following its debut as a public company last year.

Punchbowl News, the two-year-old Congress-focused media startup, will launch a text-based breaking news service this month to send real-time alerts to paid subscribers instead of relying on Twitter, according to the company's founders.

Why it matters: More news companies are experimenting with ways to deliver breaking news directly to readers and routing around intermediary services like Twitter, which has grown increasingly unpredictable for journalists.

News engagement continued to mostly slow in 2022 relative to 2021, but the drops across various platforms were less precipitous compared to the enormous pullback following 2020's historic year of headlines.

The big picture: It will be difficult for any story to top the unprecedented news engagement levels spurred by the COVID pandemic and the final year of the Trump administration, but the drop off seems to be stabilizing, especially on digital platforms.

After two years of pandemic-driven setbacks, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is aiming for a comeback.

Driving the news: CES hopes to draw at least 100,000 in-person attendees to its annual trade show in Las Vegas this week — but it's unclear when, if ever, the mega-conference will return to its pre-pandemic peak of over 180,000 attendees.

Ken Block, the pro rally driver who became a YouTube star for his daring car stunt videos, was killed in a snowmobile crash in Utah on Monday.

The big picture: The 55-year-old co-founder of auto media and apparel company Hoonigan Industries and sportswear firm D.C. Shoes "was riding a snowmobile on a steep slope when the snowmobile upended, landing on top of him" in the Mill Hollow area, per a Wasatch County Sheriff's Office statement.