Axios

LInkedIn reveals first financial results as part of Microsoft

And it's not too shabby: It generated $228 million in revenue this quarter, and a net income loss of $100 million.

What it means: Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn closed in December, so the latter didn't even contribute a full quarter's financials. For context, LinkedIn generated $960 million in revenue the previous quarter. Now as part of Microsoft, it won't publish updated member numbers, but it will still have to show it's growing its revenue and getting users to spend more and more time on the service.

Tesla sues a former employee

The electric car company has filed a lawsuit against Sterling Anderson, a former director of Autopilot programs, for allegedly trying to poach employees for his own startup and taking confidential information, according to TechCrunch.

Why now? Self-driving technology is one of the hottest areas in the industry right now, so it's no wonder that that there's fierce competition among companies.

Bloomberg suggests that a prime driver of Tesla stock's 40% rise since December 1st is the election of Donald Trump. That's because Tesla is the "poster child" for forward-thinking domestic manufacturing. Whether that's enough to get Trump on board with the clean energy policies that Tesla needs to thrive is another story.

New home sales hit a post-recession high: There were more new homes sales in 2016 than in any year since 2007. The recovery of the homebuilding industry has been circuitous, but the trend of an ever healthier residential-construction sector is unmistakable.

Union membership at an all-time low: The Labor Department says that the rate of union membership hit another all-time low, down to 10.7% in 2016 from 11.1% in 2015. In November, Republicans captured the highest share of union households since the 1980s, though there's no indication that the GOP will offer any policy that will help stem the decline of organized labor.

All talk on currency manipulation: Donald Trump promised to label China a currency manipulator on day one of his administration, but the president has steered clear of the issue since inauguration. That's fine with Bhanu Baweja of UBS, who told The Street that the move would be unjustified given China has long since reversed its cheap-renminbi policy, and that it would further destabilize the Chinese economy .

What we're watching: Advance estimates of fourth-quarter GDP will be released Friday morning and economists expect that growth will be dragged down by a higher trade deficit. Whether this is a bad thing is up for debate—exports grew, just not as fast as imports.