Finimize - ⚔️ Epic Games vs Google

What’s going on here?

In signature style, Epic Games danced out of the courtroom on Monday after the jury ruled against Google.

What does this mean?

Fortnite-maker Epic Games has been embroiled in a court battle with major app stores for years. Epic’s case argued that a 15 to 30% cut on in-app purchases was nothing short of extortion – but Google maintained that was only fair play. After all, the tech titan’s Play Store brings billions of shoppers within a click of Epic’s games for a limited cost, it says, so it deserves a chunk of change every time gamers upgrade their digital worlds. Not according to the jury on duty, though, which cast doubt on Google’s claims of altruism and sided with Epic.

Why should I care?

Zooming out: Not so epic.

Epic Games took on Apple back in 2020, but that one didn’t turn out so well for the gutsy developer. Apple won, and Epic’s still waiting for its Supreme Court appeal to come to fruition. So on one hand, the ruling against the Play Store – and any restrictions that follow – could give Apple’s App Store an advantage. But on the other, the verdict might force the Supreme Court to reassess the previous judgment, forcing Apple to suffer the same fate as rival Google.

The bigger picture: Welcome to the world of retail.

It’s human nature to pull for the underdogs. But while Epic’s a small fry next to Apple and Google, $6 billion in revenue is hardly puny. Mix in the company’s viral dance crazes that haunt parents around the world, and sympathy for the game developer will have its bounds. What’s more, at the end of the day, all retailers – from Walmart to GameStop – take a cut as thanks for uniting brands and shoppers. And in that sense, app stores are no different.

What’s going on here

US prices cooled ever so slightly from the month before, hinting that the Federal Reserve (the Fed) may be able to stay the course, at least for now.

What does this mean?

US prices rose a year-over-year 3.1% in November, just a tad milder than October’s 3.2%. But shoppers probably felt pretty jolly about that as they hit the Black Friday sales. After all, October's figure is far lower than the 9.1% inflation the economy recorded in June of last year, even if it is still hotter than the Fed would like it.

Why should I care?

For markets: Sea legs.

What’s a pirate’s favorite letter? You’d think it be arrr, but it be the ‘C’. Anyway, captain of the Fed, Jerome Powell, is probably not in the mood for jokes. That’s because he’s knotted the central bank's future interest rate moves to economic data, which do have a tendency to blow in different directions from one month to the next. So far the Fed’s been steady at the helm, and has steered the economic ship through some high seas. But docking this vessel will take considerable skill.

The bigger picture: Oil aboard.

Scan the items that make up the consumer price index, and two big numbers will jump out at you: gasoline was down 6% last month and fuel oils were down 3%. By and large, economists focus on the core inflation metric, which excludes more volatile components like food and energy. But think back to the start of this whole inflation drama: it began with a spike in energy prices that eventually led to the cost of all other goods going up. After all, commodities are in just about everything, from clothing to paints. So, it’s probably reasonable to assume that as those commodity prices ebb, they should pull down the prices of everything else.