🚀 FAA approves 7th Starship launch

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Market Overview
Read time 1.4 minutes

Year To Date Performances:

1. The FAA has approved SpaceX’s seventh Starship launch, though no date has been announced. Recent preparations at Boca Chica, Texas, included test fires of the Super Heavy booster and Starship’s upper stage, though the two stages have not yet been stacked. This mission aims to repeat the Super Heavy booster’s successful catch from October and land Starship in the Indian Ocean. The FAA also granted "test-induced damage exceptions" for minor issues, expediting future launches. While praising its swift approval process, the FAA acknowledged tensions with SpaceX over prior delays. Standing nearly 400 feet tall, Starship is key to Elon Musk’s vision for human settlement on Mars by 2026.

2. Merck announced a deal worth up to $2 billion to acquire global rights to Hansoh Pharma’s experimental weight loss pill, including $112 million upfront and $1.9 billion in milestone payments and royalties. The drug, HS-10535, targets GLP-1, a gut hormone also leveraged by Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic, and aims to expand Merck's cardiometabolic offerings. While the pill has yet to enter human trials, it positions Merck in the competitive obesity market, projected to exceed $100 billion annually by the 2030s, with rivals like Pfizer and Roche also vying to develop convenient oral alternatives to injectable treatments.

3. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on January 10 regarding a law requiring ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, to sell the app or face a U.S. ban, raising First Amendment concerns. The Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, effective January 19, cites national security risks. TikTok claims a ban could cost U.S. small businesses $1 billion and creators $300 million in a single month and argues the law targets the app unfairly. The Court, while agreeing to hear the case, has not issued an injunction, leaving the law’s future uncertain ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, who expressed mixed views on TikTok.

4. Headlines

   1. The House Ethics Committee is expected to release their report on Matt Gaetz.

   2. US automakers are set to have their best year since 2019.

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