Read this Wednesday’s edition of the FolhaMercado newsletter (22) – 03/22/2023 – Market

ANDsta is the edition of newsletterr FolhaMercado this Wednesday (22). want to receive it from monday to Friday at 7 am In your email? Sign up below:

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What to expect from Copom

Even with strong pressure from members of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government and even representatives of industry and other sectors of the national economy, the bet is that the Copom, from the Central Bank, should keep the Selic at 13.75 % a year at this Wednesday’s meeting (22).

Which explains: for the economists interviewed by the Sheetstill under pressure and far from the target, inflation expectations for 2024 –the target year of the BC’s current decision– do not leave room for an interest rate cut at this time.

• This view is predominant among market analysts, who are more divided about when the Central Bank will start cutting interest rates, whether from the second half of the year or even before the middle of the year.

the discussions on a possible anticipation of interest rate reductions began to gain strength at the beginning of the month.

In the USA, the Fed (American central bank) goes through a similar snooker. The failure of SVB and Signature Bank prompted pressure for the authority not to raise interest rates at this Wednesday’s meeting.

• The trend, however, is for a new high of 0.25 percentage points.

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Bets will have to pay to operate

The Ministry of Finance is preparing a provisional measure to regulate and tax sports betting that will also bring a device to require companies in the sector to pay an amount to operate in Brazil, according to the Reuters agency.

• According to Reuters, the amounts to be charged from companies are still being defined.

Understand: a law approved in 2018 by Congress provided that the government should regulate sports betting with fixed rates within a period of up to four years, that is, those in which the bettor knows how much he can win at the moment he tries his luck.

• A Sheet showed that there was a draft ready in the Civil House of the Bolsonaro government (PL), but the proposal was not presented, and the Union is unable to tax the sector.

Support: the charge for the grant is well received by bookmakers. The president of the Instituto Brasileiro Jogo Legal, Magnho José, said that most countries that regulate sports betting charge grants and taxes on the sector.

• For the CEO of the sports betting company Galera.bet, Marcos Sabiá, charging the grant can act as a measure of the company’s financial capacity.

How it is today: companies headquartered abroad can operate in Brazil without having to pay taxes or report to the government.

• This creates, according to specialists, not only greater scope for corruption and money laundering schemes, but also prevents the country from having revenue from the activity.

According to industry data, at least 20 companies already operate in the online sports betting market in Brazil. Among the brands are Bet365, Sportingbet, Sportsbet, Pixbet and Betano.

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Google finally releases the rival of ChatGPT

Four months after the launch of ChatGPT, seen as the biggest threat to its search empire, Google made its chatbot, called Bard, available to the public this Tuesday.

• The tool, which was being tested by researchers, will be available to a limited number of users in the US and UK and will be released to more users, countries and languages ​​over time, big tech executives said.

How it works: unlike Microsoft, which incorporated ChatGPT technology into its Bing search engine, Google launched Bard as a separate web page.

• At the end of each response, a “Google it” button appears that takes users to a new tab with a page of conventional Google search results on the subject.

• Executives introduced Bard as a tool for composing emails and poems and offering guidance on how to engage children in new hobbies such as fishing.

• In screenshots shared by the company, users are presented with a blank chat box with a warning below it: “Bard may display inaccurate or offensive information that does not represent the views of Google.”

Why the delay? Google has been testing the technology that underpins Bard since 2015, but it has been taking a more cautious tone in releasing it to the public, worried that the chatbot could reproduce biases or prejudices, as well as untrue information.

• The projects were accelerated, however, with the popularization of ChatGPT, which generated a “red alert” within Google, as reported by the New York Times.

Recently, Microsoft decided to limit the number of interactions a user can have with their chatbot in the same session. The announcement came after conversations went viral in which the robot “threatened” users by considering them a risk to their integrity.

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Nestlé recognizes that part of its products are not healthy

The manufacturer Nestlé, the largest food company in the world, released for the first time a report on the nutritional value of its foods based on a score commonly used in the market.

The result was that less than half of the best selling products can be considered “healthy” according to the HSR (health star rating) definition.

Understand: foods that score below 3.5 on this rating are not considered “generally healthy,” according to the nonprofit Access to Nutrition Initiative.

• The HSR takes into account the level of saturated fats, sugar and salt in individual products, as well as “positive nutrients” such as fiber, fruits and vegetables.

The manufacturer shared report your net sales in four categories:

• 17% came from products with an HSR score of less than 1.5;
• 18% of them with grades between 1.5 and 3.5;
• 30% rated at least 3.5;
• The remaining 35% came from pet and other products to which the HSR does not apply.

Nestlé says it was the first in the industry to report the nutritional value of its entire global portfolio and that it has already made “great progress” in reducing sodium, sugar and saturated fat.

Industry executives, however, argue that there are limits to this type of product.

• “Categories related to pleasure [como confeitaria] will not be turned into health-related categories,” said Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider.

Take care: The Sheet launched this month a newsletter on science, habits and prevention for better health. Do you want to receive it every Monday? sign up here.