A critical week for Meta and a key test for the new FTC chair

Hello and welcome to the working week.

We begin with a headline news event that (for once) is not about tariffs and trade wars. Meta and the Federal Trade Commission will on Monday begin a courtroom face off with the most serious antitrust challenge in the social media group’s history — and a key test of the willingness of the Trump-appointed regulator to continue the battle to tame Big Tech.

The trial could result in the $1.5tn business being forced to unwind its acquisition of messaging platform WhatsApp and photo-sharing app Instagram. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is expected to appear in the witness stand.

Zuckerberg has been lobbying the Trump administration in the lead-up to the trial — not the only Silicon Valley boss to be courting the White House — and the case will be a test of the readiness of new FTC chair Andrew Ferguson, who accuses the industry of encroaching on personal liberties, to stand up to Big Tech.

There will of course be more tariff news. We just don’t know what. Trump’s trade levy onslaught, and abrupt U-turns, seldom seem to be long thought through let alone scheduled, but we do have a couple of dates for you to gain a better understanding of what’s going on.

First, pose your questions to Alan Beattie, writer of the (premium subscriber) Trade Secrets newsletter, US economics editor Claire Jones and foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman about the changing trade, economic and geopolitical relationship between the US and its allies. On Wednesday they will provide answers in an online Q&A. Add that event to your calendar here.

Then on April 23, Robert Armstrong, lead writer of the (again, premium subscriber) Unhedged newsletter and podcast, will host an FT Live subscriber webinar from 1-2pm BST. Register at ft.com/trumpmarkets and add your questions.

Remember, if you want to keep up with the levies and executive orders from the White House, the FT’s Trump Tracker remains at your service.

Not so many central banker speeches this week, but there will be rate-setting meetings at the Bank of Canada and (more significantly) the European Central Bank. Investors are pricing in a 90 per cent likelihood of a quarter-point rate cut from the ECB on Thursday, according to Bloomberg data, up from 70 per cent before Trump’s “liberation day” tariff announcements at the start of this month. They now expect two further cuts by the end of this year, with the chance of a third. 

Easter makes for a less busy end to the week, unless you’re trying to get away for a well-earned break from strike-hit Gatwick airport, but before then there will be newsworthy updates on Chinese economic growth, UK employment and Japanese inflation. There will also be plenty of corporate announcements from Monday to Thursday as another earnings season cranks into gear. A second wave of Wall Street banks, notably Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup, mining groups Rio Tinto and BHP, Big Tech streamer Netflix, Indian tech business Infosys and a clutch of British retailers, notably Sainsbury’s, WHSmith and B&M European Value Retail, will all release figures. Details about these and other items below.

One more thing . . . 

For many Christians, and indeed others who believe abstinence is good for the soul, this is the week when the fasting can finish and the decadent consumption of chocolate eggs and hot cross buns can begin. Or perhaps you’d prefer a Big Mac.

Tuesday is the 70th anniversary of the first McDonald’s franchised restaurant, which opened in Des Plaines, Illinois. This is a cheap excuse for me to recommend reading one of my favourite pieces by one of my favourite FT writers, Tim Hayward, bursting the snobbery bubble about Macky Dees in style.

Would you rather eat monkey brains than “Donald’s Muck”? Or, to get back to the point of this newsletter’s existence, have I missed anything pressing that is in your work diary this week? Email me at jonathan.moules@ft.com or, if you are reading this from your inbox, hit reply.

Key economic and company reports

Here is a more complete list of what to expect in terms of company reports and economic data this week.

Monday

• Federal Trade Commission’s suit seeking to unwind the acquisition of Instagram by Meta Platforms reaches the trial stage in Washington

• Opec Monthly Oil Market Report

• India: Ambedkar Jayanti. Financial markets closed

• UK: Rightmove April House Price Index

• Results: Ashmore Q3 assets under management statement, Goldman Sachs Q1, M&T Bank Q1, PageGroup Q1 trading update

Tuesday

• IEA Monthly Oil Market Report

• Australia: Reserve Bank’s last monetary policy meeting minutes

• Canada: March consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate data

• UK: April labour market figures. Also, BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor

• Results: Bank of America Q1, Beiersdorf Q1, B&M European Value Retail FY trading statement, Citigroup Q1, Halfords trading update, IntegraFin Q2 trading update, JB Hunt Q1, Johnson & Johnson Q1, Liontrust Asset Management FY trading update, Nanoco HY, PNC Financial Services Q1, Publicis Q1, S&U FY

Wednesday

• Canada: interest rate announcement

• China: Q1 GDP estimate

• EU: March harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) inflation rate data

• UK: March CPI

• Results: Abbott Laboratories Q1, Alcoa Q1, Antofagasta Q1 production report, ASML Q1, Barratt Redrow Q3 trading update, Brooks Macdonald Q3 funds under management announcement, Citizens Financial Q1, CSX Q1, DiscoverIE FY trading update, Hays Q3, Heineken Q1 trading update, Kinder Morgan Q1, Metro Q2, Mitie FY trading update, Moncler HY, Prologis Q1, Rio Tinto Q1 operations review, Sandvik Q1, Travelers Q1, United Airlines Q1, US Bancorp Q1, WHSmith HY

Thursday

• BP holds its AGM, often targeted by environmental campaigners, likely more so this year after the company announced plans in February to increase investment in oil and gas by about $10bn a year through 2027

• EU: European Central Bank’s interest rate announcement

• Japan: March trade data

• South Korea: interest rate announcement

• Turkey: interest rate announcement

• Results: ABB Q1, American Express Q1, BHP operational review, Blackstone Q1, Charles Schwab spring business update, Deliveroo Q1 trading update, Dunelm Q3 trading update, Fifth Third Bancorp Q1, Infosys Q4, KeyCorp Q1, Man Group trading statement, Marsh & McLennan Q1, Netflix Q1, Rentokil Initial Q1 trading update, Sainsbury’s FY, Snap-On Q1, State Street Q1, Truist Financial Q1, UnitedHealth Q1

Friday

• Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, South Africa, UK and US among others: Good Friday holiday. Markets closed.

• Japan: March CPI inflation rate data

World events

Finally, here is a rundown of other events and milestones this week.

Monday

• Luxembourg: EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting

• US: President Donald Trump hosts his Salvadoran counterpart Nayib Bukele at the White House for an official working visit. Discussion is expected to focus on the use of El Salvador’s Cecot maximum security prison for US deportees alleged to have links with the gangs MS-13 and Tren de Aragua

Tuesday

• EU: Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization will publish the European State of the Climate 2024 report, expected to confirm that last year was Europe’s warmest on record

• Germany: 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British troops, who found about 60,000 prisoners and thousands of unburied bodies. Read the FT review of the Sam Mendes BBC documentary with archive footage from British soldiers on the scene

• North Korea: Day of the Sun, marking the birthday of the country’s first leader Kim Il Sung

• Peru: former president Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, accused of money laundering, set to hear their sentence

• US: former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein faces fresh trial on sexual assault charges in New York with an additional charge for allegedly assaulting an unnamed woman at a lower Manhattan hotel in 2006

Wednesday

• Malaysia: China’s President Xi Jinping begins a state visit to the neighbour across the South China Sea as part of a three-country south-east Asian tour

• Switzerland: the World Trade Organization publishes its annual Global Trade Outlook and Statistics, analysing recent global trade developments up to the fourth quarter of 2024 and forecasting GDP in 2025

Thursday

Friday

• Iran: Rouz-e Artesh (Army Day) is celebrated, marking the formation of the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution

• UK: a four-day strike begins by members of the union Unite over pay, pensions and conditions for 100 Red Handling staff, including baggage handlers and flight dispatchers, at Gatwick airport

• Vatican City: Pope Francis scheduled to hold “Passion of the Lord” service to mark the Christian festival of Good Friday, before Way of the Cross meditations at Rome’s Colosseum

Saturday

• Israel: Patriarch of Jerusalem enters the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, followed by the ceremony of the Holy Fire led by the Patriarch holding a lamp of olive oil in the tomb chamber of Jesus Christ, part of the Orthodox Church Easter traditions

• US: 250th anniversary of the start of the American revolutionary war. The conflict started with the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. Also, the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds of others

• US: thousands of demonstrators are expected to gather in Washington and other US cities to protest against President Donald Trump and his policies

Sunday

• Nasa’s Lucy mission, a robotic spacecraft, is expected to pass the main belt asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson on its way to the Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit

• Vatican City: Pope Francis celebrates Easter Sunday Mass, “Resurrection of the Lord”, before giving the annual Urbi et Orbi benediction