Good morning. Both the NBA and the NHL begin their first round of playoffs today, which means the basketball players will start trying and the hockey players will stop shaving.
Markets: The markets were closed for Good Friday yesterday, giving investors time to take a breather amid tariff-induced volatility to gorge on chocolate and dye some eggs—if they can still afford them—after all three major indexes finished the short trading week in the red.
Stock spotlight: As a sign of just how confusing it is out there, United Airlines stock rose this week after the company released two different forecasts—one for a stable economy and one for a possible US recession.
OpenAI is in talks to drop $3 billion to purchase Windsurf, which sounds like a rival of Pacific Sunwear at your local mall, but is actually an AI coding assistant formerly known as Codeium. The potential deal is a signal that CEO Sam Altman is preparing to stake his claim in the burgeoning field of vibe coding.
What kind of vibes? Vibe coding is essentially developers telling AI what they need and having the necessary code generated. While most of us have been busy using AI to turn ourselves into cartoon images that skirt copyright law, OpenAI and its competitors, including Meta, Google, and Anthropic have all emphasized coding as a significant use case for their large language models.
News of the potential purchase, first reported by Bloomberg, coincides with the launch of OpenAI’s Codex CLI, an open-source tool that can enable the company’s newest AI models, o3 and o4-mini, to generate code on your desktop.
But OpenAI doesn’t want to wait to see how programmers like them. The company was reportedly so eager to get in on the action that it first approached Anysphere (a company it had already invested in) about buying competitor Cursor last year, but it didn’t work out. By acquiring Windsurf, OpenAI would announce its presence in full-stack coding—developing the front- and back-ends of an application. It’d help put OpenAI on equal footing with Anthropic, GitHub, and Anysphere in the coding space.
That’s good news for OpenAI, but streamlining coding this way could also threaten the livelihoods of programmers:
“This is the year…that AI becomes better than humans at competitive code forever,” OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil told the Overpowered podcast this week.
Per the Financial Times, AI systems solved 4% of coding problems in an industry test conducted in 2023. This year, that number soared to 69%.
Microsoft’s coding platform GitHub reported that 92% of US-based developers are already using AI coding assistants.
What’s next? The deal could trigger other similar purchases as AI model-makers try to boost their coding bona fides. But it might also draw the interest of antitrust regulators.—DL
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Acting IRS commissioner out on his third day on the job. Not content to let Tax Day be the biggest thing that happened at the Internal Revenue Service this week, President Trump is replacing Gary Shapley as the acting head of the agency, days after appointing him to the role. The New York Times reports that Shapley’s removal came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who oversees the agency, took issue with Elon Musk’s role in Shapley’s getting the job. The new acting commissioner will be Bessent’s deputy, Michael Faulkender. He will be the fifth head of the agency this year—and the third this week.
US could walk away from Ukraine-Russia peace talks, Trump warns. The president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both said yesterday that if progress isn’t made soon, the US might stop trying to broker a deal to end the war Russia began when it invaded Ukraine. Rubio said that if things don’t move forward in the next few days, the US needs to “move on,” and Trump said that if “one of the two parties makes it very difficult,” the US would “take a pass.” However, President Trump noted that he still thought there was a good chance of a deal coming together. The administration did not clarify what, if any, support the US would continue to give Ukraine if talks fail.
US moves to charge Chinese ships docking fees in latest trade war play. The Trump administration unveiled plans this week to charge Chinese-made ships docking at US ports in an effort to boost the domestic shipbuilding industry. China manufactures ~75% of all fleets, and the US government began investigating its ship-making dominance during the Biden administration. The recently announced plans for fees are less severe than what was originally proposed, as ships will be charged per voyage rather than for each port they dock in. The shipping industry had pushed back on the original proposal. China reportedly responded that even the less aggressive fees were “wrong,” and called on the US to stop “shifting blame.”—AR
One of the largest deals in banking since the 2008 financial crisis is what’s in your wallet: Yesterday, financial regulators gave Capital One the green light to acquire Discover Financial Services for $35 billion, clearing Samuel L. Jackson’s favorite credit card company’s runway to more wealthy customers.
Upgrade: Capital One’s acquisition of Discover will make it the largest credit card issuer in the US by loan volume, surpassing JPMorgan and Citigroup. Capital One will also gain at least $1.2 billion in new annual revenue, and is expected to put much of it toward the company’s growing spending on perks, according to Bloomberg:
To court the higher-credit crowd, Capital One has doubled down on its airport lounges (Las Vegas and JFK join the lineup this year) and glammed up their complimentary offerings with additions like yuzu sodas in handmade mugs and açai bowls.
Capital One has had to pay out more credit card “points” since launching its travel-focused VentureX card in 2021, with customer rewards expenses jumping 30% as of 2023.
Sorry, partners. Discover is one of the four major US card networks, so Capital One intends to move all of its debit cards and some credit cards from the Mastercard and Visa networks to Discover. Justice Department officials dismissed competition concerns raised by the previous administration’s Justice Department. The deal is expected to close on May 18.—ML
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This Easter weekend, it’s not the ham or perfectly coifed lamb cake busting your budget—it’s the eggs. With a dozen eggs hitting a record $6.23 last month, kids either need to get their designs right on the first try or be cool with cheaper alternatives.
Potatoes, marshmallows, and fake eggs (made of plastic) have emerged as viable substitutes, sparking a viral dyeing trend, the Associated Press reported. But be careful: One tester pointed out that the price of a food-coloring kit and a bag of mini potatoes (~$10) can actually cost more than the price of a dozen eggs and an egg-dyeing kit (~$7).
A dozen plastic eggs costs just $2.49 at Michaels. The craft store said sales for the product are up 20% compared to last year.
Kraft Heinz-owned Jet-Puffed also started selling a $1.99 “Dip and Decorate Dozen” kit for dyeing giant marshmallows this year.
Maybe push Easter back a few months? Wholesale egg prices fell to just $3 a dozen a few weeks ago, according to a USDA report. But it can take awhile for those prices to translate to the refrigerated aisles.—MM
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, car break-ins in the city have plunged from 28,500 in 2017 to 8,500 last year thanks to a focused police crackdown, but it’s created a new kind of victim: the auto glass shops that serviced cars with glass shattered by thieves.
As many in the city rejoice at smash-and-grab break-ins being at a two-decade low, garage owners and their staff lamented to the newspaper that their phones aren’t ringing like they used to, with one manager saying they used to get as many as 80 calls a day and now get around 20. Though they stressed they weren’t hoping for more criminal activity, those in the auto glass biz noted that they’ve had to take measures like shorter hours and have considered layoffs as their customer count dwindles.—AR
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A federal judge has put a pause on the Trump administration’s firing of almost everyone who works for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, citing concerns it violated her earlier order stopping the administration from shutting down the agency.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who traveled to El Salvador to meet with wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, said Abrego Garcia told him he’d been moved from the notorious Salvadoran prison known as CECOT to one with better conditions.
Nintendo will begin taking Switch 2 preorders on April 24 following delays caused by tariffs.
Watch: A three-time 100-meter Olympic champion smokes the other parents at her kid’s school sports day.
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Brew crossword: The weather is incredible here in the Northeast, so the quicker you finish today’s crossword, the quicker you can get outside. Play it here.
Open House
Welcome to Open House, the only newsletter section that is looking for a two-for-one deal. We’ll give you a few facts about a listing and you try to guess the price.
Zillow
Today’s matching properties in Key West, FL, are perfect for anyone looking to go bigger than BFF necklaces. And don’t worry, the double homes each have their own private backyard if you need a bit of a break from your bestie. Amenities include:
6 beds, 8 baths (3 beds, 4 baths in each house)
Tiny pools
Twin balconies to hold hands across
How much for the duo?
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Today’s Word of the Day is: coifed, meaning “elaborately styled (especially of hair).” Thanks to Kelly from Austin, TX, for the stylish suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.
Acting IRS commissioner out on his third day on the job. Not content to let Tax Day be the biggest thing that happened at the Internal Revenue Service this week, President Trump is replacing Gary Shapley as the acting head of the agency, days after appointing him to the role. The New York Times 
US could walk away from Ukraine-Russia peace talks, Trump warns. The president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both 
US moves to charge Chinese ships docking fees in latest trade war play. The Trump administration 
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