Pierre Bien-Aimé

Here's your midday brief for Thursday, January 8th.

I'm Pierre Bien-Aimé for The Wall Street Journal.

China is reviewing Meta's $2.5 billion acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup Manus.

People familiar with the matter say Beijing's review has focused on the company's AI agent technology.

China is concerned about losing AI know-how to the U.S.

and is considering adding strategic technologies to an export control list.

That's also, according to people familiar with the matter.

Manus is the first high-profile AI startup with Chinese ties that's been bought by an American tech giant.

Federal officials say the agent fired in self-defense, but local officials dispute that version of events.

The FBI's Minneapolis office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

And the U.S.

trade deficit shrank in October to its lowest level since 2009, with American imports dropping to about $331 billion, while exports rose to $302 billion.

The resulting deficit is about $29 billion.

The numbers suggest that big swings in a few narrow trade areas, like gold and pharmaceuticals, are causing much of the volatility.

Heads Up, an artificial intelligence tool, helped us make this episode by creating summaries that were based on WSJ reporting and then reviewed and adapted by an editor.

We'll have more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast.

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