Good morning. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says its negotiations with Bud Light brewer Anheuser-Busch have hit a snag and that the 5,000 Anheuser-Busch workers it represents will strike come March unless the company and union make progress.

“The halting of beer production at Anheuser-Busch’s U.S. breweries appears imminent and unavoidable,” said Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien.

The union said the company’s offer so far has included closing breweries and laying off Teamsters-represented workers systemwide. In a statement, Anheuser-Busch disputed the Teamsters’ assertions.

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🗓️ Earnings

• Bristol Myers Squibb
• Chevron
• Cigna
• Exxon Mobil

📈 Economic indicators

The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the jobs report for January.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms posted its best quarterly sales growth in more than two years and initiated its first-ever dividend, a testament to its investments in artificial intelligence that have made targeted ads smarter. The strong results come despite regulatory challenges and child-safety concerns.

Meta said Thursday that sales increased to $40.11 billion in the three months through December, up 25% compared with the year-earlier period. The company also announced a $50 billion increase in its share-buyback authorization. In the third quarter of 2023, Meta reported record revenue of $34.15 billion, up 23%.

Meta’s encouraging performance has been fueled by breakthroughs in artificial-intelligence technology that has boosted its ad-targeting capabilities. Those advancements in AI have helped Meta overcome challenges posed by privacy changes implemented by Apple in 2021 that erased $10 billion of revenue for the social-media company in 2022.

Meta announced that it would pay a cash dividend for the first time in company history. The dividend will be paid at 50 cents a share.

• Amazon Quarterly Sales Surge on Strong Holiday Shopping
• Apple Sales Rise in Holiday Quarter, Ending Streak of Shrinking Growth

• McKinsey global managing partner Bob Sternfels faces a protest vote to keep his job, highlighting cracks in an unusual management structure.
• Deutsche Bank is planning sizable job cuts once again, even as Germany’s largest lender touts a strong outlook for the years ahead.
• Investors have wondered when the pain from the downturn in commercial property would hit banks. The past 24 hours showed it is happening right now, with lenders on three continents disclosing damage and two bank leaders resigning.
• A former top Blackstone real-estate executive is on pace to raise a $1 billion fund at his new firm, in what analysts say would be one of the largest hauls ever for a first-time property fund.
• Tesla is recalling more than two million electric vehicles in the U.S. over problems with warning lights, its biggest to date and the latest in a series of setbacks for the automaker.

📰 Other headlines

• Bank of England Holds Rates, Signals Cut This Year
• Peloton Stock Drops to Record Low After Outlook Cut
• Intel Delays $20 Billion Ohio Project, Citing Slow Chip Market
• What’s Next for Elon Musk and Tesla After CEO’s Pay Package Was Struck Down
• What Tesla Stock Volatility Says About Tech’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ (Video)

ReAlpha Tech, a Dublin, Ohio-based real estate technology company, said that Michael Frenz has been appointed as chief financial officer, effective immediately. Frenz will report to Mike Logozzo, who has been appointed as the company’s president and chief operating officer. Logozzo will report to CEO Giri Devanur. “These strategic hires bolster our C-suite and we believe it is a step forward toward continuing to enhance stockholder value through our AI-powered real estate tech solutions,” Devanur said.

—Sabela Ojea contributed to this newsletter.

• Earnouts in M&A deals are on the rise as companies look to close the gap between what buyers want to pay and what sellers think they are worth.
• Weak cargo demand, rising labor costs and higher interest rates are challenging freight upstarts.
• Publicly traded biotech companies are drawing interest from venture investors as share prices in the sector have fallen.
• Need your employees to learn AI? There’s AI to teach them.

Every weekend we select a handful of articles we think are worth a bit of your time, either because they peel back the layers on a compelling business story or somehow make us look at business in a different light.

• Generative A.I.’s biggest impact will be in banking and tech, the New York Times reports.
• What does the $56 billion Tesla pay deal setback mean for Elon Musk and his empire? An explainer from the Financial Times.
• If you talk to American workers today, they’ll probably tell you they’re happy to be employed—but not about much else, Bloomberg reports.

The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal offers corporate leaders and professionals CFO analysis, advice and commentary to make informed decisions. We cover topics ranging from corporate tax accounting, regulation, capital markets, management and strategy.

Follow us on X @WSJCFO. The WSJ CFO Journal Team is reporters Kristin Broughton, Mark Maurer and Jennifer Williams-Alvarez, and Bureau Chief Walden Siew.

You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email Walden at walden.siew@wsj.com.