CNBC Daily Open: AI schadenfreude is real

A photo taken on November 23, 2023 shows the logo of the ChatGPT application developed by US artificial intelligence research organization OpenAI on a smartphone screen (left) and the letters AI on a laptop screen in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany.

A sea of red
Hong Kong shares led losses in the Asia-Pacific market on Wednesday , with the Hang Seng Index sinking as much 3.9% and on track to clock its lowest close in a month, while China's CSI300 ended down 0.9%. Japan's Nikkei 225 ended down 0.3% and Korea's KOSPI finished 0.1% lower. The downbeat performance in the region follows gains in U.S. stocks on Tuesday after comments from a Federal Reserve official raised hopes the central bank may not raise interest rates further.

RIP Munger
Billionaire Charlie Munger, the investing sage who made a fortune even before he became Warren Buffett's right-hand man at Berkshire Hathaway, has died at age 99 . Munger's family said he died peacefully Tuesday morning at a California hospital, according to a press release from Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett credited Munger with broadening his investment strategy from favoring troubled companies at low prices in hopes of getting a profit to focusing on higher-quality but underpriced companies .

Bob the builder
Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger told employees Tuesday during an internal town hall that he was looking forward to " building again " after spending 2023 mending parts of the business that "needed attention." Iger plans to expand Disney's theme parks with a $60 billion commitment over the next 10 years, build an ESPN direct-to-consumer platform no later than 2025 and rebuild Disney's movie studio business, which Iger said has suffered from making too many films.

Apple-Goldman divorce
Apple has proposed that Goldman Sachs end its credit-card and savings account partnership with the tech giant within the next 12 to 15 months, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC's Leslie Picker. The move, if it were to happen, would effectively end one of the highest profile tie-ups between a bank and a tech company. It would also mean that Apple would need to find a new financial partner for its popular Apple credit card, and its high-yield savings accounts. While Apple offers both its credit card and savings account through the wallet app on iPhones, the banking backend is handled by Goldman Sachs.

Many countries have beefed up their defense budgets as geopolitical threats mount in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere in the world. AllianceBernstein has named its overweight-rated stocks to play the theme.