And The New York Times doesn't mind.

Stock futures slip lower as February trading begins with caution; Bloomberg reports the FTC will probe Microsoft's $69 billion takeover of Activision; Google Q4 earnings on deck with a focus on ad sales; Tesla petition seeking Biden acknowledgement on EV leadership grows and the New York Times buys mystery word game Wordle for a mysterious price.

The newspaper paid "in the low seven figures" for the popular word puzzle game.

The Athletic has about 1.2 million subscribers, which will help The Times reach its own target of 10 million subscribers.

Novavax, BeyondSpring, New York Times, United Therapeutics and Denny's are five top stock gainers for Wednesday.

The Athletic, a sports news web site, has halted merger talks with Axios, according to a published report Thursday.

Stock futures point to a rebound following a selloff in technology shares; General Motors and Uber report earnings; cryptocurrency dogecoin sets an all-time high.

Stock futures rise slightly; President Biden commits to $1,400 stimulus checks; Dogecoin soars as Tesla CEO Elon Musk voices support for the cryptocurrency.

Amazon reportedly is in talks to buy podcaster Wondery, which is on track to increase revenue to more than $40 million this year.

Apple is asking assemblers to put together 220 million iPhones this year, Bloomberg reported, a tally that largely matches 2021 levels.

Electric-truck manufacturer Nikola, like the broad vehicle industry, has been struggling with supply-chain issues.

DNA-sequencing leader Illumina swung to a loss in Q2 2022. Contributions from Grail didn't help.