Electric Car Exec Joined Reddit to Educate Investors Amid Memes
When electric vehicle company Arrival Ltd. became a meme stock earlier this year, the firm’s President Avinash Rugoobur took to Reddit to chat with his new shareholders.
Latest From Bloomberg
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Powell Says Fed Policy Will Adapt Amid Risk of Persistent Inflation
(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the risks of persistent elevated inflation have “clearly risen” and monetary policy would evolve in response.
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Tourists Lose Bid to Claim Damage in Virus-Hit Austrian Resort
A court in Austria has rejected civil claims filed by two German tourists seeking damages for how local authorities responded to one of the earliest coronavirus outbreaks in Europe.
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Argentine Officials to Meet IMF in Washington Over Record Deal
Argentine government officials will travel to Washington on Saturday to move talks forward with the International Monetary Fund for a new program after more than a year of conversations to replace a record deal.
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Moderna Drops After Losing Appeal in Drug-Delivery Patents Case
(Bloomberg) -- Moderna Inc. shares fell after the pharmaceutical company lost an appeal of a patent ruling involving a rival’s drug-delivery technology, which could make its Covid-19 vaccine vulnerable to infringement suits.
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Slovakia Is Sending Seniors $567 If They’re Fully Vaccinated Against Covid
Slovakia will send hospitality vouchers worth 500 euros ($567) to seniors who are fully inoculated against Covid-19 in a bid to increase one of the European Union’s lowest vaccination rates and prevent future lockdowns.
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Credit Investors Build Cash Buffers Against Volatility Storm
Heading into this volatile week caused by the omicron bombshell and Federal Reserve hawkishness, credit investors were already starting to rebuild their defensive buffers from below-average levels.
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Iran Forces and Taliban Clashed on Afghan Border, Tasnim Says
Iranian security forces and Taliban fighters clashed in a gun battle over a “misunderstanding” related to a border wall on the Iran-Afghanistan border, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing an unnamed official.
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Sanofi Casts Doubt on Market for Covid Shots Post-Pandemic
(Bloomberg) -- Sanofi offered a strikingly low projection of the future need for Covid shots, saying boosters will be required only once every three to five years.
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Abrdn Targets Red-Hot Private Equity Market to Improve Fortunes
(Bloomberg) -- Abrdn Plc has set up a new unit that will focus on taking equity stakes in companies, becoming the latest investment giant seeking to profit from an ongoing private equity boom.
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Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Planning Rare Visit to Nearby Oman
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince plans to make his first trip to neighboring Oman in the coming weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter, another sign of warming ties between the two Gulf states.
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U.S. Manufacturing Gauge Reverses Decline in Broad-Based Gain
A measure of U.S. manufacturing advanced in November as new orders accelerated and factories ramped up production and hiring.
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Three Ex-Goldman Bankers Get Eisler Backing for Their Substack Rival
Three former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bankers have secured the backing of Edward Eisler for a media startup that looks to challenge blogging platforms like WordPress and Substack Inc.
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Rate Traders Are Busy Pricing a June Fed Hike in Wake of Powell
Money-market traders are now basically pricing in a full quarter-point rate hike for the June Federal Reserve meeting and there has been a noticeable flurry of activity in eurodollar option plays around that date.
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Byron Allen's Advertising-Discrimination Suit Against McDonald’s Is Dismissed
(Bloomberg) -- A judge threw out media mogul Byron Allen’s lawsuit against McDonald’s Corp. but left the door open for him to file an amended complaint if he can better back up his claims of discrimination.
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Capital One Becomes Largest Bank Yet to Ditch Overdraft Fees
Capital One Financial Corp. will eliminate overdraft and non-sufficient fund fees for consumer-banking customers starting next year, joining a growing number of U.S. banks to ditch the practice.
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U.K. Energy Bills Are Set for a Double Hit to Relieve Suppliers
U.K. energy companies will be repaid the cost of taking on the customers of bankrupt suppliers sooner than expected, adding further upward pressure to household bills from April.
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BlackRock Says Bonds Hated by Wall Street Are Coming Back in Vogue
An ever-popular call on Wall Street to pare sovereign debt holdings in the age of inflation is getting short shrift at BlackRock Inc.
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China Rebukes Estonian Lawmakers for Voicing Support for Taiwan
(Bloomberg) -- China lashed out at Estonia after two of its lawmakers visited Taiwan, where they voiced their support for democracy on the island.
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Maersk Heading for Record Profits, Gives $80 Million to Employees
A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S is giving $1,000 to each of its roughly 80,000 employees as the world’s largest shipping company heads for record profits this year.
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Retail Traders Stick to Dip-Buying Ways With Record Purchases
(Bloomberg) -- Retail investors are betting that Wall Street’s unease over the omicron variant and the Federal Reserve’s signal of stepped-up efforts to combat inflation are misplaced.
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Tesla Models Take Top Two Spots in New Car Sales in Norway
Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 were the most sold new cars in Norway last month, with the Volkswagen ID.4 rounding out the top three, according to the Information Council for Road Traffic.
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Irish Central Bank Makes First Reserve Gold Purchases Since 2009
The Irish central bank has been adding to its gold reserves as inflation in the euro area runs far ahead of the European Central Bank target.
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Elizabeth Holmes Conveys Regret When Confronted by Theranos Prosecutor
(Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Holmes has some regrets.
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DoorDash Sees Opportunities With German Grocery Deliverer Flink After Investment
(Bloomberg) -- DoorDash Inc. sees the potential for a relationship beyond its financial investment in German rapid grocery firm Flink SE, after the U.S.-market leading food delivery company provided financing to the startup earlier this year.
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Corporate Leaders Push Congress to Speed Semiconductor Aid
Major corporate leaders including Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook warned lawmakers that time is running out for them help spur the return of critically important semiconductor manufacturing to the U.S.
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Dead Man Asked for Information in Eskom Graft Probe
South Africa’s graft ombudsman requested that a complainant in an alleged corruption case respond to its provisional findings more than six weeks after he had died of Covid-19.
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Activision, Monster Face Gender-Diversity Deadline as Court Weighs In
(Bloomberg) -- Activision Blizzard Inc., which has faced allegations of sexual harassment, and Monster Beverage Corp. are among the companies that have a month to add women to their boards to comply with a California law promoting gender diversity.
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Beleaguered South Africans Get Respite After Fuel Price Flub
South Africans contending with power shortages, record-high unemployment and a new coronavirus variant finally got a sliver of good news.
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Apple Renews Bid to Halt Court-Ordered App Store Change
Apple Inc. is asking a higher court to halt a judge’s decision that will force changes to its App Store while a legal fight with Epic Games Inc. continues.
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EU Says It’s Close to Guernsey Fishing License Deal With U.K.
The European Union said it’s close to reaching an agreement with the U.K. on post-Brexit fishing rights involving the island of Guernsey, one of the thorniest issues in the Anglo-French relationship.
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UniCredit Plans 3,000 Fresh Job Cuts as CEO Orcel Pivots to Growth
(Bloomberg) -- UniCredit SpA is planning about 3,000 fresh job cuts as Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel seeks to focus on profitable businesses and returns as part of the Italian lender’s new strategic plan.
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Amazon-Backed Animal Welfare Certifier Pushes Slow-Growing Chickens
The U.S. chicken industry is poised to increase production of slow-growing birds after an influential animal welfare group said it would only certify such varieties.
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EU Proposes More Flexible Asylum Procedures for Belarus Crisis
(Bloomberg) -- The European Union’s executive arm proposed exceptional flexibility to its eastern members struggling with artificial migration from Belarus, proposing that Latvia, Lithuania and Poland be allowed to take up to 16 weeks to process asylum requests.
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GE Investors Greet CEO Culp’s Breakup Plan With a $15 Billion Shrug
(Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co.’s decision to unshackle its core industrial businesses by splitting itself into three separate companies hasn’t done much for investors. Far from it.
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ECB’s Reasons to Blink Mount as Powell Shifts on Inflation
(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank’s insistence that surging consumer prices won’t endure is being tested so repeatedly that inflation now threatens to overshadow a meeting in two weeks time to revamp pandemic stimulus.
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U.S. Companies Added 534,000 Jobs in November, ADP Data Show
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. companies added workers at a healthy clip in November, suggesting employers continue to chip away at filling a near-record number of open positions.
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Chinese Foreign Minister Visits Ethiopia in Support of Abiy
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Ethiopia this week in a show of his nation’s support for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government amid a yearlong civil war with rebels from the northern Tigray region.
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Greece’s Unvaccinated Rush for Shots to Avoid Government Fine
Greece saw a surge in vaccine take-up, a day after the government laid out a plan to fine people over 60 who refused to get a shot.
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Skechers Investor Pushes for Changes to Boost Footwear Company’s Value
(Bloomberg) -- A top-five investor in Skechers USA Inc. is calling on the footwear company to make changes that it believes could create billions of dollars in value for investors.
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Match Will Pay $441 Million to Settle Suit Over Tinder Valuation
(Bloomberg) -- Match Group Inc. said it will pay $441 million to settle a lawsuit against it and IAC/InterActiveCorp. over the valuation of Tinder.
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Exxon’s Emissions-Reduction Pledge Lags Supermajor Rivals’
(Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp.’s most-ambitious emissions target to date falls far short of the sweeping commitments of some of its biggest rival oil supermajors.
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EU to Sanction Belarus, Syrian Airlines Over Migrant Crisis
(Bloomberg) -- Belarusian national carrier Belavia and Syria’s Cham Wings Airlines are among entities the European Union is planning to sanction over a migrant crisis that the bloc blames on Minsk.
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France to Demand Negative Covid Tests for Non-EU Visitors
France is strengthening rules on travel to the country in a bid to contain the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday.
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Lira Respite Will Come Down to How Far the Central Bank Can Go
Turkey’s direct intervention in its currency markets on Wednesday, the first in seven years, shows policy makers are intent on drawing a line in the sand on how far they are willing to tolerate weakness in the lira.
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Boris Johnson’s Stumbles Boost Support for Scottish Independence
Scottish support for seeking independence from the rest of the U.K. rose after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government became embroiled in controversy over second jobs for parliamentarians.
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EU Should Discuss Mandatory Vaccinations, Von Der Leyen Says
The European Union should discuss whether mandatory vaccinations are needed to help fight the ongoing spike in Covid-19 cases, as well as the new omicron variant, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
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U.K. Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg Faces Probe Over Outside Earnings
U.K. cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg is being investigated by Parliament’s standards commissioner over an alleged breach of rules relating to outside employment and earnings.
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Rising Fuel Costs Heighten South African Inflation, Growth Risks
Inflationary pressures are ramping up in South Africa following a series of fuel price increases.
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A New Commodity Squeeze Could Soon Rival Lumber’s Recent Historic Shortage
Tin is in the grips of one of the longest-running squeezes ever seen in commodities markets, and there’s little sign of it letting up.
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Fed’s Faster Taper, OECD Outlook, Stable Factories: Eco Day
Welcome to Wednesday, Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:
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Ex-Morrison Chair Tapped for Insurer Ardonagh Signals Potential for IPO
Ardonagh Group Ltd. has hired Andrew Higginson, who helped engineer this year’s sale of British grocer Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc, as chairman of its retail insurance business, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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These Countries Are Slapping the Unvaccinated With Fines and Bans
In the battle against the coronavirus, the unvaccinated are being increasingly targeted.
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BASF-Backed 3D Printer Essentium to Go Public Via SPAC Merger
Essentium Inc., a provider of industrial 3D printing solutions, has agreed to go public through a merger with blank-check firm Atlantic Coastal Acquisition Corp.
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Apple Shares in Sweet Spot as Traders Rush to Safety
(Bloomberg) -- As technology stocks have slumped over the past week, traders have found a haven in the sector: Apple Inc.
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France Faced With Power Market Crunch Next Week as Demand Jumps
French power prices for next week are at near record levels as a drop in temperatures is expected to boost demand to the highest level yet this winter.
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Want Christmas Bonus? Get Vaccine First, Malawi Bank Tells Staff
First Capital Bank Malawi Ltd. is offering Christmas bonuses to fully vaccinated staff and warned those still holding out against Covid-19 inoculations risk missing out on annual bonuses next year, according to a circular seen by Bloomberg.
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Travelers Are Waiting Till Last Minute to Book Flights
Travelers are waiting longer to book airline tickets, making it harder for carriers to gauge near-term demand, according to European discounter Wizz Air Holdings Plc.
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Turkish Stocks Are Both the Best and Worst in World This Quarter
Turkish stocks rose again, extending their wild ride this quarter, as lira weakness sent local investors looking for ways to protect their savings while making the country’s equities too cheap to ignore for foreign buyers.
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One of These Five Candidates Could Be the Dark Horse in France
France’s main conservative party has been in the doldrums since its 2017 presidential candidate imploded, opening the door to Emmanuel Macron.
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Investors Are Piling Into Crypto Startups—Just Not in China
For the first time in four years, venture investors are backing more crypto and blockchain startups in the U.S. than they are in Asia—a sign that China’s crackdown on alternative currencies has chilled the country’s upstart industry.
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Polaris Goes Electric With Its Off-Road Vehicles
The company’s best-selling Ranger will be the first in a parade of rugged EVs, including snowmobiles and motorcycles.
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How a Rural Texas Road Project Triggered a Cloud of Methane
Kinder Morgan spewed the super-warming greenhouse gas to clear a pipeline so a highway could be expanded.
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The ESG Market Is Controlled by a Few Big Investors
How to attract a larger swath of individual participants is the sector’s next big hurdle.
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WHO Members to Start Drafting Plan to Deal With New Pandemics
World Health Organization member countries voted to start drafting an international agreement to help avoid future pandemics as more cases of the new omicron strain of Covid-19 popped up around the world.
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It Would Cost $50 Billion to Vaccinate the World, OECD Says
The emergence of a new coronavirus variant increases the uncertainty already weighing on the global economic outlook and highlights vaccination shortcomings, according to the OECD’s chief economist Laurence Boone.
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UBS Appoints Youngwood as CFO to Boost Hamers’ Technology Drive
UBS Group AG named JPMorgan Chase & Co,’s Sarah Youngwood as Chief Financial Officer, lending force to Chief Executive Officer Ralph Hamers’ push to improve the bank’s digital offering and making her the first woman to hold the firm’s top finance job.
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Dubai’s $25 Billion State Utility Picks Banks for Record IPO
State-owned utility Dubai Electricity & Water Authority has picked banks to arrange what could be the biggest-ever listing in the Persian Gulf emirate, people with knowledge of the matter said.
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Scandinavian Airline SAS Grapples With Massive Staff Discontent
The managers of Scandinavia’s biggest airline SAS AB have lost the confidence of their staff -- and investors aren’t far behind.
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McDonald’s Struggles to Fix Its Massive Methane Problem
Long-running promises to curb the planet-warming impact of McDonald’s hamburgers still haven’t resulted in a smaller carbon footprint for its fast food.
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U.K. Headed for Best Growth in G-7 This Year and Next, OECD Says
Britain is headed for the fastest growth in the Group of Seven major economies this year and next but will suffer a setback if supply shortages are allowed to worsen, the OECD said.
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Cathay Says Liquidity Healthy, Too Early to Assess Omicron Jolt
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. said it’s maintaining a healthy level of liquidity after bringing down cash burn, helped in large part by strong cargo operations while passenger capacity remains restricted by the pandemic.
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Polish Central Bank Governor Pivots to Support Strong Zloty
Polish central bank Governor Adam Glapinski cast the authority as a guardian of a strong zloty in his latest attempt to lift the sagging currency that has added to inflation woes.
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Dymon Asia Weighs Sale of Stake in Singapore’s Meiban
Dymon Asia Private Equity is exploring the sale of its stake in Meiban Corp. in a transaction that could value the Singaporean injection-molding company at as much as $500 million, according people with knowledge of the matter.
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Unfazed Collectors Drive Strong Sales on Art Basel Miami’s First Day
Rich collectors, most of whom stayed masked, charged through the fair despite the omicron variant.
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Turkey Central Bank Intervenes in FX Markets to Stabilize Lira
Turkey’s central bank intervened in markets by selling foreign currencies for the first time in seven years to stem the lira’s decline against the U.S. dollar.
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Lagos Rejects ‘Massacre’ Findings About 2020 Protest
The state government in Nigeria’s largest city rejected an official investigation that concluded security forces shot and killed unarmed protesters last year during demonstrations against police brutality.
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Mitsubishi Chemical’s CEO Makes Mark With Petrochemicals Exit
Less than a year into the job, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp.’s foreign chief executive officer is taking the scalpel to one of the company’s main businesses in a major push to reduce emissions.
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South African Factory Mood Tops Forecasts, Hits Five-Month High
A gauge measuring South African manufacturing sentiment jumped to a five-month high in November, with business activity and new sales orders improving as the impact of a three-week long strike in the steel and engineering industries subsided.
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Israel Should Weigh Mandatory Vaccination, Health Official Says
Israel’s coronavirus czar said the country should begin considering mandatory vaccination now that the new omicron variant has emerged.
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Google Won’t Take Philippine Election Ads in Run-Up to 2022 Vote
Google will not accept election advertisements in the Philippines ahead of the 2022 presidential vote, replicating a move in the U.S. designed to limit false messaging.
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What Omicron Variant Could Mean for Euro-Area Growth
(Bloomberg) -- It’s clearly too early to predict how the omicron variant of Covid-19 will shape the outlook for the euro area, but Bloomberg Economics has sketched out some worst- and best- case scenarios. Under the worst case, the new variant totally escapes vaccines, taking the economy back to early 2021 until an updated shot becomes available -- that would cause the euro-area economy to shrink by about 2% in the first quarter. For the European Central Bank, there’s no direct takeaway ahead of the December meeting. Still, if the strain is seen to have a substantial negative impact on the economy, the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program could be extended, although the Governing Council needn’t rush a decision.
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Adler Sells Apartments to Rival Landlord LEG to Slash Debt
Adler Group SA has signed two deals with rival landlord LEG Immobilien SE that it says will slash the group’s debt pile.
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EU to Propose Daily Review of Travel Rules to Counter Omicron
The European Union is set to recommend that member states review essential travel restrictions on a daily basis in the wake of the omicron variant, according to a draft EU document seen by Bloomberg.
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Ex-Goldman Manager Raises Fund for China Property Debt
A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. special situations group head has raised an initial $245 million for a new fund that will invest in loans and bonds of China’s beleaguered property industry.
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Germany Faces ‘Dangerous Situation’ in Hospitals on Covid Surge
Germany urgently needs stricter measures to check a surge in Covid-19 infections and protect hospitals from a “particularly dangerous situation,” according to the head of the country’s DIVI intensive-care medicine lobby.
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Austria Extends Lockdown With New Virus Cases Edging Lower
Austrian lawmakers extended a nationwide lockdown for a second 10-day period to suppress the latest wave of coronavirus infections before the Christmas holiday period.
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U.S.’s Blinken to Meet Russia’s Lavrov as Tensions Flare
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken Wednesday, Interfax reported, the first direct contact between officials of the two countries in weeks as tensions grow amid western fears Russia may be planning to invade Ukraine.
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SS&C to Buy Blue Prism for $1.6 Billion, Outbidding Vista
SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. said it had agreed to acquire Blue Prism Group Plc in a deal that values the company at about 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion).
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Peel Hunt Reports Record First-Half Investment Banking Revenue
Peel Hunt’s investment banking unit reported record results in the six months to Sept. 28 as the exit from lockdown boosted market confidence and the broker grew its client roster.
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China Plans to Ban Loophole Used by Tech Firms for Foreign IPOs
China is planning to ban companies from going public on foreign stock markets through variable interest entities, according to people familiar with the matter, closing a loophole long used by the country’s technology industry to raise capital from overseas investors.
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U.K. House Prices Rose Greater-Than-Expected 0.9% in November
U.K. house prices rose more than expected in November as activity held up despite the end of a tax relief for homebuyers, Nationwide Building Society said on Wednesday.
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Spain Budget at Risk as Key Sanchez Ally Threatens to Walk Away
The approval of Spain’s 2022 budget has been unexpectedly put at risk after a key government ally threatened to withdraw its support.
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Crypto.com Buys Two Exchanges From IG Group for $216 Million
Crypto.com, which has been grabbing headlines lately with its naming-rights deals, is now expanding its footprint in another way: Buying two exchanges from financial services firm IG Group Holdings Plc.
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Saudi Food Delivery Startup Jahez Announces IPO Plans
Riyadh-based food delivery firm Jahez, which competes with firms like Hunger Station, is preparing to list on the parallel market of the Saudi stock exchange in what will be the kingdom’s first initial public offering of a technology startup.
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Abortion Showdown at Supreme Court Puts Roe v. Wade on the Line
The most consequential abortion case in a generation comes before the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, as the justices weigh Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and consider gutting the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.
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Taliban Curbs on Working Women Could Cut Afghanistan’s GDP by 5%
The Taliban’s move to restrict women from working could immediately cost the Afghan economy up to $1 billion, or 5% of GDP, the United Nations Development Programme said in a new report as the militant group seeks global help to avert a deepening crisis.
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Temporary Staffing Startup Jobandtalent Valued at $2.4 Billion
(Bloomberg) -- Madrid-based firm Jobandtalent has raised $500 million in new equity funding to expand its workforce marketplace matching individuals with temporary roles, as demand for such staffers rises amid tightening labor markets around the world.
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Facebook Whistle-Blower Returns to Congress to Talk Regulation
The whistle-blower who revealed thousands of internal Facebook documents will renew her call for regulation of a social-media business model that she says puts profits over the health of its users and global democracies.
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Swiggy Nears $700 Million Fundraise in Invesco-Led Round
Indian food delivery service Swiggy is raising $600 million to $700 million in a round led by Invesco that’s due to close this month, according to people with knowledge of the matter.