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The World
President Xi Jinping sought to rally China’s private sector to help overcome “containment” by the US and other countries, in rare direct criticism of the nation’s biggest trading partner. China is grappling with “comprehensive containment and suppression by western countries led by the US over the past few years, which have brought unprecedented and severe challenges for China’s development,” Xi told the country’s top political advisory body. (Bloomberg)
Companies targeted by U.S. sanctions are featuring prominently at the annual meeting of China's parliament, underscoring Beijing's push for independent semiconductor and commodity supply chains. (Nikkei Asia Review)
China to ‘Accelerate’ Diplomacy, Reopening After Covid: New Foreign Minister Qin Gang is holding his first annual press conference at this year’s “two sessions”. Qin is known as one of the toughest voices within the foreign ministry and became ambassador to the U.S. in July 2021 when China-US relations were at all-time low. Observers says Qin gained President Xi Jinping’s trust by the way he made arrangements for Xi’s overseas trips. (Bloomberg, South China Morning Post)
Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen has convinced US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to meet in California rather than Taipei to avoid an aggressive Chinese military response, as tensions run high between Beijing and Washington. The venue change comes as the US steps up contingency planning for the region and highlights the impact of China’s military posturing to constrain Taiwan and undermine its de facto independence. (Financial Times)
UK PM Sunak plans annual cap on number of refugees: The home secretary will be under a legal duty to remove nearly all asylum seekers who arrive on small boats and there will be a cap on refugee numbers, under new plans. The duty will take precedence over human rights and modern slavery claims and there will be new powers to enable the mass detention of tens of thousands of people every year before their removal. There will be constraints on the rights of migrants to use a judicial review to challenge decisions. (The Times)
Unions vow to shut France's economy down amid pension battle: Roads blocked, oil refineries disrupted, planes grounded and trains halted — unions are threatening to shut down France's economy this week in what they hope is their toughest riposte yet to President Emmanuel Macron's plan to raise the retirement age. (Associated Press)
The Justice Department and Department of Transportation are expected to take action as soon as Tuesday to block JetBlue Airways Corp.’s $3.8 billion takeover of Spirit Airlines Inc. The Justice Department is expected to file an antitrust lawsuit in federal court, alleging that the elimination of Spirit would increase ticket prices and decrease options for travelers, according to the people, who spoke anonymously to discuss an ongoing case. The Department of Transportation is expected to begin a parallel proceeding to block the transfer of Spirit’s airline operating certificate as incompatible with the public interest, the people said. (Bloomberg)
In an attempt to counter GOP efforts to limit reproductive rights, Gov. Gavin Newsom said California will cut ties with Walgreens over the company’s decision to stop selling abortion medication in 20 Republican states. “California won’t be doing business with Walgreens — or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk,” Newsom tweeted. “We’re done.” (Los Angeles Times)
Diabetes and obesity — two risk factors for heart disease — are on the rise among young adults in the U.S., according to a newly published study of about 13,000 people ages 20 to 44 years old. The prevalence of diabetes climbed from 3% to 4.1%; obesity shot up from 32.7% to 40.9%, based on the study, published in JAMA, which uses data from 2009 to 2020. (NPR)
Economy
Rising mortgage rates are cooling the U.S. housing market as the crucial spring selling season nears: Up for four straight weeks, rates are the highest since early November, according to Freddie Mac—6.65% as of March 2, days after mortgage applications from home buyers, seasonally adjusted, hit the lowest level in 28 years. A continued slowdown could also weigh on spending for items such as furniture and appliances, and reduce revenues for real-estate brokerages, mortgage lenders and other related businesses. (Wall Street Journal)
Higher interest rates threaten U.S. manufacturing: New orders for manufactured goods dropped for the sixth straight month in February, purchasing managers report; manufacturing output is down 1.7% from its postpandemic peak last May, Fed data shows; and the Commerce Department’s measure of civilian capital-equipment orders in January, excluding aircraft, was down an inflation-adjusted 3.4% from its recent high in November 2021. The figures suggest that consumers and businesses are starting to retrench in the face of economic uncertainty, said Barclays senior U.S. economist Jonathan Millar. (Wall Street Journal)
Roubini Fears Hard Landing Amid Persistent Global Inflation. (Bloomberg)
Why the Recession Is Always Six Months Away: Continued strong hiring and consumer spending are complicating Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s campaign to tame inflation. (Wall Street Journal)
JPMorgan Is Growing in Florida and Texas, States That ‘Like Business,’ CEO Jamie Dimon Says. “We love Florida, we’re growing in Florida left and right,” the bank’s Dimon told Bloomberg Television in an interview from Miami. (Bloomberg)
Is Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell ready to take on the big banks? There’s a chance we’ll find out this week. Bank lobbyists have been discreetly laying the Capitol Hill groundwork to nudge Powell on their top concern this year — fending off what could be a significant hike in their capital requirements. Big bank leaders were in Washington making the case as recently as last week. The rules at issue determine how much funding lenders must have available to absorb losses. There is no regulatory or legislative issue that big banks and their trade groups are spending more time on this year, and they are in some ways flying blind. The Fed’s point man on regulation — Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr — has signaled that the capital buffers that big banks have for bad times are insufficient. He has undertaken a “holistic review” of capital rules. (Politico)
Record gap in UK and US indices: The index tracking the UK’s large and medium-sized companies is now trading at a record discount of 40 per cent to the US markets, putting more pressure on London’s standing as several firms mull a switch to Wall Street. Citigroup analysts warned of the valuation gap between the MSCI UK and the MSCI USA Index, which covers the performance of the large and mid-cap segments of listed US companies. (The Times)
Technology
Computer Science Majors Will Earn Less This Year After Tech Layoffs: Starting salaries are projected to drop by 4% for the class of 2023 as companies including Google and Facebook cut costs. Starting salaries for graduates with a bachelor’s degree in computer science are projected to drop by 4% to $72,843 for the class of 2023 compared to a year ago, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Other majors that typically serve as a pipeline into tech roles, including math and engineering, are projected to see marginal gains at just 0.7%. (Bloomberg)
Meta plans to cut thousands of jobs as soon as this week, after it eliminated 13%, or 11,000 jobs in November 2023 in its first major layoff. (Bloomberg)
Google tells employees that fewer of them will get promotions to senior roles. (CNBC)
Airbnb Cuts Recruiting Staff by 30% Even as It Selectively Hires. (Bloomberg)
Google CEO Sundar Pichai defends desk-sharing policy, says some offices are like a ‘ghost town’. Pichai addressed employee criticism of the cloud unit’s new desk-sharing policy at an all-hands meeting last week. He defended the decision, saying that “it feels like a ghost town” in some of the company’s offices. Executives said only 35% of employees were coming into the offices at least four days a week. (CNBC)
DLA Piper, one of the world’s largest law firms by revenue, has poached 10 data scientists from a smaller rival to advise clients on the use of artificial intelligence, as regulators across the world draft policies to police the rapidly expanding technology. A new unit at the multinational firm will be boosted by the arrival of Bennett Borden, a former CIA official who used data analytics and machine learning at the agency to predict human behavior. (Financial Times)
Twitter has been late in paying Amazon Web Services for cloud services to power the social media app, prompting Amazon to threaten to withhold payments for advertising on the Twitter app. Twitter also is late to pay AWS for cloud services it hasn’t used—to the tune of at least $70 million. (The Information)
Tesla has cut prices on its two most expensive electric vehicles in the U.S., days after Chief Executive Elon Musk said recent price cuts on other models had stoked demand. The price cuts, Tesla's fifth adjustment since the start of the year, ranged from 4% on the performance version of the Model S to 9% on the more expensive Model X. (Reuters)
Smart Links
USDA proposes new rule for "Made in the USA" food labels. (Axios)
Amazon Closes Eight Amazon Go Convenience Stores. (The Information)
Millennials have more credit card debt than emergency savings. (CNBC)
Alaska’s Fisheries Are Collapsing. This Congresswoman Is Taking on the Industry She Says Is to Blame. (Politico)
Honda bailed on the Clarity — its only hydrogen-powered car in the U.S. — but the automaker hasn’t quit on fuel cells. (TechCrunch)