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The World
Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett began. Republicans are seeking to confirm Barrett before Election Day, as Americans say 52%-44% that filling the seat should be left to the winner of the presidential election and a Senate vote next year. Democrats have little chance of stopping Barrett's confirmation unless more Republican senators test positive for the coronavirus (at least two committee members will participate in the proceedings remotely) or there's a truly unexpected disclosure, which sources from both parties say is unlikely. Read Barrett’s opening statement. (Axios, Washington Post, New York Times, Washington Post)
The threat of no-deal Brexit is growing again as France digs in over fishing rights. Meanwhile, Banque de France says 31 entities – mainly investment firms — have moved €150bn of UK assets to France since September. Elsewhere, China tapped the brakes on a Yuan rally, making it easier to bet the currency will fall in value. North Korea’s new “monster” missile shows they do not need to increase the range of their missiles anymore, and instead are focusing on trying to launch multiple nuclear warheads on a single missile. In Belarus, security teams detained dozens of protesters and used force, including water cannon and batons, to break up crowds still demanding a new presidential election. At the UN, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia set to join Human Rights Council, along with Cuba and Pakistan. (The Times, The Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, BBC News, Reuters, The Guardian)
Covid-19 hospitalizations hit their highest points recently throughout the Midwest, where the growth in new cases has been the worst in the nation. In the UK, more Covid patients are in England hospitals than in March, as PM Boris Johnson places Liverpool under increase rules as he announces a new tiered local lockdown system with pubs and gyms closed, and further rules on households mixing indoors. In China, Qingdao is testing 9 million residents after a new cluster emerged. Meanwhile, new studies show that less than one in 10 Americans have Covid antibodies. (Los Angeles Times, The Times, BBC News, South China Morning Post, MedPage Today)
Two Stanford professors won the Nobel Prize for economic sciences for their work on how auctions function, a field that impacts everything from high-end art prices to consumers' electricity bills. (NBC News, Nobel Prize)
Just 2-11% of Europeans think the US presidential election will be "completely free and fair,” as some diplomats in Washington worry President Trump may not accept the election result. Meanwhile, with market volatility rising ahead of November’s elections, investors are parsing what polls and policy proposals mean for everything from energy stocks to shares of private-prison operators. This anxiety is showing up in volatility hedges, as well as sectors investors believe would benefit from political control by one party or the other. (Reuters, YouGov-UK, Wall Street Journal)
Economy
Goldman Sachs’ commodities team says a Biden win could be a ‘positive catalyst’ for oil prices: “We do not expect the upcoming U.S. elections to derail our bullish forecasts for oil and gas prices, with a Blue Wave likely to be in fact a positive catalyst.” The group adds that a Biden administration could provide a further boost to oil prices by making production — especially for shale — more expensive and more regulated. Separately, Goldman Sachs is betting against the dollar based on “blue wave” prospects and the vaccine outlook. (CNBC, CNBC-2)
Global VC funding stayed strong in 3Q20 with $76.4 billion in venture funding worldwide — up from the prior quarter and year-ago levels — as predictions of a pandemic-triggered slowdown didn’t occur. Exits also were unusually strong. Meanwhile, nine companies plan to go public on U.S. exchanges this week, all but two in the life sciences space. And if only SPACs could hit: Fenway Sports Group, whose assets include the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool F.C., is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake to Redball Acquisition, a blank check company formed earlier this year by "Moneyball" maven Billy Beane and private equity investor Gerry Cardinale. (Crunchbase, Renaissance Capital, Axios)
Banks are expected to report a bad 3Q20, but not as bad as before. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo all more than doubled their war chests for defaulted loans over 1H20 and now believe they largely have enough set aside to handle potential consumer and business distress. Without that hit to the bottom line, profits should be higher in the third quarter than the second. The banks are expected to show a rebound in per-share earnings from 2Q20. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley is rebuilding its fixed-income division after its 2015 cuts, as CEO James Gorman says “we’d be stupid” not to take advantage of healthier market. (Wall Street Journal, Financial Times)
Walmart is entering the Medicare broker market, threatening incumbents. The massive retailer plans to sell MA, supplement and prescription drug plans from major insurers like UnitedHealthcare and Humana during this year's annual enrollment period. Meanwhile, in surprise move, HCA will return all $6B in Covid-19 federal aid, as the biggest for-profit chain also predicted third quarter revenue up 5% to $13.3 billion, even amid a drop in volume. (HealthcareDive, HealthcareDive-2)
Companies are offering benefits like virtual therapy and meditation apps as Covid-19 stress continues to grow. Meditation apps Headspace and Calm and virtual therapy services like Lyra Health and Modern Health have seen huge adoption by employers in recent months. (CNBC)
IBM’s 2020 C-suite study that showed employers significantly overestimated the effectiveness of their support and training efforts for their employees. The survey, which collected responses from 3,450 executives in 20 countries across 22 industries, showed that 74% of employers believe their organization is helping staff learn the skills needed to work in a new way, whereas only 38% of employees believe that to be the case. (Axios, IBM)
Technology
EU regulators are set to add to its list of companies for potential regulation, putting together a "hit list" of up to 20 companies that will face "tougher regulation than smaller competitors," while regulating Big Tech is going to be a long, hard slog. Meanwhile, Justice Department and state prosecutors investigating Google for alleged antitrust violations are considering whether to force the company to sell its dominant Chrome browser and parts of its lucrative advertising business. Separately, Silicon Valley pay cuts are igniting tech-industry tensions, as Bay Area staffers move to less-costly locales to work remotely in pandemic, triggering cost-of-living salary reductions and stoking debate. (Financial Times, Economist, Politico, Wall Street Journal)
Fortnite won’t be coming back to the App Store any time soon, as a federal judge refused to grant Epic Games a preliminary injunction against Apple that would force the game developer to reinstate Fortnite on the App Store, while simultaneously granting an injunction that keeps Apple from retaliating against the Unreal Engine, which Epic also owns (PDF). In other words, we now have a permanent version of the temporary restraining order ruling from last month. (The Verge)
Amazon bought two domain names: podcast[dot]com and podcasting[dot]com. They both forward to Audible, which doesn’t have third-party podcasts on it. Meanwhile, Amazon wants to “win at games.” So why hasn’t it? After brute-forcing its way to dominance in so many industries, the tech leviathan may finally have met its match. (PodNews, Wired)
Audio startups are multiplying as investors seek the next Clubhouse: Dozens of startups are betting that consumers—tired of texting and suffering from Zoom fatigue—will embrace audio as the next social media feature. Investors are freshly alert to the sector’s potential thanks to Clubhouse’s $100 million valuation, as well as the rise of Discord, a talk and text chat app valued at $3.5 billion. (The Information)
Smart Links
The 100 most sustainably managed companies in the world (Sony’s No. 1). (Wall Street Journal)
U.S. companies rewrite bonus plans to prop up executive pay. (Financial Times)
Harvard Business School names Srikant Datar as new dean. (Bloomberg, Harvard Gazette)
How to find the best deals during Prime Day 2020. (The Verge)
Sales calls have gone virtual, and AI is listening. (Wired)
Does the Chief of Staff role work in Silicon Valley? (Protocol)
How Brown University’s endowment became tops in the Ivy League. (Wall Street Journal)