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The World
Western leaders on high alert after explosion in Poland kills 2:
Warsaw said was a strike by a “Russian-made missile” in the countryside near its border with Ukraine. US president Joe Biden said it was “unlikely” that the missile had been fired from Russia. (Financial Times)
Russia fired roughly 100 missiles at targets across Ukraine on Tuesday, one of the broadest aerial attacks since the invasion began, causing blasts in at least six regions including Kyiv, the capital, just days after Moscow retreated from a key city in the south. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a video posted on Telegram that most of the strikes targeted the country’s energy systems. Fifteen pieces of energy infrastructure were damaged, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior official in the president’s office. (New York Times)
Biden-Xi Talks Mark Shift in U.S.-China Ties Toward Managing Fierce Competition: The meeting between Mr. Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping stretched over three hours, covering thorny issues such as their differences over Taiwan, Russia’s war in Ukraine and ways to ensure that the U.S.-China rivalry doesn’t flare into open conflict. Mr. Xi offered a firm defense of Communist Party rule in China and grew particularly animated when he spoke about Taiwan, providing a detailed history of the self-ruled island that Beijing sees as part of its territory, according to Chinese officials. But Mr. Biden and his advisers also came away with the impression that China had no imminent plans to invade Taiwan, although Mr. Xi didn’t say so explicitly, one of the U.S. officials said. To Mr. Biden’s team, it appeared the Chinese leader was seeking stability and predictability at an uncertain time in China. In the end, the meeting largely accomplished what the two sides set out to achieve, restoring dialogue between the two major powers and a measure of stability to a relationship that had deteriorated to its lowest point since the 1970s. (Wall Street Journal)
Xi’s crackdowns drive Chinese billionaires to booming Singapore. The exodus of wealth is poised to accelerate after last month’s Party Congress in which President Xi Jinping further tightened his grip on the economy. Xi’s drive for “common prosperity” means entrepreneurs -- who once embraced Deng Xiaoping’s maxim that to get rich is glorious -- are flocking to more welcoming places like Singapore. (Bangkok Post)
In what organizers are calling the largest strike in the history of U.S. higher education, tens of thousands of academic workers across the University of California system walked off the job on Monday to call for higher wages and better benefits. The walkouts involve nearly 48,000 teaching assistants, researchers and other employees across the system’s 10 campuses. The labor action could become a turning point for graduate student workers nationwide, upon which America’s universities have long relied for grading exams and staffing labs for relatively little pay. And it tracks that California serves as the setting for this moment. (New York Times)
Indonesia has agreed to significantly reduce its reliance on coal as part of a $20 billion climate finance deal with the U.S., Japan, and other developed countries. The ambitious deal was unveiled at the G20 summit in Bali, following more than a year of negotiations between leaders. As part of the deal, Indonesia has pledged to cap carbon dioxide emissions from its power sector at 290 million and to generate 34 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. (New York Times)
Brains of Black Americans age faster, study finds, with 'weathering' likely to blame: The brains of Black adults in the U.S. age more quickly than those of white and Hispanic adults, showing features linked to Alzheimer's and other dementias as early as mid-life, according to a new study in JAMA Neurology. The analysis of MRI scans found that Black adults — on average, in their mid-50s — were more likely than white or Hispanic adults of the same age to have a higher prevalence of white matter lesions, markers of cerebrovascular disease that are associated with cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. The new research strengthens the case that vascular disease may be especially detrimental to brain health in Black populations, and earlier in life than previously thought. The differences are unlikely to be genetic, the scientists said, hypothesizing that early brain aging in Black participants may be linked to weathering — the accumulation of racial stressors over time. (STAT News)
Flu season has roared to life in California, reaching levels not seen in years and threatening to further strain a healthcare system already contending with an onslaught of RSV cases and still-potent circulation of the coronavirus. (Los Angeles Times)
Economy
Morning Consult’s latest data suggests that core CPI inflation is likely to increase in November after falling dramatically in October. All five of Morning Consult’s Supply Chain Indexes of Consumer Inflation Pressures showed signs of easing in October — the first time this has happened since tracking began in March. Their movements also coincided with a substantial decline in the rate of Consumer Price Index inflation, as consumers experienced a welcome reprieve from the sting of rapid price growth, particularly for “core” (excluding food and energy) prices. (Morning Consult)
Mortgage Rates Could Tank Home Prices by 20%, Fed Study Finds: Average 30-year fixed-rate mortgages now top 7%, the highest in more than two decades. (Bloomberg)
Year-end bonuses are expected to be much lower this year than in the bonanza of 2021. M&A slowed, IPOs dried up and revenue declined. Investment bankers are expected to do the worst, with bonuses plunging as much as 45%. No surprise given the drop-off in deal-making. "Economic headwinds showed no signs of abating," Alan Johnson, managing director of Johnson Associates, which released the estimates, said. (Axios Markets)
Mortgage Rates Are High Because Nobody Is Buying Mortgages: Banks went on a mortgage-bond buying spree last year, but now they are stepping back from the market. “Banks stepping back, the Fed stepping back, foreign investors stepping back—that has widened the spread that mortgages trade at versus Treasurys, which directly translates to the borrower’s mortgage rate,” said Nick Maciunas, a research analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (Wall Street Journal)
Paris overtakes London as Europe’s largest stock market. Paris has taken the top spot after the combined market capitalisation of its major share exchanges overtook those in the UK capital, according to an index compiled by Bloomberg. Currency movements have also helped Paris, with the pound down 13% against the dollar this year, while the euro has only lost 9%. (Bloomberg)
The cracks in the US Treasury bond market: The US Treasury bond market suffered a huge scare at the start of the coronavirus pandemic when fears about a collapse in the global economy led to a sudden slump in prices and liquidity. Now as the Federal Reserve battles to rein in inflation, a recession looms and most asset prices have faced a dramatic sell-off, the world’s most important bond market is creaking once again. Liquidity in the market — one crucial measure of how well it is functioning — is at its worst levels since March 2020 after a dramatic decline in the past year. Market depth, a measure of liquidity which refers to the ability of a trader to buy or sell Treasuries without moving prices, is also at its worst level since March 2020. (Financial Times)
The consumer-finance arm of China’s Ant Group Co. is planning to raise the equivalent of $1.5 billion in new capital, scaling back its fundraising ambitions after a large state-backed investor backed out of a previous plan. Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co. is planning to increase its registered capital to 18.5 billion yuan, equivalent to $2.6 billion, from 8 billion yuan, according to regulatory filings from some of the companies taking part in the capital raise. (Wall Street Journal)
Is the FTX crash Gensler’s fault — or did it prove he’s right? The SEC chair has been criticized for failing to offer regulatory clarity. But the crisis vindicates his approach to the controversial industry, others say. Marc Fagel, former SEC regional director for San Francisco who has represented crypto companies in his private practice, downplayed speculation that the SEC colluded with FTX simply because Gensler’s staff had meetings with the company. “Plenty of players in the crypto industry have met with various members of the SEC,” Fagel told Protocol. “Indeed, I would be a little worried if the SEC didn’t take meetings with players as large as this.” (Protocol)
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Attempts to Raise Fresh Cash Despite Bankruptcy. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
TCI Fund Management told Google parent Alphabet in a letter that it needs to aggressively cut costs. TCI Fund Management, the activist hedge fund, sent the letter to Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai on Tuesday. TCI said the cost base of Alphabet “is too high and management needs to take aggressive action.” (Barron’s)
Unemployment overall is low, but you wouldn't feel that way if you worked in tech — or the mortgage industry. These are the sectors feeling the most pain from the Fed's rate hikes. Many of these companies were buoyed by low rates, skyrocketing equity values, and an overly optimistic view of the future. Plus: A hyped-up "war for talent" led some companies to hire too fast and spend too much. Some of that hiring was "sloppy," one recruiter told Axios. It was only a few months ago that Amazon raised its maximum base pay level for these corporate employees to $350,000 a year, from $160,000, amid a fever-pitch drive to hire throughout the sector. (Axios Markets)
Apple is preparing to begin sourcing chips for its devices from a plant under construction in Arizona, marking a major step toward reducing the company’s reliance on Asian production. (Bloomberg)
Mobile game revenue will decline for the first time in history this year. While the whole game industry is expected to contract by 4.3% — another first since Newzoo began tracking the market in 2007 — the company is predicting a 6.4% decline in mobile game spending on top of a 4.2% decline in console game spending. (Protocol)
Amazon launched Amazon clinic, a virtual platform where users can connect with healthcare providers to help treat common ailments like allergies and skin conditions. Amazon has for years sought to expand its presence in healthcare. It bought online pharmacy PillPack in 2018, underpinning a prescription delivery and price-comparison site it later launched as Amazon Pharmacy, which lets users buy over-the-counter drugs via Prime memberships. (Reuters)
Silicon Valley is reeling. Is this the end of the cushy tech job? The tight labor market put more power in the hands of workers, which — at least in Big Tech — has led to a shift away from hustle culture and toward work-life balance, self-care, and, some would argue, “quiet quitting.” Now it seems like a return to hustle culture is bubbling up from this month’s bloodbath of layoffs. (Protocol)
Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings has begun a new round of job cuts targeted at its video streaming, gaming and cloud businesses. The sources said the layoffs affect three out of Tencent's six business divisions - platform and content (PCG), which comprises of its video and news platforms, its gaming-focused interactive entertainment department (IEG) and cloud and smart industries group (CSIG). (Reuters)
Musk tells Twitter employees they can still receive stock even though the company is private. (CNBC)
Live Event
Today, 6:20 pm ET: Corporations and Climate Risk in the Real World: The Case of PG&E. This mini conference will pose questions such as: How did PG&E come to be declared a “menace to California” by a federal judge in January 2022? How we should regulate firms like PG&E that provide critical public goods, whose business models are fundamentally challenged by climate change, and that are “too essential to fail.” How can we make sure the citizens of California are able to get mortgages and home insurance, buy clean energy at a reasonable price, and avoid losing their homes and clean air to utility-caused wildfires? (Register: Stanford Graduate School of Business)
Smart Links
Tech Firms Dump Office Space as They Downsize. (The Wall Street Journal)
Parents are missing work at record rates to take care of sick kids. (Washington Post)
Airbnb Co-Founder’s New Business Is Building Small Homes in Backyards. (Wall Street Journal)
Gas prices dive just in time for Thanksgiving road trips. (Los Angeles Times)
Ad Markets Struggled in Q3. (A Media Operator)
Job listings are the new Zillow. (Axios Markets)
How a design tweak could help pacemaker batteries last longer. (Popular Science)
Layoffs Reach Amazon After Years of Unabashed Growth. (Statista)