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The World
Wall Street and European stocks sank as the US said Russia was on the brink of invading Ukraine within several days. The Nasdaq faced the brunt of the losses, sliding 2.9%, while the S&P 500 closed down 2.1%. The market declines this year have wiped more than $3tn off the value of US stocks, with the S&P 500 down over 8%. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the UN, said in a tweet that “the evidence on the ground is that Russia is moving towards an imminent invasion.” (Financial Times)
Violence escalated in eastern Ukraine, with Russian-backed separatists and authorities in Kyiv trading accusations over cease-fire violations along the front line separating the two sides as Western governments said Moscow continued to mass troops on the borders of its smaller neighbor. Russia submitted a UN report that formally leveled allegations Russian leaders have made repeatedly in recent weeks—that Ukraine is pursuing a “genocide” against Russian speakers. Western officials dismiss those accusations as a disinformation effort to justify military action against Kyiv. (Wall Street Journal)
Russia expelled U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Bart Gorman. The move was announced on Thursday but a senior State Department official said he left last week. (Reuters)
Americans are finally emerging from the pandemic eager to splurge on everything from travel and sports events to restaurants, cruises and theme parks. Companies including Marriott, Expedia, Coca-Cola, and MGM Resorts told analysts recently that business is already improving and indications point to an American public eager to live large. “Premium customers, who after being cooped up for 2020 and the first part of 2021, are traveling and spending again with a vengeance,” Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings said. As more Americans travel, Marriott is seeing greater demand for its high-end properties, CEO Anthony Capuano said. Walt Disney’s theme parks business came roaring back in 4Q21. (Wall Street Journal)
China has spent at least $8.8B to host the Winter Olympics, with the cost to retrofit or build a dozen new venues almost double the original budget, despite a pledge to ensure the Games would be “economical.” The Chinese government has disclosed little about the costs of the Games, which Beijing has sought to use as a showcase for its rising global status. But dozens of procurement and bidding documents show that officials spared little expense. Making enough artificial snow for the skiing events in Yanqing, 90km from Beijing, has also been a challenge. China spent about Rmb10bn to turn an undeveloped mountain valley into an Olympic ski resort and sliding complex, including Rmb755m to build a system to pump in water to produce snow. (Financial Times)
Police warned protesters occupying central Ottawa of "imminent" action to clear them from the capital and began making some arrests. Truckers defy PM Trudeau's crackdown, as Canada prepares to freeze assets. Protesters remain in Ottawa even as police try to get them to leave. (Reuters, Bloomberg)
The UK’s Met Office has issued a rare “stay indoors” warning as the worst storm in 30 years is set to batter Britain with 100mph winds on Friday. The army is on standby as Storm Eunice threatens to send debris flying, blow off roofs and bring down power lines. A red weather warning — the highest alert — is in force for winds in the southwest, with an amber warning across most of England until 9pm. Yellow alerts for wind and snow are in place in the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland until 6pm. (The Times)
The death toll from mudslides and floods in Brazil's colonial-era city of Petropolis rose to 117 on Thursday and was expected to increase further as the region reels from the heaviest rains in almost a century. (Reuters)
Economy
Mortgage rates hit their highest level in almost three years, further straining affordability in a market where prices have risen steeply. The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate loan was 3.92% for the week ended Thursday, up from 3.69% a week earlier. That is the highest level since May 2019. (Wall Street Journal)
Fed traders have dialed back bets on a supersized March hike. (Bloomberg)
Philip Lane, chief economist of the European Central Bank, has shifted his position on eurozone inflation by saying it looks unlikely to drop below its 2% target in the next two years. His comments mark a change from only three weeks ago when Lane said inflation was equally likely to drop below the ECB’s target and to stabilize at that level in the medium term. Since then, record eurozone inflation of 5.1% prompted its president Christine Lagarde to say inflation risks were “tilted to the upside” while refusing to rule out raising rates this year. (Financial Times)
Goldman raises profitability target in effort to bridge valuation gap, as CEO David Solomon said that market share gains and expansion in newer areas will help the lender. (Financial Times)
British pubgoers have been put on notice that they face sharp increases in the price of a pint as mounting inflationary pressures in the brewing industry combine with rising staff and utility costs and the looming end of coronavirus tax relief. Beer industry executives and analysts warned that drinkers had yet to feel the full impact of brewers’ rising costs, which Dolf van den Brink, Heineken’s chief executive, this week described as “off the charts”. Prices of malting barley, the most important ingredient for lager, have more than doubled in the past year, while the industry also has to contend with the shipping logjams that are clogging other global supply chains. (Financial Times)
How David Lowe took on Pinterest, Tesla, and Rivian to become Silicon Valley’s go-to lawyer: The tech world has no shortage of lawsuits, from patent disputes to antitrust. But there’s something unique about the recent string of high-profile complaints filed against some of the industry’s buzziest companies: Tesla, Pinterest, and Rivian. All were brought by female former employees, each alleges some form of gender discrimination, and unlike many similar suits in the past, the plaintiffs in each of these cases made their claims very, very public. There is another notable connection: All of the complaints were filed by the same attorney, David Lowe, of San Francisco–based employment law firm Rudy Exelrod Zieff & Lowe.The tech world has no shortage of lawsuits, from patent disputes to antitrust. But there’s something unique about the recent string of high-profile complaints filed against some of the industry’s buzziest companies: Tesla, Pinterest, and Rivian. All were brought by female former employees, each alleges some form of gender discrimination, and unlike many similar suits in the past, the plaintiffs in each of these cases made their claims very, very public. There is another notable connection: All of the complaints were filed by the same attorney, David Lowe, of San Francisco–based employment law firm Rudy Exelrod Zieff & Lowe. (Fortune)
Technology
Tech companies face a fresh crisis: Hiring. Along with microchips, toilet paper and Covid tests, tech workers will be recalled as one of the great, pressing shortages of this pandemic. Estimates of the unemployment rates for tech workers are about 1.7 percent, compared with roughly 4 percent in the general economy; for those with expertise in cybersecurity, it’s more like 0.2 percent. Tech employees today tire of the attention from recruiters, the friendly hellos on LinkedIn, the cold calls. To be a recruiter in tech is to be an in-demand commodity for those companies doing the hiring but to feel like something of a nuisance — like an essential gear that emits a loud, irritating noise. (New York Times)
US app installs of Coinbase, eToro, and FTX grew collectively by 279% week over week on Super Bowl Sunday; Coinbase grew 309% and eToro grew 132%. (TechCrunch)
In May 2020, after an intense courtship, Spotify announced a licensing agreement to host Joe Rogan’s show exclusively. Although reported then to be worth more than $100 million, the true value of the deal that was negotiated at the time, which covered three and a half years, was at least $200 million, with the possibility of more. (New York Times)
The FBI is sounding the alarm as QR code usage soars: 76 million Americans scanned a QR code in 2021, up 44% from 2019, according to eMarketer. That’s expected to rise to 100 million by 2025. Law enforcement officials are sounding the alarm about the risks. The FBI issued an alert in January warning Americans that cybercriminals “are tampering with QR codes to redirect victims to malicious sites that steal login and financial information.” (Axios)
Smart Links
As politics infects public health, private companies profit. (Kaiser Health News)
Brains do not slow down until after age of 60; study findings go against assumption that mental processing speed declines from a peak at age 20. (The Guardian)
Bezos’ Blue Origin building more rockets to meet ‘robust’ space tourism demand. (CNBC)
Could wages and prices spiral upward in America? (New York Times)
Commencement speakers:
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, to speak at MIT’s 2022 Commencement. (MIT News)
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern named Harvard Class of 2022 Commencement speaker. (Harvard Gazette)