Know someone who would like this newsletter? Forward it to them.
The World
Retailers, expecting the holiday shopping season to be bustling once again this year, are scrambling to find enough workers to staff their stores and distribution centers in a tight labor market. It is not proving easy to entice applicants to an industry that has been battered, more than most, by the pandemic’s many challenges, from fights over mask wearing to high rates of infection among employees. Willing retail workers are likely to earn larger paychecks and work fewer hours, while consumers may be greeted by less inventory and understaffed stores. Macy’s is offering referral bonuses of up to $500 for each friend or family member that employees recruit to join the company. Walmart is paying as much as $17 an hour to start and has begun offering free college tuition to its workers. And some Amazon warehouse jobs now command signing bonuses of up to $3,000. (New York Times)
How UPS plans to hire 100,000 people in a month: 70% of its new hires apply on a cell phone. (Wall Street Journal)
In the supply chain battle of 2021, small businesses are losing out to Walmart, Amazon. (Washington Post)
Consumers trade rib-eye for ground beef as grocery prices rise: Americans are cutting back on steak as rising grocery prices squeeze spending. Supermarkets say shoppers are buying more store-brand meat products and trading down from beef to less-expensive alternatives such as chicken or pork, after prices for products such as rib-eye climbed about 40% from a year ago. Some consumers are replacing boneless chicken breast with cheaper bone-in chicken. Retailers said they are securing larger amounts of cheaper meat products as they anticipate more shoppers will seek bargains. (Wall Street Journal)
China on cusp of history as Xi Jinping opens Communist Party’s sixth plenum. Top officials start a four-day conclave to adopt a ‘historical resolution’, only the third in the party’s 100-year history and expected to have momentous impact, as Xi lays the groundwork for a third term by adopting Mao and Deng’s power ploy. The annual autumn meeting, or plenum, of the party’s Central Committee will review and approve a rare “resolution” on Chinese history, and comes just four months after Xi presided over an elaborate celebration of the 100th anniversary of the party’s founding. Both Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the party’s two other transformational leaders to whom Xi compares himself, secured such resolutions at the beginning of their long tenures in power. (South China Morning Post, Financial Times)
China plans to issue more than a dozen licenses that would allow companies to offer after-school tutoring, capping months of turbulence for a once-flourishing industry devastated by new restrictions. The arrangement would allow these firms to resume offering tutoring services to students in the ninth grade and below. Under the new licensing arrangement, tutoring companies will be required to operate after-school tutoring on a nonprofit basis while being allowed to make a profit on other businesses, such as tutoring adults for professional exams. The government is also set to place a cap on the price companies can charge for each after-school tutoring class. (Wall Street Journal)
China has built detailed, life-size mockups of several US warships in the desert and is apparently using them as target practice, according to new satellite images. The pictures show the outlines of a full-scale US carrier and two destroyers, one of which sits on a railway track suggesting it could be used as a moving target. The mockups of US ships are part of a new target range developed by the People’s Liberation Army in China's northwestern Taklamakan desert. (The Telegraph)
Kuwait's government submitted its resignation to the ruling emir, a move which along with an amnesty pardoning political dissidents could help end a standoff with opposition lawmakers that has hindered fiscal reform. The resignation is the second this year by a government headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah in the feud with the elected parliament of the Gulf OPEC producer. (Reuters)
Daniel Ortega easily secured a fourth consecutive term as Nicaragua's president, early results showed, after the former guerrilla fighter suppressed political rivals in a vote critics said was rigged but which won Russian recognition. Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council said that with roughly half the ballots counted, a preliminary tally gave Ortega's Sandinista alliance about 75% of votes. The EU rejected the results, saying the elections "complete the conversion of Nicaragua into an autocratic regime." (Reuters)
Airlines are poised for their busiest year of pilot hiring in more than three decades as the industry tries to restock a workforce reduced during the pandemic and strained by a quick rebound in travel. After seeking to conserve cash by urging thousands of pilots to retire early, airlines are now on an unparalleled hiring spree. Major U.S. carriers are on track to hire around 4,200 pilots this year and more than 9,000 next year. That would be the busiest year for pilot hiring in more than three decades. (Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. reopened its borders for fully vaccinated travelers from dozens of countries, ending more than 18 months of restrictions on international travel that left families separated from loved ones and cost the global travel industry hundreds of billions of dollars in tourism revenue. (New York Times)
There were cheers this morning as the first holiday flights to the US took off after a 604-day shutdown. Heathrow used both its runways for a synchronized departure of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. (The Times)
Economy
Credit Suisse has signed a deal to recommend its hedge fund clients move over to BNP Paribas, which is hoping to capitalise on the Swiss bank’s withdrawal from prime broking services in the wake of the Archegos scandal. Rivals circling Credit Suisse’s prime brokerage, which serves hedge funds, have a chance to pick up customers as the Swiss bank all but exits the business, which racked up $5.1bn of losses this year following the collapse of family office Archegos Capital. (Financial Times)
Citigroup will spend $1.2-1.5 billion on personnel costs stemming from the shutdown of its consumer banking business in South Korea. Citigroup in April said it would exit consumer banking in 13 countries as part of a plan to simplify the bank and boost profits. So far, it has only reached a deal to sell its Australian bank, though executives say they have bids for others. (Wall Street Journal)
People with unlimited PTO aren’t taking it. These companies are making it mandatory. From $1,000 vacation stipends to surprise weeks off, here are some creative solutions to burnout. (Protocol)
Tesla shares fell 4.5% after Twitter users directed CEO Elon Musk to sell a 10th of his stock in an online poll. The electric-vehicle maker’s stock lost 5.2% in brisk trading ahead of the bell. Tesla shares changed hands more than 700,000 times, more than any other stock on the S&P 500. “I was prepared to accept either outcome,” Mr. Musk said in a tweet Sunday after participants in the poll backed a sale by 58% to 42%. Neither Mr. Musk nor Tesla has said when a share sale would take place. (Wall Street Journal)
Technology
BMW is dropping touchscreens from many of its new cars due to the chip shortage. While we’ve seen other auto manufactures have to pause production or cut other features, this omission is a big deal — nowadays, touchscreens are a fairly standard feature in cars, and not having one will affect how you interact with the car almost every day. Some affected vehicles (which include the 3 Series sedans, and X5, X6, and X7 SUVs / crossovers) will also lose access to the backup assistant feature as well, which automatically backs into spots for you after recording how you drove through them going forward. Cars shipped without touchscreens will come with a $500 credit and will require both a software update and the customer to sign a form with the dealer to acknowledge that they know about the feature deletion. (The Verge)
Toshiba is set to divide itself into three companies to focus on infrastructure, devices, and semiconductor memory as early as 2023. All three are expected to be listed at some point. The move is part of Toshiba's strategy to strengthen shareholder value by creating independent companies that have different profit structures and growth strategies. (Nikkei Asian Review)
Several chipmakers, including TSMC, Micron, and Western Digital, responded to a US request and provided supply chain info to help address global chip shortages. (Bloomberg)
In the UK, trolls could face two years in prison for sending messages or posting content that causes psychological harm under legislation targeting online hate. Ministers will overhaul communication laws by creating new offences in the forthcoming Online Safety Bill, the flagship legislation to combat abuse and hatred on the internet. (The Times)
Smart Links
Average US price of gas jumps by 5 cents over past 2 weeks. (Chicago Tribune)
Space could be the next frontier for cyber threats. (Washington Post)
ESG boom generates 300% jump in revenues for asset managers. (Financial News London)
SoftBank unveils $8.8bn share buyback following investor pressure. (Financial Times)
Newspapers are cutting back on print and training readers to use iPads instead. (Washington Post)