Veterans’ Day here in the States means Singles Day across China for Alibaba. Here’s what Jack Ma & friends had up their sleeves. - MarketWatch and Bloomberg and NYTimes
TikTok parent ByteDance, flying under the radar as other recent events have shoved the White House’s battle with the company to the back burner, has “asked a U.S. appeals court for additional time to work out a potential divestiture of the popular video-sharing app, citing a lack of communication” from the White House as a Thursday deadline loom - WSJ and Bloomberg
The FAA is considering “new safety-related penalties or other enforcement action against Boeing” over violations of a “2015 settlement addressing safety-oversight problems” even as the agency “prepare to allow the plane maker’s beleaguered 737 Max fleet back in the air as soon as the middle of next week.” Gee, how comforting - WSJ
The Times profiles the Federal Reserve’s Lael Brainard, the “sole Democrat left at the Fed board in Washington” and a “leading contender to be President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Treasury secretary.” A go-along governor she is not (though no mere gadfly, either) - NYTimes
In its third product launch is an many months, Apple rolled out its new line of Mac computers on Tuesday that, for the first time, feature home-grown processors. Apple announced its move away from Intel, which has provided the chips powering Apple’s laptops and desktops since 2005, earlier this year - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Word on the street in D.C. and in Silicon Valley is that U.S. tech giants should expect a much tougher road ahead under a President Biden than they did when he was second-in-command, as bipartisan support to “restrain [Big Tech’s] power has grown sharply” over the past 4 years and “shows no signs of going away as Democrats regain control of the White House” - NYTimes
Apollo Global Mgmt, still looking to shake off the stain of founder Leon Black’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, will pour some serious cash into a $2.5 billion deal to snap up Great Canadian Gaming Corp., the Toronto-listed casino operator - Bloomberg
American job openings are nearing pre-pandemic levels, “a sign of continued economic improvement despite a surge in infections and fading fiscal support.” Whether the positive trend can survive the recent boom in virus infections, however, is far from clear - WSJ
The EU and its member states—all 27 of them—are reportedly getting closer to an agreement on a “landmark stimulus package worth 750 billion euros, or $890 billion, to help them out of the deep recession the pandemic is inflicting on the bloc.” Among the final sticking points heading toward resolution: “how the money should be spent, whether there would be extra funding for some of the Parliament’s dearest programs and whether stimulus funding should flow to members like Hungary and Poland that are ignoring bloc’s rule-of-law standards” - NYTimes
My buddies and I have been discussing how Augusta National will deal with the shift of its week of prime-time splendor from April—when the “azaleas are dazzling,” the magnolias “sumptuous,” and Nantz as oleaginous as ever—to November. Turns out botanists and horticulturalists are taking note, too - WSJ
Stay safe.
