The Fed sought to reassure markets for the foreseeable future on Wednesday by announcing that it plans to hold rates at their near-zero mark until into 2023 as it tries to “coax the economy back to full strength after the pandemic-induced recession” – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and Marketplace
As is so often the case, the Fed’s outsized commitment to help has had the opposite effect on investors in the near-term, reminding them that yes, we’re in the midst of a very serious crisis after all – WSJ
Chair Powell also noted in post-FOMC remarks that the Fed is working on changes to its so-far-ill-fated Main Street Lending Program in an effort to make it more appealing to banks that would be actually making the loans in the program (and then selling 95% of each loan to the Fed) – Bloomberg
Data storage company Snowflake had a heckuva NYSE debut on Wednesday, opening at more than double the expected IPO price set by its bankers and closing up even more than that. The listing valued Snowflake at “$70.4 billion, . . . the largest so far this year and the largest ever for a software maker” – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Oracle has reportedly secured agreement from ByteDance to “review TikTok’s source code and software to ensure there are no backdoors that allow the Chinese government or other entities to access” user data as part of its effort to secure U.S. approval of its play to become ByteDance’s tech partner and allow TikTok to remain in the U.S. – WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
It’s far from clear that such access (without a majority controlling stake) will be enough to secure White House approval of the deal – WSJ
New figures show that retail sales rose .6% in August, a good stat to have in the black, but a smaller gain than in previous months—again raising concerns that “the retail recovery [is] running out of steam” – NYTimes
The 30,000 foot view of the DOJ’s efforts to root out spoofing, even as jurors in Chicago hear evidence about the former Deutsche Bank traders accused of the practice – WSJ
As we await new jobless numbers this morning, chew on this piece from the Times citing the difficulty we have in assessing just how many Americans, actually, are receiving unemployment benefits at the moment – NYTimes [and WSJ]
Amazon’s getting in on the podcasting game, because of course it is – WSJ
Some deep cuts for you PGA superfans out there as we kick off the U.S. Open at Winged Foot this afternoon – GolfChannel
Stay safe.
