Walmart’s retail efforts to keep pace with Amazon are well documented.  Now it appears that the company’s refusing to concede the entertainment space, either, as evidenced by its new partnerships with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and interactive storytelling start-up Eko – NYTimes and WSJ

Even as Sears is meeting with banks to seek emergency financing, some of its biggest lenders “are pushing for the troubled retailer to liquidate rather than try to reorganize through the bankruptcy process” – WSJ

Breakingviews helps us understand Tencent’s rough couple of weeks, including a tech-stock dive this week that spread to Asia as well as a broader loss of nearly $230 billion in market value since its January 2018 peak – NYTimes

Which makes its decision to hold off on its much-anticipated Music IPO, expected to be one of the largest this year, even tougher for the conglomerate to handle – WSJ

At nearly 5%, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rates are at a 7-year high, a “level that could deter many home buyers and represents another setback for the slumping housing market” – WSJ

Lost in all of the market plummeting this week is the concurrent crypto dive, which makes economist Nouriel Roubini’s Senate Banking Committee testimony yesterday calling virtual currencies and their related blockchain tech “the mother or father of all scams and bubbles” and “the most overhyped technology ever,” respectively, particularly timely – Law360

A California judge this week appeared ready to throw out a jury’s $250 million’s punitive damages award against Monsanto regarding its Roundup product’s link to lymphoma, at least based on the Court’s tentative ruling that plaintiff hadn’t “proved any malicious intent by the agrochemical giant.” The judge also took issue with comments made in closing arguments by the plaintiff’s counsel that she deemed “prejudicial” – Law360

Despite White House comments hinting at the contrary, SEC Chair Jay Clayton has confirmed that public companies’ quarterly earnings reporting requirements won’t be phased out any time soon – WSJ

The highly suspicious circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi are prompting high-profile business leaders and journalists to pull out of Saudi Arabia’s forthcoming “Davos in the Desert” event “intended to showcase Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s modernization plan for the desert kingdom” – Bloomberg

Square and its stock is reeling after the announcement that CFO Sarah Friar is departing to take the helm at social-networking site Nextdoor. With CEO Jack Dorsey’s dual role at Square and Twitter, Friar “essentially ran the business” at Square, making her exit troubling for analysts – Bloomberg and MarketWatch

Got a special someone and a deep love of Halloween? We’ve got you covered.  Because why should the kids have all the fun – HuffingtonPost

Have a great weekend.