Jobs Report Friday again! Here’s what we’re watching for in the numbers, including some thoughts on recent positive trends and how the Delta variant may upend them...more
Robinhood, the trading app that helped facilitate the pandemic-era rise of meme stock craziness, has gone meme-level itself this week, with its shares rising more than 65% at one point on Wednesday before Nasdaq briefly...more
SEC chief Gary Gensler announced this week that his Commission will use its “existing authority” to “regulate cryptocurrency markets to the maximum extent possible” in an effort to address the “fraud, scams and abuse” that...more
Big union news on Monday, with a NLRB hearing officer advocating for the Board to set aside the results of an early April union election at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama based on the ‘zon allegedly “illegally...more
Big Tech earnings are in, and BIG remains the operative modifier. Apple saw its profits almost double in Q2, Microsoft had its most profitable quarter ever, and Alphabet’s revenue rose an incredible 62% compared to a year...more
U.S. insurance giants Aon and Willis Towers Watson have shelved their plans for a massive tie-up over an inability to resolve concerns raised by the DOJ’s antitrust division and a desire to avoid the lengthy timeline...more
A pair of the most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges announced this weekend that they’re taking steps to “curb a type of high-risk trading that has been blamed for sharp fluctuations in the value of Bitcoin and the...more
In a major departure, Amazon announced to customers this week that “it would no longer require them to resolve their legal complaints involving the technology giant through arbitration.” Consumer advocates cheered the news...more
As previewed earlier this week, four companies associated intimately with the opioid epidemic—three distributors and one drugmaker—have finalized a deal with state Attorneys General in which they will pay $26 billion to...more
The Biden Administration has nominated prominent Google critic Jonathan Kanter to lead the DOJ’s antitrust division. Kanter is “a longtime antitrust lawyer who has represented companies that argue they have been harmed by the...more
Markets dove at the opening bell and never recovered on Monday, with all three major indices off between 1 and 2%--the most across the board since May. Most market watchers blamed concerns over the economic recovery stalling...more
Members of the OPEC+ coalition have reached a deal to increase oil production, a “move that could help ease the pressure on gas prices and inflation as economies around the world recover after pandemic lockdowns.” ...more
Chip-maker Intel is in late-stage talks to purchase rival GlobalFoundries for roughly $30 billion. If completed, the acquisition would be Intel’s largest and would help the company with its push into overseas markets. ...more
Back on the Hill on Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee, Fed Chair Powell assured lawmakers that he was well-aware of yesterday’s CPI figures showing a 5.4% jump in prices and that inflation was “poised to...more
As expected, the CPI update for June made waves on Tuesday, with prices climbing some 5.4% last month—the biggest increase in over a decade. The jump led Federal Reserve and White House officials to issue statements to...more
Your dispatch from Day 1 of the Tesla shareholder dispute over the company’s SolarCity purchase didn’t disappoint—at least as far as Elon was concerned—with the founder taking the stand, defending the acquisition, and taking...more
G-20 leaders meeting in Venice over the weekend took another major step forward in overhauling the international tax system, “backing a proposal that would crack down on tax havens and impose new levies on large, profitable...more
FINRA, the securities industry’s self-regulator, issued a sizeable $70 million fine against Robinhood Financial on Wednesday—the largest in the history of the body—as part of a settlement deal over an alleged “series of...more
Chinese ride-hailing powerhouse Didi Global priced its forthcoming IPO at $14/share on Tuesday, “setting the stage for the company to begin trading” later today—a scant three days after it launched its investor pitch...more
On Monday, D.C. District Judge James Boasberg granted Facebook’s motion to dismiss the antitrust lawsuits filed by the Federal Trade Commission and 40+ states in “a stunning setback to regulators’ efforts to break up...more
Johnson & Johnson has reached a deal with NY AG Letitia James to settle the state’s opioid case against the company for a reported $230 million. The deal comes “as negotiations intensify with the company and three drug...more
President Biden and a bipartisan group of Senators announced a deal that would provide just shy of $600 billion in “new investments in roads, broadband internet, electric utilities and other projects” that form an important...more
Following a Supreme Court decision yesterday questioning the constitutionality of the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the White House ousted current FHFA chief Mark Calabria. The move is the latest “blow to...more
While the torrid home buying pace is finally slowing, thanks to “a sharp rise in prices and a shortage of houses for sale” resulting in a fourth straight month of declines in the housing market for sales of existing homes ...more
EU antitrust officials are targeting Google for “potentially abusing its dominance in the online advertising market to box out competition”—all part of a “broader push by the European authorities to clamp down on the world’s...more