The Fed’s Open Market Committee meeting broke yesterday leaving rates at near-zero and pledging to “continue buying government-backed bonds at a steady pace as it tries to support the economy’s recovery from the coronavirus downturn.” Still, in comments released after the meeting, the FOMC “painted a sunnier image of the American economy” and again worked to reassure markets that any rise in inflation this year was “transitory” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Some thoughts on how long that steady-state approach can last for the central bank - NYTimes
Alex Oh, the newly appointed SEC enforcement chief, has abruptly resigned “for personal reasons” “after just a few days on the job.” While details are still emerging about the sudden departure, it appears that some issues related to her private-practice representation of Exxon in a long-running human rights matter may be behind the decision - WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and Law360 and NYTimes
Verizon is feeling out the market for potential buyers for its media assets, including Yahoo and AOL, “signaling a dramatic reversal of the communications company’s once-lofty ambitions in the sector.” The Journal reports that Verizon is hoping to bring in between $4-5 billion for the sale - WSJ
More on the American Families Plan that President Biden unveiled yesterday and discussed in his address to a pared down joint session of Congress. In broad strokes, the $1.8 trillion “collection of spending increases and tax cuts . . . seeks to expand access to education, reduce the cost of child care and support women in the work force” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and Law360
Facebook and Apple quarterly earnings reports kept the good times rolling for Big Tech this week - NYTimes and WSJ and MarketWatch and Bloomberg
Meanwhile, Ford is still struggling to manage the fallout from the global chip shortage, but it nevertheless posted its “highest quarterly result in years”—net income of $3.3 billion - WSJ and MarketWatch
New York has sued Chipotle for $150M for alleged violations of its “Fair Workweek Law,” including “changing employee’s schedules without sufficient notice or extra pay; requiring employees to work consecutive shifts without sufficient time off or extra pay; and failure to offer workers additional shifts before hiring new employees to fill them.” The City argues that these issues amount to “hundreds of thousands of violations” at “several dozen stores” - NYTimes
As is his wont, Tesla and SpaceX frontman Elon Musk has taken a different approach to regulators than most other CEOs. Where they’ve generally made efforts to stay “in their good graces,” Musk has often aggressively taken on “an alphabet-soup of agencies that oversee financial markets and safety in the workplace, on highways and in space flight” - WSJ
Definitely feeling this nod to the return of cookout season (and the concept of others safely gathering around grills and outdoor patios) - NYTimes
Stay safe.
