JPMorgan is preparing to finalize a deal with federal prosecutors and regulators in which the bank would pay nearly $1 billion to “settle civil and criminal charges that its traders rigged futures and securities markets” through alleged spoofing – WSJ and Bloomberg

Fortnite parent Epic Games, Spotify, and Tinder’s Match Group have joined forces to create the Coalition for App Fairness, a non-profit that they’re promoting as the vehicle for pressuring Apple and other  app-store operators “to make changes to their marketplace rules” – WSJ and NYTimes

A rough day for tech stocks helped drive markets down across the board on Wednesday after a brief respite the day before – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

As promised, TikTok moved for a preliminary injunction this week aimed at protecting the app against a proposed White House ban set from Apple and Google app stores set to go into effect on Sunday for American users – NYTimes and Bloomberg and Law360

While the courts sort that out, here’s some perspective on how the potential Oracle/ByteDance deal’s being perceived by Beijing – WSJ

And regardless of a final sale, Walmart’s in the midst of a transformation that it hopes will pull in the big data, digital ad revenue, and convenience of online shopping to it massive physical footprint and help it “redefine retail” – NYTimes

It’s a far-off line (15 years away), but a line in the sand nonetheless, as California announced plans on Wednesday to ban all sales of new gas-powered cars statewide by 2035—a “dramatic step aimed at accelerating the state’s efforts to combat global warming amid a deadly and record-breaking wildfire season” – NYTimes and WSJ

Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf looked to do damage control yesterday after remarks he made in June about the “very limited pool of Black talent to recruit from with this specific experience” emerged and drew fierce criticism – WSJ and MarketWatch

For its part, Mars Food will move forward with a rebranding of its Uncle Ben’s line after “widespread anti-racism protests renewed the focus on companies that for decades used racial images to sell their products.” The company is going with the “Ben’s Original” moniker instead – NYTimes and WSJ

The Department of Justice has submitted a formal proposal to Congress echoing White House aims of curbing “longstanding legal protections for internet companies such as Facebook Inc., Alphabet’s Google and Twitter Inc.”—an effort to “force them to shoulder more responsibility for managing content on their sites” – WSJ and Law360

Checking in with Wall Street’s tentative return to its physical spaces in NYC, a “shambolic” process that has highlighted how the “waning threat of the coronavirus in New York—at least for now—has done little to reduce uncertainty around when things will return to normal” – NYTimes

SEC commissioners voted 3-2 to pass a final rule making it harder for investors to submit proposals for a vote at companies’ annual meetings—a “win for executives who have bristled at shareholder efforts to influence policies on climate change and other issues” – WSJ and Law360

2020’s left us barely hanging on. Not sure if we can survive the introduction of curling robots who dominate their human counterparts on the sheet – WSJ

Stay safe.