Big Friday win for Apple in its ongoing battle with Epic Games, as N.D. Cal. Federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Cook & Co. didn’t “need to reinstate the popular video game Fortnite in its App Store,” a blow to Epic as it wages “an antitrust battle with the tech giant over its app store fees and rules” – NYTimes and WSJ and Law360
British Airways is the latest carrier to announce big cuts. Among the 13,000 jobs lost is that of its CEO, Alex Cruz, who will be replaced immediately by Aer Lingus chief Sean Doyle – NYTimes and MarketWatch
Recent economic reporting suggests that Europe’s fiscal recovery is as much in the rear-view as the summer itself, with a resurgent coronavirus prompting renewed lockdowns and spelling financial trouble for businesses across the continent – NYTimes
MarketWatch noted last week’s stimulus ping-pong and warns that markets are rapidly approaching the point of getting tired of waiting – MarketWatch
And then, of course, there’s the rest of America – MarketWatch
The Fed’s Main Street Lending Program has largely been a bust so far, as banks have been almost entirely unwilling to participate in the program. “Fewer than 100 banks have used it, as of the end of September, issuing about $200 billion of loans in a $600 billion program.” And then there’s Miami’s City National, which has made nearly half of all 252 total loans offered under the program. Here’s its story – WSJ
Speaking of Main Street, the Journal helps us understand why “big, well-capitalized chains are thriving” while “tens of thousands of local eateries go bust”—yet another example of the distinctly uneven impact of Covid-19 in America – WSJ
And since we’re talking uneven . . . – Bloomberg
Fascinating look at the perhaps-surprising emergence of curbside pickup as “many retailers’ best strategy for long-term survival” during both Covid lockdowns and in the “e-commerce age,” as it strikes the near-perfect balance of “satisfying the need for contactless shopping in the pandemic” while tapping “into Americans’ desire to drive to a store, a pull that can be just as strong as, or even stronger than, the convenience of home delivery” – NYTimes
Quite the intersection of sports and finance here, featuring the Red Sox, Liverpool FC, Moneyball’s Billy Beane, and SPACs – Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Netflix’s VP of original series, Channing Dungey, is out after just two years at the streaming giant—the latest change “since Ted Sarandos was appointed co-chief executive, alongside Reed Hastings, in July” – NYTimes
The SEC has opened a probe into “odd lots” bond trades—those involving “increments of less than $1 million” that often trade “at a discount to larger, ‘round lot’ positions.” The rub? Money managers “don’t always apply those discounts to the prices they use to mark the value of those bonds,” a bond bought at a discount “is suddenly worth its full price,” and investors aren’t informed of the reason for a funds’ “impressive starts” – WSJ
Rough look for Robinhood, as a growing number of investors accuse the company of doing nothing about their complaints that cybercriminals liquidated their e-trading accounts. Problem #1: Robinhood has “no emergency phone number” to call to report while watching the robbery in progress – Bloomberg
Fraud on instant payment apps (driven, in part, by the not-so-instant feature of the transfer process on sites like Cash App and Venmo) is also increasingly a problem. Such apps have in fact “long had fraud rates that are three to four times higher than traditional payment methods such as credit and debit cards” – NYTimes
A pair of Americans have claimed this year’s Nobel Prize in economics thanks to their work in the field of “auction theory”—including a new explanation for “why bidders will offer less than they think the object or service is worth because they are afraid of overpaying—the winner’s curse” – NYTimes and Bloomberg
Stay safe.
