Recent news of misinformation out of Russia about alleged troop withdrawals (when, in fact, troops and shelling near the border are up) sent skittish markets down on Thursday. Tech companies were again among “some of the worst performers” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Streetwise, for one, doesn’t think that the Fed will be in any rush to intervene if the Ukraine situation moves past a hypothetical scenario and into a full-blown invasion - WSJ
Because the Fed needs more ingredients in its potent cocktail of worries, recent moves by large employers (think Amazon, BofA, and Chipotle) to increase worker salaries—generally a good thing—has the unfortunate side effect of potentially keeping inflation running strong, “prompting employees to ask for even more money and generating an upward spiral.” Most economists believe this can be avoided, but count it as another complicating factor for the central bank as it moves toward an anticipated March rate hike intended to slow rising prices - NYTimes
Google announced on Thursday that it was “creating a $100 million fund to sponsor an ambitious project to expand effective skills training and job placement programs for low-income Americans.” The initiative seeks to address the challenge of “how to find, train and create paths to good jobs in the modern economy for the nearly two-thirds of American workers who do not have a four-year college degree.” Google’s partners in the project include Year Up, Merit America, and Social Finance - NYTimes
Allianz SE revealed that it will take a $4.2 billion charge “tied to its hedge funds that collapsed at the start of the pandemic” and warned that more expenses “are coming from the multiple lawsuits and regulatory probes spurred by the implosions” in its Structured Alpha Funds - Bloomberg
The ongoing battle between the SEC and Tesla heated up again this week, with lawyers for the e-car maker accusing the Commission of “conducting unfounded investigations of Mr. Musk and Tesla” following the company’s recent disclosure that SEC officials subpoenaed Tesla last year seeking information “showing how the company and its CEO complied” with the terms of a 2018 regulatory settlement that “sought to restrict” Elon’s use of social media - WSJ and MarketWatch and Law360 and TechCrunch
The U.S. trade representative’s office has included e-commerce sites operated by China’s Tencent and Alibaba on the U.S. government’s “latest ‘notorious markets’ list of entities that allegedly sell or facilitate the sale of counterfeit goods.” The USTR cited a growing prevalence of counterfeit items on both platforms - WSJ and Bloomberg and NYTimes
Fanatics will take a majority stake in the throwback jersey maker Mitchell & Ness in a new deal that values the latter at about $250 million - NYTimes
From jerseys to chemicals—specialty materials company Celanese announced a deal this week to buy up the remainder of DuPont’s mobility and materials unit for a reported $11 billion. The arrangement “includes customer and supplier contracts and agreements, a global production network of 29 facilities and an intellectual-property portfolio” - WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
As we barrel toward the close of an interesting Beijing winter games, join me (and my 6-year-old) in reveling in the glory of one-woman monobob - NewYorker
Stay safe, get boosted, and have a great weekend,
MDR
