Thursday’s unemployment figures showed technically falling claims (down to 723,000 new claims for state benefits) but “remained above records set in previous recessions,” as the number of “laid-off and furloughed workers collecting some form of unemployment insurance [remains] staggeringly high” - NYTimes
With those numbers and a surging virus in mind, Fed Chair Powell joined BOE Governor Andrew Bailey and ECB President Christine Lagarde this week in warning “that the prospect of a Covid-19 vaccine isn’t enough to put an end to the economic challenges created by the pandemic,” the latest in a series of central bankers cautioning against complacency - Bloomberg and WSJ and NYTimes
The Commerce Department announced yesterday that after months of drama, it “won’t enforce its order that would have effectively forced the Chinese-owned TikTok video-sharing app to shut down.” Commerce cited a Philly-based federal court decision last month granting a preliminary injunction against the shutdown, noting that the “shutdown order won’t go into effect ‘pending further legal developments’” - WSJ
Checking in on the latest positions of the two political parties on the elusive next round of stimulus funding: it’s a “sweeping coronavirus relief package” vs. “targeted relief” - NYTimes
Chinese internet “titans like Alibaba, Tencent and Meituan” are still adjusting to “sweeping new proposals earlier this week” from Beijing that would “rein in their power.” The potential new rules propose “limits on exclusivity requirements, selling products below cost and different treatment of partners based on algorithms” - NYTimes
Speaking of China’s heavy regulatory hand, new Journal reporting suggests that the country’s President, Xi Jinping, played a personal role in putting the kibosh on Ant Group’s IPO after Jack Ma “infuriated government leaders” by publicly criticizing Beijing’s “increasingly tight financial regulation” - WSJ
The ongoing coronavirus crisis has taken a bite out of Disney for a second straight quarter. Before then, Big Mouse hadn’t reported a quarterly loss in nearly 20 years. Disney did report a jump of nearly 14 million paid Disney+ subscribers in the past 3 months, which Wall Street liked quite a bit, thank you - WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and NYTimes
The CFPB is sticking with its controversial move to grant regulatory relief “ to the credit reporting industry at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, declining consumer advocates’ calls to stop giving industry members leeway on legally mandated deadlines for conducting error dispute investigations” – Law360
Twitter announced on Thursday that it will invest $100 million in Community Development Financial Institutions as part of a new effort aimed at addressing “racial injustice and persistent poverty.” That figure represents roughly “1 percent of Twitter’s cash pile” and will be used for loans to “seed businesses that banks won’t deal with in underserved communities” - NYTimes and Law360
For new CEO Jim Farley and the crew at Ford, the future looks more likely than many thought to turn on “one of the company’s more utilitarian models: a cargo van” - WSJ
So maybe that Green Jacket’s not your look. But it doesn’t mean that sweats need to be either - NYTimes
Stay in, stay safe, and have a good weekend,
MDR
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