So . . . . Nice, quiet week while we were gone, right?
Wall Street forecasts are always dicey, but it sure looks like Pfizer’s solid vaccine news (along with this weekend’s newfound presidential certainty) could make for a banner day in the markets - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Breaking down Friday’s U.S. jobs report, which had some high points (payrolls grew by 638,000 and unemployment fell to 6.9%) but carried with it the specter of the coming impact of a renewed surge in Covid cases that “threatens prospects for sustained growth” - NYTimes and Marketplace
With that in mind, some thoughts about how the U.S. can respond to those rising numbers without locking down in the way we did last spring - WSJ
What Saturday’s electoral news could mean for the long-delayed next round of stimulus funding during the lame-duck session ahead - Bloomberg
And what the President-elect could do to address economic woes even in the face of yet more divided government - NYTimes
Catching up with the biggest non-political story that we missed last week: the “collapse of Ant Group Co.’s initial public offering” after “Chinese regulators suspended the $34.5 billion deal days before trading was due to start” in Hong Kong and Shanghai - Bloomberg
CVS Health has named Aetna exec Karen Lynch as its new CEO. Lynch “presided over Aetna following its acquisition by CVS in 2018” and will replace Larry Merlo at the helm of the $256 billion/year company - WSJ
The Times spent some time this weekend looking at the difficulty Americans face discharging student loan debt in bankruptcy - NYTimes
Q3 turned out to be a winner for Mr. Buffett & friends, which posted quarterly net earnings of $30.1 billion, thanks, in part, to its “vast investment portfolio” - WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
On the whole, the quarter demonstrated that we’re an a haves vs. have-nots economy, with the strong companies getting stronger—including in some industries that were initially hit hard by the pandemic, like “some rental car businesses, restaurant chains and financial firms” - NYTimes
As Libor enters its twilight period, federal officials in the U.S. are signaling that they “aren’t backing a particular Libor substitute for banks to use in loans” and “won’t frown on banks that use something other than the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, the leading alternative” – Law360
Now that we know we can expect something different in the coming 4 years, here’s a look back at what the previous 4 has meant for financial regulations. And yes, rollbacks have been the name of the game, from consumer protection to Wall Street - NYTimes
Speaking of current policies, yet more evidence of massive fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program is flooding in to the government, including the SBA’s inspector general, who noted last month that there were “strong indicators of widespread potential abuse and fraud in the PPP” - WSJ
Peloton can thank the pandemic for its meteoric rise from a cringy holiday commercial to gangbuster 2020 profits. Now, the connected-fitness company’s looking to eat Nike and Lululemon’s work apparel/athleisure lunch by “building out its fashion team in a bid to become a ‘lifestyle brand’” - WSJ
Natural paradise? Spain? You betcha. Here’s Asturias, folks. Yet another locale on my post-Covid must-travel-to spots. Enjoy - NYTimes
Stay safe,
MDR
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