12 BARRON’S October 26, 2020
REVIEW
28,335.
Dow Industrials:-270.
Dow Global Index:-0.
0.84%
10-year treasury note:+0.
THE POWER OF ONLINE DATA
A Random Walk
Stocks rose and fell, but not a lot, buf-
feted by the Covid-19 spike, relief talks,
campaign noise, and, yes, corporate
earnings. Stocks rose after the Google
antitrust suit was announced and relief
hopes faded, then sagged. Go figure.
On the week, the Dow industrials fell
0.9%, to 28,335.57; the S&P 500 index
shed 0.5%, to 3465.39; and the Nasdaq
Composite lost 1.1%, to 11,548.28.
The Third Wave
Covid roared again, as some 38 states
saw increases in cases and hospitals
filled up, particularly across the Mid-
west. The death toll passed 220,000;
Thursday, the day of the final presiden-
tial debate, saw a record 77,000 new
cases. Meanwhile, reports emerged of
tensions within the White House’s
coronavirus task force, with President
Trump calling infectious disease chief
Dr. Anthony Fauci a “disaster” and
saying that people were tired of hear-
ing about the virus from the “idiots” in
the government.Gilead Scienceswon
approval for remdesivir as an anti-
Covid therapy.
Politics of Relief
With the election looming, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi set a Tuesday
deadline to reach a deal on Covid relief.
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin negotiated a $2 trillion plan,
until Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell warned of GOP resistance.
Trump then blamed Pelosi, who con-
tinued to talk to Mnuchin. Separately,
Democrats boycotted a Judiciary
Committee vote approving Amy
Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Powell on Crypto
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome
Powell said that the U.S. would pro-
ceed cautiously on a digital currency.
“We do think it’s more important to
get it right than to be first,” he said,
warning of threats ofcyberattacks,
counterfeiting, and fraud and the need
to ensure safety and security.
Charging Google
After a yearlong probe, the Justice De-
partment accusedAlphabet’s Google
unit of multiple violations of antitrust
Rethinking
Retail With AI
Retail is no stranger to artificial intelligence. Nearly a
decade ago,Targetused AI to predict when a woman
was pregnant. Today, with Covid-19 fueling online shop-
ping, more data and computing power than ever is avail-
able. “An AI system needs data to become smart. And
the more data it has, the smarter it gets,” says Gaylene
Meyer, vice president of global marketing and communi-
cations atImpinj, whose products allow retailers to
track trillions of items in real time.
That’s key, since inconvenience is the enemy of sales.
The pandemic wreaked havoc on supply chains, which
coupled with consumer reluctance to buy nondiscretion-
ary items, reduced data earlier this year. Retailers that
could afford AI could adjust, often by tapping nontradi-
tional data. “Mobile is the new mall,” says Cowen analyst
Oliver Chen, who notes that machine learning allows
brands to build one-on-one relationships with consumers
at scale. “It’s how you interact with a retailer online—
that’s the secret sauce behind a lot of social media data.”
That’s part of the rationale behindWalmart’s bid for
TikTok, which provides data on how younger shoppers
engage with brands via social media. “Walmart knows
the most valuable customer is in the early stages of
household formation,” says Chen, meaning they’re en-
tering prime spending years.
The buzzword is personalization. AI directs ad dol-
lars to receptive audiences, customizes offers, or gener-
ates dynamic menus based on customer preferences. As
Chen says, “It comes back to [retailers] knowing what
you want before you know you want it.”—Teresa Rivas
711
Average U.S. FICO credit score
in July, a record, which has held
steady through October.
43%
Combined share of global equity
fund raising in Hong Kong, Shen-
zen, and Shanghai, a record.
The total: $76 billion.
40 %
Percentage of S&P 500 market
value held by tech stocks, beat-
ing 1999’s 37%, according to
Dow Jones Market Data.
$37 B
Amount of federal aid to farm-
ers this year, a third of total
income of $102.7 billion.
To get Numbers by Barron’s
daily, sign up wherever
you listen to podcasts or at
Barrons.com/podcasts
THE NUMBERS
HE SAID:
“There’s a difference
between dominance
and excellence.”
Former Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt,
at a Wall Street Journal conference,
on the government’s antitrust suit
against the company
law. The government is arguing that
Google used a variety of business arrange-
ments to secure a dominant role for online
search, particularly on mobile phones,
allowing it to leverage advertising. Google
called the case “deeply flawed.”
Boris on the Brink
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, facing
a December deadline on a Brexit trade
deal with the European Union, threatened
to go it alone. Talks then resumed, and the
U.K. signed a trade deal with Japan.
Annals of Deal Making
Opioid producer Purdue Pharma agreed
to an $8.3 billion settlement after plead-
ing guilty to three federal criminal
charges...Goldman Sachswill pay $2.
billion for its role in Malaysia’s 1MDB
scandal, while clawing back $174 million
from executives...Ant Group won ap-
proval from Hong Kong regulators for an
initial public offering. The company,
owned byAlibaba Group Holding, will
also list in Shanghai. Ant expects to raise
some $35 billion, for a market value of
$280 billion...ConocoPhillipssaid it
would buyConcho Resourcesina$9.
billion all-stock deal, the biggest oil deal
since the pandemic hit...Pioneer Natu-
ral Resourceswill buyParsley Energy
for $4.5 billion...Intelis selling its flash-
memory unit toSK Hynixfor $9 billion. Illustration by Elias Stein; Paul Morris/Bloomberg