Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-06-10)

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BloombergBusinessweek June10, 2019

ARKANSAS

RIVER:

DRONEBASE/AP

PHOTO.

POWELL:

TAYLOR

GLASCOCK/BLOOMBERG.

MAC

PRO:

COURTESY

APPLE

 IN BRIEF

By Benedikt Kammel

○ Shares of Google parent

Alphabet, Amazon.com,

and Facebook slumped as

top U.S. antitrust officials

and lawmakers prepare to

investigate their business

practices and whether

digital platform companies

are using their market

power to hurt competition.

 38

○ Neil Woodford, a star

fund manager in the U.K.,

froze redemptions in his

flagship LF Woodford

Equity Income Fund after

assets tumbled. The move

leaves about

£3.8b

($4.8 billion) trapped in the

fund while Woodford works

to increase its liquidity.

○ Federal Reserve Chair

Jerome Powell

signaled that

the first rate cut

since 2008 may be in the

cards, saying he’s keeping

a close eye on signs that

disputes between the U.S.

and its trading partners are

denting the outlook for the

They included Blackstone’s world’s largest economy.

$18.7 billion bet on warehouses

owned by Singapore’s GLP; Infineon

Technologies’ $9.4 billion deal to

buy Cypress Semiconductor; and

JPMorgan’s $2.78 billion purchase of

El Paso Electric.

TiffanysaidsalestoChinesetourists

havedeterioratedin recentmonths,

withthecountry’svisitorstotheU.S.

spending25%less.

○ Chinaissueda

traveladvisoryto

theU.S.through

theendofthe

year,warning

citizensof

frequentrecent

shootings,

robbery,andtheft.

○ Venezuela defaulted

on a gold swap agreement

with Deutsche Bank

valued at

$750m

according to two people

with direct knowledge of

the matter.

○ Merger Monday,

June 3, saw a total

of $40 billion in

deals announced.

○ Boeing’s troubled 737

line hit another snag. After

the company notified

the Federal Aviation

Administration that some

wing components are

prone to cracking, the FAA

told airlines to replace the

parts within 10 days. The

737 Max, the latest variant

of Boeing’s best-selling

model, has been grounded

since mid-March following

two deadly crashes.

○ The Arkansas River continued flooding as U.S. farmers contended with one of

the wettest planting seasons ever, compounding their woes from the trade war.

This was the scene in Pine Bluff, Ark., on June 4.

○ Algeria scrapped a July 4 presidential vote after the country’s constitutional council cited a lack of candidates.

○ Volkswagen said it’s pushing ahead with an IPO of its Traton heavy truck division. It will list in Frankfurt and Stockholm.

○ The MSC Opera crashed into a smaller boat in Venice, Italy, renewing calls to ban cruise ships from the Giudecca Canal.

○ An Edinburgh family revealed it owned a missing piece of the medieval Lewis chessmen. It may be worth $1.25 million.

○ “I would have sued, but

that’s OK. I would have sued

and settled, maybe, but you

never know. She’s probably a

better negotiator than I am.”

At a press conference in London with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, President

Trump discussed his advice that the government sue the European Union to get a

better Brexit deal. May said she decided to negotiate rather than litigate.

○ Apple pushed into a

new pricing stratosphere

with an updated Mac Pro

desktop. It can set buyers

back $12,000 if they opt for

a package consisting of the

computer, a monitor, and

a screenstandthat alone

costss$999$999.