DJI |
28,089 (+1.14%) |
NASDAQ |
11,263 (+0.97%) |
S&P 500 |
3,395 (+1.00%) |
As of 10:12 a.m. ET
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President Trump's tweet ending hopes of a bipartisan stimulus bill sent the markets tumbling Tuesday. Trump tweeted: "I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business." In the 10 minutes following the tweet, the Dow Jones fell 451 points (1.6%) from 28,340 to 27,889. The markets recovered portions of their losses Wednesday morning, as subsequent Trump tweets appeared to backtrack on his initial withdrawal from negotiations.
More:
- At closing, the Dow was down 1.3% on the day, with the S&P 500 down 1.4% and the Nasdaq down 1.6%. All three indexes were up on the day when the tweet was sent at 2:48 p.m. ET.
- Later in the day, Trump tweeted that he would support a bill that offered $25b for airlines and $135b in paycheck protection for small businesses.
- Trump also tweeted that he would approve a standalone bill providing $1,200 stimulus checks to individuals.
- Earlier in the day, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pleaded with Congress to pass a stimulus bill stating that, "too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses." Trump further muddied the waters by retweeting a CNBC story about Powell, appearing to agree with him.

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The House Judiciary subcommittee released its findings and recommendations after a 16-month inquiry into big tech antitrust practices. The recommendations from the majority staff of the antitrust subcommittee include restructuring some of the businesses by imposing separations from their dominant online platform.
Other recommendations from the committee:
- Mergers by big tech should be presumed to be anticompetitive, and the merging parties should prove that the deal would not harm competition.
- Dominant platforms should be prohibited from providing preferences for their products and services. Big tech should offer non-discriminatory terms for similar products and services.
- The services offered by big tech should be compatible with various networks to facilitate Interoperability and data portability.
- Allowing private individuals to hold big tech companies accountable through the courts can also limit the dominant platform's power. To assist in this, Democrats want to eliminate forced arbitration clauses or limits on class action lawsuits. They also want to create clear standards regarding antitrust standards in this industry, allowing for additional prosecutions.
- Problematic precedents in antitrust cases would be overridden.
Big Tech's response:
- The committee noted that Amazon is the dominant online marketplace, as it controls 65-70% of all U.S. online sales. It also added that Amazon acts as the gatekeeper for e-commerce. Amazon wrote a blog post in response, stating: "Misguided interventions in the free market would kill off independent retailers and punish consumers."
- According to the committee, Apple gains its durable market power from high switching costs, ecosystem lock-in, and brand loyalty. It also added that Apple maintains a monopoly in the app distribution services in Apple's devices. Apple released a statement mentioning that it "vehemently disagrees" with the committee's remarks. It also noted that it doesn't have a dominant market share in any of its business categories.
- Google overwhelmingly dominates the online search market by capturing 87% of U.S. search and 92% of global search queries. Google suggested in its response post that antitrust law should be used to protect consumers, not aid Google's commercial rivals.
- The committee also said that Facebook wields its monopoly powers by acquiring, copying, or killing its competitors. Facebook has yet to release a statement on the report.
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Boeing lowered its 10-year global market forecast for airplane demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company projects 18,350 commercial planes will be delivered globally by 2029, an 11% decrease from the 2019 projections.
More:
- Boeing also lowered its rolling 20-year forecast and projects it will deliver 43,110 planes by 2039, down 2% from the 44,040 total it projected in 2019. This is the first time Boeing has lowered its 20-year forecast since the 2009 financial crisis.
- Boeing projects the total aerospace market will be worth $8.5 trillion in 2029, $200b less than what it projected a year ago.
- Boeing shares were down 3.6% on Tuesday and are down almost 50% this year. On average, airline and aerospace stocks are down 46% and 40% respectively this year due to the pandemic.
- Total demand for commercial air travel fell by 90% in April. A full recovery is still expected to take a few years.
- Despite the lower projections, Boeing remains confident it will be able to recover from the crisis. The company says it's confident the space, service, and defense market will increase to $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years, helping to offset losses in commercial aviation.
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July 2020 saw billionaire wealth hit a new high of $10.2 trillion while U.S. unemployment was 10.2%, a sign of deepening economic inequalities. Since 2000, the growth of billionaire wealth has been 200 times greater than median wealth growth. Between March 2020 and September 2020, the 643 wealthiest Americans added an extra $845b in combined assets, while the global poverty rate is expected to increase for the first time since 1990.
More:
- From Jan. 1, 2018 to July 31, 2020, technology billionaires' wealth increased by 43%, healthcare billionaires by 50%, and billionaires as a whole by 19%.
- Donations by billionaires are also at an all-time high, with $7.2b donated by 209 billionaires between March 2020 and June 2020.
- The Institute of Policy Studies reports that American billionaires have seen a 79% decrease in their tax liabilities from 1980 to 2018.

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The U.S. Labor Department contacted Microsoft and Wells Fargo last week to investigate if their pledges to hire more Black employees are a violation of federal discrimination laws. Both companies pledged in June to double their number of Black leaders and managers by 2025.
More:
- Microsoft also pledged to invest an additional $150m over five years in its internal diversity and inclusion programs as well as $50m to support Black-owned small businesses. The company also promised to use its internal data and technology to highlight and eliminate racial differences in the justice system and eradicate police brutality.
- Wells Fargo has already added two Black leaders to its operating committee, mandated that hiring managers interview a diverse range of candidates for positions that pay at least $100,000, and overhauled the compensation metrics for managers to ensure they are meeting the company’s new hiring and promotion targets.
- Microsoft and Wells Fargo were two of several major companies that pledged to increase diversity in their hires after the killing of George Floyd in May.
- Spokespersons for both Microsoft and Wells Fargo expressed confidence that their diversity initiatives are in compliance with federal law.
- Black employees make up 6% of the senior management at Wells Fargo and less than 3% of Microsoft, despite accounting for 13% of the U.S. population.
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QUICK HITS
- Space cargo delivery company Momentus is going public via SPAC merger in a ~$1.5b deal. The SPAC Stable Road Capital is acquiring the company.
- For its FY ended August, IKEA reported revenue of $46.7b, down 4% YoY. The company also said that its e-commerce sales increased by 45%.
- A T-Rex's fossils were auctioned for $32m, the highest amount ever paid for a dinosaur's fossils. The 67-million-year-old specimen was originally expected to be sold for $6-$8m.
- Apple announced it will unveil the new iPhone 12 at an event on Oct. 13.
- Tesla revealed it fired an employee from its Fremont, California plant after an internal investigation revealed they had "maliciously sabotaged" a part of the factory.
- See how leading sales teams are solving their challenges of selling remotely.*
- Top executives from Netflix, Calm, T-Mobile, and Okta discuss identity access management. Don’t miss the event. Sign up here.*
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Nataraajan Arulolie is a Business Researcher at Inside and is keen on telling stories through data.
Liam Gill is an experienced entrepreneur passionate about business strategy and law. In business, Liam is best known for founding Fumarii Technologies, a top 20 ranked cloud computing service (Yahoo Finance!). Academically, he is working towards a Canadian Masters of Law having completed a UK Law Degree and Masters of Management. He aims to support other entrepreneurs with free legal templates through Law4Startups.com and is happy to chat on Twitter or Linkedin. Reach out!
Jigney Pathak is a Business Researcher at Inside who loves technology, finance & sports. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration with a finance specialization & has previously worked at Salesforce.
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Editor
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Jonathan Harris is a writer for Inside.com. Previously, he wrote for The Huffington Post, TakePart.com, and the YouTube channel What’s Trending.
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