Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Goldman backs off

Goldman Sachs struck a deal to sell an investment-advisory business aimed at the mass-affluent market. The bank agreed to sell the business (with $29 billion in assets) that grew out of United Capital, a registered investment adviser Goldman purchased for $750 million. The offloading comes just four years after Goldman acquired it, an acquisition that echoed Chief Executive Officer David Solomon’s star-crossed plan to broaden Goldman’s reach beyond ultra-wealthy individuals. While the effort was separate from Goldman’s troubled consumer-banking foray, it represented a similar pivot that sought to pitch the bank’s offerings to Main Street. It is now undoing much of that strategic turn. —David E. Rovella

China’s economy was meant to drive one third of global economic growth this year, but it was not to be. Indeed, a dramatic slowdown in recent months is sounding alarm bells across the globe. Policymakers everywhere are bracing for a hit to their economies as China’s imports of everything from construction materials to electronics slide. US President Joe Biden has famously called China’s economic problems a “ticking time bomb.” Hoping to escape the blast radius, global investors have already pulled more than $10 billion from China’s stock markets, with most of the selling in blue chips. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have cut their targets for Chinese equities, with the former warning of spillover risks to the rest of the region. Asian economies are taking the biggest hit to their trade so far, along with countries in Africa. But even with that growing sense of fear across markets, it’s still not all doom-and-gloom.

As more companies seek to diversify away from a teetering China, some consumer favorites may be getting pricier. Take Apple. The splintering of the global supply chain away from China to nations like India and Vietnam threatens to push up prices for Apple’s vast consumer base, as producers, shippers and brands grapple with manufacturing in less-established locales and managing multiple entry and exit points. High-end models are the most likely to become more expensive to make.

3M is said to have tentatively agreed to pay more than $5.5 billion to resolve more than 300,000 lawsuits claiming it sold the US military defective combat earplugs. The sum is about half the roughly $10 billion some financial analysts predicted 3M could end up paying over allegations that the earplugs didn’t adequately protect the hearing of service members. While the accord would end a torrent of litigation facing the St. Paul, Minnesota, company, it’s not out of the woods. 3M also faces thousands of other lawsuits over PFAS “forever chemicals” likely to cost several times more than the earplug deal to resolve.

US organized labor, though still a shadow of its 20th century golden age, is seeing something of a resurgence. Most recently it was UPS coming up short in a battle of wills with its unionized drivers. Now, unions are targeting an even bigger foe. Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union since March, has declared “war” on the Detroit Three automakers, with contract demands including proposals for a 46% raise, a return to traditional pensions and a 32-hour work week. If he doesn’t have contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, maker of Jeep and Chrysler models, by the Sept. 14 deadline, the UAW could strike all three simultaneously—something it has never done. US Senator Bernie Sanders said the three carmakers should sit down with the UAW and “negotiate a contract that is fair to workers.”

Joining the BRICS bloc of emerging economies by the United Arab Emirates won’t come to the detriment of its ties with western nations, a top UAE official said, amid concern that China and Russia are expanding the group to counterbalance US and European influence. The UAE, one of the few countries to manage over $1 trillion in sovereign wealth capital, represents a potentially deep-pocketed contributor for the NDB, the BRICS bank set up to lend to development projects in emerging markets.

Now the subject of four separate felony prosecutions in state and federal court, all set for trial early next year, Donald Trump’s standing among fellow Republicans has slipped. After having been arrested in Atlanta on charges he masterminded a racketeering conspiracy under Georgia law, a new poll showed the twice-impeached former president had the support of 50% of Republican primary voters, down six percentage points from a recent survey. Trump remains the clear frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination.

Ukrainian forces pierced the first line of Russian fortifications in the nation’s southeast and are fighting to widen the breach, the nation’s defense chief said, in a bid for a potential breakthrough. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that Ukrainian soldiers, on foot and mostly at night, had made slow progress in clearing heavily mined areas to create approach corridors for a larger force that has now fought through the first main line of Russian trenches, bunkers and tanks traps. 

Ukrainian soldiers prepare a 120 mm mortar for firing last week near Bakhmut on the eastern front. Photographer: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu

• China’s real estate crisis threatens Malaysia’s $100 billion “Forest City.”
• San Francisco Fed Bank-supervision chief to depart after bank failures.
• OpenAI unveils ChatGPT for businesses, stepping up revenue push.
• Bloomberg Opinion: The steel mills that built the world face decline.
• Electric cars have passed a crucial tipping point in these 23 countries.
• But in America’s suburbs, the EV that’s really needed is a golf cart.
• How to get a good night’s sleep on any airplane.

Nightmare stories of passengers stranded for hours on dangerously hot airplanes seem to have multiplied over the past few years. Now, with the high season of summer travel in full swing, it turns out that the US Department of Transportation has taken notice. On Monday, American Airlines was ordered to pay a $4.1 million fine, the largest such penalty to date, for allowing aircraft to sit on the ground for three hours or more without giving passengers a chance to exit. “This is the latest action in our continued drive to enforce the rights of airline passengers,” Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, denouncing carriers for causing lengthy delays and canceling flights. 

Photographer: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

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