Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Has China peaked?

Not so long ago, China was seen as the inevitable paramount economic power to a fading, fractured America. Now some aren’t so sure anymore. As Xi Jinping struggles to contain the fallout from China’s suite of deepening crises, US and other Group of Seven nations increasingly see evidence that these structural problems may indicate China has already peaked—creating an opening for the West against a weakening geopolitical competitor. “The conventional wisdom seems to be flipping from a concern with the unstoppable rise of Chinese power to a worry about the irrevocable decline of China’s economy and population,” says Richard Fontaine, chief executive of the Center for a New American Security in Washington. That’s also a view that’s been quietly growing within the Biden administration. —David E. Rovella

The latest US job data showed a labor market undergoing a controlled cooling, illustrated by solid hiring, slower earnings growth and more people returning to the workforce. In other words, the rainbow-and-unicorns scenario that not long ago would have earned big laughs on Wall Street. But it’s Jerome Powell who might be cracking a smile.

In the boardrooms of Corporate America, one big fear has been palpable for more than a year now: That surging interest rates are set to wipe out earnings, cap stock prices and kill off investment. Yet with the  S&P 500 netting its best week since June after a month-long anxiety attack, equity traders are once again shrugging off the highest borrowing costs in more than two decades. Here’s why.

As Ukraine claims to be gaining momentum in its effort to push Russian troops back in its Southeast, Russian-led forces are staging joint military exercises in Belarus near the border with NATO-member Poland. The Collective Security Treaty Organization, an alliance of six former Soviet states, is beginning the drills Friday through Sept. 6. 

A tank during joint exercises by the armed forces of Russia and Belarus outside Minsk in 2022. The latest drills involving the two countries come after Vladimir Putin made veiled threats against Belarus’ neighbor Poland, a NATO member. Photographer: Maxim Guchek/AFP

The world’s biggest hedge funds and private equity firms are taking the US Securities and Exchange Commission to court over new restrictions it placed on the industry last month. Industry lobbies American Investment Council andManaged Funds Association claim the SEC went too far by rolling out sweeping rules mandating disclosures and barring firms from doing sweetheart deals with some investors. The organizations, which also represent a swath of smaller firms, asked the court to overturn the regulations. “The new rules would fundamentally change the way private funds are regulated in America,” the groups wrote in papers filed with the US Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

More than three years from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Wall Street is still working on cajoling staffers back to the office. In recent mid-year evaluations, Citigroup managers were reminding staffers with persistent absences of the firm’s expectations for in-office work.  Goldman Sachs has also started reiterating the message that it expects employees to be in the office five days a week. Later this month, BlackRock will tighten its in-office requirements from three days a week to four. The list goes on.

The party might be over. Legal and regulatory hurdles for people offering their homes for short-term rental on sites like Airbnb and Vrbo are upending the market for vacation properties. From New York to California, cities are cracking down on short-term rentals with bans, license requirements or limits on how many people can offer their homes for stays of 30 days or less.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government released new details of a law that tries to force technology companies to pay news providers, but Facebook-owner Meta Platforms doesn’t want to pay. Mark Zuckerberg’s multibillion-dollar social media giant said it will continue to block users in Canada from seeing news stories on Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

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• Tesla’s Model X discount unlocks the subsidies Musk didn’t want.
• Huawei’s mystery phone shows wireless speeds as fast as Apple.
• NFTs, once hyped as the next big thing, now face their “worst moment.”
• Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed, dies at 94.

The alcohol industry has been thriving despite a streak of threats: the legalization of marijuana, a trade war with China that has hampered US exports, the rise of the sober-curious movement. But Lisa Jarvis and Leticia Miranda write in Bloomberg Opinion that there’s a new risk, one few investors or companies are publicly acknowledging: new weight loss drugs. Most people who take Ozempic, Wegovy of Mounjaro shed significant weight. Newer drugs promise to push those numbers even higher. But they don’t only curb cravings for food. For some, these new weight-loss drugs also seem to dampen the rewards of addictive substances, whether that’s nicotine, opioids—or alcohol.

Photographer: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Cointreau

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