Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Earnings bulls

Robust earnings from corporate America will pull the S&P 500 Index out of its latest morass, despite rising concerns about a significant jump in bond yields, according to Bloomberg’s latest Markets Live Pulse survey. With reporting season kicking into high gear this week and featuring results from Big Tech giants such as Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet, almost two-thirds of 409 respondents said they expect earnings to give the US equity benchmark a boost. That’s the highest vote of confidence for corporate profits since the poll began asking the question in October 2022. Markets on Monday seemed to reflect the sentiment. Here’s your markets wrap. —Natasha Solo-Lyons  

It was an irresistible pitch. Give us your money, executives at Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates and other hedge funds said, and we’ll funnel it into a sure-thing strategy for the long haul. But after five years of sub-par returns, many of the institutional investors who sunk large sums into risk-parity funds want their money back.

Elon Musk’s robotaxi dreams are plunging Tesla into chaos. The idea of creating an autonomous taxi service has been kicking around Tesla for at least eight years, but the company has yet to stand up much of the infrastructure it would need, nor has it secured regulatory approval to test such cars on public roads. For the moment, Musk has put off plans for a $25,000, mass-market vehicle that many Tesla investors—and some insiders—say is crucial to the carmaker’s future. Now Tesla’s stock is sliding, a cheaper electric car is deprioritized and the CEO just pulled the trigger on the company’s biggest mass firings ever.

Elon Musk Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

US approval of more than $60 billion in aid throws a lifeline to Ukraine’s beleaguered military, though it’s unlikely to turn the tide in the war by itself. Much will depend on how quickly US assistance can get to the front lines after the House of Representatives approved the military and economic assistance on Saturday. As Republicans blocked the package for six months, Russia gained the advantage and Kyiv’s military has had to grapple with an ever-more acute shortage of ammunition and manpower.

Thousands of Russians flocked to Dubai after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Fleeing military conscription, they rushed to the United Arab Emirates’ business hub to buy property, start companies and open branches of their Moscow operations, all while trying to make the UAE more like their home. Take a look at how Russians are transforming the country.

More than six months after Hamas attacked Israel, the Israeli military said the head of its intelligence division has quit. Israel said about 1,200 Israelis were killed and hundreds taken hostage in the shocking Oct. 7 assault. While Aharon Haliva is the first senior Israeli official to step down over the intelligence failure, there have been growing protests in Israel in recent weeks, involving tens of thousands of protestors, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 events and resign. Netanyahu has so far refused to acknowledge any responsibility for the intelligence and operational failures.

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas demonstrate in Tel Aviv on April 20. Photographer: Jack Guez/AFP

Once again, the US government is aiming to shut down TikTok unless it is split off from Beijing-based ByteDance. But the company has made clear it has no intention of selling. TikTok’s management vowed in an internal memo to staff “we will move to the courts for a legal challenge” if the bill winding its way through Congress is signed into law.

The wife of tech billionaire Forrest Li is set to acquire a mansion in one of Singapore’s most coveted residential areas, even as the luxury property market remains in a lull. Ma Liqian filed an option in April to buy a so-called good class bungalow on Gallop Road for S$42.5 million ($31 million). 

The Botanic Gardens and Gallop Road area of Singapore Source: Google Maps

• Global bonds fall on waning demand for havens and sales deluge.
• Trump’s trial starts in earnest; key figures include CEO and porn star.
• Bloomberg Opinion: Trump’s trial is the reality show he never wanted.
• Race to control New York’s suburbs rocked by money, insults and Israel.
• Columbia University goes remote; White House decries antisemitism.
• How a massive hack of psychotherapy records revealed a nation’s secrets.
• TikTok Ozempic influencers say new rules unfairly target them.

A rare Rolex with a split-second chronograph sold for €3.3 million ($3.5 million) at auction in Monaco, a record price for the model. The Rolex 4113, produced in 1942 and one of just 12 ever made and nine known to exist, was sold on Saturday at the Monaco Legend Group auction. The sale beats the model’s previous record of 2.4 million Swiss francs ($2.6 million) which was paid in 2016 at a Phillips auction in Geneva. Collectors are still willing to break records for rare and unique items despite a pullback in second-hand prices for Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet watches that peaked in 2022.

The Rolex Split-Seconds Chronograph 4113 Source: Monaco Legend Group 

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