Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Big stock selloff

A steep selloff in high-flying technology stocks sent the S&P 500 Index down to its worst day since December 2022. The US equities benchmark slid 2.3% on Wednesday, with Tesla shares plunging 12% in the biggest drop since September 2020. Google parent Alphabet also saw weakness in its YouTube advertising revenue, knocking the Nasdaq 100 Index about 3.7% lower for its worst day since October 2022. With Wall Street projecting that profit growth for tech behemoths is poised to slow, it will be crucial to see whether dip-buyers come back again as more Big Tech firms unveil results in the coming weeks. Investors will continue to get a fresh look with Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta all set to report next week. “All good things must come to an end,” said Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. “But this isn’t the end of the world for the US stock market.” —David E. Rovella

Bill Dudley writes in Bloomberg Opinion that he’s long been in the “higher for longer” camp, insisting that the US Federal Reserve must hold short-term interest rates at the current level or higher to get inflation all the way down to where it needs to be. But now, Dudley writes, the facts have changed. The Fed should cut—preferably at next week’s meeting.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, which provides financing for commercial real estate, is cutting its dividend by 24% as defaults increase and borrowers struggle to make payments or refinance their loans. The board of the $3.4 billion real estate investment trust authorized the repurchase of up to $150 million of shares to lift the value of the stock. Commercial real estate mortgage REITs have been under mounting stress since higher interest rates and falling property values have triggered new waves of defaults, particularly for owners and lenders to office buildings.

The share of credit card balances past due reached a 12-year-high, adding to a variety of figures that may point to emerging fissures in the US economy. Some 2.6% of credit card balances were 60 days past due in the first quarter. That’s up from 1.1% in 2021, when consumers were bolstered by pandemic-era support programs. The share of credit card balances 30 days and 90 days past due also climbed in the first three months of the year to the highest levels in data back to 2012.

These days, nurse practitioners in America aren’t merely supporting doctors. Busy emergency rooms are constantly triaging, determining where the physicians on duty are most needed. Nurse practitioners have significant responsibility and authority. In important respects, they’re now at the center of health care in the US. And increasingly, they are treating patients independently, including in specialty practices and emergency rooms. And when they aren’t well trained, the results can be tragic. 

India’s government is said to be weighing options to ease investment restrictions on some Chinese firms, a move that could help the South Asian nation boost its domestic manufacturing. Discussions are underway on whether to give exemptions to Chinese firms in hi-tech sectors like solar modules and critical minerals. India-China relations spiraled after a deadly 2020 border clash, with New Delhi imposing strict rules on Chinese businesses, banning Chinese apps and slowing visa approvals. Indian firms, especially in manufacturing, say those curbs have hurt their operations and are undermining the government’s ability to become a factory hub in the region.

Protesters in New Delhi burn an image of Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a demonstration urging the boycott of Chinese goods in 2020. The unrest followed deadly clashes between the countries that resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers. Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg

In US Vice President Kamala Harris’ first public remarks as the leading Democratic presidential candidate, she vowed to defeat two enemies: Donald Trump and “his extreme Project 2025 agenda.” Harris thus thrust Project 2025—a 900-page manifesto by former Trump aides and the far-right Heritage Foundation aimed at gutting federal agencies—into the spotlight. Her statement shows how Democrats plan to use the plan to showcase what they consider the existential threat Trump poses to US democracy. Meanwhile, Trump adjutants and other prominent Republicans have begun to attack Harris based on her race and gender, even as some of their leaders publicly urge the party to avoid racist and misogynistic attacks. Harris, a former US senator and state attorney general, would be the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to become US president were she to be nominated and win in November. For his part, Trump has a long history of making such remarks while his choice for vice president, US Senator JD Vance of Ohio, has called members of the Democratic Party “childless cat ladies.”

San Francisco has been the subject of a lot of negative press over the past several years, Conor Sen writes in Bloomberg Opinion. It was hit hard by the pandemic exodus from cities, the shift to work from home that emptied offices, the crime and homelessness that marred its national reputation and pledges by corporate leaders such as Elon Musk to relocate their company headquarters elsewhere. But Sen writes that, at a time when housing is expensive almost everywhere and people are looking for good value, San Francisco may be the place to buy.

San Francisco Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

• Bloomberg Opinion: Why Trump is so afraid of Harris.
• Mutiny in the bond market as billionaires pick a debt fight.
• These are the 10 AI startups to watch in 2024.
• Microsoft’s “World of Warcraft” gaming staff votes to unionize.
• California winemaker files for bankruptcy citing lower demand.
• This is the most powerful passport in the world.
• Your cup of coffee is already expensive. It’s about to get worse.

In a remote village temple late one night in 2004, a gang of thieves pulled off a daring heist of some of India’s most precious cultural heritage. With little effort, they methodically emptied the site of a series of priceless bronze idols. The brazen crime was just one of many, part of a sprawling effort to feed a global art market where millions of dollars can be made. In Stealing the Gods, the first episode of a new season of Bloomberg Investigates, we meet two men on opposite sides of the planet, citizen detectives both, who joined forces along with Indian authorities and a special unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York to bring down the mastermind behind one of the biggest art thefts in history.

Watch Stealing the Gods from Bloomberg Originals

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