Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook refused to take a meeting years ago to discuss acquiring Tesla for what would have been close to $60 billion, Elon Musk said on Twitter Tuesday. The Tesla CEO wrote that he reached out to Apple during the “darkest days” of development of the Model 3 to talk about a possible deal. In recent years, Apple has hired ex-Tesla executives who specialize in drive train, car interior and self-driving technology, indicating the company is again considering entering the market, perhaps making a case for Tesla bears. —David E. Rovella 

Bloomberg is tracking the progress of coronavirus vaccines while mapping the pandemic globally and across America. 

Here are today’s top stories 

It was kind of inevitable that Tesla’s biggest challenger wouldn’t be a car company, Tim Culpan writes in Bloomberg Opinion. Apple, he says, makes for the perfect nemesis. 

Over the past three years, stocks have been rocked by deteriorating trade relationships, economic turbulence and a pandemic that’s ravaged the globe. Throughout it all, investors have refused to pull cash from one of Vanguard Group’s largest exchange-traded funds.

Health officials said the new Covid-19 variant that emerged in the U.K., which may be more easily transmitted, could already be in the U.S., Germany, France and Switzerland. There is no indication as yet that current vaccines won’t work against the evolving strain, or that it is more dangerous than previously known iterations. Nevertheless, Moderna and BioNTech stock dropped more than 5% and Pfizer fell 1.7% in heavy volume Tuesday. Here is the market wrap.

The first locally transmitted case of Covid-19 in more than eight months was reported in Taiwan, ending the world’s longest stretch without a domestic infection. In the U.S., the virus has now hospitalized almost twice as many Americans compared with any point during the pandemic, leaving medical providers on the brink of crisis with vaccine shots months away for most. Here is the latest on the pandemic.

Hot tech companies and other startups will soon be permitted to raise money on the New York Stock Exchange without paying big underwriting fees to Wall Street banks, a move that threatens to upend how U.S. initial public offerings have been conducted for decades.

While the sudden cancellation of his Ant Group IPO shocked many investors, Bloomberg Businessweek reports on how Jack Ma’s fall from grace was years in the making.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma performs during Alibaba’s 20th anniversary gala at Hangzhou Olympic Center Stadium on Sept. 10, 2019 in Hangzhou China.  

Photographer: VCG/Getty Images/Visual China Group

American shoppers shunned stores and extended their online binge during the last weekend before Christmas, adding to a package-delivery logjam that’s now reaching a crescendo.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

• Covid bailout 2.0 and Washington’s new low in “glaring” dysfunction.
• Justice Department sues Walmart over alleged role in opioid crisis.
• Deutsche Bank says Donald Trump’s personal banker resigned.
• Robinhood trader got $300,000 back from hack. Then it was gone.
• What happens to malls, offices and commercial buildings in 2021?
• Sheldon Adelson’s casino pays a price for courting China “whales.” 
• Africa’s richest man initiates Nigeria’s first stock buyback.

What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Pursuits

Rich Shoppers Scoop Up Secondhand Luxury

Covid-19 has made most shoppers cost-conscious this holiday season, but those with  cash to burn are still finding ways to splurge. As retail sales in general suffer, luxury fashion—the previously owned kind—is flying off the shelves. And it’s the wealthy who are buying.

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