Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - The gathering storm

For some time now, the stock market has been breaking and re-breaking records despite darkening skies. Now, investment strategists are wondering if the combination of Covid-19’s fast-spreading delta variant, rising inflation and central banks eyeing tighter monetary policy means there truly is rain in the forecast. Markets felt more than a few drops on Monday. Here’s your markets wrap. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the progress of coronavirus vaccines while mapping the pandemic worldwide. 

Day traders who fueled all those so-called meme stocks to crazy heights a few months back are getting fried. The sunny market optimism that pumped up trading in those few, now famous companies has been replaced by the biggest losing streak since the phenomenon first appeared.

Meanwhile, more technology companies are rushing out their initial public offerings while the market is still hot, including none other than retail trading platform Robinhood. It filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday to start the roadshow of its $2.2 billion IPO. And there are a lot more coming.

The U.S., U.K. and their allies formally attributed the Microsoft Exchange hack to actors affiliated with the Chinese government while accusing Beijing of “malicious cyber activities,” further escalating tensions between the White House and China. While Beijing was rattling its sabers again near Taiwan, its efforts to rule the waves in the South China Sea ran into some trouble, courtesy of the Philippines Coast Guard.

Credit Suisse’s top executive in the Middle East had a strange message at a May sales meeting: an apology. Bruno Daher said he was sorry about saying he’d put a gun to bankers’ heads if they didn’t shape up. The contrition was striking because it contrasted so sharply with his typical approach. Indeed, the executive who built a regional wealth powerhouse also fostered a brutal workplace for staff. A lot of them have quit.

She said she was raped by one of the most powerful men on Wall Street. Now private-equity billionaire Leon Black has responded to the allegations in astonishing detail, saying the former model from Russia professed her love during a years-long affair—and that he was later extorted for millions of dollars.

Covid-19 cases in the U.K. rose the most in the world as virus restrictions ended in England, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s perceived attempt to dodge isolation rules sparked a public outcry. An American gymnast tested positive for coronavirus at the team’s pre-Olympic training camp in Japan. Southeast Asia continues to reel from a fresh wave of the virus, with Indonesia surpassing India and Brazil in daily case numbers as the delta variant drives up infections. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

WeWork. Remember them? A new book reveals that as the company was burning through $11 billion and firing thousands of workers after its failed 2019 IPO, co-founder Adam Neumann was extracting even more wealth from the company than previously thought. Like $2.1 billion. 

• Businessweek: Biden’s antitrust crackdown threatens huge rail deal.
• Confidence in cryptocurrency, and its prices, continue to fall.
• The end of a multitrillion-dollar era is coming for U.S. stock listings.
• The City of London is pretty empty despite restrictions being lifted.
• U.S. proposal to legalize cannabis isn’t making anyone happy.
• Bloomberg Opinion: A water reckoning has arrived in the Southwest.
• Bloomberg Wealth: The seven habits of highly effective investors.

Just a dot on the map along Interstate 10 between El Paso and San Antonio, Van Horn, Texas—with a population of less than 2,000—considers Jeff Bezos and his new space base a neighbor. From the town’s main drag, it’s just a 40-mile drive to Blue Origin’s launch pad, where he intends to rocket into space for a few minutes in his Blue Origin spacecraft on July 20. But that’s just part of the story of how a tiny town gets along with the richest person on Earth.

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