Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Fear of delta-plus

Wall Street is wrong. The panicky talking heads are wrong. The former government officials are wrong. This seems to be the message coming from the Fed, according to minutes of a recent meeting. Instead, policymakers and the public should be listening to the central bank’s army of 400 Ph.D. economists and their clear message about inflation: it will be back under 2% next year. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

Surging Covid-19 cases in the U.K. have left the country behind the rest of Europe, with former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb calling for urgent research into a mutation known as delta-plus. The strain includes the K417N mutation, which has stoked concern because it’s also harbored by the beta variant that’s associated with increased risk of reinfection. “We need urgent research to figure out if this delta-plus is more transmissible, has partial immune evasion,” Gottlieb said. Though the U.S. is still averaging more than 83,000 new confirmed infections and 1,500 deaths each day, some school districts are responding to the slackening delta variant-fueled wave by no longer requiring children to wear masks. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is retreating a bit from his industrial crackdown, softening sweeping policies seen aimed at making the economy less dependent on debt and monopolies. Instead, aspects of his “common prosperity” plan are showing signs of hitting ordinary citizens with higher power bills, lost savings and potentially fewer jobs.

Production at U.S. factories fell by the most in seven months in September, in part reflecting a sharp pullback in the manufacturing of motor vehicles and the broader supply chain crisis.

Apple took its most aggressive step yet to strip Intel Corp. chips from its computers, announcing it was using more powerful, homegrown Mac processors as part of a total revamp of the MacBook Pro laptop.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook speaks during the Unleashed virtual product launch in Hastings-On-Hudson, New York, on Oct. 18. Photographer: Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg

The closest thing to a risk-free bet has reemerged in the cryptocurrency market as traders awaiting the launch of the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund bid up the price of futures. 

Americans love gift cards. For younger generations, they’ve become a favorite gift. Which is good, because thanks to the supply chain lock up, they're about to get lots of them. 

For centuries, a handful of companies have dominated the insurance market from the City of London. But an upstart intent on challenging them has appeared. Marshmallow, a car insurance app which recently became the U.K.’s second Black-founded firm to reach a $1 billion valuation, is tripling its space after headcount grew by more than threefold. Now the company is going after the old guard.

Alexander Kent-Braham, right, and Oliver Kent-Braham, co-chief executive officers of Marshmallow Financial Services Ltd.  Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

• Left for dead, U.S. labor unions suddenly find some leverage.
• Zillow decided to stop buying new homes. Its stock tanked.
• White House seeks options to Joe Manchin-blocked clean power plan.
• China says hypersonic object sent into orbit was a reusable vehicle.
• Peter Thiel-backed lithium miner preparing a Nasdaq listing.
• AmEx to let employees work wherever they want one month a year.
• Ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell dies of Covid-19. He was 84.

Sundar Pichai wants to head the first giant company run without emissions. Last year, the Google CEO announced a plan to run every office and data center on electricity from clean sources. He set 2030 as the deadline, marking perhaps the most ambitious corporate commitment to decarbonization ever. Google calls it a moonshot, the term it reserves for its most audacious projects.

A portrait of Google CEO Sundar Pichai at Google’s new Bay View campus Photographer: Kelsey McClellan for Bloomberg Green

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