Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Still too early to tell

Reports of mostly mild illness from Covid-19 infections caused by omicron need to be interpreted with caution because they may not reflect the new variant’s severity across a broad range of people. While such anecdotes are encouraging, they may represent only a subset of cases and a fraction of the risk that could emerge if it spreads widely across the globe. As the world awaits more data on the variant and whether it will supplant delta as the dominant strain of the coronavirus, the manufacturers of three vaccines (which are already looking to make boosters for the new variant) have different opinions on what the future holds. Still, more precautions are being contemplated, including tightened travel restrictions for the U.S. Here’s the latest on the pandemic. —David E. Rovella

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

Yelps of inflationary pain from corporate America should be cries of joy. In the second year of a pandemic that started by wiping out 20 million U.S. jobs, American businesses are doing just peachy. In the past two quarters, U.S. corporations outside of the finance industry posted their fattest margins since 1950. On earnings calls, plenty of executives complain about the squeeze from rising labor and material costs. But overall, profits were up 37% from a year earlier.

Stocks dived on Tuesday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he was considering an earlier end to bond tapering, the central bank’s removal of the U.S. economy’s training wheels. In testimony before Congress, the recently renominated Powell also conceded—as many have been saying for some time now—that the current rise in inflation isn’t looking all that transitory anymore. Traders who gloried in sky-high stock prices while many Americans endured financial calamity are betting interest-rate hikes are on the horizon, which sent equities down. Here’s your markets wrap.

The number of immigrants under the U.S. H1-B visa program holding high-tech jobs dropped the most in at least a decade—even as openings in the industry reached record highs.

Facing the possibility of prosecution, former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff has chosen to cooperate with the Congressional investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The turnabout by Mark Meadows could be a critical moment in the probe of the deadly insurrection, in which Trump followers including white supremacists attempted to violently derail the transfer of power to President Joe Biden.

Mark Meadows, right, and former President Donald Trump on Oct. 2, 2020 Photographer: Oliver Contreras/Bloomberg

The White House is considering several candidates to serve as the Federal Reserve’s top banking watchdog, including Richard Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean has reached levels not seen in two decades as the pandemic destroys jobs and pushes many in the region into poverty.

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates laid out their individual plans for giving away their fortunes. The move comes almost seven months after they announced their divorce, a split that’s shaken the world of philanthropy given their $50 billion foundation.

Bill and Melinda French Gates in 2015. Photographer: David Paul Morris

• How a missing gene led South African scientists to discover omicron.
• China’s Covid-zero policy may be vindicated as omicron spreads.
• Singapore’s long awaited re-opening gets a gut punch from omicron.
• Cargo salvage of mystery goods booms thanks to supply chain crisis.
• Here’s where abortion will disappear in America if Roe is gutted.
• Lumber prices are rising again thanks to severe Canadian flooding.
• Who is Twitter’s new boss? Well for one, he’s really young.

Earth’s electricity needs could be met 11 times over if we filled our oceans with wind turbines. The problem is they’re too expensive to build in deep water. Henrik Stiesdal, a Danish inventor referred to in some circles as the “godfather of wind,” has come out of retirement to help lead the way in building a potentially game-changing wind turbine. 

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