Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Still too early to tell

Bloomberg’s Evening Briefing

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.

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

Here are today’s top stories

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

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

‘Godfather of Wind’ Builds a Floating Revolution

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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Market mayhem

Saturday, November 27, 2021

Bloomberg's Weekend Reading View in browser Bloomberg Follow Us Get the newsletter Market mayhem welcomed investors back from the Thanksgiving holiday as a new coronavirus variant was identified in

Another Covid wave begins

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Bloomberg's Evening Briefing View in browser Bloomberg The vast majority of those who need intensive care and ventilators are unvaccinated. That's the common refrain across America and much of

Targeting planet killers

Monday, November 22, 2021

Bloomberg's Evening Briefing View in browser Bloomberg After weeks of speculation, US President Joe Biden named Jerome Powell for a second term as the central bank's chair and nominated

Wall Street can’t handle inflation

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Bloomberg's Weekend Reading View in browser Bloomberg Follow Us Get the newsletter Hero or zero? Getting inflation right is a make-or-break moment on Wall Street, so what do you do when the old

U.S.-China relations thaw

Friday, November 19, 2021

Bloomberg's Evening Briefing View in browser Bloomberg Europe is heading for lockdown and imposing tight restrictions on the unvaccinated as a wave of new Covid-19 infections threatens to overrun

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