Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - More fuel for rate hikes

The U.S. unemployment rate fell below 4% and wages jumped last month, adding to evidence of a still-tight labor market, one that’s expected to spur Fed rate hikes as soon as March. A 199,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls followed upward revisions in the prior two months. The latest employment numbers do suggest that—despite still-robust labor demand—lack of childcare, virus fears and large savings cushions remain obstacles to would-be workers. The omicron variant, which is driving Covid-19 cases to record highs, isn’t helping either. —David E. Rovella

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

U.S. stocks fell, with the S&P 500 set for the worst start to a year since 2016 amid concern the Fed will be forced to raise rates faster than some investors had anticipated. Here’s your markets wrap.

China’s pledge to ensure economic stability is being tested by renewed turbulence in its financial markets. Tencent Holdings’ partial divestment of a listed company exacerbated a $1.2 trillion selloff in Chinese tech shares. One of the country’s largest bad-debt managers lost more than half its value in the equity market after a $6.6 billion bailout. China Evergrande Group suspended trading after it was ordered to demolish dozens of apartment blocks. And the list goes on.

Citigroup was the first major Wall Street bank to impose a strict Covid-19 vaccine mandate: Get a shot or face termination. With its deadline fast approaching, the company is ready to start firing.

The Republican-appointed majority of the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to side with Republican state officials and business interests seeking to block the Biden administration’s attempt to mandate coronavirus vaccination for millions of American workers in a bid to slow infections. The U.S. has led the world in confirmed deaths and infections for most of the pandemic, with more than 58 million confirmed cases and over 834,000 dead, though the the actual numbers are likely much higher. The country is averaging more than 580,000 new infections and more than 1,200 deaths every day.

A South African study offers a possible hint that the acute phase of the pandemic may be ending. In China, hundreds of thousands of workers at iPhone maker Foxconn Technology as well as Huawei Technologies are being tested for Covid-19 as China’s latest outbreak shows no signs of easing. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

A business that’s touted as a convenience for home sellers has created a secret pipeline for big investors to buy properties, often in communities of color. Wall Street is using tech firms like Zillow to eat up starter homes.

A savvy investor from Oregon made millions of dollars buying nearly 16,000 shares of Tesla. But then he lost it all, along with his freedom, when the feds figured out he had bankrolled his investments with proceeds from fraudulently obtained Covid-relief loans.

• All of Europe may join NATO if Russia attacks Ukraine again. 
• Kazakhstan unleashes military, allows killing of protestors at will.
• Bloomberg QuickTake: Kazakhstan’s uprising has global importance.
• Indian students linked to app “selling” Muslim women are arrested.
• These four charts show potential trouble for Bitcoin.
• Whole Foods wants to keep banning “Black Lives Matters” masks.
• Sidney Poitier, Black actor who made Oscars history, is dead.

Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei dismissed tennis star Peng Shuai as a “soldier” of the Communist Party, at a time when she appeared in state-media footage released to quell global concerns over her safety. She had previously made sexual assault allegations against a former top official. “What she did is nothing to do with brave,” Ai said in an interview for the first episode of Bloomberg Quicktake’s “Emma Barnett Meets,” recorded on Dec. 8 and which debuted on Thursday.

Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

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