From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
JOBS BLOCKBUSTER
Investors ended the week digesting a blockbuster jobs report. Nonfarm payrolls in November rose by 266,000, according to the Labor Dept. The consensus estimate was about 180,000. The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5 percent, and average hourly earnings rose another 0.2 percent. The unusually strong report was helped by GM, where tens of thousands of workers returned to their jobs (thus counting as new payrolls) after spending 40 days on the picket line. Still, hiring remains strong, and unemployment remains near historic lows even despite headwinds like the trade war and poor manufacturing data.
TRADE WAR(S)
In London for a commemoration of NATO's 70th birthday, President Trump indicated that the trade war with China may drag on, at least through the 2020 election. The president said he was willing to wait until then to make a deal with China on tariffs, a reversal from previous comments from White House officials that a deal was within striking distance. Stocks plunged on that news, but then recovered and ended the week sharply higher, lifted by the gangbusters employment number. And yet, the trade jitters remain. In addition to the conflicting statements on China, the Trump administration has proposed a tariff of up to 100 percent on $2.4 billion worth of French imports ー including handbags, cheese, and wine, that could impact American consumers. Meanwhile, the deadline for the next round of tariffs on Chinese goods is still scheduled for Dec. 15.
CYBER MONDAY BONANZA
Fourteen years after the term was coined, Cyber Monday has grown to become one of the most critical shopping events of the year for retailers. And in 2019, it hit a record. According to Adobe Analytics, shoppers spent $9.4 billion online ー the first $9 billion e-commerce day ever, and 19 percent higher than last year's Cyber Monday (and in addition to the $7.4 billion spent online on Black Friday). Total online spend for the season is expected to reach $143 billion, Adobe says, versus $126 billion in 2018. Big-box retailers like Target and Walmart are seeing some of the strongest e-commerce growth, as well as ーof course ー Amazon, which said this Cyber Monday was its biggest shopping day in the company's history.
GOOGLE TURNS THE PAGE
It's an end of an era at Google, where the co-founders who began the search giant in their friend's garage have officially relinquished executive control to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Larry Page and Sergei Brin, who had stopped running the day-to-day operations years ago, will remain on the Alphabet board, and control a majority of the company's voting shares. They are stepping away from the company they started at a precarious time. Google is in the regulatory crosshairs of several governments over antitrust concerns and how it collects its vast troves of data. Pichai, an Indian immigrant who rose through the ranks of the company, will become CEO of both Alphabet and Google ー making him one of the single most powerful people in Silicon Valley.
UNITED CEO OUT
Brin and Page weren't the only executive departures of the week in a year that has seen a record number of CEO exits. Oscar Munoz, the chief executive of United Airlines, is resigning effective in May. United is promoting his deputy, Scott Kirby, who was rumored to be in the running for the top job at rival American Airlines. Munoz took over United four years ago and will leave the carrier in better shape than he found it, though he is perhaps best known for the company's botched response to an incident in 2017 in which a doctor was dragged screaming off of an overbooked flight.
Terrell Jermaine Starr, senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and host of the Black Diplomats podcast joins Cheddar News to discuss Russia's attempt to invade Ukraine.
With an increasing number of teachers and staff calling out sick by the day, the state of Oklahoma is turning to an unusual solution. Republican Governor Kevin Stitt has issued an executive order that permits state employees to work as substitute teachers. Shaily Baranwal, founder and CEO of Elevate K-12, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the stance of the U.S. and its allies should Russia make any forays into Ukraine, a seeming response to President Biden's remarks that should Putin engage in something short of a full invasion, there might be some indecision among allied nations regarding what to do. Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow at the think tank Atlantic Council, joined Cheddar to discuss the difficulty faced by Blinken wrangling unity as tensions run high in the region. "There'll be a smaller incursion, and the president implied, there'll be a weaker response because our European allies have created this horrible situation where they are dependent on Moscow for their gas supply," Cohen explained.
During a nearly two-hour press conference on Wednesday, President Biden spoke on his accomplishments and challenges from the first year of his presidency, and what his administration hopes to accomplish in the coming year. However, his approval ratings are underwater as COVID remains a big concern for voters — as does inflation, noted Tom Bevan, co-founder and president of polling aggregator RealClearPolitics. "The public thinks [inflation] is priority number one, and the administration is concerned about it, they talk about it, but they're not spending enough time on it as far as the public is concerned," said Bevan.
The drama surrounding tennis star Novak Djokovic continues after he was deported from Australia over the weekend due to the nation's COVID-19 vaccine requirements. Djokovic was forced to leave the country on the eve of what was to be his first match in defense of his Australian Open title after three judges ruled in favor of his removal and revealed their reasoning for doing so. Adding to his woes, a law recently passed in France is putting his chances of defending his French Open title in jeopardy. The director of Marist's Center for Sports Communication, Jane McManus, joined Cheddar to discuss the ongoing fallout.
As the midterm elections get ever closer, candidates have been getting creative with their campaigns to stick out and to connect with voters. Gary Chambers, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Louisiana, has definitely attracted attention with an advertisement featuring him smoking a blunt, making a point about the inequity of anti-cannabis laws. "We wanted to bring the seriousness of the moment," he said of the ad. "But we also wanted to make sure that people understand that there are 19 states that are legal right now but Black people and brown people are being over-incarcerated in mostly Southern and Midwestern states in America for cannabis possession."
If some members of Congress have their way, there might finally be a 'TLDR' on sites' terms of service, introduced by the terms-of-service labeling, design, and readability act – or TLDR for short. With this act, users will actually understand what they're agreeing to or the many ways in which their data is being used before pressing 'accept.' J.D. sat down with co-sponsor of the bill and Senator Bill Cassidy, to discuss.
President Joe Biden's first year in office is wrapping up. What has he achieved, and what else remains on the table while the Democrats have control of Washington? Amid an ongoing pandemic and rising inflation, Biden's approval rating is at an all-time low and his party is plagued by infighting. Will he be able to continue pushing key parts of his agenda? Paul Glastris, former Bill Clinton speechwriter & Editor-in-chief of 'Washington Monthly,' joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the president's achievements in his first year, where he's fallen short, and what he must do in order to get more of his agenda signed into law.
Tech giants Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple are faced with a bipartisan antitrust legislation effort underway in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The companies stand accused of promoting their own goods and services over smaller competitors on their platforms, holding too much monopolistic power via their app stores and services. Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress, a technology industry trade group, joined Cheddar to argue that the bills that are being debated currently could end up hurting consumers, rather than helping.
