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.
A bipartisan group of 43 representatives joined forces in a letter to President Joe Biden to remind the executive branch that it must seek the approval of Congress before authorizing a war — whether or not its in Ukraine as Russia continues its invasion. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore. 4th District) led the effort and joined Cheddar News Wrap to explain. "It's time for Congress to get back the authority, which is vested to us in the constitution, not in the executive branch," he said. "The president. once we're at war, we speak with one voice with the commander in chief. But before that, it's up to the American people and Congress whether or not we're going to become engaged in a war."
Chris Konstantinos, Chief Investment Strategist at RiverFront Investment Group, explains why he remains encouraged about the S&P and the state of the market despite the major indexes closing mostly lower on Monday.
President Joe Biden will be delivering his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, and with so many issues from Ukraine to inflation, everyone will be focused on what he might say. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y. 11th District) joined Cheddar News to discuss what she thinks the president should address. "I think what he hasn't done yet is go after the gas, the oil, the minerals, the mining industries, that is incredibly important," she said. "There's still some banks there that are not sanctioned. He needs to go after all the banks, but I also think that providing the equipment that Ukraine needs to continue to protect its capital and its country are incredibly important."
As Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, one of its few big allies remaining appears to be China. Gordon Chang, Asian affairs expert and author of "The Coming Collapse of China," joined Cheddar News to discuss what might be behind China's support for Putin's current strategy. “I think China is looking at what Putin did yesterday, which is to raise his nuclear forces on a higher alert level,” Chang stated, “If they see that Putin gets away with his nuclear threats, which he's been making over the last three or four days, then I'm sure that Beijing is going to ramp up its threats as well, and it could ramp them up against any number of different countries with which it perceives it has a problem with"
Joel Rubin, president of the Washington Strategy Group and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, joins Cheddar News to discuss the Russia-Ukraine tensions and the new sanctions President Biden placed on Russia.
Officials from Ukraine and Russia have begun meeting along the Belarus border to discuss a potential end to the ongoing invasion, even as the fighting continues to drag on. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas 9th District) joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, what to expect from President Joe Biden's State of The Union Address, and the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court. "I'm still hopeful, and I hope that Mr. Putin will understand that he has united the world against him," Green said of the new round of peace talks.
Within hours of Russia's first attack on Ukraine, President Joe Biden addressed the nation by stating that the White House will impose wider sanctions on Russian banks. These sanctions could result in damage to the Russian economy. Host of "Oh My World" on Youtube and Former Spokesperson for the U. S. Mission to the U. N. Hagar Chemali, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
