Aon, Willis Towers Scrap $30 Billion Merger Amid Antitrust Impasse
Aon PLC and Willis Towers Watson PLC abandoned a more than $30 billion tie-up to create the world's largest insurance broker, deciding it wasn't worth pursuing in the face of Justice Department opposition to the merger.
The DOJ filed a lawsuit against the deal last month, the first big test of the Biden administration's more muscular antitrust policy. The suit, filed in a federal court in Washington, said that the proposed merger would lead to higher prices and reduced innovation for U.S. businesses, employers and unions that rely on their services.
Covid-19 Vaccine Pioneer BioNTech Plans to Make New Malaria and Tuberculosis Shots in Africa
BioNTech SE said it would invest some of the profits from the Covid-19 vaccine it markets with Pfizer Inc. into developing shots for malaria and tuberculosis in Africa, part of the German company's plan to establish a large production hub for innovative medicines on the continent.
The biotech firm plans to build a factory in Africa and develop a manufacturing network with local partners to transfer its technology based on messenger RNA, a genetic molecule, to a continent that has suffered from a lack of access to vaccines and other lifesaving treatment, BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin said.
Barclays Overtakes Credit Suisse in Investment Banking
Barclays PLC recently overtook Credit Suisse Group AG in investment banking revenue, a sign that the U.K. bank's long, frustrated push to be a major player is making progress thanks in part to the troubles of its Swiss rival.
The London-based bank vaulted past its Zurich-based counterpart to be the largest investment bank outside the U.S. in the second quarter of this year with $1.26 billion of investment banking revenue, representing a 4.1% market share, according to Dealogic. JPMorgan Chase & Co. was the top investment bank during the quarter with $3.15 billion of revenue, a 10.1% market share.
GLOBAL NEWS
Stocks Keep Climbing, Avoiding Routine Pullbacks
The stock market has been relatively quiet lately.
The benchmark S&P 500 hasn't suffered a 5% pullback since October and has advanced 35% since the end of that month.
Chinese Tech Stock Selloff Deepens
HONG KONG-Chinese technology shares dropped Tuesday, extending steep declines in the previous session that were fueled by investor concerns about China's widening series of crackdowns on tech and other industries.
By early afternoon in Hong Kong, online gaming and social-media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. had fallen 6.7%. The selloff pushed Tencent's market value down to about $563 billion, according to FactSet-meaning it has lost about $379 billion of market capitalization since peaking in mid-February.
Beijing Gives Tech Investors a Brutal New Tutorial
Anyone who bought into Chinese internet stocks hoping for a bounce following the dramatic fall from grace of ride-hailing giant Didi has been taught another painful lesson this week. Fighting the Fed, or Washington, is usually a losing game-but betting against Beijing's fast-moving, often opaque regulatory apparatus in Xi Jinping's new era of centralized control is suicidal.
Chinese tech stocks already punished by a widening antitrust and data-security crackdown have lost billions of dollars in market value over the past few days as a new selloff hit almost every single company in the sector. The immediate trigger: new rules that would basically wipe out much of the booming after-school tutoring sector. While tightening regulations have long been on the horizon, the scope and severity of the crackdown still caught investors by surprise. Goldman Sachs has cut its market-size forecast for after-school tutoring in 2025 by 85%. Shares of New Oriental Education have lost 70% since Friday, when the news was first leaked.
Big Pharma Quietly Pushes Back on Global Tax Deal, Citing Covid-19 Role
Big drug companies and their lobbyists have a message for Congress: Don't raise taxes on the industry that brought you fast-tracked Covid-19 vaccines.
Pharma executives, lobbyists and consultants are mobilizing to fight what has become a threat to drug companies' bottom lines: a sweeping agreement by many of the world's biggest economies to better harmonize corporate taxation around the globe. Earlier this month, 130 countries agreed to broad outlines of a deal that would, among other steps, establish a minimum corporate tax of 15% within their countries, reducing opportunities for international tax avoidance.
Bitcoin Jumps to a Six-Week High
The price of bitcoin jumped to a six-week high Monday, with some investors attributing the rally to short positions being liquidated and speculation that Amazon.com Inc. may be venturing into digital currencies.
Bitcoin soared as high as $40,501.70, according to Dow Jones Market Data, reaching its highest level since mid-June. It rose 9% from its 5 p.m. EDT level Sunday. Rival currency Ether jumped 4.8%.
Infrastructure-Bill Negotiators Try to Overcome Late Hurdles
WASHINGTON-A push to complete a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure agreement hit a series of hurdles Monday, as aides squabbled over funding for water infrastructure and how to apply a requirement that federal contractors pay their employees a locally prevailing wage, among other issues.
Lawmakers had previously set Monday as a target for closing out their talks and beginning floor consideration of the emerging agreement, though that timeline seemed to slip as the two sides sniped at each other.
China Industrial Profit Data for June Signal Relatively Strong, if Uneven, Recovery
China's industrial profit rose 20.0% from a year earlier in June, slowing from May's 36.4% expansion as favorable low-base effects faded.
The profitability of China's industrial companies looks relatively strong as more than 70% of those surveyed reported higher profits than what they earned before the coronavirus pandemic, said the National Bureau of Statistics.
Chinese Officials Blame U.S. for Stalemate in High-Level Talks
TAIPEI-Senior U.S. and Chinese officials sparred over Covid-19, human rights and cybersecurity during a tense exchange Monday in the highest-level meetings between the two countries on Chinese soil since Joe Biden became president.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng, meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in the port city of Tianjin on Monday, said American perceptions of China as an "imagined enemy" were responsible for a stalemate in relations between the two powers.
Foreign Purchases of U.S. Homes Fall to New Low
Foreign purchases of U.S. homes declined for a fourth straight year as the Covid-19 pandemic sharply limited international travel.
Foreigners bought $54.4 billion in U.S. residential real estate in the year ended in March, down 27% from the prior year, according to a report released Monday by the National Association of Realtors. That is the lowest level on record since NAR began collecting the data in 2011.
Biden Administration Moves to Tilt Pay and Power Toward Workers
President Biden is advancing a series of regulatory changes aimed at increasing workers' pay and gaining them other benefits, moves that opponents say could burden businesses amid an uneven economic recovery.
The rule changes, most of which are still in progress, would affect workers such as federal contractors, tipped employees and workers who are jointly employed, such as those with jobs at franchised brands. In some cases, the changes seek to reverse Trump administration efforts. In others, the Labor Department is working to implement its own rules.
Vatican Tries Cardinal in Test of Pope's Transparency Drive
VATICAN CITY-Cardinal Giovanni Becciu, once one of the most powerful men in the Vatican, went on trial Tuesday for embezzlement and other alleged crimes, as a scandal that has posed one of the biggest tests of Pope Francis's pontificate spilled out into the open.
It is the first time that a cardinal has gone on trial in Vatican City's criminal court.
U.S. Moves to Assure India on Afghan Withdrawal, Regional Security
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting India this week as the Biden administration seeks to reassure a key Asian partner over the U.S. and allied military withdrawal from Afghanistan and works to tighten security ties amid concern about Chinese influence in the region.
Mr. Blinken will meet Wednesday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, with a U.S. agenda that officials said includes Covid-19 response, security, defense and cyber issues as well as counterterrorism cooperation. An Indian official said trade, investment, healthcare and innovation also would be subjects of interest to New Delhi.
Tokyo Sets New Daily Record for Covid-19 Cases, With Olympics Under Way
TOKYO-Tokyo on Tuesday set a new daily record for Covid-19 cases, reporting 2,848 new infections on the fifth day of the Summer Olympics, which are taking place in the Japanese capital.
The number of new cases surpassed the previous daily record of 2,520 set in January. The latest tally included cases recorded early this week after a four-day holiday weekend ended Sunday.
Russia Holds Military Drills Off Japan's Mainland During Tokyo Olympics
TOKYO-Russia's military doesn't stand down for the Olympics.
On Tuesday, Moscow was set to begin military exercises on an island near Japan that it seized in 1945 and Tokyo still claims. A day earlier, Russia's prime minister visited islands in the same disputed group.
North Korea Reopens Communications Hotline With South Korea, Breaking a Year of Silence
SEOUL-North Korea reopened direct communication lines with South Korea, raising the prospect that the Kim Jong Un regime could be ready for engagement after a protracted period of diplomatic silence.
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
07-27-21 0616ET
