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Hope but few detailsWorries about China’s economic recovery sent stocks and U.S. futures lower on Tuesday morning, despite a promising meeting on Monday between the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing. The discussions raised hopes that the world’s two biggest economies might stabilize relations, but the market reaction points at the deeper challenges for policymakers and business. There was no agreement or detail on the most contentious issues: restrictions on Chinese access to advanced technologies; accusations that the U.S. and its allies want to contain Beijing’s ambitions; Taiwan; the war in Ukraine. “Distrust remains high,” said Noah Barkin, a specialist on China relations at the research firm Rhodium Group. “For international investors, this is not enough to trigger any sort of rethink with regard to the Chinese market.” The Biden administration, he said, would continue screening strategic investments into China and Beijing showed no signs of easing pressure on foreign firms operating in the country.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Antony Blinken, Xi, Biden, Blinken, ”, Noah Barkin Organizations: “ Locations: Beijing, California, Taiwan, Ukraine, China

‘An operation of seduction’Just days after the PGA-LIV Golf merger was announced, a contingent of Saudi Arabian investors and power brokers, including the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has converged on France this week looking for more deals with potentially trillions to spend. The “Invest in Saudi” booth at VivaTech — where Elon Musk and the luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault are also on the program — has an outsized presence. Paid for by the Saudi Ministry of Investment, the booth serves as a kind of billboard to announce the country’s ambitions and a way to help its entrepreneurs attract Western investors and prospective business partners, Vivienne Walt writes for DealBook. Badr Al Badr, the deputy minister for investor outreach, told DealBook that Saudi Arabia has about $3.2 trillion to invest by 2030. “That is why there are so many opportunities for investors,” he said.

Persons: Mohammed bin Salman, Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Vivienne Walt, DealBook, Prince Mohammed, Badr Al Badr, ” Organizations: LIV, Invest, —, Elon, Saudi Ministry of Investment, PayPal, Electronic Arts Locations: Saudi Arabian, France, Saudi, Badr, Saudi Arabia

A move to ‘end surprise fees’With inflation still a potent political issue, President Biden is stepping up his war on so-called junk fees. At the White House on Thursday, he will host a panel of executives from several companies, including Airbnb and Live Nation, which drew outrage from consumers over its botched ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s tour last year. The companies are expected to announce new efforts to “end surprise fees,” the White House said, including through price-transparency commitments and other ways of fully disclosing upfront costs to consumers. The administration hopes that the changes will be adopted by companies across a wide array of industries, including live events and travel. In his State of the Union address in February, he denounced the added costs: “I know how unfair it feels when a company overcharges you and gets away with it.”

Persons: Biden, Taylor Swift’s, ” Organizations: White

The Fed looks poised to pauseS&P 500 futures are up on Wednesday as investors bet that the Fed will not change its prime lending rate, thanks to an array of unexpectedly positive economic data. If the central bank moves as expected, it would break a streak of 10 consecutive rate increases, back to March of 2022 — the Fed’s most aggressive pace since the 1980s. That said, many expect the decision on Wednesday to represent a pause, not a reversal, of a hawkish anti-inflation policy. The central bank’s chair, Jay Powell, is expected to suggest at his post-meeting news conference on Wednesday that he isn’t done raising rates. Mr. Patterson believes that the Fed is planning at least one more rate increase this year.

Persons: Jay Powell, Powell, ” Andrew Patterson, DealBook, Patterson Organizations: Vanguard

“There is unprecedented interest in all areas of A.I.,” Julie Sweet, Accenture’s C.E.O., said. Accenture plans to double its A.I.-focused staff to 80,000, through a mix of hiring, acquisitions and training. It also plans to use generative A.I. moves, too: PwC said in April that it would invest $1 billion over the next three years, while EY announced in 2021 that it would invest $2.5 billion over three years. work dates back at least to the introduction of Watson, has announced a “Center of Excellence” for generative A.I.

Persons: ” Julie Sweet, Accenture’s, PwC, EY, Bain, Watson Organizations: Accenture, Company, OpenAI, Deloitte, Nvidia, IBM Locations: A.I

A potential end to a high-profile fightJPMorgan Chase on Monday reached a tentative settlement with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, weeks after enduring embarrassing disclosures about its longstanding ties to the convicted sex offender. If approved, the deal would ease some of the pressure on JPMorgan as it defends itself against accusations that it ignored repeated warnings about Mr. Epstein’s crimes. The victims’ lawsuit accused JPMorgan of overlooking red flags about Mr. Epstein, because it valued him as a wealthy client who could help connect the bank with even more deep-pocketed people. The deal was reached about two weeks after Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s C.E.O., testified about the matter. In a daylong deposition in the case, filed last November in Manhattan federal court, Mr. Dimon said he had barely heard of Mr. Epstein before the financier’s 2019 arrest.

Persons: JPMorgan Chase, Jeffrey Epstein, Epstein, Epstein’s, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s, Dimon, Mr Organizations: Monday, JPMorgan, Times Locations: Manhattan

Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, had gone unnoticed in Venice last month. He was in town for the same wedding that had brought al-Rumayyan to Venice. If the motor sports executive spotted the PGA Tour’s leader, he would assuredly connect the presences of Monahan and al-Rumayyan, and golf’s greatest secret might get out. The civil war that had disrupted and defined the once genteel sport — for example, Monahan once publicly asked whether PGA Tour players had ever felt compelled to apologize for competing on the circuit — was abruptly suspended. The tour’s reputation was stained and many of its loyalists were furious, but its coffers were poised to overflow.

Persons: Jay Monahan, Yasir al, LIV, Stefano Domenicali, Monahan, Domenicali, — Organizations: PGA Tour, PGA, LIV Golf Locations: Venice, Italy, Saudi

☆ After LIV Golf, What Will Be the Next Saudi Sports Bet?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | Michael J. De La Merced | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Tennis is probably the best candidate for a rival tour. And while there’s a smaller cohort of stars to recruit than in golf, a rival league would need only about a dozen players for an elite tour. Some tennis stars, including fifth-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas, have already played in Saudi Arabia at the Diriyah tennis exhibition. The threat of Saudi competition is likely one reason the WTA raised money from the private equity firm CVC Capital this year. to own a major sports series like the PGA Tour may now be to just acquire one.

Persons: Stefanos Tsitsipas, ” LionTree’s Michael, ‘, LIV, ” — Lauren Hirsch, Donald Trump Organizations: Capital, Trump, Republican Locations: Saudi Arabia, Saudi

Trump indicted: what to expect nextFor the second time in two months, Donald Trump will surrender to the authorities to face legal charges, dropping another bomb into the 2024 presidential race. The indictment won’t be unsealed until next week, but some details are known. He is expected to turn himself in to the authorities on Tuesday. Mr. Trump himself broke the news last night, a sign his inner circle had been bracing for the indictment for weeks. On his Truth Social platform, Mr. Trump called the charges “election interference at the highest level,” adding, “I’m an innocent man.”

Persons: Trump, Donald Trump, ” Organizations: Republican, White

Instead, Mr. Messi appears to be headed to Inter Miami, the M.L.S. team co-founded by David Beckham. It’s a sign that near-limitless oil money can’t buy everything — but the complicated arrangements to bring Messi to Florida also hint at what it takes to trump Saudi riches. What Mr. Messi stands to get: Contract details haven’t been released, but what’s known about Inter Miami’s offer to the Argentine star includes a roster spot free from the limits of M.L.S. salary rules and, highly unusually, an ownership stake in Inter Miami once his playing career ends.

Persons: David Beckham, LIV —, Lionel Messi, Mr, Messi, It’s, haven’t Organizations: Inter Miami, Inter, Adidas, Apple Locations: Saudi Arabia, Florida, Saudi, Argentine, M.L.S

Golf becomes a geopolitical trophyThe shock news that the PGA Tour plans to join forces with LIV Golf, the upstart circuit that it has spent the past year feuding with, rattled the normally staid world of golf. Saudi Arabia, LIV’s backer, now stands to hold enormous sway over golf, as it invests billions to extend its presence throughout pro sports — and beyond. It’s an additional sign of how the kingdom is seeking to assert its role as a growing geopolitical and global business power. Covert jet-setting talks led to the golf deal. Those on the Saudi side included the banker Michael Klein, a longtime adviser to the kingdom.

Persons: LIV Golf, LIV, Jay Monahan, Ed Herlihy, Wachtell, Jimmy Dunne, Piper Sandler, Michael Klein Organizations: PGA Tour, PGA, Allen & Company Locations: Saudi Arabia, what’s, Saudi

☆ Venture Capital Giant Sequoia Spins Off China and India Units
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms, is breaking itself up, spinning out its Chinese unit into an independent company at a time of rising tensions between China and the United States over investment and access to advanced technologies. The firm announced on Tuesday that it planned to split into three independent partnerships, with its businesses in China and India adopting new brands and the firm in the United States and Europe retaining the Sequoia name. The firm’s global footprint had become “increasingly complex” to manage, said a statement from Sequoia’s managing partner Roelof Botha; the firm’s China head, Neil Shen; and its India head, Shailendra Singh. “Increasingly, we deal with portfolio conflicts across entities because founders really now have global ambitions,” Mr. Botha said. “And the brand confusion was just starting to chafe at everybody.”

Persons: Roelof Botha, Neil Shen, Shailendra Singh, Botha, ”, “, ” Mr Organizations: Sequoia Locations: China, United States, India, Europe

☆ Hotelier Writes Off San Francisco, Citing ‘Major Challenges’
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Park Hotels & Resorts, the operator of two of the most prominent hotels in San Francisco, is handing in the keys on the properties — and, in essence, giving up on a city that has fallen on hard times. Park Hotel stopped making payments on a $725 million loan tied to the Hilton Union Square and Parc 55, the real estate investment trust said on Monday. A slowing economy and a remote-work thunderclap have emptied offices across the country, with some warning of a ticking bomb in the commercial real estate market. Slammed by a wave of layoffs in the tech industry and a steep slowdown in Moscone’s conference calendar, downtown San Francisco has been hit hard. “Now more than ever, we believe San Francisco’s path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges” that will reduce demand for business and leisure travel, said Thomas J. Baltimore Jr., the chief executive of Park Hotels & Resorts.

Persons: ”, Thomas J Organizations: Resorts, Hilton Union Square, Moscone Center, Baltimore Jr, Park Hotels Locations: San Francisco

The initial reviews were mixed and skeptics questioned whether even Apple could make virtual reality anything more than a niche technology. But boosters say that if any company can make it mainstream, it’s Apple with its ecosystem of two billion iPhone, iPad and Mac users. “We believe Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary product,” Tim Cook told developers and journalists on Monday. It certainly looks like an Apple product: Unlike other virtual reality headsets, an external display shows your eyes to others, and the device is controlled using hand gestures, eye movements and your voice. “The most perfect headset demo reel of all time is still just a headset demo reel,” wrote Nilay Patel of The Verge.

Persons: Tim Cook, ”, Joanna Stern, I’ve, Marques Brownlee, “, Nilay Patel, lockdowns Organizations: Apple, Apple Vision, The, Street, Investors

Riyadh goes it alone on oil cutsCrude oil and natural gas rebounded this morning after Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter, announced a million-barrel-per-day production cut at this weekend’s OPEC Plus summit in an effort to boost sagging energy prices. But the negotiations that led to the move — and a more complicated adjustment of the cartel’s production quotas — hint at the tensions between many of the world’s top crude-producing countries, with global oil prices in the balance. The United Arab Emirates saw its production quota grow, after years of lobbying for such a move, while other countries had their targets reduced. The arrangement that emerged on Sunday was a Riyadh-led compromise, which Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi oil minister, called “a Saudi lollipop” that is meant to sweeten prices for oil traders. Though the cut is meant only for July, it could be extended.

Persons: Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Organizations: United, United Arab Emirates Locations: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, OPEC, United Arab, Saudi

What to watch in today’s jobs reportMarket futures are looking up today after the Senate approved the bipartisan debt limit deal, averting a national fiscal crisis. All eyes will be on the May jobs report. Hiring has slowed in recent months, but the unemployment rate still stands at a 53-year low despite a wave of layoffs in the technology, media and financial sectors. Analysts say the labor market over all appears to be returning to its prepandemic state. “The Great Resignation is over, with quits and hiring slowing dramatically and layoffs higher than the last few years of the 2010s,” Bill Adams, the chief economist at Comerica Bank, wrote to clients.

Persons: ” Bill Adams Organizations: Analysts, Comerica Bank Locations: U.S

The debt deal clears the HouseThe debt-ceiling deal is a step closer to becoming law after its breezy passage in the House last night, making the prospect of a U.S. default all the more remote. Investors expressed relief, sending global markets and U.S. stock futures higher this morning. The bill now heads to a final vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The House vote was always seen as riskier, but the bill’s passage in the upper house is by no means a fait accompli. And some fiscal hawks in his party see the deal as a betrayal.

Persons: Rand Paul, Bernie Sanders, Biden’s, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, McCarthy, Jim Jordan of Organizations: Democratic, Republican, The Times, Republicans Locations: U.S, Kentucky, Vermont, Jim Jordan of Ohio

Climate investors aren’t expecting a triumphant repeat of what happened two years ago, when Engine No. 1, a San Francisco-based activist hedge fund, stunned the corporate world by landing three of its eco-conscious nominees on Exxon’s board. Mark van Baal, founder of the activist shareholder group Follow This, was more blunt. The hedge fund, he said, was “the biggest disappointment in the fight against climate change.”Engine No. But critics say that green investments are still a tiny percentage of Exxon’s spending, and that the company remains committed to fossil fuels.

Persons: aren’t, DealBook, Vivienne Walt, ”, Mark Kramer, “, Danielle Fugere, Mark van Baal Organizations: Exxon, Legal, General Investment Management, Harvard Business School Locations: San Francisco, Berkeley, Calif, Texas, New Mexico

The annual shareholder meetings of Exxon Mobil and Chevron, scheduled for Wednesday, are set to be largely sedate, as they will be held virtually. Despite the drama, however, climate-focused shareholder activists are being forced to rethink their approach, two years after the tiny hedge fund Engine No. 1 won a stunning victory over Exxon, Vivienne Walt writes for DealBook. Activists have failed to win more than 50 percent in many key proxy votes since then. And it comes despite major investors backing shareholder activists’ efforts: Norway’s $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund, for instance, has pledged to side with them on climate issues on the ballot at Exxon and Chevron.

ImageFamily dramaHBO will release its last episode of “Succession” on Sunday. The fictional Roy family in “Succession” bears an uncanny resemblance to the Murdoch family. On the other was Wellington’s nephew, Tim Mara. Show credits could feature the Venetian blind that reportedly divided their stadium luxury suites at the height of their tension. The series would end in 1995 when Tim Mara, lacking any other recourse, sold his stake in the team.

A debt deal is in sightInvestors are holding their breath on Friday morning, amid signs that the White House and top House Republicans are closing in on a deal to raise the debt limit and avert a government default. According to reports, a compromise could come as soon as Friday, paving the way for Congress to vote as soon as Tuesday. Negotiators have narrowed their differences and are just $70 billion in spending cuts away from a deal, according to Reuters. In a win for Republicans, Congress would take back $10 billion of the $80 billion it had allocated to the I.R.S. On the left, Representative Pramila Jayapal, the Washington Democrat who leads the 101-member House Progressive Caucus, predicted “a huge backlash” if the White House caved to Republican demands.

☆ Lazard Names Peter Orszag to Succeed Ken Jacobs as C.E.O.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Lazard announced on Friday that Peter Orszag, who leads its core financial advisory business, will succeed Ken Jacobs as the company’s chief executive on Oct. 1. Mr. Jacobs will stay on as executive chairman and continue to advise clients. Mr. Orszag, a former Obama administration official, will oversee a 175-year-old financial institution with a long history of advising on major corporate deals at a time when its mainstay business faces huge challenges. “Over his career spanning both banking and government, Peter has proven to be a strategic, visionary and decisive leader, with deep relationships across the industry and the ability to effectively lead Lazard through evolving global markets and complex geopolitical dynamics,” Richard Parsons, the firm’s lead independent director, said in a statement. Lazard did not say when its succession planning began, but Mr. Orszag, 54, wrote in a memo to employees on Friday that the move followed a “selection process that has been in the works for quite some time.”

Jamie Dimon in the spotlightJPMorgan Chase will hold its investor day on Monday after one of the busiest starts to a year that the bank has had in some time. But while Jamie Dimon, the bank’s C.E.O. JPMorgan is riding high, having recently agreed to buy First Republic, the latest of its deals to bail out a struggling lender. The bank most likely can’t buy any more lenders, amid anger in Washington over how it was allowed to purchase First Republic. Mr. Dimon and his team are expected to argue that there’s still plenty of room to grow, including by expanding its wealth-management business.

An economic setback on the eve of a presidential runAfter months of anticipation, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is expected to formally declare his candidacy for president next week, officially taking on Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. DeSantis dismissed Trump’s chances for victory. During the call, he said that just “two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and me.” Mr. DeSantis also ticked off his list of legislative accomplishments. He undoubtedly is on strong financial footing, with more than $80 million expected to be transferred from his state account to his Super PAC, which has already raised more than $30 million.

A clash of private equity titansIn most years, the $2.7 billion takeover of a German software company wouldn’t attract much attention. Silver Lake on Wednesday kicked off a tender offer for Software AG shares, at 32 euros ($34.60) a share. Together with a 5 percent stake that the firm acquired in the open market, Silver Lake owns about 30 percent of the German company. (That campaign led Silver Lake to increase its takeover bid from €30 a share.) It is rare to see private equity firms, which generally seek friendly deals, pursuing an unsolicited takeover offer that management has opposed.

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