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Trade talks between the EU and Australia collapsed. A deal, which was being negotiated on the sidelines of the G7 trade ministers’ meeting in Japan, was held up by agricultural demands. G7 leaders also called for an immediate lift of import bans on Japan’s seafood.
Israel’s economy is heading toward an 11% downturn. The estimate from JPMorgan Chase is among the most pessimistic since Israel’s war with Hamas began.
Argentina will ban oil exports starting Wednesday if its supply chain doesn’t improve. Shortages, caused by an increase in demand and uncertainty around who will be the country’s next president, are threatening stock.
Stellantis and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement. The Jeep/Chrysler maker and unionizers came to a preliminary deal after six weeks of strikes in the US.
Mattel stock’s Barbie gains have been wiped out
Mattel’s Barbie bump has lost its bright pink shimmer.
On the back of this summer’s billion-dollar blockbuster, the toymaker saw revived interest in the iconic doll, with at least $125 million in expected sales related to the film. Movie madness didn’t just help Mattel—the new Transformers movie propelled sales of related toys at Hasbro, which were “up 30% year over year and, during the movie window, [were] up over 90%,” CEO Chris Cocks said last week.
But not all that glimmers plastic is gold, and ’tis the season for some sobering toy sales. With both companies predicting lackluster holidays, it’s unlikely that the breakout Barbie and Transformer product lines will be enough to light up Christmas.
Quotable: A 70-hour workweek should be the exception, not the rule
“Seventy-hour workweek, as a rule, is crap. Has only led to burnout for me/my team in the past. Ultimately execution, relationships suffered. Exceptions are fine: When there is a deadline or backlog that needs to be cleared once in a while—with a nice break later. But not as a culture.” —Mahavir Chopra, the founder of Indian insurance tech platform Beshak.
He was responding to calls from two of India’s top tech leaders—Infosys founder N. R. Narayana Murthy and Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal—for young workers to put in 15-hour days.
Big Bank leadership is approaching a generational shift
James Gorman’s departure from the top spot at Morgan Stanley marks a generational sweep through big banks’ C-suite as younger, post-global financial crisis executives take the reins.
There’s still one fiery CEO who, up until now, hasn’t seemed to be going anywhere: JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, who famously hasn’t answered succession queries concretely (and seems to have no intention of doing so). But after selling $140 million in shares, tea-leaf readers are wondering if the 67-year-old banking executive is priming for retirement.
How does Dimon’s 18-year tenure stack up against other finance CEOs’s?
52: Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway
38: Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone
28: Richard Fairbank of Capital One
10: William Demchak of PNC Bank
10: Bruce Van Saun of Citizens Bank
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Surprising discoveries
Boston Dynamics made four-legged tour guide robots with different personalities. Our favorite is Josh, who’s really sarcastic.
Sea otter 841 is now 841+1. The surfboard stealer has a pup to carry on the family swiping business.
Would you pay $5,000 for a jacket dyed by bacteria? Each has a pattern that’s one-of-a-kind, based on how the microbes interact with the fabric.
And would you eat at Thai Food Near Me? Chances are you’ve searched for it on Google, like an average of a million Americans do each month.
A New Zealand city is being inundated with Céline Dion. The artist’s songs are being blasted from loudspeakers attached to the top of cars, and people are getting sick of it.
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