Business review from the Economist
Sears files for bankruptcy protection
Sears filed for bankruptcy protection following a long run of losses. The retailer, which revolutionized shopping in the late 19th century with its mail-order catalog and helped pioneer shopping malls in the mid-20th century, is to close a further 142 stores, including its Kmart brand. Over the years Sears steadily lost market share in the big-ticket goods that lured customers. It applied for Chapter 11 as the bills piled up from suppliers.
BlackRock's share price fell sharply after it released its quarterly earnings. Although net profit rose at the world's biggest asset manager, to $1.2 billion, BlackRock recorded its first net outflow of client funds since mid-2015. Most of the money was pulled by institutional investors amid a pricing war in the investment industry and disquiet in financial markets generally. The firm's total assets under management grew to $6.4 trillion.
Denmark's financial regulator rejected Danske Bank's choice for a new chief executive. The bank has become embroiled in a huge money-laundering scandal, which led to the resignation of the previous CEO. The regulator believes the next one should have more business experience.
The U.S. federal budget deficit amounted to $779 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, an increase of 17 percent from the previous year and the largest since 2012. That constituted 3.9 percent of GDP, up from 3.5 percent in 2017.
In Britain, wages, excluding bonuses, grew by 3.1 percent in the three months to August, the fastest pace since the financial crisis. The annual inflation rate dropped sharply to 2.4 percent in September, from 2.7 percent in August. Last year the growth in consumer prices outstripped that of wages, but pay started to pull ahead of inflation in February.
One of China's largest producers of vaccines, Changsheng Biotech, was fined 9.1 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) by the government in relation to faulty data on vaccines for rabies. It is the biggest penalty levied on a Chinese drug firm to date. Changsheng was fined earlier this year for distributing defective children's vaccines.
Under pressure to tackle the spread of fake news, Facebook removed more than 800 politics-related pages and accounts from its network because of "coordinated inauthentic behavior." It said the pages were removed for their owners' conduct, not content, but that didn't stop accusations of censorship.
Uber was reported to be firming up plans for an IPO within the next six months that could see it worth as much as $120 billion, a vastly higher valuation than estimates based on recent rounds of fundraising.
Netflix said that subscriber growth in the third quarter exceeded expectations, allaying fears about its shortfall in users in the second quarter. From July to September the video-streaming company gained an additional 5.9 million international customers and 1.1 million in the United States, bringing its global user base to 137 million viewers.
Global politics from the Economist
Pompeo meets Saudi king, crown prince
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Saudi Arabia, where he met King Salman and his son, Muhammad bin Salman, the crown prince. Prince Muhammad is under scrutiny after the death of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say the journalist was murdered by a team of Saudis, several of whom have ties to the crown prince. Pompeo, who also visited Turkey, said the Saudis vowed to hold accountable anyone involved in wrongdoing.
Israeli jets struck 20 targets in the Gaza Strip after a house in southern Israel was hit by a rocket fired from the territory, which is controlled by Hamas, an Islamist group. Earlier Israel killed seven Palestinians, some of whom were trying to cross the border fence, amid protests on Gaza's side of the border.
The World Health Organization decided not to declare a public health emergency over an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo but said it remains concerned. The virus is thought to have killed 140 people out of 181 confirmed cases.
Emmanuel Macron reshuffled his cabinet, though he took his time about it following the resignation of a close ally. The French president appeared to have prevailed in a struggle with his prime minister and others who wanted to take the chance to shift the government to the left. His approval ratings are still dismal.
In India, M.J. Akbar resigned as a junior foreign minister amid multiple accusations of sexual harassment. He is the most high-profile figure so far to be caught up in the country's accelerating #MeToo movement.
