Musk Blocks X in Brazil, China Unveils New EV, Chipmakers Drag Asian Stocks Lower

Musk’s Starlink Backs Down, Agrees to Block X in Brazil - Bloomberg

• Elon Musk's satellite internet provider Starlink has agreed to comply with an order by Brazil's top court to block access to X, the billionaire's social network.

• Starlink had informally told Anatel that it wouldn't comply with the requirement, but has since reversed course and said it is complying with the order.

• The dispute between Musk and Brazil has escalated after X failed to pay fines and the court blocked Starlink's bank accounts.

China’s Geely Unveils Compact EV to Challenge BYD’s Seagull - Bloomberg

• Geely Automobile Holdings has unveiled its first compact electric vehicle, the Xingyuan, to challenge BYD Co. in the entry-level segment in China. The car targets young, first-time car buyers and has a spacious design for its size. It offers a touch-screen dashboard and wireless mobile charging, but is slightly bigger than the Seagull. Pricing and more specifications will be revealed later. Geely aims to position itself in an already crowded market and compete with other brands in the compact EV segment.

Chipmakers Drag Asian Stocks Lower on Renewed AI Valuation Worry - Bloomberg

• South Korean equities experienced their biggest decline since the Aug. 5 market meltdown.

• Memory chipmaker SK Hynix and larger peer Samsung Electronics Co. experienced significant losses.

KKR-Bain Bidding War Sends Fuji Soft Stock Soaring Above Offers - Bloomberg

• Bain Capital is proposing to buy out Fuji Soft at a higher price than its previous deal.

• This could lead to a rare public takeover battle in Japan.

DOJ Unveils Social Media Strategy to Combat Foreign Threats - Bloomberg

• The US Justice Department will not pressure social media companies to remove or block content when sharing information about foreign threats to national security or elections.

• The department unveiled policy principles to protect constitutional rights and ensure First Amendment rights are protected while exposing foreign threats on social media platforms

• US government agencies have been accused of abusing their powers and violating free speech when engaging with companies about foreign adversaries

• Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg renewed the controversy by alleging that Facebook was pressured to censor Covid-related content by the Biden administration

• Foreign actors are using social media to sow discord and undermine confidence in democratic institutions and values through covertly influencing and manipulating elections

• Justice and FBI officials will follow two prongs: real-time intelligence sharing about social media accounts or activity related to foreign threats and in-person voluntary meetings with the companies

• FBI employees will identify specific, credible, and articulable facts in reports to support high-confidence assessments of foreign malign influence threats.

Why It’s So Hard for China to Fix Its Ailing Economy - New York Times

• China's economy is facing a crisis unlike any it has experienced since it opened its economy to the world more than four decades ago

• Real estate collapse has made consumers cautious and businesses wary

• A surge in exports is helping fuel China's growth but undermining the profitability of key industries and drawing a backlash from trading partners

• The property sector is in crisis, leaving behind huge debts, failed investments, unsold apartments, and lost jobs

• Chinese consumers, already prone to saving heavily, have become even more frugal

• Businesses that endured the crippling impact of Covid measures have cut salaries and scaled back hiring

• Consumer spending, which Chinese authorities have identified as an important driver of growth, remains weak across the economy

• Foreign firms that once rushed into China to catch a rising tide are now retrenching

Can Democrats Stop the ‘Tax Doom Loop’? - New York Times

• Democrats are frustrated with the "tax doom loop" in US tax policy

• Republicans pass temporary tax cuts that Americans become used to owing less to the government

• Democrats join with Republicans to continue many of the cuts indefinitely, worsening inequality and ballooning deficits

• Progressive tax experts and activists are pushing for a middle-class tax hike to ensure the US brings in more tax revenue

• Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged to raise taxes on high-income Americans and corporations but wants to continue much of Trump's tax cut

• Democratic tax experts see a narrow path to redemption through politically palatable plans for increasing taxes on very high earners and large corporations

• The goal is to raise more than enough revenue to cover the costs of extending other tax cuts

• Roughly 98% of the population is politically off-limits for a tax increase.

Developers Use Art to Attract Tourists and Increase Property Values - New York Times

• Developers are increasingly incorporating art into urban projects to drive foot traffic and attract cultural cachet.

• The Indeed Tower in Austin, Texas has a suspended neon sculpture by Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans, while Miami Worldcenter has a sprawl of brightly colored artwork and sculptures in its multi-building complex.

• Emily Eisenhart, a mural artist who has produced murals in various cities, sees developers as her "patrons of the arts" and sees public art as an amenity for office employees and retailers. The presence of art in real estate developments drives traffic and engagement, according to a recent study by the University of Cincinnati. Artwork has been integrated into urban development for decades to stimulate economic recovery, but some builders pulled back due to local governments threatening to require them to put a percentage of their development budgets toward art projects. Now, developers are adorning their projects with art of all shapes and sizes as they look for ways to attract people who might want to shop, eat, live, or work in the area. A recent study found foot traffic in areas with murals and sculptures increased three times in Cincinnati neighborhoods without art displays.

When Property Investors Want Out, These Bargain Hunters Rush In - New York Times

• Investment firms are raising record sums for real estate secondary funds to buy assets from investors who can't otherwise exit.

• Investors are looking for bargains in real estate due to growing vacancies and high interest rates that have eroded property values

• Secondary funds exist to buy out private stakes that otherwise might be hard to sell at a substantial discount

• Goldman Sachs and StepStone have raised record amounts for their respective real estate secondaries

• The secondary market embodies Wall Street's impulse to profit on changing asset values, regardless of whether they are rising or falling

• Private real estate funds are difficult to sell, and investments in REITs and other funds typically lock in their backers for five years or more

• There are many opportunities for bargain hunters in a buyer-saturated market due to the pandemic and growing vacancies in office and retail buildings.

Kamala Harris Says U.S. Steel Should Stay American-Owned - New York Times

• Both major US presidential candidates, including Kamala Harris, oppose the proposed takeover of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel of Japan.

• The United Steelworkers union has called the $15 billion bid a potential threat to national security, citing the potential for foreign ownership of the American steel maker to pose a threat to security.

• Politicians, including President Biden and Donald Trump, have also joined the opposition to the takeover in the past eight months. - The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has been investigating the national security implications of the proposed acquisition, and the president has the final say in the case. n-Steel has sought to show that the merger would benefit both companies and their employees, and that discussions will continue beyond the November presidential election.

Brazilians flock to Bluesky after court bans Musk’s X - Financial Times

• Social media site Bluesky has gained almost 2mn new users in Brazil following the suspension of Elon Musk's X by the country's Supreme Court.

• The surge in users reflects the importance of social media in Brazil, where over 144mn people use at least one kind of platform and the nation frequently tops lists of countries that spend the most time online.

• Bluesky represents X's sixth-largest market and an important source of advertising revenue, with an estimated 20mn active users prior to the court order. The suspension of the site has divided opinion in Brazil with rightwing figures criticising it as an attack on free speech and leftwing politicians hailing it as a statement of national sovereignty.

Blackstone set to acquire Australian data centre business AirTrunk - Financial Times

• US private equity group Blackstone is set to acquire Sydney-based data centre business AirTrunk for $20bn (US$13.5bn) in a multibillion-dollar deal.

• The acquisition is expected to be the largest transaction in Australia this year and is in the final stages of talks with Macquarie's asset management arm.

• Blackstone has a $55bn portfolio of data centres and plans to invest billions more in "prospective pipeline development".

• Airtrunk is one of the region's fastest-growing technology companies and was considering a potential listing before the sale process kicked off. The sale price will include debt, and the deal has been competing against a rival consortium including Silver Lake and DigitalBridge.

How to keep it safe - Financial Times

• Bike locks face a less sophisticated threat from battery-operated angle grinders

• Hiplok launched the D1000, a D-lock made of Ferosafe that disintegrates the grinder disc

• The DX1000 is a larger version suitable for most bikes and can be paired with a similarly tough anchor

• Aqara U200+ Kit is a retrofitted smart system that automates the turning of an internal key or thumb turn barrel

• Blackvue DR970X-2CH LTE Plus dash cam is a budget option that provides the best possible proof of a traffic incident

• Smart systems can have wider appeal beyond geeks like the author

Bad movies prove profit can be a force for good in film - Financial Times

• Alien: Romulus is a story of corporate greed in Hollywood

• The Weyland-Yutani corporation lies to its own crew to study unknown creatures, resulting in all but one or two crew members dying horribly

• Hollywood studios often struggle with corporate greed, leading to poor quality and excessive spending

• Disney's recent struggles are due to well-aired difficulties at the top, including leadership succession and overspending on CGI and made-for-streaming shows

• Moneymaking has always been central to the TV business, but the age of costly film and TV also has lessons for the rest of the corporate world

• Focusing on costs and quality is key to making money in the entertainment industry

• TV programmes and films made these days badly miss the voice of someone trying to keep costs low and episodes to time

• Advertisers should welcome the arrival of advertising tiers to streamers provided they make shows with proper act breaks and plan for profits.

Regulators will always struggle to keep pace with AI development - Financial Times

-Legislators are taking a product safety approach to regulate artificial intelligence, with a focus on quantifying and addressing risks. The EU AI Act runs to 144 pages and includes a chapter for generative AI. The AI Act takes a risk profile approach, with restrictions on behavioural manipulation, social scoring, spam filters, and AI-enabled games. Financial services and other companies that use AI tools for creditworthiness or hiring staff fall into higher risk categories. Heavy use of contracts between those deploying AI and big tech providers is likely. Defining systemic risk is tricky, with computing power metrics being used to set thresholds and triggering extra obligations. The law is being phased in and may face further challenges as capabilities advance.

• AI power demand could stifle industry growth if rules remain behind the technological curve.

China's AI Engineers Are Secretly Accessing Banned Nvidia Chips - Wall Street Journal

• Chinese AI developers are using American chips like Nvidia H100 chips without importing them to China due to US export controls

• They are working with brokers to access computing power overseas, sometimes using techniques from the cryptocurrency world to mask their identity

• The tactic comes in response to U.S. export controls that have prevented Chinese companies from directly importing sought-after AI chips developed by US-based Nvidia

• Chinese users can still bring Nvidia's chips to China by tapping a network of gray-market sellers, but the process is cumbersome and can't supply all the needs of big users

• Decentralized platforms like Aw have emerged in the past two years to take advantage of slower activity in the cryptocurrency field and rent out computing power to AI developers

• Buyers and sellers of computing power use a smart contract to extend the anonymity of cryptocurrency to the contract itself, with both parties using blockchain technology

• Lawyers familiar with US sanctions say the middlemen connecting buyers and sellers aren't breaking any laws

• Nvidia complies with export controls and expects its partners to do the same.

In Retirement, There's Finally Time to Cherish the Past - Wall Street Journal

• Retirement can be difficult, but it can also set the stage for financial and psychological issues

• Stephen Kreider Yoder and his wife Karen are both 67 years old and dealing with retirement challenges

• They chronicle their experiences in a monthly column called Retirement Rookies

• Steve visited his hometown for the anniversary of a nonprofit his mother helped start

• He found classmates, old friends, and memories of his parents at a yellow-brick church

• The event tied him back to his rich childhood and relived common history with an old friend

• Back home in San Francisco, Steve opened boxes of memories and collected fabrics from childhood sewing projects to make a quilt with a book of memories.

China Needs More Factory Robots. Can It Build Its Own? - Wall Street Journal

• China is the world's largest market for industrial robots, installing more than half of all industrial robots globally in 2022.

• China's aging population and ambitions to move up the manufacturing value chain are driving demand for more automated factories, but its industrial robot penetration still lags behind advanced manufacturing economies.

• The factory-automation market has been in a downturn due to over-investment in sectors such as batteries and solar panels, but there have been signs of growth in orders for Chinese companies such as Fanuc. (

• Chinese companies are becoming a source of competition in the industrial robot market, with Shenzhen Inovance Technology and Estun Automation catching up with rapid gains in collaborative robots like cobots).

• Foreign companies still dominate some higher-end products, but China is a big enough market for both local and foreign automation providers to thrive there if the Chinese economy can recover.

Americans Are Really, Really Bullish on Stocks - Wall Street Journal

• Americans are bullish about the stock market and are placing bets on its continued rally.

• The S&P 500 has risen 18% this year, making it the most on record in data going back to 1952

• U.S. households have increased their stock allocations, accounting for around 42% of their total financial assets

• Investors are still feeling good about the market, with bullish sentiment hovering around its highest levels of the past year

• Some investors are cautious about market volatility and potential turbulence around the upcoming presidential election

• Small-cap funds have been a bright spot, drawing $12.7 billion of inflows in July, surpassing the prior monthly record set in November 2020

• A correction for the Nasdaq, defined as a drop of more than 10% from a recent high, lasted 11 trading days, the shortest such pullback since October 2011.

Japan Bank Shares Rise as 10-Year JGB Yield Hits Nearly One-Month High - Wall Street Journal

• Japanese bank stocks rose on Tuesday morning as the yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds reached a nearly one-month high.

• Rising interest rates have raised the prospect of improving profit margins for Japan’s banking sector.