Financial Daily Dose 10.15.2021 | Top Story: LinkedIn Shuts Down Site Access in China

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is shuttering its grand experiment in the Chinese marketplace, citing “a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirement.” The pull out “completes the fracture between American social networks and China,” as LinkedIn was the last major American social networking site allowed behind the Great Firewall. Microsoft will release a China-specific version of the site (jobs only) in coming months - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

Stocks roared back on Thursday, with the S&P 500 rising 1.7% - its best day since “early march, as a broad-based surge in share price of materials, tech and health care companies lifted the index.” Strong big bank and health company earnings put markets in a good mood early on the day, and all three indices rode it through to the closing bell - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

More good news for the economy: economists expect U.S. retail sales to remain strong (so far, at least) despite a mix of supply shortages and rising prices - WSJ

A federal grand jury has indicted former Boeing test pilot Mark Forkner “in connection with statements he and the company made about its troubled 737 Max jet, the culmination of a long investigation” - NYTimes and WSJ

The Journal helps us understand those incredible reports from earlier this week that a record 4.3 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs in August by tracking down some of them to figure out just where they went - WSJ

In as sure a sign as any that America’s taking a different tack in international trade, U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai affirmed the Biden Administration’s “commitment to supporting the World Trade Organization in a speech in Geneva on Thursday.” Tai wasn’t shy about the WTO’s shortcomings in her comments, but she also stressed that the organization has “a crucial role to play in steering countries through the pandemic and confronting challenges like rising inequality and climate change” - NYTimes

The Johnson & Johnson affiliate holding talc-related liabilities has filed for Chapter 11 protection, a move that places into bankruptcy the tens of thousands of legal claims against the company “linking talc-based products to company” in hopes of driving “a settlement of personal-injury claims that are expected to grow for decades to come” - WSJ

No surprise here — Amazon’s is appealing the record $865 million EU penalty over alleged GDPR violations. Amazon argues that it “collects data to improve the customer experience, and sets guidelines governing what employees can do with it” - Bloomberg

Activist investor group Jana Partners has taken a stake in storied retailer Macy’s Inc. and has wasted no time in pushing the company to “spin off its fast-growing e-commerce business” - WSJ

More on our NHiTSA/Tesla item from yesterday, including what Tesla risks by updating its Autopilot software without issuing a recall of the defective original software - Bloomberg

The latest dispatch from the Holmes fraud trial features more lab director testimony and questioning for a former Walgreens Boots exec about the scope of the company’s planned relationship with Theranos - WSJ and Marketplace

This one’s a special edition for my buddy Tommy B. and his fellow sneakerheads: how bots have destroyed the average fan’s shot at limited edition sneaks, and what, if anything, companies can do to level the playing field for the non-programmed - NYTimes

Stay safe, get vaxxed, and have a great weekend,

MDR