Financial Daily Dose 11.19.2020 | Top Story: FAA Clears Boeing’s Troubled 737 Max to Return to Skies

The FAA has once again given Boeing the green light to send its troubled 737 Max models into the sky, “20 months after it was grounded following two fatal crashes blamed on faulty software and a host of company and government failures.” Other aviation regulators around the world are expected to follow the FAA’s lead in coming weeks - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and Marketplace and NPR

Stocks slipped on Wednesday “as mounting coronavirus restrictions forced more parts of the country to impose restrictions meant to fight the spread of the virus” - WSJ

Meanwhile, Wall Street firms—starting with Goldman—are embarking on job cuts again after 6 months of pandemic-induced guaranteed job security - Bloomberg

Apple will fork over $113 million to a collection of 33 states and the District of Columbia to resolve an action accusing the company of deliberately throttling (or reducing the performance of) “certain iPhone models starting in 2016 in response to a battery issue that it concealed from consumers” – Law360 and NPR and NYTimes

Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands has enlisted Wachtell Lipton to initiate a second internal inquiry into the uncomfortably close ties between L Brand founder Les Wexner and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, this after a probe initiated over a year ago by Davis Polk has languished (amidst shareholder allegations that Davis Polk is too close to L Brands to be independent) - NYTimes

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who’s overseeing the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Google, is pushing both sides to “hammer out a schedule” before the holidays “so Google and the government could begin the process of legal discovery” - WSJ

As if the moral case isn’t persuasive enough, consider the economic arguments, with new findings showing that “discrimination inflicts a staggering cost on the entire economy, reducing the wealth and income of millions of people, including many who do not customarily view themselves as victims” - NYTimes

Target’s Q3 numbers show a still-ascendant retailer, with comparable sales rising nearly 21%, aided by soaring online figures - WSJ

A U.S. tax court has agreed with IRS charges that between 2007-2009, Coca-Cola Co. “placed too much of its profit in its foreign operations instead of its higher-taxed domestic parent company.” The effect? Some $3.3 billion in lost U.S. taxes - WSJ

2020’s enforcement actions against public companies hit a 6-year low for outgoing director Jay Clayton and the SEC. The pandemic appears to be at least partly responsible for the low total, as the agency “filed 3 or fewer actions per month in March, April and May” – Law360

Big time (and frankly, overdue) news from MLB, with Kim Ng taking charge at the Marlins as the first female General Manager in history. Here’s how she arrived at the glass ceiling before breaking through it - NYTimes

Stay safe,
MDR

The FAA has once again given Boeing the green light to send its troubled 737 Max models into the sky, “20 months after it was grounded following two fatal crashes blamed on faulty software and a host of company and government failures.” Other aviation regulators around the world are expected to follow the FAA’s lead in coming weeks - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and Marketplace and NPR

Stocks slipped on Wednesday “as mounting coronavirus restrictions forced more parts of the country to impose restrictions meant to fight the spread of the virus” - WSJ

Meanwhile, Wall Street firms—starting with Goldman—are embarking on job cuts again after 6 months of pandemic-induced guaranteed job security - Bloomberg

Apple will fork over $113 million to a collection of 33 states and the District of Columbia to resolve an action accusing the company of deliberately throttling (or reducing the performance of) “certain iPhone models starting in 2016 in response to a battery issue that it concealed from consumers” – Law360 and NPR and NYTimes

Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands has enlisted Wachtell Lipton to initiate a second internal inquiry into the uncomfortably close ties between L Brand founder Les Wexner and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, this after a probe initiated over a year ago by Davis Polk has languished (amidst shareholder allegations that Davis Polk is too close to L Brands to be independent) - NYTimes

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who’s overseeing the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Google, is pushing both sides to “hammer out a schedule” before the holidays “so Google and the government could begin the process of legal discovery” - WSJ

As if the moral case isn’t persuasive enough, consider the economic arguments, with new findings showing that “discrimination inflicts a staggering cost on the entire economy, reducing the wealth and income of millions of people, including many who do not customarily view themselves as victims” - NYTimes

Target’s Q3 numbers show a still-ascendant retailer, with comparable sales rising nearly 21%, aided by soaring online figures - WSJ

A U.S. tax court has agreed with IRS charges that between 2007-2009, Coca-Cola Co. “placed too much of its profit in its foreign operations instead of its higher-taxed domestic parent company.” The effect? Some $3.3 billion in lost U.S. taxes - WSJ

2020’s enforcement actions against public companies hit a 6-year low for outgoing director Jay Clayton and the SEC. The pandemic appears to be at least partly responsible for the low total, as the agency “filed 3 or fewer actions per month in March, April and May” – Law360

Big time (and frankly, overdue) news from MLB, with Kim Ng taking charge at the Marlins as the first female General Manager in history. Here’s how she arrived at the glass ceiling before breaking through it - NYTimes

Stay safe,
MDR