Financial Daily Dose 3.8.2021 | Top Story: Senate Passes $1.9 Trillion Covid Relief Bill

The Senate passed its version of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid stimulus bill this weekend “after a grueling 27-hour session” that featured “the longest vote in modern Senate history.” The legislation now heads back to the House for a final vote (expected on Tuesday) before heading to the President’s desk for his signature later this week- NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and HuffPost

An assessment of what it could mean for you - NYTimes

Cybersecurity reported Brian Krebs revealed this weekend that an “aggressive hacking campaign that was probably sponsored by the Chinese government” since January “hit at least 30,000 Microsoft customers.” The hack targeted businesses and government agencies that use a Microsoft email service – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

Out in the physical world, Saudi oil terminals were attacked over the weekend—apparently by drone—which helped push oil up over $70/barrel, the “highest since January 2020” - Bloomberg

Friday’s jobs report outperformed expectations as the U.S. added 379,000 new jobs in February, but the ranks of the long-term unemployed continues to grow - Marketplace

GE CEO Larry Culp is shepherding the company towards another agreement that would shrink its imprint, this time a “$30 billion-plus deal to combine its aircraft-leasing business with Ireland’s AerCap Holdings.” That unit—known as Gecas—is the “biggest remaining piece of GE Capital, a once-sprawling lending operation that rivaled the biggest U.S. banks but nearly sank the company during the 2008 financial crisis” - WSJ and Bloomberg

Global shipping was always something of a delicate dance, but the pandemic has “thrown off the choreography of moving cargo from one continent to another”—“driving up the cost of shipping goods and adding a fresh challenge to the global economic recovery.” Let the Times explain - NYTimes

He doesn’t have the cache of, say, Elon Musk, but as the Journal tells it, when Social  Capital Holdings Inc. founder (and former Facebook exec) Chamath Palihapitiya speaks (or tweets, more like it), “Wall Street and Reddit listen” - WSJ

And while we’re talking influencers, SDNY prosecutors have indicted antivirus software innovator John McAfee “on fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges for fraudulently touting various cryptocurrencies on Twitter to further two separate schemes” – Law360

Teen Vogue has chosen Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond as its next editor-in-chief. McCammond replaces Lindsay Peoples Wagner, who was named the head of NY Mag’s The Cut website in January after 3 years at Teen Vogue - NYTimes

Staying on the Greensill case, including new revelations that the company used Credit Suisse’s “now-curtailed supply-chain funds to make a $350 million loan to one of the start-up’s biggest outside backers, private-equity firm General Atlantic” - WSJ

Some inside baseball on South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang’s coming IPO, including why it chose to go public in U.S. markets (and confirm America’s place as the “destination of choice for mega tech initial public offerings”) - Bloomberg

Floating ships off the British coast? No, not really. But definitely worth a second look - NYTimes

Stay safe,
MDR