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Good afternoon. Here's what you should know today, Sept. 17: | |
- With student-loan repayments about to restart, people are getting stricter with their budgets
- Ukraine's troops face a race against time
- Neanderthal genes have been linked to serious Covid risk
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 | | Apple is the largest company in the S&P 500 by market value. PHOTO: VICTOR J. BLUE/BLOOMBERG NEWS | | |
1. Fed policy could widen cracks in the tech trade. | |
| The markets are all but certain that officials at the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady at their September meeting this week, and there's a growing expectation (🔐read for free) that rates will stay higher for longer. That threatens to stifle tech stocks, as investors look with renewed skepticism at the kind of high valuations they were willing to accept when lower rates made the promise of future profits especially valuable. Across the pond, the Bank of England also faces an interest-rate call this week. It is expected to increase rates at least once more this year before cutting them next year. | |
2. Whatever the outcome of the UAW strike, Musk has already won. | |
| A few days into the United Auto Workers strike against the Detroit automakers, one thing is clear: Elon Musk has already won. From the get-go, GM, Ford and Chrysler parent Stellantis were expected to spend more on wages because of the union's pressure—the question is just how much more. Any wage increase further advances Tesla's already tremendous cost advantage in EVs over its older U.S. peers, which are contending with generations of legacy expenses while trying to steer a costly transition to electric from gas-powered vehicles. | |
| How UAW Tossed Its Old Playbook and Pursued a Surprise-Attack Strike Strategy (Read) The U.S. Lost 4.1 Million Days of Work Last Month to Strikes (Read) 🎧 'We'll Strike All Three': The UAW's Historic Walkout (Listen) | |
3. The coming restart of student-loan payments could divert up to $100 billion from Americans' pockets. | |
| Starting Oct. 1, tens of millions of student-loan borrowers will need to make payments averaging between $200 and $300 each month for the first time since since the Education Department instituted a pause in March 2020. While economists say the resumption of payments is a relatively small problem for the broader economy, some of the nation's largest retailers fear a spending slowdown as consumers' budgets get squeezed. | |
4. Kyiv's counteroffensive is taking on a new urgency. | |
| Ukrainian soldiers struggling to make headway against entrenched Russian troops face a race against time to make gains before the weather turns. Both sides are accustomed to biting cold, but bad weather could impede Ukraine's chance of exploiting an eventual breakthrough. While fighting continues, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to travel to the U.S. for the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York this week. He is then expected to continue on to Washington for meetings with President Biden and U.S. lawmakers as he pushes for additional aid for his war-torn country. | |
5. Instacart's IPO is an expensive lesson for venture firms. | |
| The grocery-delivery company, which is scheduled to set its IPO price on Monday, is targeting a valuation of as much as $10 billion—sharply lower than the $39 billion it reached at the peak of the startup funding frenzy two years ago. While those who invested early still stand to make a lot of money, later investors are facing significant paper losses. This outlines a sobering new reality for venture capitalists: The billions of dollars they poured into late-stage startups during the era of cheap money could leave them with losses even as the most promising companies in their portfolios go public. | |
| Arm IPO Excites Wall Street, but Challenges Loom (Read) | |
6. Two Wisconsin clinics are resuming abortion services. | |
| Abortion in the Midwestern state has been in legal limbo for more than a year. Planned Parenthood halted abortion services there after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, citing confusion over whether a more than 170-year-old state law banning most abortions could be enforced. That will change Monday, when Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin resumes abortion services at two clinics in Milwaukee and Madison. The organization is leaning on a July ruling from a Dane County Circuit Court judge who said the 1849 act doesn't apply to consensual abortions. The clinics operate in counties where district attorneys have said they wouldn't enforce the law. | |
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