What’s Up? (Oct. 2-8)
Twitter Deal Back on the Table
Days before he was supposed to be deposed in court regarding his bid to acquire Twitter, Elon Musk changed course once again. This time, it was to return to his initial proposition: buying Twitter at $54.20 a share. He had been trying for months to back out of the $44 billion deal, accusing Twitter of misleading him about the number of spam accounts on its platform. The dispute was set to be litigated in Delaware Chancery Court this month and promised to be a messy affair for both sides. More than a hundred subpoenas had dragged Silicon Valley’s elite into the litigation, and text messages sent among Mr. Musk and his friends and business associates emerged this month, revealing a clash between the billionaire and Twitter’s leadership. But the tumult is not over. The judge overseeing the case granted a request from Mr. Musk’s lawyers to delay the Delaware trial, giving him three weeks to complete the purchase, and, as with all things Musk, the situation could become more complicated still.
A Resilient but Slowing Job Market
As with August’s jobs report, last week’s numbers captured two seemingly contradictory ideas. On the one hand, the 263,000 jobs that employers added in September show that the labor market remains strong, despite higher borrowing costs. At the same time, that number is down from the 315,000 jobs added the month before, suggesting that there has been some cooling off. The Federal Reserve, which is trying to curb job growth to tame inflation, may see it this way: The job market is slowing but not by enough. Wage growth in September, with average hourly earnings climbing 5 percent, is also likely to encourage the Fed to stay the course in raising interest rates.
A Cut in Oil Production
A group of oil producers, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday announced plans to cut production by two million barrels a day. The cut, which represents about 2 percent of the world’s oil production, countered efforts by the United States and Europe to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine — including by capping the price of Russian oil. Analysts say the large cut by OPEC Plus will push up oil prices, helping Russia offset the steep discounts it has had to give to sell its oil. In response, the Biden administration, which had been pushing for an increase in production to ease gasoline prices, said the president would direct the Energy Department to release 10 million additional barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in November. President Biden said on Thursday that he would also be “looking at alternatives” to oil from OPEC Plus producers.
What’s Next? (Oct. 9-15)
A Boost for Retirees
The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for Social Security will be released on Thursday, and it’s expected to be the largest inflation adjustment in four decades. The jump is likely to be about 8.7 percent, closely tracking the government’s figures for the rate of inflation. More than 70 million Americans on Social Security will benefit from this increase, which is intended to ease the impact of rapidly rising prices. But not every recipient will feel the effects of the COLA equally. The rate of inflation can vary depending on where one lives. It can also affect retirees as a group differently, because they tend to spend more on health care and housing, and less on food and transportation. This has led to some criticism over the use of inflation data that affects workers, and not retirees, for the COLA.
