Lithium giant abandons $4.2 billion takeover

Upcoming Week:

• Tuesday: The U.S. Census Bureau will issue data on national retail sales for September, gauging the strength of the U.S. consumer's spending. We’ll also get the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Housing Market Index for October, which tracks sentiment among executives in the homebuilding industry.
  

• Wednesday: More housing market data to come with building permits, housing starts and an update on the 30-year mortgage rate.
  

• Thursday: Fed Chair Jerome Powell will speak before the Economic Club of New York, just before the U.S. central bank's blackout period begins ahead of its next interest-rate decision.

Notable Earnings:

• Monday: Charles Schwab (SCHW) & Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS)

• Tuesday: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Bank of America (BAC), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Goldman Sachs (GS), Prologis (PLD), Bank of New York Mellon (BK), J.B. Hunt (JBHT), Ericsson (ERIC), United Airlines (UAL), & Albertsons (ACI)

• Wednesday: Tesla (TSLA), Procter & Gamble (PG), Abbott Labs(ABT), Netflix (NFLX), SAP (SAP), Morgan Stanley (MS), U.S. Bancorp (USB), & Kinder Morgan (KMI)

• Thursday: TSMC (TSM), Philip Morris (PM), Union Pacific (UNP), AT&T (T), Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), Marsh & McLennan (MMC), Blackstone (BX), CSX (CSX), Freeport-McMoran (FCX), and Truist Financial (TFC)

• Friday: American Express (AXP) & Schlumberger (SLB)

• America's oil paradox: United States domestic oil production hit an all-time high last week, contrasting with efforts to slice heat-trapping carbon emissions by the Biden administration and world leaders (AP)
  

• Lithium bet scuttled by Australia’s richest person: Albemarle (ALB) the world’s largest lithium producer, has walked away from its $4.2 billion takeover of Australian miner Liontown Resources (LTR) (Reuters)
  

• Game on: Microsoft (MSFT) formally closed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard on Friday morning, after finally winning the approval of the U.K.'s main antitrust regulator (Bloomberg)
  

• Banks beat; but warn of rocky road ahead: JPMorgan (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Citigroup (C) all reported third-quarter earnings that exceeded consensus market forecasts on Friday; but they also all cautioned that challenges loom, and pockets of their businesses are exhibiting signs of stress (Investopedia)
  

• Banks' best year since '07: The world's banks earned $1.3 trillion in 2022, in "the best period for global banking overall since at least 2007," per a new report. The estimate for 2023 profits, at $1.4 trillion, is even higher. (McKinsey & Company)
  

• DG’s old boss back at the helm: Dollar General's (DG) former CEO Todd Vasos is coming out of retirement to run the company, which aims to rebound from slowing growth and allegations of unsafe working conditions; Share prices spiked ~10% on the news (CNBC)
  

• Americans are piling on credit-card debt: Overall credit-card loans surged at banks last quarter, indicating that borrowers are carrying over bigger balances each month. Loans jumped around 16% at JPMorgan and 11% at Citigroup. They were up 14% at Wells Fargo. (WSJ)
  

• Netflix takes a page from Disney: Netflix (NFLX) is planning to launch new retail destinations — dubbed Netflix House — that will offer not only things to buy but also food and other experiences themed after whatever is hot on Netflix at the moment (The Verge)
  

• Healthcare strike over (for now): Unions representing 85,000 health care workers have reached a tentative agreement with industry giant Kaiser Permanente following a strike over wages and staffing levels (AP)
  

• Activist takes on WSJ parent: Starboard Value has built a stake in News Corp (NWSA) and plans to push for strategic and governance changes at the WSJ parent. (WSJ)

• Extraordinary costs of green energy creeping slowly into public awareness (Manhattan Contrarian)

• Finding hidden gem investments in Bhutan (Opus Letter)

• OnlyFans CEO weighs in on going public (Axios)

• Scientists just drafted an incredibly detailed map of the human brain. (MIT Technology Review)

• Two significant energy events that got no air time (Trader Ferg)

• NASA spacecraft launched to mysterious and rare metal asteroid in first mission of its kind (Phys)

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