Hello, this week brings lots of big developments, let's dive in.The big hike: The Federal Reserve and European Central Bank are both expected to raise rates by 25 basis points this week amid continued signs that the worst inflation crisis in decades is easing. Traders will focus on any signals that more hikes are coming or it’s time to pause. The Bank of Japan will also meet, but if you’re betting on a Kuroda-style surprise tweak to the yield-curve from the new governor, you may be disappointed.
The big earnings: US stocks are approaching a record high and the outlook for Corporate America is only expected to brighten. Now investors are waiting to see if the Federal Reserve derails the market’s bull run. Against this backdrop, Alphabet, Meta and Intel could this week shed more light on how AI is upending the tech industry, while Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Ford and P&G will provide a read on the health of the consumer.
The big bloc: As the 2024 presidential race heats up, one group of voters is becoming increasingly important. Latinos, especially first-time voters, have been loosening their traditional ties to Democrats, even though polls suggest that doesn’t automatically translate into Republican gains. Many undecided Latino voters view both parties as falling flat in delivering on key values such as the economy and crime, polls indicate. And their often relatively short lineage in the US means political allegiances are more fluid, strategists say.
The big vote: Spaniards are holding elections Sunday in the summer heat, with the conservative opposition as clear frontrunners but likely needing the far right to govern. Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the opposition leader, is banking that voters are tired of five years of contentious gender policies and Madrid’s ties with regional separatists in Catalonia and the Basque Country—and that will help move him into the government’s Moncloa Palace.
The big hit: It’s official: the biggest movie star in the world right now is a perennially pink-clad plastic doll. Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie, raked in $155 million at the box office this weekend, making it the biggest opening of the year. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer took in $80.5 million, with an estimated 200,000-plus moviegoers buying tickets to see both new releases on the same day—a phenomenon now known as “Barbenheimer.”
ICYM our Big Take: In May 2022, an unusually virulent strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa—a rod-shaped bacterium a fraction of a millimeter long that can be lethal for the especially vulnerable—appeared for the first time in the US, in a hospital patient in Los Angeles. Over the summer three more local cases emerged. It wasn’t until eight months later that the CDC determined the culprit: over-the-counter eyedrops. Peter Robison and Priyanka Pulla track how a drugstore staple, made in an Indian factory and tainted with an antibiotic-resistant superbug, slipped past the FDA to blind and kill Americans.
And finally, imperfection is usually considered a negative, but is there something to be said for embracing “imperfectionism?” On the Switched On podcast, Dana Perkins talks to Charles Conn, the current chair of the Patagonia board, about his new book, The Imperfectionists: Strategic Mindsets for Uncertain Times, and what we can all learn from failure.