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What’s
Eight Trapped in Cable Car Saved
Binance Faces
News
Legal Risks
Over Russia
Business & Finance

 Binance is helping Russians

move money abroad by han-
dling a substantial trade in ru-
bles, potentially adding to the BY ANGUS BERWICK continues to handle substan-
cryptocurrency company’s many AND PATRICIA KOWSMANN tial ruble trading volumes, ex-
legal problems in the U.S. A1 ternally compiled data show.
Binance is helping Russians Via layers of intermediaries,
 Thousands of Airbnb listings
move money abroad, poten- clients can turn funds at sanc-
in New York are vanishing from
tially adding to its sprawling tioned banks into balances at
the market ahead of a Sept. 5
legal problems in the U.S. Binance, while Binance also
deadline, when the city says it
The cryptocurrency giant, enables peer-to-peer trades of
will enforce rules on short-term
led by founder Changpeng rubles for digital tokens that
rentals more aggressively. A1
Zhao, joined many other major frequently involve banks that
 Microsoft agreed to forfeit international companies early are on Western blacklists,
cloud-streaming rights for Activi- last year in scaling back its company websites, user
sion games in much of the world business in Russia, one of its screenshots and messages in
to woo U.K. regulators, who have largest markets by trading official chat groups show.
rejected the tech giant’s pur- volume at the time. After Rus- “Binance follows the global
chase of the game maker. B1 sia invaded Ukraine, Binance sanctions rules and enforces
said it had stopped working sanctions on people, organiza-
 Hollywood studios and
there and was implementing tions, entities, and countries
streaming services said they
Western sanctions require- Please turn to page A4
made an offer to striking writers
ments. It restricted trading on
that includes concessions such
its platform in Russia.  Kyiv makes small gains in
as controls on the use of AI. B1
But Binance’s exchange southern push..................... A6
 The Teamsters ratified a
new five-year, $30 billion con-

How Hard Should

tract with UPS, ending the
prospects of a labor standoff
that could have been damag-
ing for supply chains. B3
 Traders are ramping up
their bets that the blockbuster
rally in Nvidia’s shares will ac-
The Fed Squeeze?
celerate after the chip manu-
facturer issues its earnings re-
port on Wednesday. B1 Strategy adopted to get inflation down to
 Dick’s and Macy’s shares 2% could have painful economic impact
traded sharply lower after the
retailers posted weaker earn-
ings and provided tepid fore- BY NICK TIMIRAOS tion running well above that
casts on consumer sales. B1 number, officials are still fo-
Much of the work lowering cused on whether to raise
 A new 1% tax on buybacks is
inflation is done: Amid the rates one more time this year.
starting to increase companies’
most aggressive series of in- But that is a relatively small
expected tax burdens, to the
terest rate increases in four consideration compared with
tune of over $3.5 billion in the
decades, it has fallen to 3.2% the bigger question of how
first half of 2023 among the
from 9.1%. long to keep rates at that high
largest U.S. public companies. B1
This good news presents level.
 Stocks edged lower after the Federal Reserve with a Fed officials could try to get
disappointing earnings re- new thorny question. How ag- to 2% quickly, such as by the
ports from retailers. The S&P gressive should it be in end of next year, by raising
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

500 declined 0.3%, while the squeezing out what’s left? rates higher and only slowly
Dow Industrials fell 0.5%. B11 Their decision holds major reducing them as the economy
implications for consumers, weakens. That would risk a
World-Wide the markets and the econ- sharper downturn and possi-
omy—and whether Fed Chair bly kill the chances of achiev-
Jerome Powell achieves a so- ing the soft landing.
 New single-family homes called soft landing that beats On the other hand, if
are shrinking as cost-con- inflation without causing a re- Please turn to page A10
strained buyers respond to cession.
soaring prices and builders HIGH-WIRE: In northern Pakistan, an army soldier lowers himself from a helicopter during a Officially, the Fed’s target  Dick’s, Macy’s warn on
look to cut costs, with the unit rescue mission to save eight people, including six children, stuck in a stranded cable car. A8 for inflation is 2%. With infla- consumer outlook.............. B1
size for new housing starts
down 10% since 2018. A1

Bye, Living Rooms, Bathtubs:

 Home sales declined in
July for the fourth time in Nursing Number of nursing homes in the U.S.,
change from a year earlier*
five months, extending one of
Homes The number of nursing

Homes Get Noticeably Smaller

the deepest housing-market 25 homes in the U.S. fell
slumps in recent memory. A2
 Thailand’s Parliament
Decline 0
by 97 through July 2023

picked real-estate tycoon

The U.S. has at –25
Srettha Thavisin as the next
least 600 fewer BY MAGGIE EASTLAND creasingly popular way to do clined in 2022. But starts for
prime minister, in a democratic
advance after nearly a decade
nursing homes –50 it. Smaller homes can help homes with fewer than three
of military-backed rule. A7
than it did six For many people in the cost-constrained buyers facing bedrooms increased 9.5% over
years ago, –75 U.S., homeownership might be high mortgage rates. They the same period, according to
 Ukrainian forces said they according to a Wall attainable only if they give up also boost the bottom line for a Zillow report.
seized the village of Robot- Street Journal –100 a dining room. builders who are contending Home sizes are shrinking
yne, taking another small analysis of federal Home prices are near record with spiraling labor and con- the most in some of the hotter
step in Kyiv’s efforts to cut data, even as the –125 highs, frustrating millions of struction costs. markets of previous years. The
through Russian defenses in American potential buyers who feel Since 2018, the average unit Seattle area, where the size of
southern Ukraine. A6 population 65 and priced out of the housing mar- size for new housing starts newly built homes is 18%
–150
 North Korea has resumed air
older is expected ket. Home builders are having decreased 10% nationally to smaller than it was five years
to increase to 81 2013 ’15 ’17 ’19 ’21 ’23 to find ways to make their 2,420 square feet, according to ago, tops the list. New homes
travel with China after a hiatus
million by 2040 *Based on the number of facilities with federal certification product more affordable to in- Livabl by Zonda, a listing plat- Please turn to page A2
of over three years, as Kim's re-
gime starts to restore connec-
from 56 million in numbers at year end. 2023 data are through July. crease their pool of customers. form for new construction
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
2020. A3 Shrinking the size of a new homes. Construction starts for  Home sales fall amid high
tions with the outside world. A7
single-family home is an in- new single-family homes de- rates, low supply............... A2
 A federal judge in Texas heard
arguments on whether to re-
move a buoy barrier the state put
on the Rio Grande to stop unau-
thorized border crossings. A2
Towns in Japan Woo Taxpayers
By Offering Thank-You Gifts
Tough New Regulations INSIDE
Buffet Airbnb in NYC
GABBY JONES/BLOOMBERG NEWS

 A witness against Trump in

the Mar-a-Lago documents case
recanted false testimony and has
implicated the former president,
special counsel Smith said. A3
 Eight GOP hopefuls are vying
to stand out at the first 2024
presidential debate Wednesday
in Milwaukee, which will be
marked by Trump’s absence. A4
 Hundreds of Afghan offi-
cials from the former govern-
ment have been subjected to
executions, torture or disap-
pearances under Taliban rule, a
U.N. investigation found. A8
CONTENTS
Arts in Review..... A13
Business News........B3
Crossword................ A14
Heard on Street....B12
Markets & Finance B11
Markets Digest...... B9
s 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
i i i
People get rewards for redirecting payments
BY ALLISON POHLE nies like Airbnb have long
to places they don’t live; mayor for a day? duked it out over short-term
Thousands of New York rental regulations. Hosts said
City Airbnb listings are van- this time feels different. Many
BY SYLVAN LEBRUN help rural places that were ishing from the market. are taking their properties off
losing population has de- Hosts are removing listings the market. Some are consider- BUSINESS & FINANCE
NUMAZU, Japan—In an ef- volved into a cutthroat battle in response to a city-man- ing whether they can afford to Microsoft makes ‘Call
fort to secure more tax reve- between municipalities dan- dated deadline, and Airbnb is live in their units without the
of Duty’ concession in
nue, this coastal city near Mt. gling gifts to attract enough blocking future dates for extra income. Guests are find-
push to win U.K.
Fuji is offering free welding taxes to maintain public ser- booking. Starting Sept. 5, city ing fewer options for short-
lessons. vices. officials said they would en- term rental stays after Sept. 5. approval. B1
Doesn’t sound fun? How “It’s just the truth that force rules on short-term City councils in Dallas, Phil-
about a Porsche people choose rentals more aggressively. adelphia and New Orleans have
test drive, some live where to donate Hosts of short-term rentals passed their own restrictions
koi or a large bun- based on the thank- need to register with the city on short-term rentals. The in-
Opinion................ A15-17 dle of toilet paper? you gifts,” said Ka- to continue providing stays dustry and travelers are watch-
Personal Journal A11-12
Property Report.... B6
Still not interested? zuya Misawa, a Nu- and can only do so if they ing New York City closely.
Sports.......................... A14 What about serving mazu government meet several requirements. Kareem Fahmy, a 46-year-
Technology.................... B4-5 as mayor for a day? official. “So with These include not renting out old director and playwright,
U.S. News.............. A2-5 Japan has a sys- that, we thought, an entire apartment or home, rents his two-bedroom Harlem
World News..........A6-8
tem that enables how do we differen- even if they own it. Hosts also apartment on Airbnb while
taxpayers to redi- Tax incentive? tiate ourselves from must be present during their traveling for work. Doing so, SPORTS
> rect some of their the other cities and guests’ short-term stays. he said, allowed him to leave The Yankees lag in last
local taxes to towns or cities towns? How do we win?” Airbnb has called the rules, a full-time job in physical
where they don’t live—and re- Almost nine million taxpay- which took effect earlier this therapy and pursue his artis-
place in the AL East,
ceive a gift or other token of ers took part in the system year, “a de facto ban on short- tic career. stuck with a roster of
gratitude in exchange. But last year, the most since it be- term rentals.” He said most visitors are aging veterans. A14
what began as an effort to Please turn to page A10 New York City and compa- Please turn to page A12
 .

A2 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

U.S. NEWS
Texas’ Border Barrier Is Challenged in Court
BY ADOLFO FLORES placed on the riverbed.
Last week, after a survey
AUSTIN, Texas—A federal by the International Boundary
judge heard arguments Tues- and Water Commission indi-
day on whether to remove a cated that nearly 80% of the
floating buoy barrier that buoy line was on Mexican
Texas officials installed on the land, Texas had excavators on
Rio Grande as part of an effort the Rio Grande reposition
to stop unauthorized border them.
crossings. Loren Flossman, lead con-
The Justice Department sultant on the international
had asked Judge David A. border for Cochrane, a secu-
Ezra, a Reagan appointee, to rity company specializing in
issue an injunction ordering barriers that installed the
Texas to remove the buoys buoys, maintained that the
and bar the state from deploy- system was always on the U.S.
ing any similar ones. Last side of the border.
month, the Justice Depart- Flossman, a recently retired
ment sued Texas Gov. Greg U.S. Customs and Border Pro-
Abbott after he refused to re- tection director, said it wasn’t
move the buoys, saying the possible for the buoys to move
Republican governor violated beyond the concrete anchors
the Rivers and Harbors Appro- they are tied to.
priation Act when he installed The governor and his sup-
the buoys along the U.S.-Mex- porters have argued that the
BOB DAEMMRICH/ZUMA PRESS

ico border without federal au- buoy system is designed to

thorization. save lives by directing immi-
Ezra said he was put on the grants to official border cross-
bench with support from ings instead of taking danger-
Democrats as well as Republi- ous routes into the U.S.
cans and will make a decision Studies by the federal Gov-
based solely on the facts of ernment Accountability Office
the case. Workers this week repositioned a 1,000-foot-long string of buoys in a shallow spot of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas. and the University of Ari-
“I am not going to engage zona’s Binational Migration
in, nor do I have an inclination decrease the ability to navi- U.S. and Mexico. At a press Hillary Quam, the State De- authorized immigration and Institute have found that beef-
to engage in, any type of polit- gate that portion of the Rio conference earlier this month, partment’s U.S.-Mexico border drugs such as fentanyl from il- ing up enforcement doesn’t
ical comments,” Ezra said. Grande. Mexican Foreign Secretary coordinator, testified Tuesday legally entering the U.S. Ab- deter border crossings and in-
In court documents, attor- The floating buoys were Alicia Bárcena said Mexico that the buoys could affect bott’s office didn’t respond to stead pushes migrants to find
neys for Texas said the state put in place as part of Ab- had issued two diplomatic agreements and coordination requests for comment for this other routes that tend to be
hadn’t violated the Rivers and bott’s effort to use state police notes to the U.S. demanding between the two nations on article. more remote and dangerous.
Harbors Act because the seg- and resources to stop immi- that the buoys be removed. future border issues. The floating barrier is Ezra asked attorneys for
ment of the river where the grants from crossing the bor- Abbott said in a news con- In court filings, Texas said about 1,000 feet long and Texas and the Justice Depart-
buoy system was deployed der without authorization. ference Monday that a U.S.- the buoy system was neces- made up of a series of con- ment to submit their closing
isn’t navigable, and that even The buoys resulted in diplo- Mexico treaty allowed for the sary because the federal gov- nected buoys tethered by arguments in writing to the
if it were, the barrier doesn’t matic concerns between the buoys in the Rio Grande. ernment had failed to stop un- chains to concrete blocks court by Friday at 4 p.m.

Home Sales Fall 2.2% Amid High Rates, Low Supply

BY WILL PARKER U.S. median existing-home U.S. existing-home sales, by ing-home price rose 1.9% in to Washington state this lowing month. Tim VanWing-
AND NICOLE FRIEDMAN price, change from a year region* July from a year earlier to month. They started house erden said he was surprised
earlier $406,700. It was the fourth hunting in Seattle in 2022 at how competitive the mar-
Home sales fell in July for time on record that this fig- and lost out on multiple of- ket remained. “We came in a
July 2023: +1.9%
the fourth time in five 30% 5 million units ure had risen over $400,000, fers to higher bidders. While little bit above asking.”
months, extending one of the NAR said. the market got less competi- Those who can stomach
deepest housing slumps in re- Economists surveyed by tive this year, prices came the higher cost of a home
cent memory. 4 West The Wall Street Journal had down less than they had loan might find more to like
20
Sales of existing homes, estimated sales of previously hoped. in the new construction mar-
the majority of purchases, de- 3
owned homes to fall 0.2% in “The number of bidders ket, where builders are bene-
creased 2.2% in July from the July. decreased,” Christopher fiting from a dearth of exist-
prior month to a seasonally 10 Though there are fewer Miller said, “and whoever was ing homes. Sales of newly
adjusted annual rate of 4.07 2 South home buyers now than a year left was still willing to pay built homes were well up in
million, the National Associa- ago, languid levels of supply the same prices.” The Millers June, compared with a year
tion of Realtors said Tuesday. 0 are keeping prices from fall- bought a two-bedroom house earlier, the Census Bureau
That was the slowest monthly 1 Midwest ing, when viewed annually. in Seattle in June. Then they said. Newly built homes have
sales pace since January and Home prices have risen much listed their Milwaukee house accounted for a higher share
the slowest July pace since faster than Americans’ in- in July, and accepted an offer of single-family homes for
2010. –10 0 Northeast comes since 2000, Yun said, the first weekend. sale this year than their his-
The combination of high 2010 '15 '20 July Jan. creating an affordability gap Most buyers will get no torical average.
mortgage rates, near-record 2022 ’23 that is also holding back help from mortgage interest Existing home sales fell the
*Seasonally adjusted at an annual rate
home prices and limited in- Note: July 2023 data is preliminary. sales. rates soon, after the average most month-over-month in
ventory has been suffocating Source: National Association of Realtors Total sales inventory stood rate for a 30-year fixed hit the Northeast, down 5.9%.
sales, which were down 16.6% at 1.11 million units in July, 7.09% last week, according to The only region where sales
from a year earlier in July. “Two factors are driving The Federal Reserve’s cam- down 14.6% from the same data from Freddie Mac. rose was in the West, where
With mortgage rates last current sales activity—inven- paign of raising interest rates month last year, NAR said. Tim and Ellen VanWing- they were up 2.7% from the
week rising back above 7% to tory availability and mortgage to curb inflation is putting Buyers who do pull the erden recently moved from previous month.
a two-decade high, sluggish rates,” said Lawrence Yun, upward pressure on mortgage trigger today can’t count on Lexington, Ky., to Louisville. News Corp, owner of the
home sales activity is ex- NAR’s chief economist. “Un- rates. And a limited supply of discounts. They locked in a 5.4% interest Journal, also operates Real-
pected to continue for a fortunately, both have been homes is keeping prices high. Christopher and Emily rate in May and closed on a tor.com under license from
while. unfavorable to buyers.” The national median exist- Miller moved from Wisconsin five-bedroom house the fol- NAR.

Houses Get in earlier this year, and de-

mand has been strong from
both entry-level buyers and
reau. Inflation-adjusted cost a
square foot increased about
2.5% on average between 2012

Noticeably empty-nesters.
Those two groups “are both
big demographics,” said Clint
and 2020. In both 2021 and
2022, it increased nearly 4%,
according to John Burns Re-

Smaller Mitchell, chief executive at

Estridge. “They kind of want
the same thing.”
search and Consulting.
Builders also boost activity
for other cost-saving methods,
In December, Brad and Ju- like starting home construc-
Continued from Page One lie Redman downsized from tion off-site and building more
in Charlotte, N.C., and San An- their more-than-7,000-square- attached homes.
tonio shrank by 14%, Livabl by foot custom-built home to a In Lexington, S.C., buyers
Zonda said. 3,400-square-foot semi-cus- are willing to share a wall
Most builders and archi- tom model in Westfield, Ind., with a neighbor when it saves
tects follow the same basic after their children left home. thousands of dollars and
playbook to produce tighter, Despite the smaller house makes homeownership more
more efficient living spaces. and yard in a denser neigh- attainable.
They are axing dining areas, borhood, the couple is happy Sonia Mendez, a real-estate
ESTRIDGE HOMES

bathtubs and separate living with the decision. agent in the area, said she has
rooms. Secondary bedrooms They gave up a formal din- seen builders increase con-
and loft spaces are shrinking ing area when they moved, struction of 1,500-to-1,700-
and sometimes disappearing. but their new eating area eas- square-foot townhomes.
At the same time, they are ily converts to space for enter- Estridge Homes recently launched a new neighborhood concept with detached homes 300 to “They are being bought just
increasing the size of multiuse taining guests. 500 square feet smaller and $50,000 to $75,000 cheaper than it typically builds. as fast as the single family
rooms like kitchens and great “We can use the same home,” Mendez said. “The
rooms. Shared spaces like space for more than one and townhomes, for example, a home increased 72% from make the overall price first-time home buyers are ex-
bunk rooms and jack-and-jill thing,” Julie Redman said. still range in price between February 2020 to May 2023, cheaper, but buyers are pay- cited. They don’t see a small
bathrooms, which are located Shrinking homes are also $400,000 and $800,000. according to an analysis by ing more a square foot, ac- home. They see it as a dream
between and shared by two beginning to reshape the fur- The share of new home John Burns Research and Con- cording to the U.S. Census Bu- come true.”
bedrooms, are on the rise. In niture market. projects priced below sulting that estimates monthly
some cases, the kitchen island Companies like Bob’s Dis- $400,000 has declined in payments, maintenance and
has become the only eating count Furniture are creating nearly every major home- other costs of ownership. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
area in the home. designs suited to tighter building metro since 2018, ac- And the smaller floor plans (USPS 664-880) (Eastern Edition ISSN 0099-9660)
(Central Edition ISSN 1092-0935) (Western Edition ISSN 0193-2241)
Estridge Homes, a semi- spaces. Demand has increased cording to Livabl by Zonda. usually mean buyers are get-
Editorial and publication headquarters: 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10036
custom new-home builder that for items with several func- For entry-level buyers across ting less space for their dol-
operates near Indianapolis, re- tions, from kitchen islands the nation, the cost of owning lar. Lower list prices might Published daily except Sundays and general legal holidays.
Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and other mailing offices.
cently launched a new neigh- with drawers and wine racks
Postmaster: Send address changes to The Wall Street Journal,

CORRECTIONS  AMPLIFICATIONS
borhood concept with de- to sleeper sofas and smaller, 200 Burnett Rd., Chicopee, MA 01020.
tached homes 300 to 500 drop-leaf dining tables, said All Advertising published in The Wall Street Journal is subject to the applicable rate card,
square feet smaller and Carol Glaser, executive vice copies of which are available from the Advertising Services Department, Dow Jones & Co.
$50,000 to $75,000 cheaper president of merchandising at Inc., 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10036. The Journal reserves the right
not to accept an advertiser’s order. Only publication of an advertisement shall constitute
than it typically builds. Bob’s Discount Furniture. Sales volumes of sushi sold increases were for the past final acceptance of the advertiser’s order.
The builder is slashing “If they are in smaller at U.S. retailers have increased year. Letters to the Editor: Fax: 212-416-2891; email: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
some bedrooms and bath- homes,” she said of her cus- more than 50% over the past Need assistance with your subscription?
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Lots in the neighborhood won’t make a big enough dent Circana Group. An Exchange Media article on Friday about By phone: 1-800-843-0008
are smaller too, but the in the purchase price for most article on Saturday about lithium in China incorrectly
WSJ back issues and framed pages: wsjshop.com
builder is working with lim- entry-level buyers or provide Kroger incorrectly said those called them hard rocks.
Our newspapers are 100% sourced from sustainably certified mills.
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Change in certified beds, January 2017 to July 2023
-4,000 -2,000
AK
WA MT ND MN WI
OR ID SD IA IL
CA NV WY NE MO
UT CO KS AR
AZ NM OK LA
AK TX
Change in employment from February 2020*
5%
0
-5
All nonfarm jobs
-10
-15
-20
Feb. ’21 ’22
2020
*Seasonally adjusted †Delays are total boarding times at emergency rooms from the 419 departments that consistently reported data for all five
years.
Sources: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (certified beds, counties without nursing homes); Census Bureau (population 65 and older);
Labor Department (employment); Emergency Department Benchmarking Alliance (delays)
Big Trend in Private Education: Teeny, Tiny Schools
BY MEGAN TAGAMI
Amanda Ray’s son attended
public school from prekinder-
garten to fifth grade. But when
he qualified for West Virginia’s
school voucher program for the
2023-24 school year, Ray
jumped at the opportunity to
enroll her son in Eyes and
Brains STEM Center, a small
private school serving a total of
six students in kindergarten to
seventh grade.
Ray’s son had struggled with
reading and writing, but the
smaller setting allows him to
develop a close relationship
with his teacher, who is able to
tailor lessons to his interests,
such as a writing assignment
about his favorite characters in
the game Dungeons & Dragons.
“It’s the perfect fit for him,”
Ray said.
Eyes and Brains STEM Cen-
ter is one of a fast-growing
number of so-called micro-
schools, which often serve be-
tween five and 25 students and
operate as tuition-based pri-
vate schools or learning cen-
ters for home-schoolers. About
125,000 microschools exist
across the U.S., reflecting an in-
crease since the pandemic, ac-
cording to Don Soifer, chief ex-
ecutive of the National
Microschooling Center.
Microschools likely serve be-
tween one to two million U.S.
students, said Michael Mc-
Shane, director of national re-
search at EdChoice, an advo-
cacy organization.
In some states, new voucher
laws that provide more families
with state funds for private-
school tuition or home school-
ing and other academic ex-
penses are helping to finance
the growth in enrollment. Those
opposed to vouchers say the
funding siphons money from
traditional public schools to
schools that aren’t accountable
to rigorous state oversight.
Eric Eisenbrey left his 10-
year job teaching math and sci-
ence at a West Virginia public
school to open the Eyes and
Brains STEM Center in July. He
credits the state’s voucher pro-
gram for his school’s successful
opening, adding that not
enough families would have
joined if they had to pay $6,600
out of pocket for tuition.
Microschools’ popularity
grew during the pandemic as
Mar-a-Lago Witness Admits Lie, Prosecutors Say
BY JAN WOLFE
WASHINGTON—A key wit-
ness against Donald Trump in
the Mar-a-Lago documents
case recanted false testimony
and provided new information
implicating the former presi-
dent after dropping a lawyer
paid for by Trump’s political-
action committee, special coun-
sel Jack Smith said Tuesday.
The allegations by Smith’s
office, outlined in a 12-page
court filing, were meant to
highlight the Justice Depart-
ment’s concerns over potential
conflicts of interest arising
* * * *
-1,000 0
VT
MI
NY
DE
CT
NJ
IN OH PA DC MD
KY WV NC VA
TN AL SC
MS GA
FL
Emergency department delays†
Ambulatory care
4 hours
Patients in emergency
departments who need
3 a hospital bed waited
longer last year.
At hospitals
2
Residential 1
care, including
nursing homes
0 million by 2040.
’23 2018
BEA OYSTER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)
Student Isabella Falls transferred to the Beekman School, in New York City, for her final year of high school.
parents searched for small, in-
person learning opportunities
that served as alternatives to
online instruction, said Kerry
McDonald, a senior fellow at
the Foundation for Economic
Education, a nonprofit educa-
tional organization supporting
free-market principles.
“I really think we’re at the
beginning of what will be an
ongoing movement toward per-
sonalized, learner-centered, un-
conventional education mod-
els,” McDonald said.
Prenda, a company that pro-
vides curricula and logistical
support to new microschools,
served around 80 schools be-
fore the pandemic, said
founder and CEO Kelly Smith.
The company now serves
around 200 microschools and
hopes to expand in states with
public funding available for
such models.
Barnett Berry, a research
professor at the University of
South Carolina and a senior re-
search fellow at the Learning
Policy Institute, described mi-
croschools as an “updated ver-
sion of the one-room school-
house.” While microschools’
setups widely vary, they often
from Trump’s financing of law-
yers for a number of co-defen-
dants and potential witnesses.
Smith’s office has sought a
court hearing to determine
whether defense lawyer Stan-
ley Woodward can adequately
represent Walt Nauta, a
Trump valet also charged in
the case, as well as unnamed
potential witnesses. Smith’s
office first raised the concern
to U.S. District Judge Aileen
Cannon earlier this month.
Tuesday’s filing from the
Justice Department was in-
tended to highlight potential
ethical problems raised by
U.S. NEWS
Share of population that is at
ME least 65 years old in counties
without a nursing home
NH
20%
MA
RI 15 17% of Americans,
nationally, are 65 or older
10
5 a Wall Street Journal analysis
0 By Jon Kamp,
2016 '18 '20
Longest quartile
Median
Shortest quartile
’19 ’20 ’21
employ a few teachers who
serve students across several
grades housed in a common
learning space.
The model can foster a
close-knit community among
students and teachers, but
families may also worry about
the lack of diverse perspectives
or extracurriculars available in
smaller school settings, said
Ashley Jochim, a researcher at
the Center on Reinventing Pub-
lic Education.
Voucher programs have long
faced pushback from teachers
unions and public-school advo-
cates who fight to prevent tax-
payer funds from being fun-
neled to private schools.
When executed well, micro-
schools can be a viable option
for families, said Dale Lee,
president of the West Virginia
Education Association, a state-
wide organization for public-
school teachers. But state funds
should remain in the public
school system, where there are
more safeguards monitoring
the quality of schools, he said.
“If you do it correctly, that’s
your right,” Lee said of voucher
programs. “For the large major-
ity of students, the public school
Woodward’s concurrent repre-
sentations. Trump’s Save
America political-action com-
mittee is paying Woodward’s
legal fees, the filing stated.
Woodward didn’t respond
to a request for comment.
A grand jury indicted Trump
on June 8 on charges related to
his storing of documents at
Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort.
Trump was charged along with
Nauta. Both Trump and Nauta
have pleaded not guilty.
After obtaining that indict-
ment, Smith continued to in-
vestigate whether Trump and
others had obstructed the
Nursing Homes Close
As Need for Care Grows
America’s nursing homes
are dwindling in number.
The U.S. has at least 600
fewer nursing homes than it
did six years ago, according to
of federal data. More senior
'22
Melanie Evans
and Gretchen Lenth
care is happening at home, and
the pandemic caused many
families to shun nursing homes
while draining workers from an
already short-staffed industry.
The result? Frail elderly pa-
tients are stuck in hospitals, a
dangerous place for seniors,
waiting for somewhere to go—
sometimes for months. Beds
are disappearing while the
need for senior care is growing.
The American population 65
and older is expected to swell
from 56 million in 2020 to 81
Even before the industry
’22
started to shrink noticeably, it
was effectively contracting.
Though fewer people tend to
live in counties without nurs-
ing homes, those counties tend
is the greatest equalizer.”
In Arizona, Mindful Hearts
K-4 Learning Academy in
Queen Creek serves 10 stu-
dents. CEO and founder
Amanda Comage-Trower said
the microschool gives priority
to mental health and hands-on
learning, adding that the short-
ened school week running from
Tuesday to Friday aims to re-
duce families’ stress.
The school charges $6,000 a
year in tuition, Comage-Trower
said, but all 10 of her students
are voucher recipients. Out-of-
pocket costs are different for
each family, Comage-Trower
added.
Since making the switch to
Mindful Hearts this year, Gina
Caccavella said her 8-year-old
son has gone from having
breakdowns after school to
asking if he can attend class
even on the weekends.
“I have seen so much less
stress from my son, so much
less tears, so much more happy
drop-offs and pickups,” Cacca-
vella said.
In Arizona, microschools re-
ceiving state funds through
vouchers don’t need to follow
state academic standards or is-
documents investigation.
Smith said his office gath-
ered that Trump employee Car-
los De Oliveira tried to enlist
the director of information
technology for Mar-a-Lago to
delete security footage after a
grand jury in the District of Co-
lumbia issued a subpoena for it.
Smith referred to the IT di-
rector as “Trump Employee
4,” but he has elsewhere been
identified as Yuscil Taveras.
Taveras has retracted testi-
mony in which he repeatedly
denied or claimed not to recall
conversations about the secu-
rity footage, the DOJ filing said.
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | A3
to have more elderly residents
than average. For people who
need comprehensive care, clo-
sures can mean disruptive
moves or ending up far from
loved ones.
Data show capacity in the
nursing-home industry has
lagged behind growth in the
ranks of older Americans. By
2018, the decline accelerated as
nursing-home beds steadily
disappeared.
The shrinkage was decades
in the making. Most older peo-
ple prefer to stay in their
homes, and more Medicaid
spending on long-term care has
gone to home- and community-
based services rather than in-
stitutions such as nursing
homes since 2013. Those forces
contributed to a net loss in
nursing-home beds that has hit
almost every state.
In the pandemic’s first year,
before Covid-19 vaccines, the
virus swept through nursing
homes with deadly results.
More than 167,800 nursing-
home residents died from
Covid, and many of the facili-
ties’ employees also died from
the virus. Staffing levels have
sue standardized tests to track
student learning, said Beth
Lewis, director and co-founder
of Save Our Schools Arizona, an
organization that advocates for
public education funding and
fought the voucher movement.
.
recovered at hospitals since the
worst of the pandemic but not
at nursing homes.
In Massachusetts, where bed
losses are among the steepest,
recent state hospital-associa-
tion surveys show 563 patients
a month, on average, couldn’t
leave hospitals for nursing
homes when the patients were
ready. Hundreds of such pa-
tients have spent at least a
month in hospitals.
Similar delays at hospitals
across the U.S. are adding to
emergency-department back-
logs that reached records last
year, according to data from
the Emergency Department
Benchmarking Alliance. Half of
patients ready to move from an
emergency department to a
hospital bed waited at least 2½
hours in 2022.
The Biden administration
has said it plans to set a mini-
mum time that nursing-home
staffers must spend with each
resident. About 7 of 10 nursing
homes don’t have enough nurs-
ing employees to dedicate four
hours a day to each resident,
according to KFF, a health-pol-
icy nonprofit.
When families lack the time
or resources to closely monitor
their children’s learning, they
may end up pursuing low-qual-
ity school options, Lewis added.
“Choice is great, but if
you’re being offered a host of
subpar choices, choice isn’t so
great,” Lewis said.
In New York City, the Beek-
man School is in a five-story
brownstone and enrolls about
70 students in grades 9
through 12 who pay about
$49,000 a year. In some ways,
the school follows a traditional
education, said head of school
Maren Holmen, citing Beek-
man’s accreditation and adher-
ence to state learning stan-
dards. But, she added, the high
school has an average class size
of seven students and provides
individuals with greater flexi-
bility in their coursework and
schedules.
Isabella Falls, age 17, trans-
ferred to Beekman for her final
year of high school. After
struggling with academic burn-
out, she said she sought out
Beekman for more personalized
attention.
“I think a lot of people are
really struggling with being
overstimulated, especially a lot
of teens, and only were able to
recognize that post-Covid,” she
said. “So having institutions
like this that are already small
and more mundane, I think, re-
ally changed the game.”

A4 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Hopefuls Will Seek to Stand Out at Debate
Trump won’t attend, Ron DeSantis
but he will likely As the second-highest-poll-
remain the center of ing candidate in the race, Flor-
ida Gov. Ron DeSantis is ex-
attention at event pected to take the most
BY JOHN MCCORMICK
AND ELIZA COLLINS
There is Donald Trump, and
then there is everyone else.
That has been the story of
the race for the 2024 GOP
presidential nomination so far,
and it will be again Wednes-
day night on the debate stage
in Milwaukee, where eight Re-
publican hopefuls will try to
emerge from the former presi-
dent’s shadow at an event he
doesn’t feel the need to attend.
The two-hour debate will
start at 9 p.m. Eastern Time
and be moderated by Bret
Baier and Martha MacCallum
of Fox News. Here is what each
candidate hopes to achieve:
Rare Newborn Has Spotless Record
BRIGHT’S ZOO/TMX/REUTERS
NATURAL WONDER: A female reticulated giraffe, born July 31 without spots, was on view at
Brights Zoo in Limestone, Tenn. One of the zoo’s owners said the last known giraffe born
without a pattern was in Tokyo in 1972. Brights Zoo is asking the public to vote on a name.
Binance
Faces Risk
On Russia
Continued from Page One
that have been blacklisted by
the international community,
denying such actors access to
the Binance platform,” a
spokesperson for the crypto-
currency company said.
The spokesperson said Bi-
nance has “no relationship
with any banks whatsoever, in
Russia or elsewhere” around
its peer-to-peer service, and
doesn’t collaborate with part-
ners in the traditional finan-
cial system who are on any
sanctions lists.
The Justice Department is
investigating Binance in con-
nection with possible viola-
tions of U.S. sanctions on Rus-
sia, according to a person
familiar with the probe. The
investigation was reported by
Bloomberg.
A Justice Department
spokesman declined to com-
ment. The department has
also been investigating Bi-
nance over suspected anti-
money-laundering lapses, The
Wall Street Journal has re-
ported. The Commodity Fu-
tures Trading Commission
and the Securities and Ex-
change Commission have pre-
viously accused the company
arrows. DeSantis has been
preparing for the attacks with
a veteran debate coach and
likely has the most to lose. The
governor was once seen as the
strongest Trump challenger—
and might still be—but his ini-
tial momentum has stalled in
recent months. A strong per-
formance could help get his
campaign back on track.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Vivek Ramaswamy, the
wealthy biotech company
founder and first-time candi-
date, will likely have to fend off
some attacks over his past po-
litical statements. He has been
bragging about how little he
has done to formally prepare,
and its founder Zhao of a
slew of violations and compli-
ance failures.
Binance has said that it had
sought to address authorities’
concerns, and that it is com-
mitted to transparency and
cooperation with regulators
and law enforcement. The
company has said it intends to
defend itself vigorously
against the SEC charges. Zhao
has also said Binance didn’t
agree with the characteriza-
tion of many issues alleged in
the CFTC complaint.
The U.S. has imposed broad
sanctions on Russia’s finan-
cial sector, forcing other
banks to sever ties or risk
steep penalties. Many Rus-
sians, even if they themselves
aren’t sanctioned, can’t wire
rubles to bank accounts
abroad or convert the money
to other currencies.
Crypto has helped to fill
the void. Russians can ex-
change rubles for digital cur-
rencies, particularly stable-
coins that are pegged to the
dollar, such as tether. Those
stablecoins can then be
swapped for hard currency at
brokerages abroad or trans-
ferred into other crypto wal-
lets as a form of payment.
“Everyone uses cryptocur-
rencies—except perhaps for
my grandmother,” said Tati-
ana Maksimenko, a Russian
businesswoman who formerly
worked at another crypto ex-
change and who now runs a
Montenegro-based marketing
agency called IdolMe.
P W L C 10 11 12
instead showcasing his tennis
skills on social media. In a Wall
Street Journal interview, Ra-
maswamy said he wants dis-
cussion on U.S. spending on
the war in Ukraine, an area
where he differs from some of
the more hawkish Republicans
in the field.
Chris Christie
Known for his political
brawling, Chris Christie has
been waiting for this moment.
But it won’t quite be what the
former New Jersey governor
envisioned because of Trump’s
absence. Christie is the most
vocal critic of the former pres-
ident in the GOP field and has
focused on challenging the
former president in primary
debates.
With Trump not on stage,
Christie is almost certain to
direct his fire at others, in-
cluding DeSantis.
Monthly volumes of
crypto trades on Binance’s
exchange using rubles
$90 billion
80
Tether
70 Other
cryptocurrencies
60
50
40
30
20
10
0 show. Binance has previously
2022
Source: CCData
Binance is one of the most
popular cryptocurrency ex-
changes in Russia, she said.
The main route for Rus-
sians to convert rubles into
crypto has been via peer-to-
peer services, according to the
Bank of Russia. From October
through March, Russians
made peer-to-peer trades
worth the equivalent of
around $428 million each
month at recent exchange
rates, the central bank said.
The U.S. Treasury Depart-
ment has flagged peer-to-peer
crypto transactions as a po-
tential means of evading U.S.
sanctions. Such trades don’t
go through an exchange but
are often facilitated by a plat-
form such as Binance, which
charges a fee to process them.
A business wouldn’t re-
H T G K R F A M 1 2 3 4 5 6
U.S. NEWS
Mike Pence
Former Vice President
Mike Pence’s certification of
the 2020 election results dur-
ing the early morning hours of
Jan. 7, 2021, in defiance of
Trump and after a mob at-
tacked the Capitol, has cast a
large cloud over his campaign
because backers of the former
president have never forgiven
him for what they see as a be-
trayal of his ex-boss.
Pence is likely to try to
stress his views on limiting
abortion rights, which are
among the most strident in
the field, along with his sup-
port for Ukraine and the de-
sire for Social Security and
Medicare reform.
Tim Scott
Tim Scott has mostly played
Mr. Nice Guy so far. The South
Carolina senator’s campaign
Affirmative-Action Case
Activist Sues Law Firms
BY DOUGLAS BELKIN
AND ERIN MULVANEY
The conservative advocate
who engineered the lawsuit
behind the U.S. Supreme
Court’s June decision to end
race-conscious affirmative ac-
tion in college admissions on
Tuesday sued two law firms
that offer fellowships for di-
verse candidates.
The lawsuits, filed by Ed-
ward Blum’s two-year-old anti-
affirmative-action organiza-
tion, American Alliance for
Equal Rights,
accuse the law
firms of unlaw-
ful racial dis-
crimination
against white
c a n d i -
dates. They ask
the courts to re-
move race from
consideration
when selecting
fellows. The law
firms have offices in Texas and
Florida. The suits are filed in
federal courts in both states.
The lawsuits target the in-
ternational law firms Perkins
Coie and Morrison & Foer-
ster, but fellowships for di-
verse candidates are common
across the legal industry.
The suit filed in Texas is
against Perkins Coie and al-
leges the firm has been “ra-
cially discriminating against
future lawyers for decades” by
limiting some fellowship posi-
tions to applicants who are
“ ‘students of color,’ ‘students
who identify as LGBTQ+,’ or
‘students with disabilities.’ ”
The fellowships pay tens of
thousands of dollars to first-
and second-year law students
and provide a pool of prospec-
ANDREY RUDAKOV/BLOOMBERG NEWS
’23
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao faces SEC charges in the U.S.
quire a formal relationship
with a designated Russian
bank to face potential U.S.
sanctions risk, said Michael
Parker, a former Justice De-
partment prosecutor and ex-
official at the Treasury’s Of-
fice of Foreign Assets Control.
If a business was providing a
“carve-out” where users could
access currencies or services
unavailable at sanctioned Rus-
sian banks, that could be seen
as material assistance to
those institutions, said Parker,
who is now head of law firm
Ferrari & Associates’ anti-
money-laundering and sanc-
tions practice.
A recent review of Bi-
nance’s peer-to-peer service
website showed that it offers
Russian clients at least five
sanctioned Russian lenders,
7 8 9 O I X X **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
has been centered around his
personal story and rise from
poverty, a message aides say
contrasts with the grievances
being pushed by other candi-
dates. He has also taken a very
hands-off approach to the for-
mer president. It isn’t clear
how Scott will respond if at-
tacked by others who view him
as a threat, in part, because he
has been slowly moving up in
Iowa polling.
Nikki Haley
In debates when she suc-
cessfully ran for governor in
South Carolina, Nikki Haley
proved herself fast on her
feet. She can throw a punch,
but it is often done with some
Southern charm that makes it
less obvious in the moment.
Haley will be the only woman
on the stage, and references to
high heels have long been a
staple in her political appear-
tive employees to the firm
where associate salaries can
start around $190,000 a year,
the suit says.
Perkins Coie will fight the
suit, a spokesperson wrote in
an email Tuesday night.
“As a firm, we have been a
leader in efforts to promote
diversity, equity, and inclusion
in the legal profession,” the
spokesperson wrote. “Our
commitment to those values
remains steadfast. We will de-
fend this lawsuit vigorously.”
The suit against Morrison
& Foerster al-
leges that the
firm’s Keith
The suits say Wetmore Fel-
the firms’ hiring lowship for Ex-
cellence, Diver-
for fellowships sity, and
Inclusion only
discriminates considers “Afri-
against whites. can American/
Black, Latinx,
Native Ameri-
cans/Native
Alaskans, and/or members of
the LGBTQ+ community.”
Representatives at Morri-
son & Foerster couldn’t be
reached for comment. The
firm’s Wetmore program is 10
years old and has awarded 136
fellowships, according to the
firm’s website, which says the
fellowship is for “first-year
law students who are mem-
bers of historically underrep-
resented groups in the legal
industry.” Associate positions
at the firm start at $215,000 a
year, according to the suit.
Hires are drawn from the fel-
lowship programs.
The lawsuits follow the Su-
preme Court decision involv-
ing Harvard College and the
University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill that overturned
including Rosbank and Tinkoff
Bank, as options for process-
ing payments. Binance said in
2020 that it “added support”
for payments via both banks,
alongside dozens of other pay-
ment methods.
Sellers can give their bank-
account details to buyers so
they can directly receive
funds. Binance holds the sell-
ers’ crypto in escrow until
they confirm receipt of the
money.
On a single day in late July,
via Rosbank alone, Binance’s
public peer-to-peer platform
showed that several hundred
traders were offering to buy
or sell rubles for tether, in po-
tential deals together worth
the equivalent of almost $1
million. And on Binance’s offi-
cial Telegram chat group for
.
ances. Watch for the former
United Nations ambassador to
try to steer the conversation
to foreign policy.
Doug Burgum
North Dakota Gov. Doug
Burgum isn’t well-known na-
tionally, and he will have a
chance to make a first impres-
sion on many GOP voters. But
it will take a lot for the long-
shot candidate to move up in
the race: He has been polling
in low single digits and some-
times at zero.
Asa Hutchinson
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa
Hutchinson has been critical
of Trump and has argued the
party desperately needs to
find a new leader. Hutchinson
probably faces the longest-
shot prospects for the nomi-
nation of anyone on the stage.
nearly 50 years of race-con-
scious affirmative action at
colleges and universities.
Blum said the American Al-
liance for Equal Rights had a
valid basis for suing the firms
because its members include
nondisabled, straight white
men in law schools in Texas
and Florida who are ineligible
for the fellowships.
Earlier this month, the
American Alliance for Equal
Rights sued an Atlanta-based
venture-capital firm fund that
supports Black women who
own small businesses. The suit
accused the firm of unlawful
racial discrimination.
The Supreme Court ruling
has prompted a wide reconsid-
eration of diversity efforts and
has become a political light-
ning rod. Dozens of corporate
law firms and major employ-
ers have received letters from
Republican officials warning
them to adhere to laws pro-
hibiting racial quotas and
preferences in employment
and contracting decisions.
In June, U.S. Equal Oppor-
tunity Chair Charlotte A. Bur-
rows said the Supreme Court
decision banning racial prefer-
ences in college admission
doesn’t address employer ef-
forts to foster diverse and in-
clusive workforces. “It re-
mains lawful for employers to
implement diversity, equity,
inclusion, and accessibility
programs that seek to ensure
workers of all backgrounds
are afforded equal opportunity
in the workplace,” she wrote.
The suits filed on Tues-
day accuse the law firms of vi-
olating Section 1981 of the
Civil Rights Act of 1866, which
bars racial bias in private con-
tracts.
Russian clients, dozens of us-
ers have recently discussed
their use of Rosbank and Tin-
koff to make peer-to-peer
trades via Binance.
Rosbank and Tinkoff Bank
didn’t respond to requests for
comment.
In recent months, Binance’s
customer-service volunteers
have told users in the Tele-
gram group that the exchange
is no longer enforcing any
trading limits on Russian cli-
ents, which it introduced in
April 2022 to comply with Eu-
ropean Union sanctions, mes-
sages viewed by the Journal
said such volunteers are nei-
ther employees nor spokes-
people for the company.
“All current restrictions re-
lated to sanctions against all
Russian nationals are applied
by the platform and its legal
entities in the European Union
in full,” the Binance spokes-
person said. Binance doesn’t
disclose where its main Bi-
nance.com platform is oper-
ated from. Russian citizens
are forbidden to buy or sell
dollars and euros using its
peer-to-peer service, the
spokesperson said.
At Binance’s main exchange
business, trading volumes in
Russia are down compared
with a peak in early 2022, but
have rebounded somewhat in
recent months, according to
data provider CCData. Binance
handled $8 billion of ruble-to-
crypto trades in July, mostly
for tether, CCData said.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Hunter Biden
Dealings Fuel
More Intrigue
Business in Ukraine,
China conducted by
president’s son gives
probes added fodder
BY JAMES T. AREDDY
U.S. relations with China
were steady in December 2013
when then-Vice President Joe
Biden stepped off Air Force
Two in Beijing with a seemingly
unremarkable companion: his
son Hunter.
Days later, Shanghai authori-
ties approved the formation of
an investment boutique, under-
written by Chinese government
money, that named Hunter Bi-
den as a director and later cut
him an ownership share at a
discounted price.
Roughly four months after-
ward, he began earning up to $1
million annually for sitting on a
corporate board in Ukraine, a
country his father paid special
attention to as vice president.
Hunter Biden would go on to
earn millions more from a brief
association with a Chinese en-
ergy-and-finance conglomerate
trying to break into the U.S.
The younger Biden’s foreign
business activities loom larger
than ever a decade after that
trip, with President Biden seek-
ing re-election as a grinding
Justice Department investiga-
tion and a determined probe by
congressional Republicans scru-
tinize where Hunter Biden
made money overseas and what
he got paid to do.
Last month prosecutors told
a judge that as they continue to
investigate Hunter Biden’s ac-
tivities, he faces the possibility
of being prosecuted under the
Foreign Agents Registration
Act, which requires Americans
who talk to U.S. government of-
ficials or the media on behalf of
foreign parties to register that
relationship. A review by The
Wall Street Journal of the
younger Biden’s business activi-
ties shows the areas where he
interacted with foreign entities
and received money from them.
Political peril grows
No evidence has emerged to
show President Biden benefited
from his son’s international
commercial endeavors, nor that
he wielded government author-
ity to favor them. And the
president isn’t a target of the
Justice Department investiga-
tion.
“Hunter Biden did not in-
volve his father in, nor did his
father assist him in, any of his
business,” a spokeswoman for
Hunter Biden’s legal team said.
Yet the political peril has
grown. The president’s allies
had been hopeful that a plea
deal, centered on misdemeanor
tax charges and an agreement
to skirt a gun charge alto-
gether, would squelch public
interest in Hunter Biden. In-
stead, in late July, they saw
that deal implode under ques-
tions from a judge.
This month the U.S. attorney
who has led the investigation
for five years, David Weiss, was
named a special counsel, ex-
panding his remit to pursue
other charges against Hunter
Biden.
SHIPWRECKS: An aerial view shows a tree and brush growing up out of the remains of
Yawah, just one of more than 200 ships in the Ghost Fleet at Mallows Bay Park in Maryland.
A spokeswoman for Weiss
declined to comment. Outlines
of what could interest Weiss’s
team emerged when the plea
deal fizzled. Court filings
signed by both sides pointed to
Hunter Biden’s past tax delin-
quency and specified how in
one year, 2017, roughly three
quarters of the $2.95 million in
money paid to him came from
China, Ukraine and Romania
interests. A person familiar
with the finances said around a
third of that amount was for
associates, leaving Hunter Bi-
den’s own income that year
just shy of $2 million.
This article is based on in-
terviews with past associates
of Hunter Biden and executives
of his commercial partners, as
well as corporate, congressio-
nal and court documents.
For decades, the Biden fam-
ily name has been associated
with U.S. foreign policy. Inter-
views, emails and other com-
munications reviewed by the
Journal, some from Hunter Bi-
den himself, suggest that ca-
chet proved alluring to suppli-
cants in China, Ukraine and
elsewhere, who lavished mil-
lions of dollars on Hunter Bi-
den before his father became
president. His friend and for-
mer partner Devon Archer tes-
tified to a House panel last
month that those people saw
Hunter Biden’s apparent access
in Washington as a “brand be-
ing delivered.”
Getting paid by foreigners
isn’t a crime, even if one ser-
vice they are seeking is prox-
imity to power. In that regard
Hunter Biden’s activity mir-
rored that of other presidential
relatives over the years. Based
on what the Justice Depart-
ment has made public, Hunter
Biden faces legal trouble for
how he failed to account for his
business activity, not that he
undertook it.
Under the now-defunct
agreement Hunter Biden
reached with federal prosecu-
tors that last month broke
apart, he admitted to failing to
file tax returns or pay what he
owed in 2017 and 2018, when
he was addicted to crack co-
caine. In 2021, an associate
covered the younger Biden’s
$1.9 million in outstanding
taxes for those
two years, in-
cluding interest
and penalties, How Hunter
the agreement Biden earned
said.
Hunter Bi- money from
den’s foreign
business deal-
China remains
ings dovetail opaque.
with other lurid
aspects of his
background: He
was earning and spending big
money at a time when his per-
sonal life was in free fall. Sala-
cious details of past drug use,
shady business partners, exotic
locations and a gun are docu-
mented by photos, emails and
spreadsheets from Hunter Bi-
den’s own laptop.
Congressional Republicans,
hoping to retake the White
House, have produced thick re-
ports alleging money flows
from overseas enriched Hunter
Biden and other Biden family
members. Their subpoenaed
bank records have raised ques-
U.S.WATCH
U.S. NEWS
tions, such as why a politically brand attached to it,” referring
connected Kazakh businessman to the Biden name.
wired Hunter Biden $142,300 While Hunter Biden’s Ukraine
for a Porsche in 2014, shortly earnings appeared largely based
after he met the vice president. on his boardroom participation,
The chairman of the House a consulting firm hired by Bu-
Oversight Committee, James risma may have used his name
Comer (R., Ky.), has pressed on in Washington in 2016, and it
these and other points, citing isn’t clear that Hunter Biden
testimony from two Internal knew if it was doing so.
Revenue Service whistleblow-
ers who said the Justice De-
partment sought to limit the Cites poor judgment
probe into the younger Biden’s It isn’t clear whether such a
activities. situation would have required
Testimony from Archer and Hunter Biden himself to regis-
other evidence have called into ter as a lobbyist. The Justice
doubt the president’s asser- Department has stepped up ef-
tions that he never spoke about forts to police that law in re-
business with his son. But even cent years, but has faced a
as some of President Biden’s string of related losses in
political opponents have called court, amid disputes about
for his impeachment based on what exactly counted as a for-
foreign payments to his family eign client and what work fell
members, they haven’t shown under the law. Both Joe and
he had mean- Hunter Biden have denied any
ingful involve- wrongdoing related to Burisma.
ment in their Hunter Biden has said he dis-
moneymaking. played poor judgment in ac-
Hunter Bi- cepting the board seat.
den’s foreign in- How Hunter Biden earned
terests princi- money from China is opaque.
pally involved The China business harks
China and back a decade, to the month
Ukraine. the Bidens touched down in
For around Beijing. Twelve days after their
five years start- arrival, the younger Biden took
ing in early a board seat on a newly estab-
2014, when his father was vice lished private-equity firm
president, Hunter Biden served called Bohai Harvest RST
as a director of Ukraine gas (Shanghai) Equity Investment
producer Burisma, run by an Fund Management. He wasn’t
oligarch who made no secret of paid, but the Journal has re-
his desire to appear close to ported that after his father’s
Washington as a way to protect vice presidency ended, Hunter
his interests at home. In Wash- Biden bought 10% of the fund
ington, Hunter Biden’s Burisma at a discounted price. He later
role sparked concerns that it stepped down and sold the
reflected a double standard, as share for virtually nothing, his
his father’s vice presidency fea- legal team has said.
tured a drive against corrup- No money from BHR ap-
tion in Ukraine. In his recent pears to figure in the govern-
testimony, Archer said, “I think ment’s disclosures connected
Burisma would have gone out to the now-discarded plea deal
of business if it didn’t have the last month. The fund underper-
GEORGIA
Eastman Surrenders University Names
In Election Case New President
John Eastman, the conser-
vative attorney who pushed a
plan to keep Donald Trump in
power, turned himself in on
charges in the Georgia case al-
leging an illegal plot to over-
turn the former president’s
2020 election loss.
Eastman was booked at the
Fulton County jail. He was in-
dicted last week alongside
JIM WATSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Trump and 17 others, who are
accused by District Attorney
Fani Willis of scheming to sub-
vert the will of Georgia voters.
Eastman in a statement
criticized the indictment for
targeting “attorneys for their
zealous advocacy on behalf of
their clients” and said each of
the 19 defendants was entitled
to rely on the advice of lawyers
and past legal precedent to
challenge the election results.
—Associated Press
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | A5
formed but has been controver-
sial because its shareholders
included some of China’s big-
gest, government-managed fi-
nancial giants, like Bank of
China, and the financier who
founded BHR, Jonathan Li, met
the vice president during his
two-day Beijing trip in 2013.
“Just long enough to say hello
and shake hands,” Hunter Bi-
den said in his memoir. The
book also said the BHR deal
was settled before, not after,
the China trip, which he de-
scribed as an opportunity to
catch up with his father.
Hunter Biden’s other China
connection gets no mention in
his book. But it has been a fo-
cal point of congressional in-
vestigations into his dealings
and is identifiable in the signed
Justice Department agreement
with Hunter: a flash-in-the-pan
Shanghai oil-and-finance con-
glomerate called CEFC China
Energy and its free-spending
chairman, Ye Jianming.
The Journal has reported
links between Ye and China’s
military and how he associated
with a Who’s Who of famous
names around the world, includ-
ing retired politicians and their
relatives. From Prague to Mos-
cow and Bucharest, CEFC com-
mitted billions of dollars to en-
ergy and financial investments
that appeared to reflect Beijing’s
official priorities for expanding
its global influence, and by 2017
the company had set its sights
on U.S. opportunities.
“It seems that Ye was offer-
ing powerful people around the
world financial incentives—
bribes, essentially—to cooper-
ate with CEFC,” according to
Jeremy Garlick, an associate
professor at Prague University
of Economics and Business
who has studied the company.
CEFC and Hunter Biden es-
tablished various U.S. joint
OHIO
Ohio State University
named as its next president
Walter “Ted” Carter Jr., who
is currently the University of
Nebraska system president.
Carter will begin the job at
Ohio State on Jan. 1, with Ex-
ecutive Vice President Peter
Mohler serving in an acting
capacity until then. Carter
has presided over a period of
enrollment growth at Ne-
braska, including record-set-
ting gains among underrepre-
sented students.
He launched the Nebraska
Promise, a financial aid pro-
gram guaranteeing full tu-
ition coverage for low- and
middle-income students. He
fills a vacancy at Ohio State
left by the resignation of
Kristina Johnson in Novem-
ber 2022.
—Associated Press
.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: NG HAN GUAN/PRESS POOL; J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS; ASSOCIATED PRESS
Top, Hunter Biden with his
father on a 2013 trip to
Beijing. Left, Hunter, at far
right in the photo, when Joe
Biden was elected to the
Senate. Above, Hunter’s
former business partner
Devon Archer.
ventures, including some
named Hudson West, accord-
ing to business records and
former executives. Text mes-
sages from his laptop and peo-
ple familiar with the situation
indicate Hunter did personal
favors for Ye, who quickly
spent over $80 million on New
York residences, and for CEFC
as it prowled for energy and
financial companies to buy in
Romania and elsewhere. At
one point, Ye gave the youn-
ger Biden a large diamond.
Big payday
Within 18 months, CEFC-
linked entities had paid
around $5 million to Hunter
Biden, according to banking
records produced by congres-
sional Republicans.
Then Ye mysteriously dis-
appeared and CEFC collapsed.
China’s government has re-
fused to characterize the un-
raveling of what it once cele-
brated as the nation’s biggest
private energy business.
The company never dis-
cussed its links to Hunter Bi-
den. His legal team’s spokes-
man said of his involvement
with CEFC: “Hunter Biden was
a private citizen with every
right to pursue his own busi-
ness endeavors.”
CEFC’s demise followed a
Justice Department prosecu-
tion of a top CEFC representa-
tive for bribery in New York,
in which the representative
was later convicted. Hunter Bi-
den’s now-defunct agreement
with the government says that
in March 2018, his law firm re-
ceived $1 million for legal fees
to assist the CEFC representa-
tive. The government said that
would have been enough to
settle his tax arrears.
—Aruna Viswanatha
contributed to this article.
TEXAS
Storm Brings
Welcome Rain
Thousands of homes and
businesses in Corpus Christi
were without power Tuesday
after the state’s first tropical
storm of the hurricane season
made landfall, bringing strong
winds and welcome rain after
months of dry weather.
Tropical Storm Harold,
which never reached hurri-
cane status, made landfall
about 10 a.m. near South Pa-
dre Island on the Texas Gulf
coast, according to National
Weather Service meteorolo-
gist Joshua Schroeder.
Schroeder said the rain is
mostly welcome. “There’s
pockets of heavy rainfall, 2 to
4 inches, and isolated areas
are seeing up to 6 inches,” he
said. “But we’ve been very
dry down here in South Texas
and this will be beneficial.”
—Associated Press
 .

A6 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 NY * * THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

WORLD NEWS
Kyiv Makes Small Gains in Southern Push
Capture of village is sive and bisect Russian forces. area. The arrival of U.S. cluster
Moscow holds about a fifth munitions also has boosted the
a win for a unit hit of Ukraine’s territory, includ- offensive, they said.
with big losses early ing the southern Crimean Pen- “At the start, we thought we
insula, which it seized in 2014 could take our fist and hit them
in counteroffensive and which has served as an with all our strength, and we al-
important base for launching most broke our hand,” one sol-
BY IAN LOVETT its military operations in the dier from the 47th Brigade said
rest of Ukraine. Though fight- recently. The brigade, he said,
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine— ing continues in the east both has gained experience, espe-

47TH SEPARATE MECHANIZED BRIGADE/REUTERS

Ukrainian forces said they sides are concentrating the cially with demining, and is
seized the village of Robotyne, bulk of their troops in the proceeding more methodically—
taking another step in Kyiv’s south, which analysts see as but taking heavy casualties.
efforts to cut through Russian the strategic key. “It’s a very big price,” he
defenses in southern Ukraine. If Ukrainian forces can said. “Lots of injuries. Lots of
Robotyne’s capture by punch through to the Sea of new people. Not a lot of time
Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Azov, they would sever the to prepare.”
Brigade on Tuesday gives Kyiv land bridge connecting Russia Videos posted by the 47th
something to celebrate, after to Crimea, making it difficult Brigade show civilians happily
two months of hard fighting, for Moscow to supply its forces greeting the soldiers. They are
substantial casualties and in the Kherson region, to the evacuating the civilians and
minimal gains since the coun- west of Robotyne. Kyiv also Members of Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade speak with a woman in Robotyne, Ukraine. evaluating them for injuries,
teroffensive began. has been targeting Russian the brigade said. Robotyne
About 9 miles south of supply lines; in recent weeks, more difficult for Ukraine. being sent to do something we’d In early June, as the brigade had several hundred residents
Orikhiv, where Ukrainian it hit the Kerch Bridge, which Without sufficient air defenses never do—launching a counter- pushed south from Orikhiv, before the war began.
forces began their march connects Crimea to Russia, as that would allow Ukraine’s air offensive without total air supe- several of its Western-ar- “Psychologically, it was
south, Robotyne is within well as a bridge that connects force to provide soldiers with riority,” said Lt. Gen. Ben mored vehicles were trapped very difficult,” said one 52-
about 14 miles of Tokmak, a Crimea to mainland Ukraine. cover as they advance, Ukrai- Hodges, a former commander of in minefields; some were lost. year-old woman from Robot-
key crossroads on the way Still, the offensive has been nian units have suffered at- the U.S. Army in Europe. In the months since, Kyiv yne on a video the brigade
south toward Melitopol, which a slog for Kyiv. tacks from Russian helicopters. The counteroffensive began has adjusted its tactics, with published Tuesday. “We hoped
is the biggest Russian-occu- Moscow has built trenches, Ukraine has seized just a hand- disastrously for the 47th Bri- infantry now leading the and waited for ours to
pied city in the Zaporizhzhia tank traps and other barriers ful of villages along the south- gade—one of Ukraine’s newly charge through minefields on come…We waited for a long
region. Kyiv is hoping its between Robotyne and Tok- ern front in the two months formed units, which was pro- foot and tanks supporting from time, and today it happened.”
troops can reach the Sea of mak, which could make the since the offensive began. vided with Western tanks and behind, according to soldiers in —Nikita Nikolaienko
Azov during the counteroffen- next phase of the fighting even “These Ukrainian troops are trained in Europe this spring. several brigades fighting in the contributed to this article.

Russia Presses to Retake Territory in Northeast Ukraine

BY MATTHEW LUXMOORE the eastern bank of the Oskil
RUSSIA River, aiming to seize strategic
KYIV—Russia is on the at- heights surrounding Kupyansk
tack in northeastern Ukraine as Synkivka from the east in advance of a
it seeks to take back territory Kupyansk UKRAINE push to recapture the city.
that Kyiv recaptured last fall LINES OF Area of Soldiers fighting in Kupyansk
and to divert Ukrainian forces ADVANCE detail say Russia has an advantage in
from their counteroffensive. artillery and mortar ammuni-
The main fighting is taking tion. Its attack helicopters pose
place around the village of a particular problem across the
Synkivka, 16 miles from the 600-mile front because Ukraine
Russian border, where Moscow (As of Aug. 20) doesn’t have enough jet fighters
is trying to traverse Ukrainian UKRAINE or the air defenses to prevent
Kreminna
minefields and advance on the them from targeting their posi-
city of Kupyansk to the south. tions from several miles inside
SERGEY KOZLOV/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Torske
Ukraine has been inching Severodonetsk enemy lines.
Slovyansk
forward in the south and east Serhiy Hrabsky, a military
as it presses its counteroffen- analyst and former Ukrainian
sive launched against deeply Kramatorsk army colonel, said Russia’s
fortified Russian positions. Bakhmut Luhansk tactics in the north make it
But Russia’s efforts around harder for Kyiv to marshal the
Kupyansk show that Moscow 25 miles strength needed to break
aims to take more territory, Debaltseve through Russia’s main lines in
25 km
even as its own invasion stalls. A boy and his grandmother were evacuated to a safe area the south before the weather
Analysts say Russia has, for near Kupyansk in eastern Ukraine earlier this month. Source: Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project (Russian-controlled area) makes ground advances
now, largely exhausted its of- harder in the fall.
fensive potential after a cam- tacks has increased in recent daily basis as it kept the city in Russian blogger Semyon backed by artillery attacks in “By all measures of military
paign during the winter and weeks, though Russia has so far its crosshairs and sought to Pegov, who spends time with the direction of Kupyansk. science, the Ukrainian offen-
spring that yielded few gains failed in its bid to take Synkivka chip away at residents’ morale. Russian units on the front “Our forces are repelling sive should never have be-
beyond the capture of Bakhmut and advance from the north. Oles Maliarevych, a sergeant line, said Sunday that Russian the attacks and holding the gun,” he said. “We should
in the eastern Donetsk region. Kupyansk, which straddles in a drone company defending forces were having issues line,” she said on Telegram. have had threefold the forces
But Moscow is counting on the Oskil River running south Kupyansk, said the Russians crossing Ukrainian minefields Earlier this month, the of our enemy, artillery superi-
Ukraine’s counteroffensive to from the Russian border, has are attempting assaults using to the north of Synkivka. The Ukrainian authorities in ority and clear control of the
fail and for the conflict to turn taken on symbolic significance small groups of infantry in- area, he said, has been turned Kupyansk ordered the manda- skies. None of those factors
into a protracted war of attri- for Kyiv. It was seized by Rus- cluding convicts recruited by into a no man’s land. tory evacuation of residents was there.”
tion where Russia, with its sia early in the war and made Russia’s Defense Ministry. Both sides are suffering from 37 settlements around However, he points to a
vast military-industrial com- into a seat of Russian power His unit, part of Ukraine’s losses, and Ukrainian troops the city. One person died and string of successes in the south.
plex and a population three in occupied parts of the north- 92nd Brigade, is fielding are under pressure from Rus- 11 were wounded in the latest “We’re now in the most in-
times the size of Ukraine’s, eastern Kharkiv region. Ukrainian Vampire attack sian forces backed by elite Russian shelling on Monday, tense phase of military opera-
would have an advantage. But in a lightning offensive drones and reconnaissance military units and airborne Kharkiv region governor Oleh tions on both sides,” Hrabsky
Russia has been shelling last fall, Ukraine retook most of drones to spot and eliminate troops. Hanna Maliar, Synehybov said on Telegram. said. “Ukraine has still not en-
Kupyansk for months. Ukrai- Kharkiv as thousands of Rus- Russian targets. No significant Ukraine’s deputy defense min- Maliarevych said Russian gaged its full military poten-
nian troops fighting there say sian soldiers fled. Russia began territory has changed hands in ister, said Monday that Russia forces are now pushing south- tial. But Russia has already
the rate of Russian artillery at- shelling Kupyansk on a near recent weeks, he said. was staging new assaults ward with the aim of occupying passed its peak.”

WORLD WATCH
ARIS MESSINIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

A forest burned behind the Parthenon as wildfires raged on the outskirts of Athens on Tuesday. Eighteen bodies were found
near the Greek city of Alexandroupolis as firefighters battled dozens of wildfires across the country.

TIBET
China Criticized on
Boarding Schools
The U.S. State Department
Tuesday said it was taking ac-
tion to punish Chinese officials
in response to what it called
the forcible assimilation of
young Tibetans, broadening its
assault on Beijing’s treatment
of ethnic minorities.
The State Department ac-
cused China of the forcible
assimilation of more than
one million Tibetan children
in government-run boarding
schools and said it would im-
pose visa restrictions on un-
named Chinese officials.
“These coercive policies
seek to eliminate Tibet’s dis-
tinct linguistic, cultural, and
religious traditions among
younger generations of Tibet-
ans,” Secretary of State Ant-
ony Blinken said.
China rejects the move as
“smears” and urged the U.S.
to avoid measures that inter-
fere with its sovereignty, ac-
cording to a spokesman for
its embassy in Washington.
Centralizing children in board-
ing schools, the spokesman
said, “effectively solves the
problem of ethnic minority
students’ difficulty in attend-
ing school at a distance
where the local people live
scattered.”
—James T. Areddy
GREECE 18 bodies, which were found
near a shack in the Avantas
Bodies of 18 Likely area, according to Ioannis Ar-
Migrants Found topios, a fire department
Firefighters on Tuesday spokesman.
found the burned bodies of “Given that there have
18 people believed to have been no reports of a missing
been migrants who crossed person or missing residents
the Turkish border into an from the surrounding areas,
area of northeastern Greece the possibility is being inves-
where wildfires have raged tigated that these are people
for days. who had entered the country
The discovery near the illegally,” Artopios said.
city of Alexandroupolis came Alexandroupolis is near
as hundreds of firefighters the border with Turkey, along
battled dozens of wildfires a route often taken by peo-
across the country amid ple fleeing poverty and con-
gale-force winds. flict in the Middle East, Asia
Police activated the coun- and Africa, and seeking to
try’s Disaster Victim Identifi- enter the European Union.
cation Team to identify the —Associated Press

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Commerce
Secretary to
Visit Beijing
Amid Strain
BY YUKA HAYASHI
WASHINGTON—Commerce
Secretary Gina Raimondo is
heading to China this weekend
bearing a portfolio of difficult
economic issues while pushing
forward an effort by both gov-
ernments to stabilize rocky
U.S.-China relations.
Raimondo’s four-day visit,
which begins Sunday and in-
cludes stops in Beijing and
Shanghai, has been months in
the planning. In announcing
the trip, the Commerce De-
partment said Tuesday that
the visit is aimed at deepening
communications with Beijing.
Raimondo is seen in Beijing
as a key player in issues that
matter to China’s leadership.
Her department prizes trade
promotion—and Raimondo
plans to meet with U.S. busi-
nesses in China. Meanwhile,
the department has a hand in
overseeing export controls and
other policies related to ad-
vanced technology that China
has protested.
High on the agenda, officials
and business consultants said,
is the plan by the Biden admin-
istration to issue a final rule re-
stricting exports of advanced
semiconductors it put in place
last year. Part of Raimondo’s
message in Beijing is to explain
that these controls are meant to
protect U.S. national security—
not as steps to hold China back
or disentangle the two large
economies, said White House
national security adviser Jake
Sullivan.
Raimondo is expected to
hold talks with her counter-
part, Commerce Minister
Wang Wentao, and to meet
other officials involved in eco-
nomic policy. Ahead of Rai-
mondo’s trip, the Commerce
Department removed 27 Chi-
nese entities from a blacklist
that limits the exports those
listed are permitted to receive.
MANAN VATSYAYANA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Srettha Thavisin greets supporters after Thailand’s Parliament elected him prime minister.
Thailand Picks a New Leader,
Clears Way for Fresh U.S. Ties
BY FELIZ SOLOMON
After nearly a decade of
army-backed rule, Thailand’s
Parliament picked 61-year-old
real-estate tycoon Srettha
Thavisin as the country’s next
prime minister—the product
of a compromise that falls
short of removing the military
from governance but marks a
democratic advance.
It also opens the door for
Washington to strengthen ties
with a key ally that has drifted
closer to China in recent years.
The U.S. Air Force deployed
from Thai bases during the
Vietnam War, and the two
countries co-host one of the
region’s largest multinational
military drills, Cobra Gold.
Thailand is a major purchaser
of American defense equip-
ment, and its officers often at-
tend training at U.S. military
academies.
But the ties were strained
by a military coup in 2014.
Washington suspended mil-
lions of dollars in military aid
supporting weapons sales and
training, creating an opening
for China. U.S. support re-
sumed in 2019 after Thailand
* * * * *
Caution Marks Deal for U.S. Airlines
BY RACHEL LIANG
SINGAPORE—The U.S.’s deci-
sion to double the number of
direct flights it allows from
China casts a rare glimmer of
light on an otherwise gloomy
relationship. It also underscores
how far the two sides must go
before their bilateral links re-
turn to prepandemic levels.
There are far fewer direct
flights between the two coun-
tries than four years ago, be-
fore Beijing imposed strict
border controls to reduce the
spread of Covid-19. Other
countries—including Amer-
ica’s closest allies—have been
quick to restore flights to and
from China after Beijing ended
the restrictions in January,
but U.S. carriers appear to
be in no great rush to see
Washington do the same.
Delta Air Lines and American
Airlines last week joined United
Airlines in announcing plans for
new flights in the coming
months, while urging the Biden
administration to stick to its
measured and gradual approach
to reopening the market.
The U.S. Transportation De-
North Korean-Chinese Flights Resume Operating
BY TIMOTHY W. MARTIN
SEOUL—North Korea has re-
sumed air travel with China af-
ter a hiatus of more than three
years, a milestone development
for Kim Jong Un’s regime,
which is starting to restore con-
nections with the outside world.
A passenger flight operated
by North Korea’s state-run Air
Koryo departed Pyongyang on
Tuesday and arrived at Beijing
Capital International Airport,
according to several flight-
tracker services. In the after-
noon, a return Air Koryo flight
left for the North Korean capital.
A day earlier, China con-
firmed a restoration of Air Ko-
ryo flights between the two
countries. The Air Koryo air-
craft was a Russian-made Tu-
held elections, though the coup
leader stayed in power and
monitors criticized the vote as
favoring military interests.
With an elected civilian gov-
ernment now in place, led by a
pro-democracy party, Washing-
ton has more room to engage.
Srettha’s election by Parlia-
ment Tuesday ends months of
deadlock that followed nation-
wide polls on May 14. His
party, Pheu Thai, came in sec-
ond behind a progressive up-
start party called Move For-
ward. But Move Forward’s
leader—Harvard-educated
pro-democracy icon Pita Lim-
jaroenrat—was twice blocked
from becoming prime minister
by army-appointed senators.
Pheu Thai formed a coali-
tion with its military-backed
rivals to achieve enough sup-
port to form a government,
relegating Move Forward to
the opposition. The compro-
mise underscores the mili-
tary’s continuing influence in
politics, but represents a shift
toward more democratically
legitimate governance. This
will help President Biden’s ef-
forts to deepen Asian alliances.
Srettha faces challenges. He
WORLD NEWS
partment earlier
month said Chinese carriers
can operate 18 direct round-
this
trip passenger flights a week
starting Sept. 1, rising to 24 at
the end of October, and
matching a similar move from
Beijing. It said it would “con-
tinue to assess how and when
to further modify its posture.”
While Beijing has refrained
from public criticism of the
deal, China’s state-run media
said the country’s carriers
were pressing for more flights
to the U.S. The Global Times, a
Communist Party mouthpiece,
said Washington was using
“political excuses” to block
the resumption of flights.
The number of U.S.-China
flights in July was 97% lower
than in the same month of
2019, according to Cirium, an
aviation analysis company.
That is the reverse of flights
between China and the U.K.,
which were 3% below pre-
Covid levels in July; those
with Australia were nearly
60% of their 2019 level, coin-
ciding with a thaw in ties as
the two sides sought to re-
solve a trade dispute.
polev Tu-204, a narrow-body jet
that can carry about 200 people.
Close Kim regime watchers
expect that North Korea would
make bringing
government
staff and citi-
zens home a The Kim regime
priority before sealed its
letting in out-
siders. On borders in
Tuesday, many
of the travelers
January 2020 to
checking in for fend off Covid.
the Pyongyang
flight wore pins
featuring the
North Korean flag, according
to South Korea’s semiofficial
Yonhap News Agency.
The Kim regime suspended
international commercial flights
and sealed off its borders in
commands an uncomfortable
alliance of several pro-democ-
racy parties and others more
aligned with those parties’
traditional foes, the army.
Pheu Thai is the third incarna-
tion of a populist pro-democ-
racy party founded by Thaksin
Shinawatra, a telecom billion-
aire who for decades has been
the establishment’s nemesis.
Thaksin was elected as
prime minister in 2001 and
ousted in a 2006 coup. He re-
turned to Thailand on Tues-
day after 15 years of exile dur-
ing which he was convicted in
absentia of corruption. Jailed
shortly after his arrival, he
faces years in prison—though
he is expected to be pardoned
after his party takes the
reins.
Srettha is a political new-
comer but has decades of
business experience, including
as chief executive and presi-
dent of Sansiri, one of Thai-
land’s largest real-estate de-
velopers. His Pheu Thai
Party has pledged to raise the
minimum wage, ease debt for
farmers and give “digital wal-
lets” worth about $280 to ev-
eryone over the age of 16.
.
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | A7
Change in the number of flights to and from China
between 2019 and 2023
move that led Washington to
suspend all Chinese passenger
flights to and from China.
–93%
–61
U.S.
Japan
“Demand for the limited
flights now makes it highly
profitable compared to pre-
Covid when there was aggres-
sive competition from Chinese
–41 Australia carriers,” said Brendan Sobie,
an independent aviation ana-
–5 Italy lyst. Doubling the number of
flights won’t “change the sta-
Note: The data are from July of each year –3 U.K. tus quo,” he said. This puts
Source: Cirium Washington in a stronger po-
sition to hold out for a better
The low-key response from gates at airports or attractive deal from Beijing.
Beijing to the flights deal con- takeoff and landing times even Flights to or from China ac-
trasts with increasingly hostile before Covid. They also are counted for 8% of all interna-
rhetoric from both China and wary that China might impose tional traffic in the Asia-Pa-
the U.S. in their spats over is- new border controls if there is cific region in June, measured
sues including Taiwan, unfair another disease outbreak. by revenue passenger kilome-
competition and human rights. Long quarantines and a short- ters, an industry gauge of de-
“It shows both sides are age of suitable hotel rooms mand, according to the Asso-
trying to create a more stable during the pandemic made it ciation of Asia Pacific Airlines.
and sustainable U.S.-China bi- hard to find crew willing to China’s pre-Covid share was
lateral relationship,” said Drew work on the China routes, about 24%, said Subhas
Thompson, a visiting scholar forcing U.S. airlines to add an Menon, director general of the
at the National University of extra stop on flights to China industry group.
Singapore, adding that reci- and hire extra crew members “China’s international flight
procity has long been the issue willing to be quarantined. recovery is at least 12 months
clouding flight arrangements Beijing also imposed penal- behind other regions,” he said,
between the two countries. ties on airlines that unwittingly as Beijing maintained Covid
U.S. airlines have bridled at carried passengers infected border controls longer than
being unable to secure better with Covid into the country—a most other countries.
January 2020, when Covid-19 Covid-19. But North Korea tween Thursday and the end of
cases began to emerge in China. hadn’t done much until re- the month. Pyongyang failed
With a decrepit healthcare sys- cently to match the rest of the to launch its spy satellite into
tem, Pyongyang adopted a max- world’s reopening. space on May 31, with the de-
imalist zero- Air Koryo is North Korea’s bris crashing into the waters
Covid strategy, sole international airline. On between the Korean Peninsula
halting foreign the company’s website, the and China. South Korean offi-
travel and block- only locations listed for online cials, who collected the debris,
ing its own citi- reservations are Pyongyang, determined in a joint analysis
zens from re- Beijing and Vladivostok, Rus- with the U.S. that the spy sat-
turning home. sia—a traditional stronghold ellite couldn’t have been used
For years, for North Korea’s overseas mi- for military purposes.
the approach grant workers. An Air Koryo After the botched test, the
appeared suc- representative in Vladivostok Kim regime vowed to make a
cessful. But in confirmed that flights from follow-up attempt soon. North
May 2022, that Russian city to Pyong- Korea has given advanced warn-
North Korea ad- yang would resume on Friday, ing of its satellite launches—
mitted to its first large-scale according to a report in NK which Pyongyang has argued in
Covid-19 outbreak, when nearly News, a website specializing the past serve research or civil-
one-fifth of the country’s popu- in North Korean affairs. ian purposes—to warn vessels
lation fell ill—including Kim. Separately, North Korea has in the potential landing area.
The secretive regime within alerted Japan of its plans to —Rachel Liang
months declared victory over conduct a satellite launch be- contributed to this article.
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A8 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 * * THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

WORLD NEWS

Daring Midair Rescue Saves Eight U.S.-Allied Afghans

Pakistani army, locals Face Killings Under
get six children, two
adults from cable car Taliban, U.N. Finds
dangling above ravine
BY SAEED SHAH so. No country has recognized
BY SAEED SHAH the Taliban government. But
Hundreds of soldiers, police many nations, including the
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan— and other officials from the U.S., hold regular diplomatic
Rescuers saved eight people, former U.S.-backed govern- talks with the regime.
including six children, trapped ment in Afghanistan have The Taliban have repeat-
Tuesday on a stranded cable been subjected to extrajudicial edly maintained that they
PAKISTAN RESCUE MILITARY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

car 1,000 feet over a ravine in executions, torture, disappear- have abided by the terms of
northern Pakistan. ances or arbitrary arrests the amnesty, and denied that
The operation lasted late since the Taliban took over the killings or other abuses
into the night, as locals the country, according to the took place. Their administra-
mounted their own rescue bid United Nations. tion has also pointed to de-
after dark, when loss of light In the two years of Taliban crees it has issued against tor-
meant that an army helicopter rule, a U.N. investigation ture and mistreatment of
operation had to be cur- found evidence of 800 such prisoners. They also say that
tailed. The drama gripped the serious human-rights viola- their conquest of the country
nation, with many saying they tions against ex-army and po- has brought peace, for the
couldn’t bear to watch the live lice personnel, as well as first time in decades.
coverage on news channels. The military and local rescuers bring the last passengers to safety using ropes and harnesses. other former officials of the The U.N. shared the report
Army helicopters rescued administration they ousted. with the Taliban’s Foreign
up to two of the children, had passed out for three hours. were made during the after- the rest of the passengers The findings of the report Ministry ahead of publication.
while the rest were ferried out The teenager was using the ca- noon, but high winds and con- would have to spend the night released Tuesday are at odds The Foreign Ministry’s
manually by locals traveling ble car to get to a hospital, he cern that air gusts created by suspended in the air. with the amnesty declared by spokesman didn’t respond to a
along the cable line. said, adding that they had no the rotor could further desta- That is when the knowl- the Taliban for all former offi- request for comment. But the
The last of the people on food or drink with them. bilize the cable car frustrated edge of locals, who string up cials, after their fighters Taliban did provide a response
the cable car was rescued “Our situation is precari- the efforts. At one point, a such cable cars, came in. They walked into Kabul in August to the investigators.
some 16 hours into the ordeal, ous, for God’s sake do some- commando rappelled down a devised a manual solution: At- 2021. Tens of thousands of “No military staff of the
in a remote part of an area thing,” said the man, identi- rope from a helicopter to try tach pulleys to the remaining such former officials remain in previous administration has
called Battagram, in Pakistan’s fied by one name, Gulfaraz. to reach the children. good cable, rescuers said. Afghanistan, unable or unwill- been arrested, detained or tor-
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The other children were on “It was a complicated and First food was sent down the ing to join the scramble of Af- tured because of his activities
The cable car became stuck the way to school at 7 a.m. on difficult rescue,” the military line to the stranded car. Then ghans to flee abroad that came in the security institutions,”
midway between two moun- a rudimentary cable car that said in a statement. rescuers used the pulleys to with the Taliban takeover. the Taliban told the U.N.
tains when one of the cables ferries them daily from their Then, just before dark, hoist themselves along the The U.N. said it had docu- “Those employees of the pre-
on which it ran snapped, leav- village on one there was a line to reach the car. They mented at least 218 extrajudi- vious administration who
ing the car dangling at an an- mountain to b r e a k - brought the passengers out cial killings. It found over 424 joined the opposition groups
gle on the remaining cable. school on an- through. A heli- one by one, also attached by a arbitrary arrests and more of the Islamic Emirate or had
The doors on one side of the other. Lack of ‘The local copter lowered pulley to the cable. than 144 instances of torture military activities to the detri-
car hung open, with the chil- infrastructure people risked a harness at It was 11 p.m. local time and ill treatment of former ment of the system, have been
dren at that end tightly hold- such as roads the end of a when authorities declared that government officials. arrested and introduced to ju-
ing on, inches from the drop to and bridges for their lives to rope to the ca- all had been saved. The organization said that dicial authorities, keeping in
the floor of the ravine, pictures locals to use ble car, local “All the people participat- the abuses it found work mind all the legal processes.”
from the scene showed. means that
save these video showed. ing in the rescue operation are against the healing of wounds The Taliban told the U.N.
Some of the children such makeshift children.’ A child put on heroes of the nation,” said in society from Afghanistan’s that they weren’t aware of any
fainted during the day. Others cable cars are the harness and Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq 40 years of war, and contra- cases of human-rights abuses
screamed when a helicopter popular in jumped off the Kakar. “Great team work by vene the Taliban’s obligations of former officials. The Tali-
came close, buffeting the car these poor cable car, drop- the military, rescue depart- under international human- ban say that some former offi-
with wind from its rotors. The mountain areas. ping with a jerk before the ments, district administration rights law. “Members of the de cials have joined a resistance
children were able to call their “The local people risked rope tightened and he hung in as well as the local people.” facto authorities continue to movement, which has staged
terrified parents on a cell- their lives to save these chil- the air. The helicopter then —Waqar Gillani perpetrate, or fail to respond small sporadic attacks.
phone, said locals in touch dren,” said Khalid Waqas, the flew, with the child dangling, contributed to this article. to, human rights violations that The Taliban told investiga-
with the families. Locals gath- regional head of Alkhidmat, a to safety. Locals on the moun- are carried out with apparent tors that if breaches had oc-
ered on the mountainside ex- charity that took part in the tainside cheered. impunity,” the U.N. said. curred, these were individual
pressed fear that the remain- rescue. “It was a collective ef- There were conflicting re- Watch a Video The investigators acknowl- acts of revenge for treatment
ing cable could break. fort.” ports over whether one or See scenes edge that there are risks to ap- suffered at the hands of for-
An adult on board told a lo- Earlier, the army mounted two children were saved this from the proaching the U.N. in Afghani- mer officials. The U.N. says
cal channel, Geo News, by a daring helicopter rescue bid, way. But helicopters had to rescues by stan to report abuses and that that it is unclear if the abuses
phone that a 16-year-old pas- led by its special forces. Sev- stop operating when darkness Pakistan’s army some victims or their families inflicted by the Taliban were
senger with a heart condition eral attempts by helicopter fell, raising the prospect that and locals. may have been too afraid to do part of a systematic drive.

UNDER
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IN SEARCH OF SURVIVORS.
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | A9

Our friend and colleague, Evan Gershkovich, was detained by Russia

on March 29 during a reporting trip and accused of espionage. Evan,
The Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny the
allegation and have called for his immediate release.

Evan’s colleagues, friends and family will be sharing stories about

him each week.

To show support for Evan, please follow the latest updates at WSJ.com/Evan
and add the hashtag #IStandWithEvan across social media.

I met Evan a few weeks after he joined The Wall Street Journal. He was
waiting for new media credentials and itching to resume reporting from
Russia. It was clear why: It’s a place he cares about deeply and spent years
getting to understand.

After sharing just a couple of meals, I knew I had made a friend. Only later
did I realize Evan has that effect on almost everyone. Affability is one of the
qualities that makes him such a good reporter.

Evan and I kept in touch from a distance. When Russia launched

its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he was consumed with the job.
“Working insane days,” he texted me from London on Feb. 24, 2022.

In the months that followed, we discussed story ideas and made plans to
work together. “A thought that keeps coming up is that we need to team up,”
he wrote me one Friday in May 2022.

We met up again at a training course about reporting in hostile

environments. Evan was quick to lighten the mood with a joke, but I was
struck by his passion for journalism. He is hardwired for this line of work.

That was the last time I saw Evan. Three months later, we were both on
assignment and texting again—him from southern Russia and me from
northern Ukraine. We were only 40 miles apart, talking shop and teasing
each other like old pals.

My heart sank when I learned of Evan’s wrongful arrest. It’s time for him
to come home.

Stephen Kalin
WSJ Foreign Correspondent

#IStandWithEvan

©2023 Dow Jones & Co, Inc. All rights reserved. 6DJ0063

A10 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023
How Hard
Should the
Fed Squeeze?
Continued from Page One
they’re satisfied that inflation is
slowing durably, they could hold
them at their current level and
consider trimming rates later
next year. That would take more
time to get to the inflation tar-
get—around three years.
What if getting to 2% isn’t
worth the pain? Another strain
of thinking says the Fed should
accept a rate around 3% as the
new target. Powell and other
Fed officials say moving the goal
posts like that isn’t an option.
The challenge of finishing the
fight against inflation will likely
be a big topic of debate for cen-
tral bankers when they gather
for the Kansas City Fed’s annual
retreat in the mountains of
Jackson Hole, Wyo., where Pow-
ell is set to speak Friday.
Many economists still see a
risk of recession over the next
year under the weight of the
Fed’s rapid rate increases, which
have put stress on commercial
real estate and regional banks.
The central bank lifted its
benchmark rate last month to a
range between 5.25% and 5.5%, a
22-year high. That rate influ-
ences other borrowing costs
throughout the economy, in-
cluding for mortgages, car loans
and credit cards.
Others worry that inflation’s
recent decline will stall as con-
sumer and business spending
accelerates in coming months,
forcing the Fed to raise rates
again to trigger a downturn in
inflation.
Quicker, or slower?
Among economists and poli-
ticians, debate is already raging
over how the Fed should man-
age the coming phase. The
move-quickly camp argues for
the Fed to keep the screws tight
to force inflation down to 2%
briskly, even if that leads to re-
cession. They say taking too
long to bring prices back to the
target could erode the Fed’s
credibility, especially if the
economy is hit with new shocks
that drive up inflation.
If that happens, it would
likely take an even more painful
downturn later to ultimately
bring inflation down, as oc-
curred in the early 1980s. In
their mind, taking our medicine
now is a safer bet.
Another camp suggests the
central bank could take a lesson
from former Fed Chair Alan
Greenspan and get to its 2% tar-
get more leisurely. Greenspan in
the early 1990s charted an ap-
proach later dubbed “opportu-
nistic.” Rather than push imme-
diately for 2%, get there
gradually over several years by
holding rates at a level that
could seem slightly higher than
they need to be, and letting op-
portunities, such as the occa-
sional economic slowdown,
nudge inflation down.
They say the approach would
better balance the Fed’s man-
date of low and stable inflation
with maximum employment.
Japan
Offers Gifts
For Taxes
Continued from Page One
gan a decade-and-a-half ago.
Under the rules, the typical
taxpayer can redirect roughly
20% of the income-dependent
portion of his or her “resi-
dence taxes” to other local
governments, which can then
spend about 30% of that on
gifts. In the financial year
ended March 2023, donations
under the system approached
a trillion yen, or almost $7
billion.
The program was created
to help rural areas where tax
revenue was eroding as
Japan’s population declines
and people move to major cit-
ies. The idea was that those
city transplants could support
their home regions, and get
some of their favorite local
products, such as grapes or
peaches, thrown in free. Their
payments into the “hometown
tax” system could be de-
ducted from their local tax
bills and at times their in-
come taxes.
The program was a wild
success, mutating into a fren-
zied competition to lure tax
payments with a vast array of
gifts. Many in Japan now
Screens on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange in December show Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Several former Fed officials
say the approach makes sense if
inflation falls below 3% and then
stalls. “If inflation gets down be-
low 3%, your risk preferences
may change for how much
you’re willing to induce slower
labor markets to get to 2% infla-
tion,” said former Boston Fed
President Eric Rosengren.
Richmond Fed President Tom
Barkin said the 1990s aren’t a
useful parallel because back
then, the Fed was lowering in-
flation following a longer period
when it was much higher. The
Fed could go more slowly be-
cause the public expected infla-
tion to stay high. Now, inflation
expectations have been reset at
a lower level. “Today, you’d
worry about the risk of [high in-
flation] lingering and bringing
expectations up,” he said.
Fed officials aren’t likely to
be patient if inflation stabilizes
above 3%. That would be a prob-
lem because without more obvi-
ous signs of an economic slow-
down, pressure on wages could
feed through to prices, said sev-
eral former officials, including
Rosengren, Richard Clarida,
who served as Fed vice chair
from 2018 until early 2022, and
former Chicago Fed President
Charles Evans.
“They’ve got to get the core
inflation down below 3% before
you start feeling really good
about this,” said Evans. Underly-
ing or “core” inflation, which
strips out volatile food and en-
ergy prices, looks headed to-
ward 3.5% by early next year.
Inflation continuing to run
above 3% could require the Fed
to keep raising rates. Once infla-
tion falls below that level, the
case for the Fed to consider rate
cuts would heat up, Evans said.
“I’ve been in the two-point-
something camp,” said Clarida.
“That sounds arbitrary, but
some things in life are arbi-
trary.”
Moving goal posts
The raise-the-target camp
says the central bank should
simply declare 3% as its new
target.
Some economists favor lift-
ing the target because the cost
equate the program to online
shopping.
Japan’s Ministry of Internal
Affairs is trying to rein in the
excesses. “It’s not shopping,”
said Yuta Akutsu, an official at
the ministry’s municipal tax
division. “It’s just turned into
this thing that seems like
shopping.”
Each year, Yoko Koizumi, a
financial planner in Yoko-
hama, uses the program to
stock her larder with essen-
tials such as meat, fish and
vegetables, and with luxury
items that she wouldn’t other-
wise buy, including scallops,
fish eggs and crab.
“I don’t usually choose to
donate to somewhere because
of a connection to the place,”
she said. “It’s more because I
look at the thank-you gift and
think, ‘I really want to eat this
thing.’ ”
Her children, she said, en-
joy pointing out where each
product came from on a map
near their bathtub. “Even if
it’s a vegetable they usually
hate, they’ll eat it,” she said.
Taxpayers can find gift op-
tions listed on more than a
dozen online platforms. Blogs
have popped up where partici-
pants review gifts, publishing
ranked lists of the best cher-
ries or tuna.
The maximum tax-deduct-
ible amount taxpayers can do-
nate in a year depends on the
size of their tax bill. Those
with higher salaries get more
free stuff. On popular home-
FROM PAGE ONE
Inflation and expectations
10.0%
12-month core inflation rate*
Fed-funds rate
7.5 Year-ahead inflation expectations
5.0
2.5
0 tors believe Powell will achieve
1990 ’95 2000
Federal-funds rate
10.0%
Federal-
7.5 funds rate
5.0
2.5
0 1
Inflation
–2.5 adjusted†
1990 ’95 2000 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20
*Excludes food and energy prices †Calculated as the federal-funds rate less one-year-ahead
inflation expectations from the Survey of Professional Forecasters
Sources: Federal Reserve (federal-fund rate, cumulative change); Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
(inflation-adjusted rate); Labor Department (inflation); Cleveland Fed (inflation expectations)
of forcing inflation down to 2%
over the next two years would
likely be significantly higher un-
employment.
Some had concluded years
ago that, because of more fre-
quent spells in which the Fed
couldn’t cut interest rates once
they were lowered to zero, the
2% inflation target was too low.
With a higher target of 3%, in-
terest rates would be higher in
good times, giving the Fed more
scope to counteract downturns
by cutting them.
They think with inflation well
off recent highs, the Fed could
manage a transition to a 3% tar-
get without risking a persis-
tently higher rate.
“The inflation target…is not
meant to be an absolute rule,”
said Adam Posen, a former Bank
of England policy maker who
now runs the Peterson Institute
for International Economics.
“We should be understandably
The coastal city of Numazu is offering free welding lessons to tax donors.
town-tax blogs, some people
claim to receive between 50
and 200 gifts a year. One par-
ticipant reported furnishing
much of her apartment
through the program.
Former Prime Minister
Yoshihide Suga, who crafted
the program while serving in
a different government post,
said in an interview it had
grown beyond his expecta-
tions. He said he donates to a
town in the north where he
grew up in a family of straw-
’05 ’10 ’15
Cumulative change in federal-
funds rate since initial increase
5 pct. pts. 2022
2004
4
1988
3 slowing economic activity to be
2 1994
1999
0 half of 2023,” which could pres-
0 12 24 36
MONTHS SINCE FIRST INCREASE
reluctant about crushing the
economy to get from 3.5% to
2.25% inflation.”
A higher target is also popu-
lar among Democrats concerned
that rising unemployment or a
recession would threaten Presi-
dent Biden’s re-election.
Current and former Fed offi-
cials think changing the target
now would be a mistake. Central
banks have used explicit infla-
tion targets to help convince the
public that inflation would re-
main low and stable because the
banks were signaling, in ad-
vance, how they would react in
periods of higher inflation.
Powell made clear he won’t
consider raising the target with
inflation running above it, be-
cause it risks undercutting the
entire strategy. “We’re not go-
ing to be considering that under
any circumstances,” he said last
fall. He repeated that view to a
skeptical lawmaker in March.
berry farmers—“without a
thank-you gift in return,” he
added.
The redistribution of tax
revenue has created losers
along with the winners. To-
kyo’s Setagaya ward was hit
especially hard. In the year
ending March 2024, that sec-
tion of the city expects to post
a loss of almost $70 million in
tax revenue due to deductions
from the hometown tax sys-
tem.
“This system is a mistake,”
.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
even if the Fed holds its bench-
mark rate steady, since inflation
has declined, the effect would
be as if the rate was raised.
“You’d stop raising long be-
fore you got to 2% inflation, and
you’d start cutting before you go
to 2% inflation, too,” Powell said
in July. “It’ll be about how con-
fident we are that inflation is, in
fact, coming down to our 2%
goal.” Powell suggested that
without a serious slowdown, the
Fed wasn’t likely to entertain
rate cuts until “a full year from
now.”
The Fed under Greenspan
didn’t have a publicly stated in-
flation goal. Congress charged
the Fed with achieving “price
stability,” but Greenspan never
defined the term, which made it
easier to cut rates to support a
weak economy even if inflation
was higher than desired. Under
ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS
Greenspan’s successor, Ben Ber-
nanke, the Fed adopted its offi-
cial 2% inflation target in 2012.
Some officials bristle at com-
paring their potential approach
of allowing inflation to move
down more gradually to Green-
span’s because it implies that
“If you were to unilaterally they would be OK with 3% infla-
declare that you’re not going to tion—and would just hope to get
hit the target that you’ve set, to 2% by getting lucky.
then you are also declaring that But their projections suggest
you’re less credible in any target they are thinking along similar
you set,” said Barkin. lines: Their current policy won’t
The low inflation of the past deliver 2% inflation immedi-
two decades shows that 2% is a ately, but they will get there
reasonable goal, Barkin said. soon enough that they don’t
Clarida said the relatively need to cause a recession.
low yields of long-term govern- Most officials anticipate cut-
ment securities suggest inves- ting interest rates by about 1
percentage point next year, even
2% inflation within a few years. though they see core inflation
’20
Raising the target to 3% now falling to 2.6% by the end of the
“would almost certainly lead to year—still above the target.
a very substantial selloff,” said Most see inflation reaching 2%
the former Fed vice chair. by the end of 2025.
Those projections may be too
rosy. Riccardo Trezzi, a former
Restricted activity Fed economist who has re-cre-
Some Fed officials say they ated the central bank’s inflation-
need to see clearer signs of forecasting model—which as-
sesses data alone and removes
2015 convinced inflation will keep judgment calls officials might
falling. They could push to raise make—estimates the central
rates again this year. bank’s model is likely to project
A key consideration is core inflation at 2.7% in 2025.
“whether the economy really Fed officials said discussions
does accelerate in the second around such tactics are prema-
ture. “It feels pretty early to get
sure officials to raise rates to that particular hypothetical
above 6% next year, said James when core inflation is still at 4%,
Bullard, who stepped down last not 3%,” said Barkin.
month as president of the St. In June, Barkin penciled in
Louis Fed to become dean of the lower rates near the end of 2024
business school at Purdue Uni- assuming the economy had con-
versity. “What they are worried tracted for two quarters. It’s
about right now is sustaining hard to see how the Fed gets in-
the disinflation we see, and get- flation back to its target without
ting the core inflation measures slower growth, he said. “If we
down on a 12-month basis, into do end up in this hypothetical
the 3% range, and clearly falling situation, I would distinguish
further,” said Bullard. between patience versus hope,”
Several, including Powell, he said. In other words, the Fed
have said they think rates are could entertain a more patient
now restricting economic activ- approach to bringing down in-
ity by slowing hiring, spending flation only after seeing evi-
and investment. They see much dence activity is weakening.
more balanced risks of raising Others think the Fed is on
them too much versus too little. track to bring down inflation
That brings the Fed close to over the next two years without
the last of three stages of tight- significantly increasing unem-
ening. In the first stage, in 2022, ployment. The path to a soft
officials raised rates rapidly in landing in recent months “seems
jumbo increments. They moved to have gotten wider,” said Bos-
to the second stage early this ton Fed President Susan Collins.
year, nudging borrowing costs The Fed’s current policy is delib-
up more slowly to find a level erately and intentionally bring-
that restrains demand without ing inflation down, and to float a
causing unnecessary economic strategy that entertains a longer
weakness. period of time to arrive at 2%
In the third stage, the focus “could be confusing and perhaps
shifts to inflation-adjusted or undermine the credibility” of the
“real” rates. That means that central bank’s policy, she said.
ernment began blocking mu-
nicipalities from participating
if they spent more than 30% of
donation values on gifts, or if
they offered products that
weren’t produced locally.
Goka, a town north of To-
kyo, recently began offering
ownership of five construction
vehicles—a crane, a dump
truck and three excavators—in
return for a donation of nearly
$2.5 million.
Takikawa, a town with a
declining population on the
northern island of Hokkaido,
is offering the chance to be
mayor for a day for a donation
SYLVAN LEBRUN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
of a million yen, or about
$7,000. A donor would get to
sit in the mayor’s chair and
stamp a pretend decision,
speak with residents about the
town’s problems and eat its
celebrated mutton stew—
cooked by the real mayor.
Kokichi Maeda, the mayor,
said funding from the system
had helped offset declining tax
revenues. The town also offers
said Setagaya Mayor Nobuto donors the chance to fly in a
Hosaka. If losses continue to glider.
grow, he said, the ward could In Numazu, 10 people so far
struggle to fund day-to-day have taken up the offer of a
services such as road repair half-hour welding lesson at a
and garbage collection. local ironworks in return for a
At first, Setagaya refused tax payment of around $70.
to provide thank-you gifts be- Numazu is planning to offer
cause it disagreed with the re- scuba diving and golf pack-
ward concept. Last winter, it ages as well. Misawa, the local
caved, introducing gift cards official, said 96-roll packages
for hotels and restaurants, of toilet paper—produced at a
high-end sweets and jewelry. local factory—have been one
Donations doubled. of the most popular items of-
In 2019, the national gov- fered.

© 2023 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved.
PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
Building the Great Wall of TVs
Homeowners create modern marvel of mammoth-size screens without mammoth price tags
BY DALVIN BROWN
T
yrone Stockett sat in a
Texas sports bar earlier
this year when inspira-
tion struck. He knew
how to make his joint
48th birthday-Super
Bowl party unforgettable: a giant
wall of TVs in his living room.
Less than two months later,
more than two-dozen friends gath-
ered on game day to behold Stock-
ett’s 144-inch spectacle—four 70-
inch TVs linked to form one
supersize picture.
“Everyone was just like ‘Wow,’”
said Stockett, who works for Gen-
eral Motors in Arlington, Texas. “I
already have one 75-inch TV in an-
other room, but nothing compares
to having four working together.”
Prices for big screen TVs have
been falling over the years, but the
largest models still can cost six
figures. Samsung offers a modular
TV called The Wall that lets cus-
tomers decide what size and shape
they want for their televisions, 110
FROM TOP: JOSEPH SOLOMON; ATTYWON CORP.
inches and above—as long as they
have at least $80,000 to spare.
Samsung’s biggest mainstream TV
is 98 inches and costs $8,000.
People are finding ways to
make their own “video walls” for
much less money.
New televisions with sleeker
frames and improved mounts have
made such setups more feasible
for homeowners. In the past, they
The High Cost of Filling Kids’ Free Time
BY OYIN ADEDOYIN
B
ack-to-school season marks
the return of parents spending
big on sports and hobbies.
Affluent families have long been
in an arms race to pack kids’ sched-
ules with activities to help cultivate
talents and interests that will
someday shine on a college applica-
tion. Spending on sports, coding
classes, music lessons and other
pursuits has risen not just because
of inflation, but the need to stand
out among peers. Not all families
have the resources to keep up.
Though extracurriculars have al-
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY RACHEL MENDELSON/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, ISTOCK (6), PIXELSQUID (2)
ways played a role in college admis-
sions, they are becoming more im-
portant for several reasons.
Standardized-test scores now carry
less weight than they used to, and
reporting them is optional for many
colleges. This is giving nonacademic
factors more status, college-admis-
sions consultants said.
The Supreme Court’s June deci-
sion outlawing affirmative action
could put even more emphasis on
extracurricular activities to make a
student stand out, said Christo-
pher Rim, chief executive of Com-
mand Education, an elite-college
consulting firm in New York that
advises students on their college
applications.
For families already squeezed by
higher prices, it can be tough to
give children every opportunity for
enrichment without blowing their
budgets.
PERSONAL JOURNAL.
typically were limited to
office lobbies or news-
rooms because of the
expense, intricacies of
installation and the TV
designs themselves.
Partly inspired by so-
cial media, people are
cobbling together two to
eight displays to make
panoramic canvases
spanning 110 inches or
more. They can show
one large image, or each
screen can display its
own video.
“People want new
ways to consume con-
tent,” said James Fishler,
Samsung’s senior vice
president of consumer
electronics in the U.S.
“There are no rules.”
Stockett spent a total of $2,400
on four Samsung TVs on sale at
Best Buy, plus another $1,100 for
installation.
“I can ball on a budget and not
feel like I’m missing out on any-
thing,” Stockett said. When he’s
not displaying one big picture, his
teenage son plays videogames on
one display while his daughter
watches TV on another.
Precision play
Ari Broukhim moved to New York
in 2020 for medical school. He
quickly found the Midtown Manhat-
tan apartment he shared with his
Extra money and time
More than 70% of parents said that
at least one of their children under
18 years old is involved in an after-
school activity, according to a survey
released in May by LendingTree, an
online lending marketplace. On aver-
age, families spend $731 per child for
after-school activities yearly, al-
though those enrolled in travel
sports teams, weekly music lessons
or coaching often spend a lot more.
Affluent families have been sign-
ing their children up for activities at
younger ages, investing more time
and money in helping them cultivate
a range of interests and credentials,
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
 Attywon has installed TV walls
in more than a dozen residences
throughout the New York area.
cousin was too bright for his old
video projector, but he wanted the
immersive sports and movie watch-
ing a large display would give him.
Then he saw a video wall inside
a New York bank.
Broukhim, now 28 years old,
hired a home-theater specialist to
install four 55-inch Samsung TVs
next to each other on his living
room wall and link them with his
surround-sound system. The 110-
a recent study by researchers at the
University of Maryland, College Park
found. This dynamic contributes to
widening disparities between
wealthy students—already favored
in the admissions system—and
those from lower-income house-
holds, the working paper found.
An analysis of nearly six million
college applications found that
wealthier students, private-school
students, as well as white and
Asian-American students, reported
more extracurricular activities, more
awards and more top-leadership po-
sitions in extracurricular organiza-
tions, said Julie J. Park, an associate
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | A11
inch video wall, plus complex wir-
ing and installation, cost him
$34,500—a steep amount for most
people but cheaper than alterna-
tives of that size. “This was the
best option for a nice, large screen
with high resolution at all times of
the day,” Broukhim said.
Creating a TV-wall setup isn’t
simple. Securing multiple TVs to a
wall requires technical expertise
and attention to detail. Installers
must align the screens perfectly to
prevent any noticeable gaps be-
tween them.
“It seems like something that’s
easy to do. But it’s not,” said Jo-
professor of education who co-
wrote the working paper.
“In more affluent communities,
it’s kind of the hamster wheel that
people have created,” Park said.
Simply signing up for a variety of
extracurriculars alone doesn’t boost
a student’s chances at a college ad-
mission, Rim said. But parents often
do it anyway at great expense, fi-
nancial advisers said.
Private coaching
and lessons add up
Spending is going up for youth
sports, especially at tournaments,
said Susan Eustis, president of Win-
terGreen Research, a market-re-
search firm in Lexington, Mass. For
example, families with kids in soc-
cer spent an average of $1,323 per
child in 2022 compared with $1,023
in 2018. Families with kids in cheer-
leading spent an average of $678
per child in 2022, up from $443 in
2018, the company found.
Paying for instruments, uniforms
and travel to competitions impose
additional financial demands on
families, financial advisers said.
Tina Swithin, an author and blog-
ger in California, wanted her two
daughters to play soccer. But after
she separated from her husband,
paying $125 per child each year for
the sport was a challenge.
“The reality is this isn’t the total
cost because you still have to buy
the shinguards, the shoes, and the
thought of providing drinks and
snacks for an entire team of chil-
.
 Installer Joseph Solomon says
connecting four TVs is more
complicated than it appears to be.
seph Solomon, founder of Levels In-
stallations, a TV-mounting service
based in Washington, D.C. Setting
up control boxes that manage video
sources, and hiding the wiring adds
to the complexity, he said.
Unlike individual TVs that can
be adjusted on swiveling wall
mounts, media walls are less flexi-
ble and can’t easily be moved—or
removed—once installed.
Operating the TVs can also be
more complicated. Sometimes us-
ers plug their streaming device
into a centralized control box to
stretch content across multiple
screens. Homeowners may need to
download and sign into apps four
times to access content on the in-
dividual screens. And operating
the screens can require a separate
remote or smart-home control app
like Control4 or Compass Control.
Some installers charge a couple
hundred dollars for simple setups,
while others charge thousands to
hack into walls and install other
elements like LED lights on the
back of the TVs.
“It’s really an a la carte ser-
vice,” said Eyal Akler, founder of
Attywon, a home theater installa-
tion company servicing the
greater New York area. “There’s
no kit you can go buy to put it to-
gether. It’s never that simple.”
Attywon has installed roughly
15 TV walls in the past three or so
years, he said.
Multiscreen magic
Installers say the uptake of TV
walls can be attributed partly to
TikTok. The social-media app’s
meteoric rise has celeb-
rities, athletes and ev-
eryday users showing
off their sprawling TV
setups.
Solomon fielded his
first request to install a
TV wall last year and
has completed 25 since
then. He’s now juggling
five for the coming
month after sharing in-
stallation videos on In-
stagram and TikTok.
Charles Williams, of
White Plains, Md., had
barely settled into the
four-bedroom town-
house he bought in
June when one of Solo-
mon’s Instagram videos
inspired the 41-year-old
government contractor
to turn his basement
into the ultimate man cave.
The screens shown in the video
were captivating and mood-setting
with colorful LED lights radiating
from behind them. He immediately
reached out to Solomon. They set-
tled on $3,800 for four 55-inch
Samsung TVs and installation.
Whenever friends come over
and see the TV wall for the first
time, they ask how they can get
their own, Williams said.
“I now spend 80% of my time
down there, with what I call my
‘Mega TV,’” he said. “When foot-
ball season starts, it may be
more.”
dren, when I was barely able to feed
my own, felt daunting,” she said.
By the time Swithin could afford
to enroll her daughters in extracur-
riculars, she felt they were lagging
behind their peers in skill.
Budgeting for
extracurriculars
The full cost of competitive extra-
curriculars can be difficult for fami-
lies to predict and budget for. Fi-
nancial experts recommend
planning ahead as much as possible
by setting a budget ahead of time.
Expect costs to rise every year, no
matter the sport or activity.
Lauren Mathews Fairey, a certi-
fied financial educator at Wealth-
wave, a financial-services company,
often sees parents use credit cards
to cover their kids’ extracurricular
expenses. She recommends care-
fully considering whether going into
debt is the answer.
Mathews Fairey and her husband
use a budgeting app to set aside
$300 a month for their kids’ extra-
curricular activities. She also recom-
mends getting secondhand equip-
ment as another way to cut costs.
Sara Aros, a freelance writer in
New York City, said her daughter,
Adelaide Sokol, 16, participated in
fewer extracurriculars than her
peers while growing up. But when
the pandemic hit and Adelaide
could no longer attend her school’s
art classes, her parents found her a
private art coach for $125 an hour.
“Being further along in our ca-
reers and in our financial stability,
we’re able to provide these things,”
Aros said. “If we had two kids, there
are a lot of things we wouldn’t have
been able to do.”

A12 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023
ON TREND
JACOB
GALLAGHER
W
hen Josie Francis
wants to buy an
especially extraor-
dinary new hat,
she doesn’t go to
any old boutique
in Los Angeles where she lives.
No, she waits till she returns to
her native Wisconsin and visits
her local gas station.
“I get so many compliments on
the things that I buy from literal
gas stations,” said Francis, 27, who
works in digital marketing. “I can
guarantee that no one in my circle
is gonna have this hat I bought
from this gas station off of I-94 in
Wisconsin.”
Call it “gas station core.” In be-
tween putting $25 on pump three,
discerning shoppers like Francis
are scouring the racks at their lo-
cal Gulfs and QuikTrips for acces-
sories that are appealing in that
so-bad-they’re-great kinda way.
“It’s the whole idea of like, ‘Oh I
can just go into this tacky, kitschy
place and find something and make
it trendy,’” said Alex Hartman, the
creator of Nolita Dirtbag, an Insta-
gram account that lovingly mocks
arch New York fashion trends.
We’ve all seen this stuff on
road trips: Souvenir hats in
firetruck red or camo, sometimes
with rhinestones and often with
ChatGPT-level slogans about hunt-
ing or Jesus-related puns. And $12
wraparound shades with reflective
lenses that shimmer like an oil
stain in the sun.
“There is something fun about
trying this stuff on and looking in
that little mirror that they have like
above the rack with the Takis right
next to you,” said Hartman, who re-
cently watched a friend buy a
schlocky baby-blue Yankees hat at a
gas-station shop in Long Island.
Shopping has, in many ways,
become an uninspiring activity:
We see something on Instagram
or on your favorite actor or a
friend, google it and buy it. It can
all feel very preprogrammed and
predictable.
Committed shoppers know that
if they want something really dis-
tinct today, they have to journey
farther afield. This has given rise
to pell-mell resale sites like Depop,
littered with evidence of hereto-
fore forgotten trends (spaghetti-
strapped baby doll T-
shirts, scratchy skirt
suits, cargo capri pants,
etc.) and birthed a whole
new generation of insatia-
ble thrift shop scavengers.
That same appetite for
idiosyncrasy has con-
vinced certain shoppers
that Buc-ee’s, not Bloom-
ingdale’s, is where their
next great fashion pur-
chase is lurking.
“People ask what
brand is that and I’ll just
be like, ‘Oh, you know,
just a random gas sta-
tion,’” said Chason How-
ard, 28, a music producer
in Atlanta who goes by
Popstar Benny. His prized
high-octane buy is a camo
cap with the phrase “The
Josie Francis of Los
Angeles wears one of her
gas-station finds.
Airbnb Hosts
Pull Listings
In New York
Continued from Page One
families who can’t afford multiple
hotel rooms. The regulations mean
he can’t list his apartment and will
likely lose half his current income.
He said he might need to move out
of the apartment.
“It’s a very significant change in
my future, once they start enforcing
this regulation,” he said.
The enforcement comes after
years of legal back-and-forth be-
tween Airbnb and the city. Many
residents and city officials said the
changes are needed to combat the
city’s affordable-housing crisis.
Airbnb has denied having a mate-
rial impact on that problem. Hosts
said the rules hurt those who rely
on the extra income to survive living
in the city, particularly homeowners.
New York’s enforcement is one of
the more high-profile examples of
cities cracking down on short-term
rentals. There are about 38,500
Airbnb listings in the city, not
counting hotels that list on the plat-
form, according to a legal filing. The
annual net revenue for these listings
is $85 million.
The city has estimated there are
about 10,800 illegal short-term rent-
als citywide.
PERSONAL JOURNAL.
Hitting the Road
For Gas-Station Chic
In a world of online shopping, going the distance for authentic kitsch
Buck Stops Here,” stitched along
the front. (Howard stressed he has
never actually hunted.)
Howard makes a point to pop
into gas stations around the coun-
try while touring America. “It’s
like, I’ll probably never be off this
side road on the Texas highway
ever again, let me peek inside,”
Starting Sept. 5, hosts must be
registered with the city or have
what is called Class B status to pro-
vide short-term rental stays.
Airbnb estimated 5,300 existing res-
ervations would be affected in the
first week of enforcement, according
to an August legal filing. There are
more than 40,500 short-term rental
stays in New York City beginning on
or after Sept. 5.
The new law prohibits booking
platforms from processing payments
for unregistered transactions. That
means platforms such as Airbnb, Vrbo
and Booking.com face penalties, too.
Tom DeRose stopped listing short-
term rental units earlier this year
when New York City’s new law
passed. The 23-year-old engaged in
what he calls “Airbnb arbitrage”:
renting apartments, then listing
them on Airbnb despite not living
there. At his peak, he said, he had as
many as eight listings and could earn
$10,000 a month on a three-bedroom
listing during summer months.
DeRose, the founder of 3Plus9, a
student- and intern-housing com-
pany, said he didn’t know this was
prohibited when he started. But he
said New York’s strong tenant laws
and the prior lack of enforcement
made it easy. Now, he said the regu-
lations make sense to target people
like him.
“I think, overall, what they’ve done
is good for New York City. But I think
some hosts who aren’t really taking
away from the housing supply and
are just trying to make a living are
getting screwed off this,” he said.
Airbnb said the rules are burden-
Similarly to checking every single
rack at a thrift store, he advised
that you “gotta turn every stone.”
Each station has its own dis-
tinct stock, and if you spot, say, a
pink camo hat with a bass stitched
on it at a rest stop outside Denver,
the odds are pretty good you’ll
never see that exact shimmery cap
again. (Gas station-core
aficionados claim mom-
and-pop fill-up spots
have more enticing as-
sortments than nation-
wide chains.)
Tariq Khan, a gas sta-
tion owner in West
Hempstead, N.Y., said
that he purchases his
store’s merchandise
from vendors that cater
to convenience stores.
“They go store to store
and they have a bunch of
novelties and they try to
sell you those,” said
Khan. “I spend an hour
and I pick items which I
know I can sell.”
These high-margin
items—$4 watches, Poke-
mon-type games and hats
that say “New York”—
give his business a boost.
“We buy [hats] for $3,
$4, and sell for $10,” he
some for hosts. Among them: no
more than two paying guests at a
time, and every guest must have un-
obstructed access to every room.
Airbnb and hosts said the rules
make it nearly impossible for anyone
to register a rental. Staffing chal-
lenges in the enforcement office
mean hosts are facing delays in their
applications. As of July 25, the city
received 1,632 host registrations and
approved 141, according to Airbnb.
“The city is sending a clear mes-
sage to millions of potential visitors
who will now have fewer accommo-
dation options when they visit New
York City: You are not welcome,”
said Theo Yedinsky, Airbnb’s global
policy director.
Every registration application is
carefully reviewed, and the city is
committed to processing applica-
tions quickly, a city spokesman said.
“This legislation was always
said. With that one hat, he said he
can make roughly the profit from
selling four packs of cigarettes.
The margins are appealing, but
Khan also sees the job as a bit of
“trendsetting.” He recalled that
years ago, before New York state
legalized marijuana, hats with
pot-esque leaves were “selling like
hot cakes.”
‘There’s just
something really cool
about dressing
like a real American.’
“We got like six of them, we
sold six of them in the same
week,” said Khan, who had to call
up the vendor and quickly order
more of these high-times hats.
The country may be more po-
larized than ever, but there is also
something so flatly American
about this trend. Howard likened
it to the recent mainstream em-
Airbnb has called the rules, which
took effect earlier this year, ‘a de
facto ban on short-term rentals.’
about transparency and bringing ac-
countability to the company for not
being good neighbors,” said City
Council member Carlina Rivera, a
Manhattan Democrat who co-spon-
sored legislation to regulate the
city’s short-term rentals.
The rules and regulations govern-
ing short-term rentals under state and
city laws have been clear for years, a
city spokesman said in an email.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams,
a Democrat, said in July that he
would meet with organizers from
Restore Homeowner Autonomy and
Rights, a group of one- and two-
family homeowners advocating for
legislation to amend the regulations
to exclude their properties.
Guests will soon find few short-
.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Kay Fracher below, wears a hat
from her son Luke, who sells caps
at his resale store in New York.
brace of country music, a genre
that so often heralds those clichéd
pastimes of drinking beer, hunting
and hanging out—the same clichéd
pastimes that these hats pay hom-
age to. “There’s just something re-
ally cool about dressing like a real
American,” said Howard.
That line of thinking appears to
have a broad reach. The Canadian
rapper Drake, who is currently
touring the U.S., recently posted a
photo to Instagram Stories of him-
self wearing a hat that was primo
gas station fare, with an American
flag in the center, a denimish fabric
and embroidered stars. “Catch me
in traffic looking generic American
all summer,” read his caption. And
many other recent fashion fads—
jorts, Bass Pro Shop trucker hats,
low-rise jeans—read as quintessen-
tially, unmistakably American.
Of course, there’s a healthy
helping of campy posturing at play
here. “When I buy a hat that has a
fishing lure that says ‘Bite Me’ on
it, I don’t actually mean to be ag-
gressive,” said Jake Joyce, 36, a
recruiter for a cannabis company
living in Wauconda, Ill. Yes, he is a
lifelong angler, but caps like this,
laden with their he-man phrases,
also clash playfully with his kindly
Midwestern personality.
Josh Gonzalez, 28, the creative
director at an LGBTQ-focused
healthcare nonprofit living
in Austin, said he was drawn
to those wraparound sun-
glasses because of their ex-
aggeratedly macho look. The
glasses are “a little bit
wacky and campy and kind
of unserious.”
They are also quite af-
fordable, making for an ex-
treme statement at little
cost. Gonzalez recently
picked up two pairs of wrap-
around shades for $15. The
only downside? They’re not
very durable. A pair melted
in his car in the Texas heat.
Despite the thriftiness of
this authentic gear, there has
been a peculiar premium em-
brace of gas station-esque
gear. Gas Station Sunglasses,
a higher-design New York
brand that is not literally
sold at gas stations, sells $40 mir-
rored shades with an Exxon flair.
Much further up the ladder, Balen-
ciaga specializes in oversize wrap-
around-style sunglasses at around
$600—far more than the price of
filling up a tank. And this month,
California streetwear label Stussy
released a $45 “souvenir strap-
back” hat that looks direct from a
convenience store rack. It sold out,
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: LUKE FRACHER (2); JOSIE FRANCIS; MARTIN PARR/MAGNUM PHOTOS
in four distinct colors, quickly after
being released online.
Luke Fracher, the owner of
Luke’s New York, a resale store in
New York City that caters to down-
town cool-hunters seeking say,
$550 Rick Owens leather shorts and
$1,100 tattered Vetements jeans, re-
cently also began selling his own
gas station caps. He buys caps that
say things like ”Born to Hunt,
Forced to Work” and stitches his
shop’s logo on the side, selling
them for the comparatively steep
price of $40.
To market the hats, he photo-
graphed people wearing them at—
where else?—a gas station, and
said he’s sold around 500 to date.
Enough profits to fill a gas tank
many, many times over.
term rental options in New York City
on the platform, Airbnb said. Those
who stay in unregistered short-term
rentals won’t be punished, but hosts
face fines ranging from $100 to
$5,000, depending on the violation.
Travelers should recheck their
reservations if they plan to stay in
New York City this fall. Airbnb said
it won’t cancel reservations with
check-in before Dec. 1 to mitigate
the effects for hosts and guests. But
starting Sept. 5, the city will know
which hosts aren’t registered and
can impose penalties.
Rachel Martin, a 34-year-old su-
pervisor at a private-jet company
from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., travels to
New York two to three times a year
and stays in Airbnbs. She said short-
term rentals are generally cheaper
than hotels. She said she won’t stay
in an Airbnb that requires her to
share space with a host because she
doesn’t feel safe doing that.
For her next trip, she said she
would look at a hotel or consider
staying with a friend.
Sabrina Proano, her husband and
two daughters stayed in an Airbnb
near Times Square when they vis-
ited last year from outside Atlanta.
Proano, a 46-year-old wealth ad-
viser, said they chose to stay in
Airbnb to accommodate dietary
GABBY JONES/BLOOMBERG NEWS
needs and enjoyed the place’s conve-
nience and affordability.
Airbnb said less than half of its
New York City listings are in Man-
hattan and 37% are in Brooklyn,
which makes the platform a viable
option for people who choose to stay
in areas not served by many hotels.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
EXHIBITION REVIEW
Weaving With a Loom of One’s Own
A show focuses on the 20th-century designer Dorothy Liebes, who created a colorful signature look in her textiles
BY JANE COOMBS
I
New York
n too many homes and of-
fices, interior-design maga-
zines and social-media col-
lages, we see endless
iterations of minimalistic
rooms upholstered in tasteful
whites, creams, tans and grays.
Why not follow the color-scheme
formula of the weaver and textile
designer Dorothy Liebes
(1897-1972) and throw together a
dark, a light and a bright, instead?
“Don’t be afraid of color,” she
used to say. Let’s banish the black
and bury the beige. It’s time to get
the Liebes look.
“A Dark, a Light, a Bright,” now
at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian
Design Museum, is the first mono-
graphic exhibition on Liebes in 50
years. Curated by Susan Brown and
Alexa Griffith Winton, the show
gathers over 175 objects spanning
four decades, including uphol-
stered furniture, clothing, textile
samples, photographs, weaving
tools and other artifacts from the
Dorothy Liebes Studio. Known for
her daring handwoven and power-
loomed textiles, she collaborated
with many stars of midcentury
modernism: the architect Frank
Lloyd Wright, the industrial de-
signer Henry Dreyfuss
and the interior designer
Samuel A. Marx, to name
a few. Though now
largely forgotten by the
general public, and over-
looked by design histori-
ans, she was dubbed, in
1945, “the greatest
weaver alive today” by
House Beautiful maga-
zine. Through partner-
ships with textile manu-
facturers including
Goodall, DuPont and Do-
beckmun, the “Liebes
look,” her signature style
consisting of bold combi-
nations of saturated col-
ors and novel materials—
such as mohair, rayon
tow yarn, sparkly metal-
lic thread and even strips
of measuring tape—could
be found everywhere from banks to
nightclubs to automobiles.
Dorothy Liebes, née Wright, was
born in Santa Rosa, Calif., and
started work as an art teacher in
nearby schools. In 1920, she pur-
chased a small Forsythe loom,
which the curators have displayed
beside a re-creation of her studio’s
vibrant yarn wall. As a novice
weaver, she studied decorative art
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
COOPER HEWITT, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION DESIGN MUSEUM (4)
and the Brooklyn Museum while
earning an education degree at Co-
lumbia. It was in New York that she
embarked upon her first commer-
cial textiles venture: selling hand-
woven baby blankets through Saks
Fifth Avenue. Within a few years,
she was back in California produc-
ing apparel yardage for department
stores such as H. Liebes & Co.,
which led to her first marriage, to
the businessman Leon Liebes.
Leon, however, forbade her
from selling textiles; the couple
separated on the cusp of the Great
TELEVISION REVIEW | JOHN ANDERSON
A Woman Robbed
Of Her Cover Story
A
s the maxim goes, “It’s not
the crime; it’s the coverup,”
but the kinetic “Who Is Erin
Carter?” is most profoundly about
both, with the identity crisis of the
title leading inevitably to more high
crimes, raucous mayhem and dark-
government chicanery than a
seven-part series ought to be able
to handle. But does so, handily.
The secrets and revelations
snowball their way through this
thriller, albeit in re-
verse motion. We
know right off that
there is something After Erin Carter
awry in the back defends herself
story of Erin Carter
(Evin Ahmad), whom in a hold-up, her
we meet as she
makes her way, babe
past threatens
in arms and cash in to resurface.
hand, to a fishing
trawler en route at
dawn out of Folke-
stone, England. But a quick five
years later, Erin is partnered up, liv-
ing in Barcelona and working as a
substitute teacher at the interna-
tional St. Joseph’s School, which her
NETFLIX
daughter, Harper (Indica Watson),
attends, and where Erin is angling
ARTS IN REVIEW
Depression. Soon after, having left
with just her clothes and a loom,
Liebes opened a studio near San
Francisco’s Chinatown, a district
she would scour for unusual trim-
mings, metallic fibers, and bamboo
reeds. It was partly because of fi-
nancial necessity (and later, war-
for a full-time job. This despite the
willowy Harper having righteously
punched out the son of one of the
school’s bigger benefactors, the
witchy Penelope (Charlotte Vega).
There’s a lot happening. But one
of the many virtues of the series is
its ability, largely thanks to director
Ashley Way, to keep straight what
will—quite suddenly and pro-
nouncedly—go wildly askew: finding
herself and Harper in a supermarket
in the middle of a
payroll robbery. Erin
proves herself re-
markably resourceful,
fighting one masked
robber to what is al-
most a draw before
stabbing him in the
leg with a cake tester
and shooting him
with his own gun.
“It’s you!” the robber
says to Erin, before
he’s carted off to the hospital.
What did he mean? To tell a
reader that is to blow the lid off the
whole affair, but it is probably safe
to reveal that Emilio (Pep Ambròs),
a police-detective friend of Erin’s
partner, Jordi (Sean Teale), takes a
time rationing) that she began to
weave with unconventional materi-
als. She eventually opened another
studio in New York and employed
over 20 workers from as far away
as Finland, Turkey and India.
Following her first major project
in 1928—curtains for the San Fran-
look at the closed-circuit footage
from the grocery, realizes Erin is not
what she claims—she’s much, much
more—and erases the tape. They
become confederates, but Erin’s
sudden notoriety and a picture on
the internet are about to attract all
sorts of unwanted attention out of
her sensational past and a furiously
percolating present.
Ms. Ahmad is a force, someone
capable of carrying a series like this
despite its shifts from upscale Span-
ish tranquility to domestic turmoil to
a bunch of violent combat of the
nail-biting variety. Erin is not a su-
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | A13
Clockwise from top:
installation view of the
exhibition; a handwoven panel
for the SS United States
(1952) by Dorothy Liebes;
a sample card (c. 1953) by
Liebes; and a chair (1938)
designed by Donald Deskey
with upholstery by Liebes
cisco Stock Exchange commis-
sioned by the architect Timo-
thy Pflueger—Liebes partnered
with interior designers such as
Marx and Frances Elkins, who
relied upon her shrewd yet
dramatic use of color and su-
perb craftsmanship to create
textiles that humanized the
slick surfaces of modern furni-
ture and architecture. Among
the earliest pieces on display,
created for Marx’s own dining
room in Chicago, is a 1938
Donald Deskey metal chair
that Liebes upholstered in a
warm, subdued palette to com-
plement a Matisse still life
nearby. For other commissions,
she preferred to pair colors
that would “vibrate together.”
A 1952 drapery panel for the
First Class Observation Lounge
of the SS United States, for in-
stance, features an electric,
sea-inspired combination of
blue and green stripes.
Her textiles were catnip
for photographers, set design-
ers and fashion designers,
too. Hanging in the first room is a
1938 Photoplay portrait of Dorothy
Lamour posing beside a velvety,
looped-fringe Liebes drape, whose
textured surface accentuates the
smooth skin of the movie star. A
video clip from the 1949 Mervyn
LeRoy film “East Side, West Side”
Rodrigo Poisón and Evin Ahmad in
the new seven-part series
perwoman—she gets thoroughly
thumped more than once, so there
is more than a little edge to the ac-
tion. Don’t expect physical or emo-
tional plausibility from what is a
very fantastic story, but I kept think-
ing of this very international produc-
tion as very European, without a
clear idea why at first. I think it is
because considerable weight is given
the normal life that goes on around
Erin when she’s not merely trying to
stay alive: her friendship with the
.
features Liebes’s twinkling blinds
and drapes in a nightclub scene.
Much of the exhibition is also de-
voted to the many evening skirts,
ponchos, jackets and shift dresses
made from Liebes’s textiles by the
fashion designer Bonnie Cashin.
As a color consultant and
brand ambassador for Dobeckmun
from 1946 to 1961, she popularized
their new yarn, Lurex—a glitter-
ing, untarnishable aluminum
thread—seen, for example, in the
1947 Pretty Penny drape made for
City National Bank in Houston,
which evokes a shiny copper coin,
and in an emerald drapery panel
made for the Plaza Hotel’s Persian
Room nightclub in 1950.
The “Idea Factory,” as she
called her studio, eventually
stopped taking handweaving com-
missions and instead focused on
translating the “Liebes look” into
machine-made textiles. Using a
dazzling array of techniques, the
team mounted prototype weaves
onto sample cards that the cura-
tors have displayed by the dozen.
Despite Liebes’s foray into
power-loomed textiles, it was her
primary goal that her designs re-
tained a warm, handmade sensibil-
ity to soften the products of mod-
ern architecture and industrial
design that often flew in the oppo-
site direction. “When people don’t
feel my fabrics, I am hurt,” she
once confessed. The museum’s “Do
not touch” sign will never be
harder to obey.
A Dark, a Light, a Bright:
The Designs of Dorothy Liebes
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design
Museum, through Feb. 4, 2024
Ms. Coombs is an arts writer
based in New York.
school secretary, Olivia
(the glorious Susannah
Fielding, recently of “Tom
Jones”); her claws-out ex-
changes with Penelope
(Ms. Vega, quite the reve-
lation); her warm care for
Harper (an affecting Ms.
Watson); and even her
give-and-take with old
associate Lena (a formi-
dable Denise Gough),
who emerges out of
Erin’s history like a recur-
rence of malaria.
The men are rather or-
namental in this series
created and largely writ-
ten by Jack Lothian (“Doc
Martin”), with the excep-
tion of the exceptional
Douglas Henshall. As
Daniel Lang, a school par-
ent, father of Erin’s most
delinquent student and a
fellow with a few secrets
of his own, Mr. Henshall provides
quite the novel mix of the decent
and the ruthless, the rational and
the menacing. He is used economi-
cally, but as a potent, overly rational
counteragent to Ms. Ahmad’s com-
paratively impulsive and guilt-ridden
Erin, the result being a very convinc-
ing chemistry. And a series that
maintains momentum throughout.
Who Is Erin Carter?
Thursday, Netflix
Mr. Anderson is the Journal’s TV
critic.
 .

A14 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

SPORTS
The Yankees Look Hopelessly Lost
given before being designated for
assignment in 2022.
The Yankees didn’t sign super-
star third baseman Manny
Machado heading into 2019, instead
The last-place team in the AL East is stuck with a roster of aging veterans with no clear path in sight opting to sign DJ LeMahieu to a
utility role. Once LeMahieu’s two-
BY LINDSEY ADLER year contract ran out—which con-
cluded with him winning the AL

T
he New York Yankees are ca-
reening toward their worst
regular season since the
early-1990s, back when they were
squandering the final years of Don
Mattingly’s career. Entering play on
Tuesday at 60-64, with an eight-
game losing streak, the Yankees are
sitting in last place in the American
League East and face the prospect
of missing the postseason for the
first time since 2016.
This season’s catastrophic fail-
ure will undoubtedly ignite an off-
season of soul-searching by the
team’s architects—namely, owner
Hal Steinbrenner and general man-
ager Brian Cashman. On a radio ap-
pearance in June, Steinbrenner said
he would be “asking some real
tough questions” in certain scenar-
ios. Performing poorly in the play-
offs—or finishing second or third in
the division—would cause him to
turn up the scrutiny.
What he didn’t anticipate was
the situation the Yankees find
themselves in now: carrying statis-
tically remote chances of making
the postseason, with a team whose
core players are again experiencing
the effects of age or injury.
The result is that—less than a
year after going all out to secure
the future with a new nine-year,
$360 million contract for Aaron
Judge—the Yankees may instead be
exiting a seven-year window of
contention that began with promise
in 2017.
Back then, the team had a group
of up-and-comers known colloqui-
ally as “The Baby Bombers,” which
included Aaron Judge, Gleyber Tor-
res, Miguel Andújar, Gary Sánchez,
Clint Frazier, Greg Bird and Luis
Severino. Their future was bright
enough that the Yankees had exe-
cuted a rare sell-off at the trade
deadline in 2016 to make way for
the new guard.
It was nimble maneuvering by
The New York Yankees, with Giancarlo Stanton, left, and Aaron Judge, second from right, are struggling.
resents the failure of the Baby
Bombers to find success at the ma-
jor-league level. Only Judge, Torres,
and Severino remain on the team
today. Bird is out of baseball, Andú-
jar and Frazier are in the minor
leagues, and Sánchez has taken his
low-average, high-slugging shtick to
San Diego.
No team strikes gold on every
prospect, but with that group the
Yankees had the potential to have a
robust core—two outfielders, a
catcher, a shortstop, a second base-
man, a first baseman, and an ace—
under team control for many years
to come.
At the time, the future of the
New York Yankees looked a lot like
Then the New York Yankees
showed signs of behaving like the
New York Yankees: A big-money,
big-market team addicted to
splashy, expensive moves. After a
trip to the American League Cham-
pionship Series in 2017, the Yankees
reverted to form by trading to ac-
quire Giancarlo Stanton from the
Miami Marlins as he was coming
off his MVP season, long and large
contract in tow.
The team continued to look for
external help as it grappled with
underperformance and injuries
among its young core, though at
times, the organization has also
been criticized for its unwillingness
to acquire the most obvious up-
for a World Series each year.
No transaction embodied this
more clearly than the decision to
jettison Sánchez and third baseman
Gio Urshela to the Twins in ex-
change for veteran slugger Josh
Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa
ahead of the 2022 season. Once the
franchise catcher of the future, Sán-
chez’s position in New York had be-
come untenable—especially with
the fans—and the Yankees felt they
needed to trade him.
Under the spotlight of expecta-
tions, there is nowhere for the Yan-
kees to hide from their own mis-
takes in roster building, which have
now been exposed this season.
The chain of events that led to
batting title during the shortened
2020 season—it was almost a cer-
tainty that the team would retain
him in free agency. But his perfor-
mance lagged in 2021 and his pro-
duction still has yet to rebound
from a toe injury he suffered during
the 2022 season.
Along the way, the team signed
ace Gerrit Cole, acquired slugger
Joey Gallo in a disaster of a trade,
and churned through their coaching
staff to bring in more analytics-
savvy minds while pushing out
some who had come up the coach-
ing ranks through the Yankees’
farm system.
The team has seemed to chase
whims and weaknesses throughout
this period. Chided as being too
heavy on all-or-nothing sluggers in
the early days of the Judge/Stanton
years, the team gave priority to
contact hitters—which has left
them with a power shortage upon
injuries to Judge and Anthony
Rizzo this year and flat-out under-
performance by Donaldson, LeMa-
hieu, and Stanton.
This season has shown that the
more the Yankees chase the percep-
tion of the team that will please
their fans, the worse things have
become for them.
Suddenly, the Yankees look
hopelessly lost, marked again with
an aging and underperforming ros-
ter, and an unclear path toward
consistent success.
With Judge and Cole—two play-
ers who are quite vocal about their
desire to win in pinstripes—on su-
perstar contracts, the appetite for
the Yankees taking a year or two to
rebuild or retool may have never
been lower.
“Everybody just needs to know
we’re working hard on all fronts to
get this back on the rails,” Stein-
brenner said on the radio in June.
This season’s team has since de-
railed into a ditch. The challenge

BRANDON SLOTER/ZUMA PRESS

Cashman and it seemed to accom-
plish what many other clubs treat
as impossible: Converting a decay-
ing roster into a youth movement
without undergoing a full teardown
and rebuild.
Years later, the 2023 mess rep-
the teams that are walloping them
in the standings now. They had a
roster filled with homegrown play-
ers who had advanced through the
system with a consistent organiza-
tional ideology and coaches who
had climbed the ranks with them.
grades on the market. Players have
been either retained or sent off in
part due to management’s sensitiv-
ity to the expectations put on them
by their fans, who have been told
by the organization time and time
again that the plan is to compete
this situation is dizzying. Andújar
was the runner-up to Shohei Ohtani
in the AL Rookie of the Year race in
2018, but his defense at third base
was spotty. He injured himself early
in 2019, and didn’t perform well in
the limited playing time he was
now is identifying the repairs
needed to get the train back on the
tracks. Some clubs take years to re-
pair their own locomotives. The
Yankees, to meet expectations, may
have only a few months to get it
done.

The WSJ Daily Crossword | Edited by Mike Shenk

1

13
2 3 4 5 6

14
7 8 9

15
10 11 12 25 Site for
social media
pics
The Knicks Sue the Raptors,
16 17 18
26 SSN, often
27 Fitting
Alleging Information Theft
19 20 21 BY ROBERT O’CONNELL “To assist this novice While the Knicks have
28 Milk coach in doing his job,” the long played the role of slum-
22 23 24 25 26 container, THE NEW YORK KNICKS lawsuit reads, “Defendant Ra- bering major-market giant—
of a sort have made the NBA playoffs jaković and the other Raptors at least until the arrival of
27 28 29 30 29 Fashion just twice in the last 11 sea- Defendants conspired to use point guard Jalen Brunson
sons, and have never ad- Azotam’s position as a cur- led to the team’s first playoff
31 32 33 34 35 31 Track vanced past the Eastern rent Knicks insider to funnel series win in a decade last
runner Conference semifinals during proprietary information to spring—the Raptors, the only
36 37 38 that time. Yet now the the Raptors to help them or- NBA franchise based outside
32 Harebrained
Knicks are alleging that one ganize, plan, and structure of the U.S., have been seen
39 40 41 33 A little weird of the league’s model organi- the new coaching and video as a paragon of organiza-
zations saw something in operations staff.” tional structure. Since Masai
42 43 44 34 “Dirty Jobs” their franchise worth steal- The Knicks said that on Ujiri came to the organiza-
host Mike ing. Aug. 15 their insider threat tion as its general manager
45 46 47 48 49 50 35 Steel for the In a lawsuit filed Monday security team “identified the in 2013—he became the
battle in the U.S. District Court in theft,” and that their records club’s president of basketball
51 52 53 54 Manhattan, the Knicks allege
38 Wizards and that Ikechukwu Azotam,
55 56 57 58 Magic their former assistant video
40 Closet coordinator and player de-
59 60 61 velopment assistant, sent
organizer
valuable and proprietary
62 63 64 41 Over yonder team resources to the To-
ronto Raptors after the Rap-
43 Response to tors began recruiting him in
THE WAY IT ’TWAS | By Alan Massengill oversharing recent months. The re-
Across 30 Cell carrier? 55 Let go 5 Swab 46 Blown sources included “scouting
away reports, play frequency re-
1 Rued a run, 31 Poodle that’s 57 Auto with 6 Protesters’ ports, a prep book, and a
maybe not quite a a four-ring output 47 Drops a line, link to third-party licensed
teacup or a logo 7 Took its toll? perhaps software,” according to the
6 Beach toy?
decapod 48 PC plug-in lawsuit.
58 Shown 8 Bohm of the
35 Antibloating places The lawsuit names Darko
10 Bit of fiction 59 Base Phillies Rajaković, who took the job
brand
counterpart 9 Alley 49 Activist of Toronto head coach this Julius Randle, left, takes a shot over O.G. Anunoby.
13 Laundry 36 Was dashing, activity Thunberg offseason, as well as player
challenge perhaps 60 Site that development coach Noah “show that the stolen files operations three years
claims to be 10 Top-notch 50 Offered to Lewis as Azotam’s co-defen- were accessed over 2,000 later—Toronto has reached
14 Saintly 37 A little weird
“your guide clarify dants. 10 unnamed Raptors times by the Raptors Defen- the postseason eight times.
symbol 11 Dutch
38 Capone to a better banking 52 Site of la employees are also defen- dants.” The Raptors have become
15 Make Bitcoin, henchman future” dants. The lawsuit identifies In a statement released synonymous, during Ujiri’s
giant Mer de la
say Azotam as a current Raptors through Maple Leaf Sports & tenure, with finding talent
39 Bank 61 Photo finish Tranquillité
16 Column style 12 Symbol of employee; a spokesperson Entertainment, the company away from the top of the
statement industry 53 Idyllic spot for the Toronto organization that owns the team, the Rap- draft or marquee free-agent
with volutes abbr. 62 LGA setting
54 “Later!” declined to clarify Azotam’s tors acknowledged receiving lists. Pascal Siakam, a Cam-
15 Artistic
17 Once more 40 Income for a 63 Salad role with the team. notice of the Knicks com- eroonian forward, developed
inspiration 55 Autograph The Raptors didn’t make plaint last week and said from a late-first-round pick
social media dressing
18 Yen Rajaković or Azotam avail- they had planned to conduct to an All-Star in Toronto;
influencer? brand 20 Ferry seeker,
19 Lessons for destination probably able for comment. an internal investigation. The Fred VanVleet, who signed
those who 42 Barinholtz 64 “What a The Knicks claim that the franchise denied wrongdoing. as an undrafted free agent in
of “The shame!” 21 Before this 56 Hardly Raptors began recruiting “The company strongly 2016, grew enough as a
got behind in time welcoming
the dancing? Afterparty” Azotam in or around June, denies any involvement in player to earn a $130 million
Down
Previous Puzzle’s Solution and that Azotam began the matters alleged,” the contract with the Houston
22 Behind 43 Level
1 Anxious O V A L B R A S H L U C A sending the Raptors infor- statement reads. “MLSE and Rockets this summer.
23 POTUS after 44 Duped feeling N I T E M E T O O I N O N mation the following month, the Toronto Raptors will re- In 2019, after Ujiri gam-
E A R T HWO R M S U D O N by sending files from his serve further comment until bled on a trade for oft-in-
FDR 45 Unbranded 2 Murder A B A B A S I N E EWE team email account to his this matter has been resolved jured San Antonio Spurs su-
components C L I E N T A I R H O R N
24 “Makes 47 “Dig in!” T E N O HM O A S E S
personal Gmail account, to the satisfaction of both perstar Kawhi Leonard, the
COLE BURSTON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

sense!” F I R E C R A C K E R S around the same time he parties.” franchise won its only cham-
48 Wanamaker 3 Cheryl of
A J A R O N E I L E A S E told the Knicks he had re- In a statement released pionship, defeating the in-
27 Evil, to Yves Trophy org. “Curb Your WA T E R B A L L O O N ceived an offer from the jury-battered Golden State
after filing the lawsuit, the
Enthusiasm” E N E R O L E N A S A Raptors. Toronto’s aim, the Knicks said, “Given the clear Warriors.
28 “Let me 51 DJ’s platter, E L E M E N T S T A T E D
think... when it’s on 4 Dubai R E I B O A S O P T E D Knicks allege, was to help violation of our employment Ujiri isn’t named as a de-
Huh-uh!” the turntable? dignitary E Y E D O F S U R P R I S E ease the transition of Rajak- agreement, criminal and civil fendant in the lawsuit.
E R R S O U T R O I R A N ović, a first-time NBA head law, we were left no choice —Louise Radnofsky
▶ Solve this puzzle online and discuss it at WSJ.com/Puzzles. L E S T K N E E D L EWD coach. but to take this action.” contributed to this article.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
OPINION
Trump and Election Denial
“You can’t
prove a neg-
ative” is a
truism and
the stock-in-
trade of Jo-
seph Fried, a
BUSINESS
WORLD certified
public ac-
By Holman W.
countant
Jenkins, Jr.
publishing
his second
book claiming Donald Trump
won in 2020. Ballot harvest-
ing? It occurred, all now
agree. Prove it wasn’t a vehi-
cle for tampering with the
vote. Rejection rates for mail-
in ballots were a tiny fraction
of those in previous elections
despite a vast increase in
first-time mail voters. Prove
fraud didn’t occur.
Mr. Trump didn’t invent
election denial, as much as
Democrats wish to forget Sta-
cey Abrams, Hillary Clinton,
and numerous congressional
Democrats in the George W.
Bush years. It will pain many
to hear it but his pre-Jan. 6
activities were very much the
expected Trump circus—after
all, he told us what to expect
in 2016—until the Capitol Po-
lice failed to do the one job
they have.
Mr. Trump was near the
mark on one matter: Mail-in
ballots are an incitement to
people like Mr. Trump be-
cause of their inferior secu-
rity. Doubly so when mail
votes are a high multiple of
the margin of victory in close
races, when it’s already easy
to argue plausibly that be-
hind-the-scenes fiddling, late
rule changes or last-minute
FBI actions changed the out-
come. Don’t kid yourself
What Reagan Would Tell the GOP Debaters
By Kenneth L. Khachigian “all the people of America as growth and prosperity. “Our Reagan said, “We came to-
E
veryone seems to have
advice for the GOP can-
didates, so, what the
heck, I’ll get in on the action
too. Better yet, I’ll shamelessly
plagiarize Ronald Reagan—
with whom I collaborated on
two winning presidential cam-
paigns. It so happens that the
first Republican primary de-
bate is on Aug. 23, the 39th
anniversary of Reagan’s re-
election acceptance speech at
the Republican National Con-
vention in Dallas.
The current cast of White
House contenders are engaged
in unconstructive outrage
rather than offering a clarify-
ing pathway to reclaiming our
government. On that sultry
night in Texas, Reagan
charted the latter course. The
president presented a crucial
distinction: The Democratic
Party was marked by “pessi-
mism, fear and limits,”
whereas the Republican Party
offered “hope, confidence and
growth.”
Reagan’s words ring true
today. He said the left “sees
people only as members of
groups,” always offering them
grandiose—and unfulfilled—
promises. Republicans serve
Big Brother and the Digital Dollar
By Daniel B. Klein
P
resident Biden signed an
executive order last year
urging government agen-
cies to research a potential
central bank digital currency.
CBDCs are a despotic innova-
tion, of the sort that have be-
sieged us during the past five
years—lockdowns, mask and
vaccination mandates, “antira-
cism” policies, “green new
deals,” projects to suppress
“misinformation” and so on.
Opponents of tyranny have
long understood how govern-
ments abuse the money sup-
ply to finance their spending.
But the role that transaction-
based information would play
in tyranny doesn’t show up in
the dystopian fiction of Al-
dous Huxley and George Or-
well or the earnest warnings
of Alexis de Tocqueville, Hi-
laire Belloc and Friedrich
Hayek.
Only more recently has it
become clear how payment
systems could afford a system
of surveillance and “debank-
ing” customers based on polit-
ical and religious beliefs. The
Chinese Communist Party has
put this on display, using a so-
cial-credit system to stamp
out dissent and secure its one-
party rule. Bullies in Canada,
the U.K. and elsewhere prove
themselves quick pupils.
about something else: Both
parties now routinely plan to
keep fighting every election
after Election Day.
Is straining the law to
prosecute Mr. Trump crimi-
nally, an argument even heard
from some conservatives, the
way to put the election-denial
genie back in the bottle? In
pursuing Mr. Trump, special
counsel Jack Smith and Ful-
ton County, Ga., prosecutors
may end up only vindicating
the original reluctance of the
Biden FBI and Justice Depart-
ment to go down this road,
not least because the mother
of all election denials may be
waiting should Mr. Trump
win next year.
The Brookings Institu-
tion’s Fiona Hill, herself a
former Trump aide, spoke for
many when she declared two
years ago a Trump win in
2024—legally, democratically,
in line with voter wishes—
means “democracy’s done” in
America. A small hop brings
us to this week’s pundit
horde, based on a constitu-
tional argument they heard
for the first time yesterday,
ardently insisting state elec-
tion officials have the power
to remove Mr. Trump from
their ballots for “insurrec-
tion” without trial or formal
evidence.
This is the delusion of all
delusions. Nothing remotely
good can come from trying at
this late date to ban a man
who got 74 million votes in
2020, who is the declared fa-
vorite of tens of millions in
2024.
For one thing, it gives too
easy a pass to the many co-au-
thors of our mess, especially
individuals” and “offer
proven, workable answers.”
The president emphasized
that “inflation was not some
plague borne on the wind; it
was a deliberate part of their
official economic policy,
needed, they said, to maintain
prosperity.” That describes
Joe Biden’s Washington as
well as Jimmy Carter’s.
Reagan loved writing his
own speeches—especially so
in this case, after the Demo-
crats had unfairly attacked
him at their convention in San
Francisco a month before. You
could tell how much he en-
joyed editing this one, going
to great lengths to remind the
American people of the differ-
ences between the right and
left. That included the govern-
ment’s destructive intrusion
into Americans’ lives. As Rea-
gan described it: “Those
whom government intended
to help discovered a cycle of
dependency that could not be
broken. Government became a
drug, providing temporary re-
lief, but addiction as well.”
When the candidates take
the stage Wednesday evening,
they should consider Rea-
gan’s messages of limited
government and the keys to
In their putrescent 2020
book, “COVID-19: The Great
Reset,” Klaus Schwab and
Thierry Malleret write: “This
transition towards more digi-
tal ‘of everything’ in our pro-
fessional and personal lives
will also be supported and ac-
celerated by regulators.” They
add: “In banking, it is about
being prepared for the digital
transformation.”
In 1979, Ingemar Ståhl
warned about this in a satiri-
cal essay, “It Will Soon Be
1984 . . .” Ståhl, an economist
and professor at Sweden’s
Lund University, was active in
Ingemar Ståhl’s 1979
essay foresaw the
threat of social credit
and ‘debanking.’
public debate on such issues
as industrial policies, rent
control, defense, taxation and
healthcare. Originally on the
left, Ståhl’s thinking migrated
toward a market approach.
“It Will Soon Be 1984 . . .”
was first published in a Swed-
ish daily, Svenska Dagbladet.
The newspaper provided pho-
tos and ironic captions, one
saying: “The point of the ca-
shier’s [scanning] pen will be
the media. Worse than a
crime, a very avoidable blun-
der it turns out was the estab-
lishment’s gift to Mr. Trump
of his greatest argument: Why
should I believe the collusion
promoters when they tell me
now 2020 was on the up and
up?
Murking things up further
is everything we’ve learned
about the alleged Trump an-
tidote, Joe Biden. It seems
believable that Mr. Biden,
when he was vice president,
was the real author of the
The collusion hoax,
FBI meddling and
‘stop the steal’ are all
the same sickness.
family business model, which
had him flaunting Hunter
around the Obama White
House so Hunter could bilk
millions from foreign influ-
ence seekers.
When the laptop surfaced
on the eve of the 2020 vote,
Mr. Biden may have feared
not just embarrassment but
exposure. What followed the
establishment won’t easily
live down: Ex-intelligence of-
ficers concocting a lie about
the Kremlin to protect the
Bidens. Democrats pouring
$60 million into promoting
extreme MAGA candidates in
the 2022 GOP primaries to
save control of the Senate.
Mr. Biden, in terror lest Dem-
ocratic progressives blow the
whistle on his corruption,
appeasing them by playing
up the white-supremacist
tax policies,” he said that
night, “are and will remain
pro-work, pro-growth, and
pro-family. We intend to sim-
plify the entire tax system—
to make taxes more fair, eas-
ier to understand, and most
important, to bring the tax
rates of every American fur-
ther down, not up.” Republi-
‘Hope, confidence
and growth’ is as
powerful a message
as it was 39 years ago.
cans shouldn’t forget what
will follow such prescrip-
tions. As Reagan advised:
“Now, if we bring them down
far enough, growth will con-
tinue strong; the under-
ground economy will shrink;
the world will beat a path to
our door; and no one will be
able to hold America back;
and the future will be ours.”
One final history lesson to
everyone on the debate stage
and those in the media who
seem to have forgotten the
provenance of a popular call
to action. In his Dallas speech,
the eye of the State on your
consumption.” The essay sa-
tirically proposed tracking ev-
ery transaction in the Swedish
economy, including the identi-
ties of the buyer and the
seller. Cash would be taken
out of circulation.
Part of the ironic rationale
was to ensure, as Ståhl put it,
that “tax inspectors will have
the opportunity to both ex-
plain and to persuade less sol-
idaristic citizens—undoubt-
edly a diminishing group—of
the necessity of surrendering
most of their income to a so-
ciety.” Too many have been
“influenced by the tax-evasion
propaganda from the right-
wing bourgeoisie.” Thus, the
proposal addresses “a sizeable
problem of social justice, eq-
uity and possibly even of gen-
der equality.”
Authorities will be able to
discourage “inappropriate
‘consumption profiles’ from a
social standpoint,” Ståhl
writes: “In many cases, a con-
versation between the house-
hold and the National Board
for Consumer Policies or the
local municipal consumer
board should be sufficient. In
more deviant and problemati-
cal cases, society may have to
intervene with more-intensive
consumer-care measures.”
Supporters of last year’s
Canadian trucker protests and
menace. And now, as even
the New York Times is will-
ing to notice, Democratic
prosecutors around the coun-
try are pulling out every stop
to shove Mr. Trump down
the throats of GOP primary
voters over other possible
candidates.
Listen to Hunter’s lawyers
when they say he deserves
special treatment from the
Biden Justice Department
precisely because he may be
a target soon of the Trump
Justice Department. This is
where the two likeliest nom-
inees are taking us. When
the weaponization of the jus-
tice system is on the table,
to use the unavoidable
phrase, suddenly our elec-
tions can’t be about anything
else.
Beating all, for me, is the
failure of any prominent fig-
ures to pull on their big-boy
pants, the lack of any bipar-
tisan wise person to sit up
and say the collusion hoax,
FBI meddling in 2016 and
2020, Mr. Trump’s own stop-
the-steal hoax, are all one
sickness.
The odor of the Stavisky
affair in pre-war France—
look it up—arises from our
elite. Mr. Trump’s apogee of
election denialism surely re-
quires an answer. It begins,
however, with Mr. Biden step-
ping aside and making way
for some Democrat who by
word or at least implication
is willing to lead the coun-
try’s repudiation of the Hil-
lary elites and their Trum-
pian antagonists, who turn
out to be the worst genera-
tion of Americans in living
memory.
gether in a national crusade
to make America great again,
and to make a new begin-
ning.” That was nothing new.
In his convention speech in
1980, he cheered, “For those
who have abandoned hope,
we’ll restore hope, and we’ll
welcome them into a great na-
tional crusade to make Amer-
ica great again!” And again, at
the August 1988 GOP conven-
tion, he reprised his 1980
words by saying: “We left
with a mutual pledge to con-
duct a national crusade to
make America great again.”
Autumn leaves may soon be
falling, but the stress and ten-
sions of primary season are
doubtless rising. The candi-
dates should take a deep
breath, ease up on the anger,
and look to the source of the
party’s great principles. Crib-
bing from Reagan’s notes
won’t get any debater in trou-
ble this year.
Mr. Khachigian was Ronald
Reagan’s chief speechwriter
and director of issues and re-
search for his 1984 re-election
campaign.
William A. Galston is away.
British politician Nigel Farage
can testify about their experi-
ence with “more-intensive
consumer-care measures.”
The price of their dissent was
to have their bank accounts
canceled.
Ståhl projects mock pride
in Swedish sophistication:
“What the Khmer Rouge was
unable to achieve because of
their technological backward-
ness will be fulfilled by the
technical ingenuity and cul-
tural prowess of the Swedish
people over the coming five-
year period. We have already
taken the decisive step by
adopting modern computer
techniques and personal iden-
tification numbers.”
Ståhl was alluding to Cam-
bodia’s communist dictator,
Pol Pot, who took power in
1975 and attempted to abolish
money.
Methods and means evolve,
while human nature and ten-
dencies toward despotism re-
main the same. CBDC is a so-
lution in search of a problem,
like many other despotic inno-
vations of late.
Mr. Klein is a professor of
economics at George Mason
University’s Mercatus Center,
a research fellow of the Stock-
holm-based Ratio Institute
and chief editor of Econ Jour-
nal Watch.
.
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | A15
BOOKSHELF | By Dominic Green
The Adventures
Of a Book Baron
The Maverick
By Thomas Harding
(Pegasus, 324 pages, $29.95)
N
azi racial policies after 1933 drove a wave of Jewish
refugees westward to Britain and the United States.
To measure their impact, look beyond the detonation
at Los Alamos and imagine diplomacy without Henry
Kissinger, computing without John von Neumann, or the
theater without Tom Stoppard. In 1938, following Germany’s
annexation of Austria, 19-year-old Arthur George Weidenfeld
escaped to London from Vienna. In London, Arthur became
George. George became a much-married Lothario who
modernized Britain’s small but influential publishing sector,
pursued the company and memoirs of the powerful, and, in
1976, became a life peer, Baron Weidenfeld of Chelsea.
Weidenfeld’s ascent to the House of Lords reflected his
British success and connections, but he remained an outsider.
Thomas Harding has a similar family background; his
previous books include “Hanns and Rudolf,” the story of his
great-uncle Hanns Alexander’s work as a war-crimes
investigator. “The Maverick” traces the parallel arcs of
Weidenfeld’s career and postwar publishing through his
contacts and contracts. This is a skillful and subtle study in
biography, British attitudes and the
book business.
Weidenfeld was born in Vienna in
1919, just as Austria collapsed
chaotically from an empire to a
rump state. He studied languages at
the Diplomatic Academy, which was
closed to Jews, as an external
student; a classmate named Kurt
Waldheim supplied him with books.
He passed into the Zionist student
fraternity by challenging a member of
the Nazi fraternity to a duel.
Once in London, Weidenfeld found
work analyzing German radio broadcasts at the BBC’s
Overseas Intelligence Department and inaugurated his career
of top-flight networking with George Orwell, William Empson
and Charles de Gaulle. In 1942, he co-wrote “The Goebbels
Experiment,” a study in mass psychology that the New York
Times called “the most unnecessary book of the year.” At the
end of the war, Weidenfeld founded a New Yorker-type
magazine, Contact. He published Arthur Koestler, Cyril
Connolly and Arnold Toynbee but, surprisingly, turned down
Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language.”
Little magazines make less money. In 1949, Weidenfeld
partnered with the English insider Nigel Nicolson. His
parents, the diplomat-diarist Harold Nicolson and the writer-
gardener Vita Sackville-West, disapproved of Nigel’s alliance
with “that Jew,” but they put up the money for the firm of
Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Apart from the paperback pioneer
Penguin, British publishing was then dominated by a handful
of established firms, all set in their ways. Weidenfeld sought
out “the mavericks, the scandalous, the subversive,” and
eschewed the diffident shabbiness of traditional publishers.
In the 1950s, W&N specialized in war criminals
(memoirs by Mussolini and Albert Speer; “Hitler’s Table
Talk”). “W” ran the business while “N” entered Parliament. It
was Weidenfeld’s idea to market Isaiah Berlin’s reflections on
Tolstoy as “The Hedgehog and the Fox.” He also published
the first book by a “little-known Harvard academic” named
Henry Kissinger.
Always short of cash, in 1956 Weidenfeld restructured the
company. He sidelined Nicolson, divorced his wife and
developed an obsessive passion for the novelist Barbara
Skelton. She was married to Cyril Connolly, though Connolly
was carrying on with Caroline Freud. Skelton found
Weidenfeld physically repulsive but married him, and within
a few years he was divorced for a second time.
George Weidenfeld modernized Britain’s
publishing sector, bringing out titles
by Nabokov and Bellow—and the pope.
In 1958, Weidenfeld secured the British rights to Nabokov’s
“Lolita.” He published it in November 1959, just after the
British government had passed a law allowing writers to
defend “obscenity” as art. The prurient, disgusted and
laudatory reviews gave W&N a bestseller and a new footing
in fiction. In the 1960s, Weidenfeld published Mary McCarthy
and Saul Bellow, had a surprise hit with Antonia Fraser’s
“Mary, Queen of Scots,” and developed a lucrative
partnership with a New York publisher, Fred Praeger, who, it
turned out, was funded by the CIA.
The 1970s were W&N’s heyday. Tom Wolfe, Edna O’Brien,
Margaret Drabble and J.G. Farrell were on the fiction list, and
Andy Warhol and Charles de Gaulle initiated a streak of
celebrity autobiographies. Weidenfeld’s finest hour came in
1976, when he defended David Pryce-Jones’s biography of the
fascist aristocrat Unity Mitford against intense pressure from
the upper class whose acceptance Weidenfeld craved.
The 1930s fascist leader Oswald Mosley sued. He had, he
insisted, never given Unity a rubber truncheon. In the
Spectator, Lord Lambton, a politician disgraced after being
photographed in flagrante with two prostitutes, called
Weidenfeld a member of the “Jewish establishment” who had
pulled strings to get his peerage and whose “full-time
occupation” was “genuflecting and sycophanting to every
notable, and visiting notable, in England.”
Well into the 1990s, Private Eye magazine mocked W&N’s
Jewish refugee-English gent duo as “Snipcock & Tweed.” Mr.
Harding generously avoids naming the critic who, reviewing
Weidenfeld’s 1994 autobiography for the Daily Mail, called
him an “uppity Jewish publisher” with a “constant fixation on
the bottom line.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, success in Britain
did not dim Weidenfeld’s passion for Israel and Zionism.
Mr. Harding calls Weidenfeld a “world-class bridge-
builder,” though he built a few bridges to nowhere. His desire
for Jewish-Austrian reconciliation led him to publish Kurt
Waldheim’s whitewashing autobiography and insist that his
student friend was not a war criminal. His pursuit of Mick
Jagger’s autobiography led him to build a complex deal that
collapsed embarrassingly. Still, he pulled off autobiographies
by Keith Richards, Shimon Peres and Pope John Paul II.
In 1987, Weidenfeld launched W&N New York with $30
million from Ann Getty. Big advances went out to big names,
but the bottom line was a disaster. W&N New York folded,
and in 1991 Weidenfeld sold W&N London to Orion. His
reinventions resemble those of Bellow’s Augie March, his
unknown inwardness that of Bellow’s Herzog, and his romantic
complications those of Bellow himself. When Weidenfeld died
in 2016 at the age of 96, his British obituarists praised him
for embodying the civilized, cosmopolitan virtues of a lost
Europe and claimed him as one of their own, almost.
Mr. Green is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
 .

A16 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

OPINION
REVIEW & OUTLOOK LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Return of High Interest Rates Follow the Science—and Law—on Rent Control

E
conomic alarms are going off across for young buyers looking to trade up as their Alexander Talel’s “Rent Control Is a particular tenant once shouldn’t
Wall Street at rising long-term interest families grow. Fewer can afford to buy a new Constitutionally Vulnerable” (op-ed, mean forever losing control over who
Aug. 16) focuses on regulatory tak- can occupy your property. New York’s
rates and the implications for future home, so fewer sell, which reduces the inven-
ings, a restriction on the use of prop- onerous eviction limitations mean
growth. The causes are sev- tory of available homes. The erty that goes “too far” and requires that, for practical purposes, an owner
eral, and it’s worth parsing Do investors see faster potential election impact of the payment of “just compensation.” is stuck with the tenant, or his self-
this latest turn in what Presi- growth ahead, or more this trend explains why the Bi- But there is a second type of taking, appointed successor, in perpetuity.
dent Biden, graciously follow- den Administration has been per se takings, on which New York’s JOEL ZINBERG
ing our lead, likes to call spending and inflation? loosening the strings on Fan- rent laws are also vulnerable. Competitive Enterprise Institute
“Bidenomics.” nie Mae and Freddie Mac loan In Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid New York
The yield on the 10-year guarantees. (2021)—about a regulation that
Treasury note was above 4.3% on Tuesday, up A more ominous explanation for higher rates granted union organizers a right to Rent control is a price control of
50 or so basis points in three months. That’s is the burden of enormous new government enter and occupy growers’ land for the type typically employed, unsuc-
a height not seen since before the financial borrowing. The Treasury has said it plans to three hours a day, 120 days a year— cessfully, by socialist governments.
the Supreme Court held that the right Economics 101 dictates that capped
panic of 2008. Could the post-crisis era of ul- float $1 trillion in new debt from July through
to exclude is “a fundamental element pricing will limit supply production.
tra-low interest rates be over, and why is this September, and more will follow as the deficit of the property right,” and that gov- In a “housing emergency,” what is
happening now? keeps growing. That puts upward pressure on ernment-required occupation of pri- needed is more supply. Thus, rent
i i i rates, especially with the Fed no longer buying vate property is a per se taking. control can be viewed as iatrogenic—
In one sense the rise in rates is healthy and most of the new paper. New York erases owners’ ability to it is a solution that ultimately exacer-
long overdue. The Federal Reserve sat on the Treasury is also having to refinance an exclude. Tenants can renew leases bates the problem.
long end of the yield curve for years after the enormous amount of old debt that was origi- forever, regardless of owners’ wishes. It creates perverse incentives that
financial crisis. The goal was to stimulate nally floated with short-term instruments. The The tenancy can be passed on to so- ultimately constrict the supply and
growth, which didn’t work, but a side effect government financed much of its pandemic- called successors whom the owner degrade the housing stock of rent-
was to distort signals from the bond market. era debt with T-bills and other short-term has no opportunity to approve. Own- controlled cities. As Swedish econo-
The Fed is now selling off its bond portfolio notes when the cost was near-zero. ers’ ability to reclaim the property for mist Assar Lindbeck noted, “In many
their own use is virtually eliminated. cases rent control appears to be the
at a rate of $900 billion a year, and the market But now those bills are coming due, and The Second Circuit attempted to most efficient technique presently
can better navigate its own way. Treasury is floating longer-term bonds at distinguish Cedar Point, claiming, known to destroy a city—except for
It’s no tragedy if the bond market is sending more than 4%. The average maturity of federal “Landlords voluntarily invited third bombing.” Economics is a science and
truer economic signals. Higher rates force in- debt reached 75 months in May 2023, the lon- parties to use their properties,” and progressive leaders, on both coasts,
vestors and businesses to screen potential in- gest duration in 20 years. This also puts up- thus subjected themselves to states’ need to take their own advice from
vestments more carefully. Non-economic ward pressure on rates. “broad power to regulate housing con- Covid and “follow the science.”
choices, like cryptocurrency and many SPACs, The most troubling possibility would be if ditions.” The Supreme Court earlier KEN BROAD
go by the wayside. investors have sniffed that a higher level of in- rejected this argument. Consenting to Mill Valley, Calif.
The result will be fewer investment duds flation is here to stay. Various Democratic
and in the long run faster growth. Some mar- sages are urging the Fed to raise its inflation
ket sages think faster growth now helps to ex- target to 3% from 2% as the 2024 election ap-
plain the higher long-term rates, with the At- proaches. This is an excuse for the Fed to ease The Biblical View on Reparations for Slavery
lanta Fed’s GDPNow estimate that third monetary policy before it has inflation van- While Gerard Leval’s provocative As long as Mr. Leval suggests look-
quarter GDP will be 5.8%. quished, and investors may want a higher in- “What the Bible Says About Repara- ing to Jewish tradition on the appro-
On the other hand, global growth is slow- terest rate on debt as protection. tions” (Houses of Worship, Aug. 18) is priateness of reparations for slavery,
ing, and China is in trouble, so it’s hard to see The bipartisan drift of Washington fiscal well-argued, it addresses only part of it is worth explaining the traditional
the U.S. economy booming. Higher rates in- policy also isn’t helping. President Biden the story. The Bible promises that God view of the verse that he cites about
crease the cost of financing for businesses, wants far more spending, not less, and that may punish succeeding generations visiting the iniquity of the fathers
and there are already reports of slower bank has to be financed. House Republicans want for the sins of their ancestors. But the upon the children unto the third and
lending as companies get more cautious with more discipline, but Donald Trump leads the Bible is emphatic about this kind of fourth generation. The prevailing
their borrowing. This will take time to affect GOP presidential field and he is also a big justice belonging exclusively to God. view is that this applies only to sub-
Human beings and human justice sequent generations that continue in
the overall economy, but slower growth may spender who favors eternally low interest
aren’t permitted to operate this way. the same wicked ways, and that this
be the result in a few months. rates. In the ancient Near East’s Code of isn’t something left to the hand of
Mortgage borrowers are already facing a We don’t know which way interest rates Hammurabi, a child could be punished human justice. At least one statement
steep new rate cliff. On Monday the average on will go, and a recession would quickly turn for the crime of her father (Hammu- in the Talmud also contends that the
a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 7.48%, the bond expectations upside down. But with a rabi, 209-10). The Bible revolutionized prophet Ezekiel revoked the concept
highest level since November 2000. This re- spendthrift Washington likely no matter who an ethic of individual responsibility. of multigenerational punishment.
duces affordability for first-time home buyers wins next year’s election, don’t be surprised In a Torah portion that Jews all over ROBERT KANTOWITZ
in particular. But it also complicates the choices if a new era of higher interest rates is dawning. the world will read this week, the Bi- Lawrence, N.Y.
ble insists, “Fathers shall not be put
to death because of their children, Mr. Leval is correct but omits
The Fate of America’s Afghan Partners nor shall children be put to death be-
cause of their fathers” (Deut. 24:16).
other wisdom from the Bible. I count
15 references to envy and 74 to for-

T
For a human court—or a society at giveness. Forgiveness lets us look for-
he Biden Administration wants Ameri- eaten some part of his body.” Locals found the large—to hold great-grandchildren re- ward. Backward-looking reparations
cans to forget about Afghanistan, and a decapitated corpse of a member of the Afghan sponsible for the sins of their ances- keep old wounds open because they
new United Nations report on the fate National Police who had been arrested less than tors would be decidedly unbiblical. are never enough and can never be
of the Afghan partners the a month earlier. The U.N. docu- RABBI YOSIE LEVINE defined to everyone’s satisfaction.
U.S. left behind is one reason. A U.N. report ments 144 instances of torture The Jewish Center HATLEY HARRISON
The U.N. Assistance Mis- documents extrajudicial and maltreatment, including New York Spring Hill, Tenn.
sion in Afghanistan describes beatings with pipes and cables.
at least 800 human-rights vio- killings and torture. It reports at least 14 enforced
lations committed against U.S. disappearances and more than RFK Had as Good a Chance as Any in 1968
partners since the Taliban’s 424 arbitrary arrests.
In his review of Luke Nichter’s day that he won the California pri-
takeover. Members of the Afghan National In his speech on the withdrawal two years “The Year That Broke Politics” (Book- mary. As his 1968 New York state
Army are at the “greatest risk,” followed by na- ago, President Biden said the Taliban had made shelf, Aug. 17), Barton Swaim writes, campaign coordinator, I was closely
tional and local police officers and National Di- “public commitments, broadcast on television “Robert F. Kennedy, had he lived, informed about our prospects in the
rectorate of Security officials. Targets also in- and radio across Afghanistan, on safe passage stood very little chance of winning senator’s home state. In my opinion,
clude prosecutors, judges and national, for anyone wanting to leave, including those the Democratic nomination and no based on internal polling and state-
provincial and district officials who served in who worked alongside Americans.” He added chance at all of beating Nixon.” Mr. wide canvassing, we were clearly go-
the U.S.-backed government. that “we don’t take them by their word alone Swaim is confusing his opinion with ing to win New York. No Democratic
At least 218 Afghan partners have been but by their actions, and we have leverage to factual certitude. His overstatement candidate since World War II had
murdered, the report says. “Some were taken make sure those commitments are met.” What is incorrect on both counts. won California and New York and lost
to detention facilities and killed while in cus- leverage is that? Robert Kennedy was killed on the the nomination.
It isn’t possible to know who
tody,” the report says, while “others were Washington continues to offer too few visas
would have won the second Kennedy-
taken to unknown locations and killed, their for Afghans who helped America. Some Afghan A Surefire Way to Misuse Nixon contest at a time of national
bodies either dumped or handed over to fam- partners told the U.N. that they “have gone into turmoil, but national momentum was
ily members.” hiding” and “live in fear of being arrested or Even More Covid Funds on Kennedy’s side when he was as-
When a family recovered the corpse of one killed by a member of the de facto authorities.” Rather than issue a justified criti- sassinated on June 5, 1968.
former Ministry of Interior police officer, they These ugly details add to the disgrace of one of cism of the Internal Revenue Service BARTLE BULL
found “signs of many bullets,” and “dogs had America’s worst betrayals. for delays in processing “millions” of Amenia, N.Y.
Employee Retention Credit claims,
J.D. Vance goes on offense (“Meet the
Florida’s Catholic School Promise New IRS, Same as the Old IRS,” op-
ed, Aug. 18). But a simple conversa-
No Sympathy for the Devil

O
Kudos to Jason Riley for his
tion with leadership in the account-
ne goal of robust school choice pro- well as demand, and private schools have mul- ing profession would inform Sen.
thoughtful concerns about glorifying
grams is to broaden quality education tiplied. The number of private and charter gangsta rap (“A Sanitized ‘French
Vance that a staggering percentage of
alternatives. A new report brings evi- schools grew by about a third in the decade Connection’ vs. the Hip-Hop Gutter,”
those millions of ERC claims are
dence that this is happening through 2021-22, which Upward Mobility, Aug. 16). But did he
based on bogus interpretations of the
in Florida, where Catholic Enrollment grows in means more competition for criteria for claiming the credit.
see a different version of “The Exor-
cist” than the rest of us?
PreK-12 schools are defying the Sunshine State, Catholic schools. Billions of Covid-relief funds for
“For most of the film,” he writes,
national trends. Moral education is a tradi- small businesses and individuals have
“you’re watching grown men torment
Of the 10 states with the thanks to school choice. tional attraction of Catholic already proved to be fraudulent. Pro-
a helpless little girl with escalating
highest Catholic school en- school for many parents. But cessing of those ERC claims as Mr.
cruelty.” Huh? The overarching tor-
rollment, Florida is the only the report notes that “in or- Vance demands would only add to the
ment the girl suffers comes from her
massive fraud on the taxpayers that
one where Catholic school enrollment has der to stand out on a landscape where parents possession by the devil. After emi-
he wants to protect.
grown over the past decade. It’s a modest 4.4%, have more choices every day, many Catholic Instead of pushing his knee-jerk
nent physicians fail to alleviate her
or 3,644 students, but compare that to New schools here are offering distinctive program- suffering, her (successful and inde-
“populist” ideology, Mr. Vance might
York and New Jersey, where enrollment ming on top of the core features that have al- pendent) actress mother enlists a
use his Yale education to do some
dropped by more than 30%. Pennsylvania saw ways made Catholic schools attractive and ef- Catholic exorcist. Mr. Riley should
homework.
give the film another try.
a 25% loss. The report comes from Step Up for fective.” Several schools now offer KIP DELLINGER, C.P.A.
ROBERT HUGINS
Students, a nonprofit that administers Florida’s International Baccalaureate programs and Sherman Oaks, Calif.
Summerville, S.C.
K-12 scholarships. other specialized courses. Mr. Dellinger was the tax policy
The Sunshine State’s population growth may The report highlights two examples of stu- and practice columnist for Tax Notes
have something to do with it, the report ac- dents in remote areas benefiting from Catholic magazine.
knowledges. But other states showed larger de- education. Hope Rural School in the Diocese of Pepper ...
clines in Catholic school enrollment than in the Palm Beach serves mostly students of agricul-
Climate Change, in a Way And Salt
number of school-age children, so other factors tural workers. The Diocese of St. Augustine set THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
seem to be at play. A big one is the state’s pri- up a transportation initiative to help students Given that Hawaiian Electric priori-
vate school scholarships. who live in areas that lack Catholic schools tized investment in renewable energy
Florida has offered publicly funded scholar- nearby. “Examples like these counter wide- rather than spark mitigation (“Maui’s
Fires and the Electric Grid,” Review &
ships since 2001 and has expanded eligibility spread myths that school choice ‘can’t work’
Outlook, Aug. 19), it may not be un-
over the years. “As a share of total enrollment, in rural areas,” says the report. truthful to say that the Maui wildfires
the percentage of choice scholarship students Separately, a recent report from Teach Co- were caused by climate change.
in Florida Catholic schools has risen from 16.3 alition found that Jewish kindergarten enroll- DOUG GRANT
percent to 46.6 percent” from 2012-13 to ment in Florida grew by more than 45% from Muskego, Wis.
2022-23, says the report. 2016 to 2021, while declining in New York,
This year the Legislature passed a bill to which has a large Jewish population.
Letters intended for publication should
open the scholarships to all students regardless All of this is a good signal that Florida’s be emailed to wsj.ltrs@wsj.com. Please
of income, so this percentage will likely grow steady school choice expansion has helped stu- include your city, state and telephone
as parents take advantage of the program to af- dents and families. Other states can encourage number. All letters are subject to
ford tuition at Catholic school. similar growth and competition by expanding editing, and unpublished letters cannot “Yes, my name is Chad and
be acknowledged.
Vouchers encourage education supply as vouchers and scholarships for all children. spare me the jokes.”

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
How Inflation Fuels Government Growth
By Judy Shelton
A
s monetary officials gather
this week for their annual
retreat in Jackson Hole,
Wyo., they’ll ponder how
much higher they might
have to raise the cost of capital to
slay inflation. At the back of that
discussion will loom a more impor-
tant question: What role should the
Federal Reserve have in running the
U.S. economy?
Last year, Fed Chairman Jerome
Powell warned that the central bank
would “forcefully” battle inflation.
Higher interest rates, slower growth
and softer labor-market conditions
would “bring some pain to house-
holds and businesses,” he noted
High interest rates hit the
private sector hard while
leaving Washington free
to spend more money.
sternly. “These are the unfortunate
costs of reducing inflation.” Mone-
tary-policy makers are likely relieved
that raising the Fed’s key interest
rate to its highest level in 22 years
hasn’t taken its anticipated toll on
growth and employment numbers—
even as inflation indexes have
mostly drifted downward. But in-
stead of marveling at the prospect of
a soft landing, Fed officials should
be questioning an inflation-fighting
model that deliberately slows
New York Came Back in the ’90s—Then It Fell Again
Sunday’s cover of
the New York Post
featured a large
photo of a drugged
out middle-aged
man. He’s standing,
hunched forward on
UPWARD
MOBILITY a city sidewalk in
broad daylight. His
By Jason L.
bare legs and arms
Riley
are covered in open
sores, and a hypo-
dermic needle dangles from one of
his biceps. You can’t help but wince.
The photo reminded me of
“Gotham: The Fall and Rise of New
York,” a documentary film released
this year that ought to be required
viewing for the city’s political lead-
ership. It features interviews with
more than two dozen former City
Hall officials, police commissioners
and policy analysts who recount the
legacy of New York’s six mayors be-
tween 1966 and 2013.
“If you don’t really understand
that legacy,” says former Manhattan
Institute president Lawrence Mone
toward the end of the movie,
“you’re doomed to watch it fall
apart before your very eyes.”
The city’s most consequential
The Ukraine War Calls for a Revival of Deterrence Theory
By Sorin Adam Matei
R
ussia’s invasion of Ukraine last
year came as no surprise to
the West. But the Kremlin’s re-
cent ability to escalate without push-
back is surprising. Last month Rus-
sian jet fighters in Syria harassed
U.S. drones and damaged one. Rus-
sia’s attack on a Ukrainian grain
warehouse in Reni damaged a Roma-
nian commercial ship 600 feet from
its North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
tion border. NATO has been asleep at
the wheel as Russia abuses and pro-
vokes its members. A new twist to
deterrence theory demands that this
aggression be met with sharp, consis-
tent and measured force.
Principles of deterrence inspired
by game theory—a mathematical
model used to predict the actions of
hostile actors—governed the delicate
dance between the U.S. and Soviet
Union during the Cold War, helping
stave off nuclear armageddon. For
every major action, there was a com-
mensurate reaction. Yet American ne-
glect after 1989 of the simple and fa-
miliar game-theory rule—immediate
response to any pushback—prepared
the ground for Russia’s 2022 invasion
of Ukraine. NATO and the U.S. failed
to respond commensurately to the
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growth and raises unemployment.
If the model works as intended, it
means current economic growth and
unemployment are worse than they
would be if the Fed weren’t imposing
restrictive rates. It also decrees fur-
ther rate hikes if inflation ticks up.
Which raises a question worthy of
reflection not only by Jackson Hole
attendees, but all Americans who are
concerned about amplifying the gov-
ernment’s role in determining eco-
nomic outcomes: At whose expense
is this restrained growth being
achieved?
When the cost of capital rises, pri-
vate enterprise takes a direct hit.
Borrowers must choose whether to
absorb the extra cost, pass it on to
consumers, reduce operations and let
hard-won workers go, or close up
shop. High interest rates present a
serious obstacle for small-business
owners with dreams of expansion.
With long-term mortgage rates above
7%, the housing market is freezing
up. Would-be buyers face daunting
costs to borrow, and potential sellers
are seeing fewer offers.
The U.S. government, on the other
hand, hardly seems fazed by higher
interest rates; it continues to borrow
with abandon. Remember when the
rationale for huge budget deficits fi-
nanced by massive government bor-
rowing was that interest rates were
so low? Since March 2022, the Fed
has raised its key interest rate from
near zero to its current range of
5.25% to 5.5%. All that did was spur
higher deficit spending and a frenzy
of Treasury debt.
The latest budget numbers show
leader during that period was Re-
publican Rudolph Giuliani, and be-
fore he hitched a ride on the Donald
Trump train to stolen-election obliv-
ion, his two terms as mayor had se-
cured him an honorable place in
New York political history. When
Mr. Giuliani first won office in 1993,
he inherited a city in crisis. Hun-
dreds of thousands of jobs were lost
to other cities, welfare dependency
was growing, violent crime was at
epidemic levels, and public parks
had become open drug markets.
Mr. Giuliani’s likeable but feck-
less immediate predecessor, Demo-
crat David Dinkins, was voted out
after one term, but the city had
been in decline for decades prior to
the Dinkins administration. “Before
this day is over,” began a 1965 cam-
paign ad for Republican John Lind-
say, “someone will be murdered,”
“50,000 drug addicts will need an-
other fix,” and “50 jobs will leave
the city.” Lindsay served two
terms, and those problems contin-
ued to grow worse for the next
quarter-century. His police commis-
sioner banned uniformed officers
from making narcotics arrests,
which infuriated people living in
savaging of Moldova in 1992, of Geor-
gia in 1993 and 2008 and of Crimea
and Donbas in 2014. As a result, the
U.S. and its allies continue to trail as
Russia improves its hand and in-
creases the stakes each round.
Russia has followed a “zero deter-
minant” strategy against Ukraine.
While classical mathematical theories
call for players to mirror each other’s
moves with grand “tit for tat” coun-
termoves, the aim of zero determi-
nant is to confuse your opponent.
You may strike first, offer coopera-
tion, and then refuse to compromise.
In Russia’s case, Vladimir Putin in-
vaded Ukraine and immediately
opened negotiations, only to launch
missiles intended to destroy Kyiv’s
energy infrastructure, while charac-
terizing Ukraine’s responses to ag-
gression as acts of terror. This ap-
proach relies on cheating, and it
works well against those who believe
in following rules—like the U.S.
Cheating in the global security
competition has been successful for
Russia. The sudden high stakes of its
opening moves leave opponents with
only one choice: put up or shut up.
When NATO fails to respond force-
fully, Russia maintains its advantage
by dangling the threat of using nu-
clear weapons after each escalation.
Robert Thomson
Chief Executive Officer, News Corp
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OPINION
an increase in government outlays
of 10% so far this year, even as reve-
nues have fallen 10%. The Congres-
sional Budget Office projects that
government spending growth will
outpace revenue growth for the
next 30 years, even though both are
already above historical averages as
a percentage of gross domestic
product.
Unlike businesses and households,
the Treasury can pay whatever inter-
est rate is necessary to get investors
to finance government spending. The
additional cost of servicing accumu-
lated federal debt is merely tacked on
to future calculations of budget defi-
cits. Government excess drives infla-
tion, but Mr. Powell remains mum
about the monetary consequences of
borrowing from the future to pay for
current consumption.
It’s clear where this is going. When
government is unconstrained by bud-
communities with lots of outdoor
drug activity. By the time Lindsay
left office in 1974, welfare rolls had
exploded and the number of mur-
ders had nearly tripled.
The Giuliani administration won
wide praise for making the city safe
again, but William Bratton, the New
York City police commissioner in the
mid-1990s, told filmmakers that the
dramatic reduction in crime
stemmed from the ability of police to
Strong leaders delivered
safer streets and better
schools. Their successors
proved weak or worse.
focus on maintaining order and not
simply on capturing criminals after
the fact. “In the 1970s and ’80s, po-
lice moved away from dealing with
disorder on the streets and instead
focused on responding to crime,” he
said. “We didn’t deal with quality-of-
life crime at all.”
Most people didn’t want cops off
the street and sitting in their patrol
Common sense improperly under-
stood has convinced NATO allies to
comply for fear that the alternative
was the end of the world.
These rules have been engineered
by Russia, and NATO shouldn’t ac-
cept them anymore. Luckily, a re-
cent iteration of great-power deter-
rence theory offers an out. Instead
of big, bold moves that have lately
left the U.S. struggling to catch up,
a new deterrence-theory principle
that relies on unbending and local-
ized responses might be more effec-
tive in combating current Russian
aggression.
To understand that strategy, let’s
examine how we arrived at a situa-
tion in which Russia—once the sub-
ject of NATO’s deterrence—has ended
up deterring NATO in the conflict
with Ukraine.
For the six months prior to the in-
vasion, the U.S. and U.K. tried to deter
Russia by direct warning. In Novem-
ber 2021 William J. Burns, director of
the Central Intelligence Agency, trav-
eled to Moscow in a bid to reveal
NATO’s knowledge of Russian inva-
sion plans. Mr. Burns warned Vladi-
mir Putin that there would be a “huge
price” should he continue in his plans
to invade Ukraine. Yet the declaration
fell flat since it wasn’t followed by
Notable & Quotable: Jiu-Jitsu
John Blake writing for CNN.com,
Aug. 20:
Republicans are masters of verbal
jiu-jitsu. It’s a form of linguistic com-
bat in which the practitioner takes a
political phrase or concept popularized
by their opponent and gradually turns
into an unusable slur. . . . Its devotees
avoid taking opposing arguments head
on and instead redirect their oppo-
nents’ momentum to beat them.
If this sounds abstract, consider
the evolution of “woke.” The word is
defined as being “actively aware of
social injustice.” But it has been
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | A17
GETTY IMAGES
getary discipline and monetary-policy
makers punish the private sector with
high interest rates to rectify the er-
rors of fiscal policy, democratic capi-
talism can’t last long.
Consider the Inflation Reduction
Act, which President Biden signed in
August 2022. It’s one of the biggest
outlays of deficit-financed industrial
stimulus since the New Deal. Mr. Bi-
den sold it as a government “invest-
ment” that would reduce inflation
over time by increasing economic
output. In a healthy economy, this is
precisely what private-sector busi-
nesses do, while also covering inter-
est payments and earning profits.
The White House preaches govern-
ment intervention to reduce inflation
even as the Fed’s restrictive rates
suppress economic activities that ac-
tually reduce inflation.
“All those who wish to stop the
drift toward increasing government
cars waiting for 911 calls about seri-
ous crimes, Mr. Bratton said. Rather,
they wanted the police to address
things they saw every day: prostitu-
tion, graffiti, abandoned cars that
weren’t towed away, gangs occupy-
ing street corners. The focus on
lower-level offenses ultimately led
to fewer serious crimes. Going after
people who jumped the turnstile to
avoid paying the subway fare, for
example, led to the arrest of more
people with outstanding warrants or
who were carrying illegal weapons.
Between 1993 and 2001, the year
Mr. Giuliani left office, murders in
New York fell by two-thirds.
Michael Bloomberg, a Democrat
who ran as a Republican, succeeded
Mr. Giuliani in 2001 and continued
his predecessor’s focus on safety
and livability. Mr. Bloomberg also
embarked on a popular and unprec-
edented expansion of school choice
for low-income families wallowing
in underperforming traditional pub-
lic schools. Since Mr. Bloomberg left
office 10 years ago, however, the
city has been reverting to its old
ways—neglecting quality-of-life is-
sues, turning a blind eye to low-
level crimes, allowing public spaces
military substantiation. Instead, the
U.S. and U.K published Russia’s future
attack plan, even at the risk of tipping
their intelligence hands—an act with-
out precedent. The NATO powers
failed because they didn’t heed the
doctrine of materially reminding the
opponent of the risk of mutual as-
sured destruction, which prevented a
nuclear exchange throughout the Cold
War.
Fear of Russian escalation
has paralyzed the West.
What’s needed is forceful
localized countermoves.
When the U.S. government grudg-
ingly acknowledged the presence of
Soviet missiles in Cuba in October
1962, President John F. Kennedy de-
cided against direct air strikes, which
would have neutralized Soviet mis-
siles but risked full-blown war. Yet he
remained steadfast in his intentions
to push back the Soviets. Over 13
days, both Washington and Moscow
incrementally beefed up their posi-
tions abroad and created a stalemate
whereby one aggressive move from
transformed into a contemporary
scourge, one that a politician com-
pared to a “virus more dangerous
than any pandemic, hands down.”
Mention almost any touchstone
phrase adopted by the left in recent
years—“critical race theory,” “diver-
sity,” “global warming,” even the word
“liberal” itself—and it has been rede-
fined or tarnished by conservatives.
Meanwhile, Republicans continue
to proudly use words and pet
phrases such as “family values,”
“conservative” and “patriot”—no
matter who or what is associated
with the terms.
.
control should concentrate their ef-
forts on monetary policy,” observed
Friedrich Hayek, who later won a
Nobel Prize in economics, in “The
Constitution of Liberty” (1960). Po-
litical and economic freedom are in-
terconnected; expanding government
control over the direction of the
economy is cause for alarm.
That is why the Fed’s prominent
role in channeling financial resources
has become a campaign issue. Presi-
dential candidates ought to have a
view on the proper role of a central
bank in a free-market economy—and
be able to answer specific questions
about potential reforms. Should U.S.
monetary officials have a 2% inflation
target? A Keynesian would be predis-
posed to say yes—a 2% target safe-
guards the Fed’s room to maneuver
rates downward. But this is a recipe
for systematically debasing the value
of the dollar. One could argue that
“stable prices” means zero inflation.
Why should government be permitted
to skim off the nation’s monetary
store of value?
Money should be an honest mea-
sure—not merely an instrument of
government economic policy. Its
most important function is to pro-
vide reliable price signals so that
Americans can plan how to pursue
life, liberty and happiness. The U.S.
dollar should be a dependable mone-
tary standard—the most trusted cur-
rency in the world.
Ms. Shelton, a monetary econo-
mist, is a senior fellow at the Inde-
pendent Institute and author of
“Money Meltdown.”
to become drug havens.
Mr. Bloomberg’s successor was
Democrat Bill de Blasio, who spent
two terms warring with law en-
forcement and charter-school pro-
ponents. Democrat Eric Adams, the
current mayor, has done little to
take the city in a new direction.
Writing earlier this year in City
Journal, Stephen Eide noted that
under Mr. Adams “the welfare situa-
tion in New York resembles the
crime situation—trends are headed
in the wrong direction as some, if
not all, of the Giuliani–Bloomberg
era gains have been lost.”
Mr. Adams’s biggest mistake so
far is of his own making. He has
openly advertised New York as a
“sanctuary” that will house and feed
illegal immigrants with no questions
asked. Tens of thousands of foreign
nationals have taken him up on the
offer with no end in sight. These are
mostly young men, not allowed to
work because of their immigrant
status, being welcomed to a city
that already has a serious homeless
problem and a progressive district
attorney who can’t be bothered with
prosecuting petty criminals. What
could go wrong?
either party would ensure the de-
struction of both. This deadlock per-
mitted negotiations and effectively
prevented nuclear war. It was an
early example of an unbending local-
ized response.
After the Cold War, NATO allies
felt their mere presence, regardless of
military preparedness, would deter
Russia from future belligerence. But
NATO is mistaken in its assessment of
Russia’s abilities and interests.
Since its invasion of Ukraine in
2022, Russia has bombed targets
close to Romania’s border on the
Danube, fired missiles over neutral
countries, mined the Black Sea lanes,
and downed NATO members’ drones.
NATO has done little more than pro-
vide inadequate aid to Ukraine and
stomp its feet in protest. Rather
than fall for another Russian trick,
NATO needs to employ an “unbend-
ing collective answer” to any Rus-
sian aggression.
How would this work? On hearing
news of missile attacks against a port
that shares a border with a NATO
member, NATO should have declared
an air-defense buffer zone within 100
miles of all NATO borders. After a
NATO drone was intercepted and
damaged over the Black Sea, NATO
should have instituted a regular
armed patrol of the zone where the
drone was drowned. When Russia in-
stituted a blockade of Ukrainian
ports, NATO should have responded
with a counterblockade on all points
of entry and exit on the Black Sea.
These are local, specific and immedi-
ate responses to Russian aggression.
Many would argue that such ag-
gression would provoke Russia and
cause another world war. But playing
tit for tat—when done specifically—
against a bully is rooted in cold math
and has worked in the past. Bringing
in old games might remind Russia of
how things unfolded last time it
threatened NATO.
Mr. Matei is associate dean of re-
search at Purdue University’s Krach
Institute for Tech Diplomacy.
 .

A18 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

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Traders Expect
Rally in Nvidia
To Strengthen
Wednesday’s report
on earnings is seen
adding fuel to fire in
chip maker’s shares
BY GUNJAN BANERJI
Traders are ramping up
their bets that the block-
buster rally in Nvidia’s shares
will accelerate after Wednes-
day’s earnings report.
Riding the frenzy of inter-
est in artificial-intelligence
technology, they have dished
out more than $100 billion on
Nvidia options this year, ac-
cording to Cboe Global Mar-
kets data through mid-Au-
gust. About 60% of that sum
is tied to call options that can
be used to bet on a continued
rally. No other stock besides
Tesla has garnered that level
of investor interest.
Options are contracts that
give investors the right to buy
Dick’s, Macy’s Warn on Consumer Outlook
BY SARAH NASSAUER
AND SUZANNE KAPNER
Dick’s Sporting Goods and
Macy’s shares traded sharply
lower Tuesday after the retail-
ers posted weaker quarterly
earnings and provided tepid
forecasts for the remainder of
the year, signals that the re-
cent strength in consumer
spending has its limits.
The sporting-goods chain
slashed its profit targets for
the year after missing Wall
Street forecasts for the second
quarter. Sales slowed after a
pandemic-fueled surge for out-
door gear, leaving it with ex-
cess inventory. Executives said
thefts of merchandise were
also higher than they expected.
Macy’s reported declining
sales in the June quarter and
Macy’s Delinquencies are
viewed as a proxy for con-
sumer health, and missed pay-
ments endanger a key source
of revenue for the department-
store chain.
“We expect the pressures
consumers are under to con-
tinue through the balance of
Buyback
Tax Costs
Companies
$3.5 Billion
BY JENNIFER WILLIAMS-ALVAREZ
A new 1% tax on stock buy-
backs is starting to increase
companies’ anticipated tax
burdens, to the tune of over
$3.5 billion in the first half of
the year among the largest
U.S. public companies.
Businesses in recent weeks
have disclosed what they are
expecting their tax bills for
share repurchases to be for
the first half of the year, offer-
ing a first glimpse at the
levy’s midyear impact on their
financials. Booking Holdings
estimates a tax liability of $47
million for the six months
ended June 30, according to a
regulatory filing. PayPal an-
ticipates a $24 million bill tied
DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
to buybacks for that period,
while MetLife expects a tax
hit of $13 million.
The tax, which went into
effect Jan. 1, is set to cost S&P
500 companies $1.6 billion in
the second quarter, according
to preliminary data from S&P
Dow Jones Indices, a unit of
ratings firm S&P Global. That
figure, which is down from
around $1.98 billion in the
first three months of the year,
represents around 0.34% of
the companies’ collective op-
erating income for the second
Please turn to page B6
.
* * * * * * THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | B1
S&P IT g 0.24% DJ TRANS g 0.72% WSJ $ IDX À 0.15% 2–YR. TREAS. yield 5.035% NIKKEI (Midday) 31962.99 À 0.33% See more at WSJ.com/Markets
Microsoft
Nvidia’s options Options premium spent in 2023*
4 million contracts Tesla
$364.3 billion
Pushes to
Nvidia
3 110.1
$500
Amazon.com
78.1
Nvidia’s share price
Win U.K.
2 Call options outstanding Meta Platforms
54.4
400
Nod on
or sell shares at a specific
price, by a specific date. Calls
confer the right to buy, while
1
Apple
50.1
300
Activision
Microsoft 200
puts give the right to sell. BY KIM MACKRAEL
Shares of Nvidia, which Put options outstanding 41.0 AND SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN
makes the graphics chips used Netflix
0 100
to power generative AI tech- Microsoft agreed to forfeit
34.7
nology, popped 5.5% this week Feb. 2022 ’23 Jan. 2023 Aug. cloud-streaming rights for Ac-
and have more than tripled tivision Blizzard games in
this year, making them by far Nvidia’s market capitalization Nvidia’s post-earnings share-price performance much of the world as part of a
the best performers in the renewed proposal to win over
$1.2 trillion DATE OF PERFORMANCE
S&P 500. The rally went into British regulators, who have so
EARNINGS RELEASE TWO DAYS AFTER
overdrive three months ago far rejected the tech giant’s
when the company astonished 1.0 May 24, 2023 27.5% planned $75 billion purchase of
Wall Street with a revenue the game company.
forecast that blew past esti- Feb. 22, 2023 12.2 In a new deal proposed to
0.8
mates. the U.K.’s Competition and
Nvidia gained nearly $184 Nov. 16, 2022 –3.1 Markets Authority, Microsoft
billion in market value on 0.6 offered to cede most cloud-
Aug. 24, 2022 –5.6
May 25, the day after its last streaming rights for Activision
earnings report, and helped 0.4 May 25, 2022 games—including its hit fran-
10.8
spark a monthslong rally in chise “Call of Duty”—to rival
other AI-related stocks that Feb. 16, 2022 –10.8 games giant Ubisoft Entertain-
propelled the broader stock 0.2 ment.
market’s ascent. The S&P 500 Nov. 17, 2021 12.7 Microsoft said the transfer
is up 14% in 2023, despite 0 of those rights would cover all
pulling back around 4% in Au- Aug. 18, 2021 9.3 of Activision’s existing console
2021 ’22 ’23
gust. and computer games, as well
Please turn to page B2 *As of Aug. 16 Sources: Cboe Global Markets (options); FactSet (share price, market cap); Dow Jones Market Data, FactSet (post earnings performance) Please turn to page B2
 Heard on the Street: The
Microsoft long game..... B12
swung to a net loss in the re-
Studios
cently completed period. Ap-
parel categories including ac-
tivewear, casual and sleepwear
Disclose
had challenges, while others
such as fragrances and pres-
tige cosmetics as well as
New Offer
women’s career sportswear
performed well, according to
Macy’s.
To Writers
Shares of Dick’s plunged
DAVE KOTINSKY/GETTY IMAGES FOR DICK’S SPORTING GOODS
24%, its largest single-day per- BY JOE FLINT
centage decline as a public
company. Macy’s fell 14%. The coalition representing
Home-improvement chain Hollywood studios and
Lowe’s rose 3.8% after the streaming services made what
company reported results that it believes to be its best offer
matched expectations. to striking writers Tuesday
The readouts from Dick’s evening, releasing the terms of
and Macy’s illustrate the eco- its latest contract proposal in
nomic challenges that persist the hopes of persuading the
among sellers of consumer Writers Guild of America to
goods. Spending on items such accept the deal.
as apparel, electronics and Among the concessions the
sporting goods surged early in studios said they offered are a
The sporting-goods chain slashed its profit targets for the year after missing forecasts.. the pandemic but slowed sig- guaranteed minimum length of
nificantly starting last year, employment, controls around
the year,” said Macy’s Chief added that international tour- spend,” Gennette said. “More causing whiplash among retail- the use of generative artificial
Executive Jeff Gennette, add- ism has yet to return to pre- of their money is going to ser- ers that bet on buying pat- intelligence, wage and residu-
ing that additional challenges pandemic levels. vices and experiences.” terns continuing at als increases and quarterly re-
will come once students and “Consumers still have good Sales at Macy’s were down higher levels. ports on viewing hours per ti-
graduates resume repaying savings, but they are being 8% to $5 billion from a year Consumers are still spend- tle for streaming shows.
their federal student loans. He more judicious in how they earlier and the company Please turn to page B6 Please turn to page B4
Startup Funding
Shrinks in Europe
BY ERIC SYLVERS European startups, many of
Daan Weddepohl raised just
a third of the amount of ven-
which have had to scale back
expansion plans as venture-
capital funding plunges follow-
ture capital that he hoped for ing sluggish economic growth
to fund the U.S. expansion of and rising interest rates. Im-
his Dutch startup. proved returns now offered by
“It took a lot more work, a bonds and other relatively safe
lot more time, was a lot more investments have drawn many
painful, and I had to go to a European investors away from
lot more conferences to meet riskier, less familiar asset
EA SPORTS
people,” Weddepohl said of his classes such as startups.
fundraising efforts for Peerby, Venture-capital funding has
which lets people in the Neth- dropped significantly in the Creating a college-football videogame is much different than what EA does for ‘Madden NFL.’
erlands and Belgium borrow U.S., too, but Europe’s venture-
Rebooting College Football
and rent things from others in capital recession is particularly
their neighborhood. deep, reflecting the fickleness
A struggle to raise funds is of the continent’s investor base.
the new reality for thousands of Please turn to page B2
INSIDE
Videogame Is No Chip Shot
BY LAINE HIGGINS EA is planning to bring back Creating a college-football
AND SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN the game, now called “EA videogame is much different
TAYLOR GLASCOCK FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Sports College Football,” in the than what EA does for its pop-
Electronic Arts once had a summer of 2024. ular and long-running “Mad-
popular college-football video- But the revamped rules for den NFL” franchise. The latter
game that came with a built-in athlete compensation have cre- features the likeness of real Na-
frustration—it couldn’t feature ated a whole new set of head- tional Football League players,
real college football players. aches. Legal barbs, threats of a who are paid via an agreement
National Collegiate Athletic As- boycott and other challenges negotiated by their union.
sociation rules prohibited ath- now could dent the California NFL players also represent a
letes from being paid to use company’s plans for the reboot smaller and more stable work-
their images. The players fea- and derail student-athletes’ force. Their careers can last a
tured in the game, then called hopes of appearing in the new decade or more, while college
“NCAA Football,” were anony- game. athletes typically play for four
BUSINESS NEWS PROPERTY REPORT mous characters. The old game was canceled seasons or less. The NFL has 32
The Teamsters agree Office tenants are Now, a decade after EA in 2013 after it became tangled teams with approximately
ditched the game for various up in the aftermath of a class- 2,000 players; the top tier of
to a five-year contract signing more leases, reasons, the world has changed action suit involving EA’s use Division I college football has
that averts a strike of but for smaller and, since 2021, players are al- of a college basketball player’s 130 teams and more than
UPS drivers. B3 spaces. B6 lowed to be compensated for likeness in one of its other 11,000 athletes.
their name, image and likeness. sports games. Please turn to page B2
 .

B2 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 * ***** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

INDEX TO BUSINESSES BUSINESS & FINANCE

These indexes cite notable references to most parent companies and businesspeople in
today’s edition. Articles on regional page inserts aren’t cited in these indexes.

A E Microsoft......................................B11
Startup year fired 250 people, about
7% of its workforce.
While some hiring is still
Venture capital deal activity
in Europe
in startups, either through IPOs
or other ways such as sales to
private-equity firms, is forecast

Funding going on, especially in boom- to drop about 80% this year, ac-
Monsanto......................................B4 €125 billion
Activision Blizzard..............B12 Electronic Arts...........................B1
AK Steel.........................................B3 Esmark.............................................B3 N ing sectors such as artificial cording to PitchBook.
intelligence, there are cur- Kamal Hassan, a founding
Alphabet.........................................B2 G Nike...................................................B11 100
Apple...............................................B11
ArcelorMittal..............................B3
Guggenheim Securities...B11
K
Nintendo........................................B2
Nucor.................................................B3
Shrinks rently about half as many tech
job listings in Germany as a
year ago, according to Otta, a 75
partner at Loyal VC, which
has about 300 investments in
startups around the world,
Arm..................................................B12 Nvidia..............................................B11 platform that matches tech said that when he speaks to
KeyCorp.........................................B11 P Continued from page B1 company jobs with candidates. European startups the conver-
B
L The amount of venture-cap- The fragility of startup fund- 50 sations increasingly tend to be
PayPal...............................................B1
Binance............................................A1 ital funds invested in Europe ing threatens Europe’s goal of about funding needs.
Booking Holdings....................B1 Liberty Energy..........................B6 Perkins Coie................................A4 dropped 61% in the first half fostering new businesses and “The U.S. has so much capi-
C M S of this year compared with sectors—an area where it has 25 tal available that if a startup
Macy’s......................................B1,B11 Sony Group.................................B2 the same period in 2022, a long lagged behind the U.S.— is doing well, there will be a
Comerica.......................................B11 worse decline than in the U.S., leaving the region overly reliant VC that will provide funding,
Merit Energy............................B11 Steel Dynamics........................B3
D according to PitchBook Data. on long-established companies 0 but in Europe it’s different,”
Meta Platforms.......................B4 U The European Union’s devel- and industries. 2018 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’23* said Hassan. “There are com-
Dick’s Sporting Goods......B11
MetLife.............................................B1 Ubisoft..............................................B1 opment bank, the European Many European investors *Through June 30 €1 = $1.084 panies doing really well in Eu-
Investment Bank, and five of who invested in startups in re- Source: PitchBook Data rope that aren’t funded even
the bloc’s members are trying cent years were wealthy fami- though any rational person
INDEX TO PEOPLE to bridge the funding gap and
earlier this year pledged €3.75
lies that had often instinctively
preferred predictable assets
family offices, who said she
has preferred holding cash
would fund them.”
As a result, Hassan said,
billion, equivalent to about such as bonds but couldn’t and bonds since early 2021. there are buying opportunities
C Hobart, Lauren.........................B6 Silverblatt, Howard..............B6 $4.1 billion, to finance Euro- achieve returns during the era “We are still waiting. Maybe in Europe. His firm is making
Cuddihy, Meghan..................B11 L Stock, Michael..........................B6 pean tech companies. of ultralow interest rates. Now, we’ll dip our toes back in the dozens of very small invest-
F T Without easy access to with interest rates rising and first quarter of next year.” ments of $10,000 a startup. For
Lau, Warren................................B2
funding, startups are cutting the valuations of technology Funds have been unable to the companies that survive,
Tomé, Carol.................................B3
Friedlich, Mark..........................B6 M costs and scaling back their startups high, many of the fam- divest themselves of previous Loyal follows up with invest-
G W growth plans. GoStudent, an ily offices that invest money for investments in startups and ments in stages of $200,000, $1
McLean, Sarah........................B11
Gennette, Jeff............................B1 Waite,, Jonathan...................B11 Austrian digital-education such families are returning to make payouts to investors be- million and $3 million.
P company, has eliminated more their old playbooks. cause the market for initial Some sectors continue to
Goulden, David.........................B6 Weddepohl, Daan....................B1
Pachter, Michael......................B2 than 10% of its workforce and “We haven’t invested in any public offerings has shriveled attract funding, such as artifi-
H Wilson, Andrew.......................B2
withdrawn from the U.S. mar- startups in the past two this year. cial intelligence and the infra-
Palazzolo, Matthew............B11
Hassan, Kamal..........................B2 Z ket. Glovo, a Spanish food-de- years,” said the executive di- The amount of money raised structure for the transition to
Hill, Lauren.................................B11 S Zuckerberg, Mark...................B4 livery company, earlier this rector of one of Italy’s largest by funds selling their holdings cleaner energy.

Nvidia serve as a test for the com-

pany’s bulls as well as other
stocks that have benefited
Microsoft the potential for it to reduce
competition in the market for
cloud gaming, a nascent tech-

Rally Seen from the excitement around

AI. For example, Google par-
ent Alphabet has rallied more
Pushes U.K. nology that allows people to
stream videogames to almost
any internet-connected device

Lasting than 46% this year, in part on

that optimism.
The stock market is also in
need of a fresh catalyst after
Continued from page B1 stumbling in August on wor-
The activity in the options ries about the impact of
market has hit a fever pitch higher bond yields on richly
ahead of the next earnings re- valued technology shares.
port, which is due after Through July, Nvidia alone
ANN WANG/REUTERS
On Deal with a screen, such as a
smart television, smartphone
or laptop.
Unlike console game play-
Continued from page B1 ing, which is dominated by
as those published over the Sony Group’s PlayStation, Mi-
next 15 years. The software gi- crosoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s
ant could still offer Activision Switch, cloud gaming is a rela-
games through its subscrip- tively new market with more

Wednesday’s closing bell. The had powered more than 10% tion-based cloud-streaming potential competitors.
number of call option con- of the S&P 500’s gains, ac- service Game Pass, though it Microsoft has spent more
tracts outstanding hit a high cording to S&P Dow Jones would need to first obtain a li- than a year-and-a-half trying
in August, Cboe data show. Indices. cense from Ubisoft to do so. to persuade competition au-
Some of the most actively Some of the most popular The deal would allow Micro- thorities worldwide to accept
traded contracts on Tuesday Nvidia Corp Chief Executive Jensen Huang options trades tied to Nvidia soft to acquire cloud-streaming the deal. The company se-
were those that would profit are those expiring within rights to Activision’s games in cured approval for the acquisi-
if the shares kept climbing, Jones Market Data. Likewise, the 50 invest- days, a sign that traders are the European Economic Area, a tion in Europe, China and
touching $500, Cboe Global The robust activity sug- ment analysts covering the looking to pocket quick prof- group of mostly Western Euro- other markets, but ran into
Markets data show. Some gests some traders are fearful stock are mostly bullish, ac- its. Interest in one-day op- pean countries that doesn’t in- roadblocks in the U.S. and U.K.
traders eyed calls tied to the of missing out on further cording to data compiled by tions bets has exploded this clude the U.K. Microsoft would The Federal Trade Commis-
shares jumping to $600 or gains in Nvidia, while others FactSet. Their average price year, with trading volumes be allowed to take on the sion is still fighting in court to
$700. are likely eager to take advan- target is around $537, or 18% hitting a record this month, global streaming rights for new block the deal.
Following the report, trad- tage of the big one-day moves above Tuesday’s close of according to Nomura. Activision games published af- The CMA said it would re-
ers are betting on a swing in in its shares. $456.68. Warren Lau at Ale- ter 15 years. view the new
the stock of about 11%—up or “This name in particular is theia Capital, the most opti- The CMA proposal. The
Watch a Video

$75B
down—through the end of the full of [[fear of missing out], mistic of the bunch, recently previously re- agency set an
week, options pricing shows. and people do not want to boosted his target to $1,000, Scan this code jected the initial deadline
That is well above the average miss out on it,” said Matthew FactSet data show. for a video on merger amid of Oct. 18,
move of about 7% seen after Tym, head of equity deriva- The stakes are undoubtedly how AI fueled concerns it which is the
the last eight earnings re- tives trading at Cantor high heading into Wednes- Nvidia’s stock could reduce Price tag for same date that
leases, according to Dow Fitzgerald. day’s report. Nvidia’s earnings competition in
Microsoft’s planned an extended
climb.
the cloud- deadline for
streaming mar- purchase of M i c ro s o f t ’s
ket. Analysts Activision Blizzard merger agree-
said the conces- ment with Ac-
sion appeared tivision is due
big enough to to expire.
satisfy the regulator but not “We believe that this devel-
big enough to undermine the opment is positive for players,
value of the deal for Microsoft. the progression of the cloud
“I don’t think it costs them game streaming market, and
very much because cloud gam- for the growth of our industry,”
ing is a very small slice of the Microsoft President Brad Smith
market right now,” said Roth said in a blog post published
MKM analyst Eric Handler. after the CMA’s announcement.
The cloud-gaming market is Smith said Microsoft
expected to comprise 43.1 mil- would acquire the EEA cloud-
lion paying users by the end of streaming rights it needs to
this year, according to Newzoo. fulfill concessions the com-
That is a fraction of the overall pany made previously to ap-
EA SPORTS (2)

global videogame market, pease regulators in the Euro-

EA has to figure out how to pay college football players for its revamped game. Images of the new in-development game.
EA, which is also known for
Videogame its “Battlefield” and “The Sims”
franchises, is facing other hur-
dles to featuring real college
Is Tough football players in the rebooted
series. In May the company
which the analytics firm esti- pean Union.
mates will grow to 1.47 billion Activision Blizzard Chief
paying users this year. Executive Bobby Kotick told
Ubisoft American depositary employees in an email posted
receipts rose 8% Tuesday. Mi- on the company’s website
crosoft shares were up slight, Tuesday that Activision wel-
while Activision was up 1%. comed the new proposal and
The U.K. had earlier re- was committed to helping Mi-
jected Microsoft’s proposed crosoft clear any remaining
purchase of Activision, citing hurdles to complete the deal.

Reboot hired a licensing agency to help

it negotiate deals with students
through their respective col-
leges, and one of the losing con-

In Memoriam
Continued from page B1 tenders for that gig, a firm For more information:
Now EA has to figure out called Brandr Group, filed a tor- wsj.com/inmemoriam
how to pay all of those college tious interference lawsuit
football players—and how against it a month later. Dr. Vivian Pan
much. And that is already Brandr alleges that EA’s
proving difficult. contract with a rival agency
Some media outlets re- some of these star guys in this month, EA CEO Andrew Wil- gets in the way of exclusive

IN
cently reported that EA there.” son told analysts he is confident rights it holds to represent cer-
planned to offer a $500 check Other players, however, said a resolution can be reached. “I tain schools in negotiating li-
to those opting into its game
and no additional money in
they are eager to see them-
selves in the game regardless
do believe that we’ll find a place
where we can work in lockstep
censing deals. The EA spokes-
man said the company doesn’t MEMORIAM
royalties. That’s much less of how much they stand to be with the athletes for inclusion in believe the suit has merit and
than the roughly $15,000 NFL paid. “I don’t care about the the game,” he said. that it won’t affect “EA Sports Honor your loved one’s life
players receive annually for money because I’ve been play- EA’s old college-football game College Football”’s develop-
appearing in EA’s “Madden ing that game since I was lit- was never as lucrative as its ment timeline. In early August, in The Wall Street Journal
NFL,” as part of a larger royal- tle,” Missouri cornerback Kris “Madden NFL” game, according EA filed a motion to dismiss
ties check from the league, ac- Abrams-Draine told reporters to Wedbush Securities analyst Brandr’s complaint. Share your loved
cording to a person familiar last month. Michael Pachter. He estimates In the past, EA has said it one’s story with an
with the arrangement. Meanwhile, the College Foot- that each installment of “NCAA would proceed with developing announcement in the
A spokesman for EA said no ball Players Association, a fledg- Football” generated about $125 the new game whether or not pages of The Wall Street
offers have been made yet to ling advocacy group for current million each, while EA’s latest it can use student athletes’ Journal, either in our
any college athletes for appear- and former student athletes, is “Madden NFL” game made likenesses. And some fans
national or regional NEW YORK, N.Y. - The folks at Hamlin
ing in the new game. But some urging players to boycott the around $500 million. think that’ is fine, too. William Capital Management mourn the passing
players are already questioning new game en masse over the A key reason for the dispar- Lee, a 28-year-old market re-
editions. Our In Memoriam of our beloved friend and former colleague
whether they would be fair. compensation reports that EA ity is that “Madden NFL” in- searcher in Seattle, fell in love notices provide a dignified Dr. Vivian Pan. Vivian helped shepherd
Oklahoma quarterback General disputes. The group’s founder, cludes a popular mode of play with the old version when he way for friends, family and Hamlin’s growth over two decades since
its founding. In addition to her contri-
Booty recently predicted that Jason Stahl, says it has “hun- called Ultimate Team, in which was in middle school, in part colleagues to pay tribute. butions to our securities and economic
star players could threaten to dreds” of members. gamers build their own all-star because it allowed him to turn research, Vivian cared deeply about the
human aspect of our craft, as evidenced
opt out of it unless they are “Our position is the players teams to compete online. Repli- schools from his childhood
paid more. are the game. It doesn’t happen cating that experience in a col- home state of Georgia into na-
To learn more, visit by the time and care she gave to our
clients and by her activities outside of
“We want the game to come without the labor of the play- lege football series might not tional champions. WSJ.com/InMemoriam Hamlin, particularly her tenure as Chair at
out, obviously,” Booty told re- ers,” he said. “We wouldn’t be practical, Pachter said, since “For me, college football Studio in a School. She was a mentor to
many, both within and outside of Hamlin,
porters at a conference earlier have done the [boycott] cam- student athletes don’t stick games have never been about for which we will be forever grateful. We
© 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
this summer. “That’s going to paign if there were royalties.” around long enough to build up the players,” Lee said. “They All Rights Reserved. offer our deepest condolences to her
ruin the game if they don’t have On an earnings call earlier fan bases. come and go.” family and friends.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
LUKE SHARRETT/BLOOMBERG NEWS
U.S. Steel for decades has been one of the nation’s largest steelmakers, operating mills and iron-ore mines.
U.S. Steel, Union Square Off
Over Competing Takeover Bids
BY BOB TITA
United States Steel and the
United Steelworkers union are
at odds over the union’s influ-
ence as the steelmaker consid-
ers acquisition bids.
The union, which represents
about 11,000 hourly production
workers at U.S. Steel, is back-
ing rival steelmaker Cleveland-
Cliffs’ attempt to buy the com-
pany. U.S. Steel is pushing back,
saying its contract with USW
doesn’t give the union a veto
vote over any potential deal for
the 122-year-old company.
Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel
said on Aug. 13 that the com-
pany is considering multiple of-
fers for all or part of its busi-
ness. Alongside Cleveland-
Cliffs, industrial conglomerate
Esmark has also announced a
bid for U.S. Steel, which is one
of the four big steelmakers that
supply the auto industry, the
construction sector and other
manufacturers.
U.S. Steel for decades has
been one of the nation’s largest
steelmakers, operating mills
and iron-ore mines. While
newer competitors can produce
steel more cheaply by melting
scrap in electric arc furnaces,
U.S. Steel’s iron-ore based pro-
duction methods remain vital
for steel used in auto bodies,
food cans, appliances and other
manufacturing.
The company’s iron-ore re-
serves have increasing strate-
gic value in the industry as
scrap steel supplies tighten.
U.S. Steel also produces pipe
for oil and gas wells, and plans
to start producing specialized
steel for electric-vehicle mo-
tors.
JANE ROSENBERG/REUTERS
Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers say he has been subsisting on bread and water.
FTX Founder Frets About Food
BY CAITLIN OSTROFF
AND CORINNE RAMEY
Sam Bankman-Fried has
been subsisting on a bread-
and-water diet and can’t ade-
quately prepare for his coming
trial without access to evi-
dence and his medication, his
lawyers told a judge during his
first court appearance since he
had his bail revoked.
In what was largely a for-
mality, Bankman-Fried pleaded
not guilty Tuesday to seven
charges that he faces at his Oc-
tober trial on fraud and other
charges. Bankman-Fried previ-
ously pleaded not guilty to ear-
lier indictments relating to the
* *
A sale of U.S. Steel could put
the union in a precarious posi-
tion. U.S. Steel and Cleveland-
Cliffs are the largest unionized
steelmakers in the U.S. Newer
steel companies, including Nu-
cor and Steel Dynamics, oper-
ate without union-represented
workers. U.S. Steel’s newest
steel mill, Big River Steel in Ar-
kansas, also has a nonunion
workforce.
U.S. Steel executives plan to
expand Big River’s capacity, po-
tentially diminishing the com-
pany’s need to continue operat-
ing some older mills that rely
on unionized
workers. U.S.
Steel since 2020
shut down most The union said
of its unionized its contract
mill near De-
troit and is at- affords it “de
tempting to sell
its union-
facto veto
staffed steel power.”
mill near St.
Louis.
The union
said its contract with U.S. Steel
affords it “de facto veto power”
over the sale of the company,
because a buyer would have to
negotiate a new contract with
the USW before a sale is con-
cluded. U.S. Steel said in a let-
ter to employees Tuesday that
the contract “does not grant
the USW, or any party it as-
signs its right to, the right to
prevent a potential transac-
tion—with any party—that our
board decides is in the best in-
terest of stockholders.”
The company said the union
cannot block a sale if a buyer
agrees to abide by the terms of
the existing contract. The
union’s leverage over the sale
collapse of his cryptocurrency
exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried,
who sipped Pellegrino through
the appearance, wore a beige
jail uniform. His mother, Bar-
bara Fried, sat in the court-
room and smiled when her son
entered.
Bankman-Fried’s attorneys
also told Magistrate Judge
Sarah Netburn that their client
couldn’t adequately prepare
for trial because he hadn’t had
access to discovery since U.S.
District Judge Lewis Kaplan
revoked his bail 11 days ago.
Judge Kaplan allowed Bank-
man-Fried to meet with his
lawyers Tuesday, but his de-
fense attorneys argued that
BUSINESS NEWS
process would come into play if
a buyer wanted to reduce pay
or other benefits as a condition
for purchasing all or parts of
the company, U.S. Steel said.
The union could refuse to mod-
ify the contract, effectively
stalling a sale.
A letter from USW President
Thomas Conway to U.S. Steel
dated Aug. 3 said the union
“unequivocally” endorsed
Cleveland-Cliffs’ plan to acquire
U.S. Steel, and that the union
“will not endorse anyone other
than Cliffs.” Cleveland-Cliffs re-
leased the letter on Aug. 13
when it dis-
closed that it
had submitted
an unsolicited
cash-and-stock
offer in late July
worth about $35
a share. The
union said its
support for
Cleveland-Cliffs
is based on the
company’s ac-
tions since 2020, when it
bought unionized mills oper-
ated by AK Steel and Arcelor-
Mittal. The union said Cleve-
land-Cliffs expanded the union
workforce after the acquisi-
tions.
Cleveland-Cliffs also quickly
wrapped up negotiations with
United Steelworkers last year
on a new contract for about
14,000 workers that included
raises of 20% over four years.
U.S. Steel eventually agreed to
the same wage increase. Cleve-
land-Cliffs has already agreed
to honor the current contract
between the USW and U.S.
Steel if it acquires the com-
pany, the union said.
wasn’t sufficient due to the vo-
luminous evidence.
The FTX founder’s lawyers
said their client hadn’t had ac-
cess to Adderall, which is used
to treat attention-deficit hy-
peractivity, since being sent to
a Brooklyn jail, despite an ear-
lier order from Judge Kaplan.
Bankman-Fried, who is a ve-
gan, has been subsisting off
bread and water, they told the
judge.
“All they’ve provided him is
the flesh meal,” one of his law-
yers said.
Judge Netburn said she
would address the food and
medication issues with prison
officials.
Conway said Cleveland-
Cliffs’ acquisition of U.S. Steel
would keep the company from
being bought by a foreign-
owned company.
U.S. Steel said the union has
the right under its contract to
submit an offer to acquire the
company. The union said it
transferred that right to Cleve-
land-Cliffs, attaching the union
to Cleveland Cliffs’ efforts to
purchase U.S. Steel.
Cleveland-Cliffs on Tuesday
said that transfer makes the
company eligible to see any
proposals U.S. Steel has re-
ceived for selling the company.
U.S. Steel “must now promptly
notify both the USW and Cliffs
immediately after receiving a
proposal from any third party,”
Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco
Goncalves said in a letter to
David Burritt, his U.S. Steel
counterpart.
U.S. Steel representatives
had no immediate comment.
FORM MEETS
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Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | B3
Teamsters Approve
Contract With UPS,
Averting Strike Peril
BY ESTHER FUNG
The International Brother-
hood of Teamsters said its
members have ratified a new
five-year, $30 billion contract
with United Parcel Service,
ending the prospects of a la-
bor standoff that could have
been damaging for U.S. supply
chains.
UPS and union leaders last
month agreed to a pact that
covers roughly 330,000 pack-
age-delivery drivers and pack-
age sorters. The prior contract
expired July 31.
The Teamsters said Tues-
day that 86.3% of members
voted to ratify the contract,
which is the highest vote for a
contract for Teamsters at UPS.
The union has said the con-
tract provides raises for new
part-time workers as well as
current employees.
The UPS-Teamsters con-
tract is the largest collective-
bargaining agreement involv-
ing a private employer in
North America. It also covers
the majority of UPS’s U.S.
workforce, which totaled
443,000 at the end of last year.
While negotiations were
ongoing, Teamsters members
voted to authorize a strike if a
new deal wasn’t reached, a
move that could have harmed
the supply chains of many
companies. UPS moves about
5% of the nation’s gross do-
mestic product—or roughly
$3.8 billion of goods every day,
according to the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce.
Earlier this month, UPS
Chief Executive Carol Tomé
said that the new agreement
restores labor certainty and
addresses the concerns of
workers, shareholders and the
company. She said by the end
of the new contract, the aver-
age full-time driver would
make $170,000 annually in
pay and benefits. She added
that UPS is focused on win-
.
ning back customers that
moved business away from
the company due to the threat
of a strike.
Under the agreement, UPS
would pay new part-time
workers a wage of $21 an
hour, the Teamsters said. Cur-
rently, starting part-time
hourly wages are $16.20,
though it could be higher in
places where there is more
competition for labor.
Existing workers would get
a raise of $7.50 an hour over
the life of the contract, includ-
ing a $2.75-an-hour pay bump
this year.
The UPS pact with the
Teamsters reflects the
changed landscape for trans-
portation workers, many of
whom have called for earning
better pay and recognition for
showing up through the
Covid-19 pandemic, when
other staffers were able to
work remotely.
American Airlines pilots on
Monday ratified a new con-
tract that would boost wages
by more than 40% over its
four-year term after the car-
rier agreed to sweeten terms
to match a rival’s deal.
Negotiations between other
groups of transportation
workers haven’t gone as
smoothly.
Pilots at FedEx rejected a
tentative agreement in July.
The cargo airline pilots will
remain paid under the terms
of the existing contract for
now. The union and the com-
pany will go back to the nego-
tiating table for a new agree-
ment.
Protracted labor negotia-
tions this year have irked
businesses and caused some
supply-chain disruptions. The
union representing auto
workers, which is negotiating
a new four-year contract, said
last week that its negotiations
with the Detroit automakers
have been sluggish.
Shop Now
© 2023 MacNeil IP LLC
 .

B4 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 NY / NE * ***** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

TECHNOLOGY WSJ.com/Tech

OSHA
Farmers Swamped by Data Surplus Probes
Use of tech tools to
manage crops is
tegration troubles.
“You’ve got all of these dif-
ferent players that now have
Spill at LG,
hampered by the
difficulty of analytics
digital capabilities, equipment
providers, drone applications,
different dealers and suppliers.
GM Plant
They all have their own digital
BY BELLE LIN information. There is no place BY NORA ECKERT
today in the industry to really
A decade after data analyt- connect those so that a farmer Workplace-safety regulators
ics promised to revolutionize can easily share information are investigating a chemical

FROM TOP: JERRY SEUNTJENS; MALACHI EMMERT

agriculture, most farmers still
aren’t using data tools or spe-
cialized software, and of those
who do, many are swamped in
a deluge of data.
In 2013, seed and pesticide
giant Monsanto acquired agri-
culture-data firm Climate Cor-
poration for $1 billion, helping
spur the industry’s mania for
data-driven farming. The hope
was that by outfitting farmers
with software and tools capa-
ble of ingesting and analyzing
troves of data on things from
weather patterns to soil condi-
tions, they could more effi-
ciently use their land.
Many are still waiting for
the technology to pay off.
In the U.S., less than half of
farmers surveyed by consulting
firm McKinsey are using farm
management software, and
25% are using remote-sensing
and precision agriculture
hardware.
That software is a founda-
tional technology in enabling
the autonomous machinery
and AI-enabled equipment of
the future, analysts say, and
unless farmers start using it,
some will be left behind in the
next decade of farm innova-
tion. At the moment, 3% of
American farmers said they
plan to adopt software or pre-
cision agriculture hardware
over the next two years, ac-
cording to McKinsey.
Certain tools can automati-
cally gather data from inter-
net-connected farm equipment,
but others require farmers to
manually enter the informa-
back and forth,” said Tom spill at an electric-vehicle bat-
Eickhoff, chief science officer tery plant in Warren, Ohio,
of Bayer’s Climate LLC. owned by Ultium Cells, a joint
Amazon and Google also see venture between General Mo-
opportunity in the vast amount tors and South Korea’s LG En-
of agricultural data that will be ergy Solution.
collected, and are working with The incident occurred over
startups and agtech providers the weekend and involved an
to gain footholds in the sector. industrial solvent that can
In March, Amazon Web Ser- cause health problems, includ-
vices joined with the agtech ing damage to the nervous
startup Leaf, which provides system, according to officials
Jerry Seuntjens, tal farming tools also wasn’t connectors between data with the Occupational Safety
above, a corn and easy for farmers to use. Soft- sources in different formats. and Health Administration. Ul-
soybean farmer in ware was slow, interfaces were AWS also works with John tium notified OSHA of the spill
Iowa, said farm- complex and difficult to man- Deere, providing cloud services on Monday, according to an
management age. “The industry does need for the machinery manufac- agency spokesman.
software has helped to step up a little bit on con- turer’s data services, the Ama- The specific chemical, called
him mitigate recent tinuing to improve the cus- zon cloud unit said. N-Methylpyrrolidone, is com-
difficulties in the tomer experience,” said David Last year, Google Cloud monly used in manufacturing
agricultural sector. Fiocco, a McKinsey partner fo- joined with the climate-tech cathode electrodes in the bat-
But in west central cused on agriculture. startup Agrology to help pre- tery industry.
Indiana, David In recent years, big tech dict farm microclimates and An Ultium spokeswoman
Emmert, right, says, vendors like Microsoft, Ama- process data. In January, its said that it had been in com-
‘We’re collecting so zon and Google have begun tai- parent Alphabet spun off a munication with OSHA about
much data that loring their cloud-computing, company called Mineral from the incident, and that no em-
you’re almost data and artificial-intelligence its X moonshots division; Min- ployees were exposed or in-
paralyzed with services to agriculture, bring- eral is developing a platform to jured.
having to analyze it ing along expertise that could aggregate agricultural data and “The safety of our employ-
all.’ help address complications apply AI to it. Agriculture’s ees is paramount, and we are
that have long plagued farm “data-intensity” makes AI ideal grateful to our team members
data management and analyt- for tackling the challenges for their swift and responsive
ics. ahead, and the technology will action,” an Ultium spokes-
Bayer, which in 2018 ac- become the foundation for fu- woman said.
tion. For a specific field, for in- and soybean farmer in west quired Monsanto and along ture farming tools, said Min- The plant is one of three
stance, that could total over a central Indiana who works with it Climate Corporation’s eral Chief Executive Elliott U.S. battery-cell factories
dozen crop-protection products about 4,300 acres. FieldView farm software, in Grant. owned by Ultium Cells and is
and multiple seeds. “When I’m planting my March announced an update to At the same time, venture critical to GM’s plans for tran-
Even those who are using cornfield, I can tell you how its partnership with Microsoft capital funding for farm man- sitioning more of its lineup to
the tech say they can find it well the spacing is from seed that links data sources within agement software, sensing and electric vehicles.
difficult to draw useful conclu- to seed just from sitting in the Microsoft’s Azure cloud plat- Internet-of-Things devices in- OSHA said it intends to col-
sions from it. cab, but I don’t think that form. Still in preview, the ser- creased by 35% last year to $1.7 lect more information about
“We’re collecting so much we’ve actually tapped into all vice marked one of the first billion globally—the largest in- the spill, including what ac-
data that you’re almost para- of the information we can gar- major tie-ups between an agri- crease of any agriculture tech tions Ultium Cells took to ad-
lyzed with having to analyze it ner,” Emmert said. business and a cloud provider category, according to invest- dress it and whether employees
all,” said David Emmert, a corn The first generation of digi- to tackle agriculture’s data-in- ment firm AgFunder. are still at risk.

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pointed to two specific recalled can buy and sell goods, there and commerce committee:
baby products that they said are instances of people know- Rep. Schakowsky, Rep. Cathy
2020 BMW have appeared for sale on Face- ingly or unknowingly selling McMorris Rodgers (R., Wash.),
540i xDRIVE SEDAN book Marketplace: the Fisher- recalled goods on Marketplace. Rep. Frank Pallone (D., N.J.)
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July.
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ance of Motion Picture and
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vately that the other wasn’t
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1168 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02134 Continued from page B1 sents major entertainment of their offer last Friday but
The move came after a companies including Walt Dis- held off in the hopes that the
877-283-4516 • HerbChambersBMW.com Tuesday evening face-to-face ney, Warner Bros., Netflix, WGA would take the proposal
meeting between industry ex- Amazon and Paramount, said to its members to vote on.
BMW Certified Pre-Owned Medford ecutives and the leadership of its latest offer addresses “all Releasing the offer means
60 Mystic Avenue Medford the WGA. The strike is ap- of the issues” the writers that members of the WGA—
proaching its fourth month, identified as priorities. not just their negotiating com-
617-765-1385 • herbchambersbmwmedford.com and if a deal isn’t reached A WGA spokesman didn’t mittee—will see what the stu-
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sion season and many high- ment. are offering. Some members of
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profile movies are likely to be Talks between the WGA and the AMPTP hope that if their
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and will be due prior to maturity of the contract. This offer is available on all model-year 2018-2021 CPO BMW models with 36-to-72-month retail contracts delayed or scrapped alto- AMPTP restarted Aug. 11, cre- offer is seen as compelling by
financed through BMW Financial Services NA, LLC, excluding Select contracts. To be eligible, qualified customers must have excellent credit history and
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Offer valid through 09/04/2023.
“We have come to the table industry that the two sides membership, it will create ten-
with an offer that meets the could come to an agreement sion within the union.

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THE PROPERTY REPORT

Office Tenants Re-Commit for Less Room
Record 217 million tive view.”
Office-building owners were
square feet of hopeful earlier this year as busi-
sublease space nesses called employees back to
the office a portion of the week
weighs down values and deal activity rose. Leasing
in the second quarter rose to
BY PETER GRANT about 14% below the average
quarter in the four years lead-
The good news for office ing up to the pandemic, accord-
landlords is that lease signings ing to CoStar. But many other
have been increasing this year. office metrics are negative. The
The bad news is that the av- market is sagging under a re-
erage new lease is considerably cord 216.8 million square feet of
smaller than before. That means sublease space. The amount of
companies are committing to occupied space fell in the first
spend less on office space for half of 2023 by more than 35
years to come. million square feet, CoStar
The need for less workplace said.
space reflects how employers Some businesses, of course,
across the U.S. have embraced— are opting to take more space
or at least have come to toler- when they sign new leases. Law
ate—hybrid strategies that al- firm Davis Polk last week an-
low employees to work more nounced that it had signed a 25-
from home. Consequently, firms year lease extension for its Mid-
feel they need less space and town Manhattan headquarters
are signing deals of up to 15 that expanded its space an ad-

GO NAKAMURA/REUTERS
years for fewer office floors. ditional 30,000 square feet to
In the second quarter, U.S. 700,000 square feet. Neil Barr,
businesses signed new leases the firm’s managing partner,
for an estimated 97.5 million said Davis Polk is “packed to the
square feet, up from 57.4 million gills” in its current space and is
square feet in the second quar- planning for measured growth
ter of 2020, the low point of the Downtown Houston. Many companies are shrinking space because of hybrid workplace policies and as their businesses evolve. in the coming years. The firm
pandemic, according to data requires employees to be in the
firm CoStar Group. II. That slump is hurting cities, Amount of occupied U.S. The facility Fluor is leaving Robert Sadow, Scoop’s chief office four days a week, down
Yet in the second quarter, the wiping out billions of dollars in office space, change from “was built in a different time executive and co-founder. “As from five before the pandemic.
average U.S. office lease size property values and putting the previous quarter and era,” said Jennifer Kim, older companies age out, and Still, most law firms seem
was 3,275 square feet, or 19% pressure on the banking system. general manager of the Houston newer companies come in and to be cutting back as they
less than the average lease size A number of large employ- 10million sq. ft. office. “Times have changed. offer more flexibility, I think adopt hybrid work and jettison
between 2015 and 2019, CoStar ers recently sliced their office You don’t need as much space.” you’re going to end up with file cabinets, libraries, corner
said. “If a tenant signs a lease demand. Consulting firm Aon 0 But many businesses are only 15% of companies full offices and other design fea-
for 100,000 square feet and is reducing its space in Chi- shrinking space because of hy- time in the office,” Sadow said. tures of the past. On average,
they move out of 150,000 cago by a quarter to 300,000 –10 brid workplace policies. Cur- Even fast-growing tech com- legal tenants who renewed or
square feet somewhere else, square feet, while Interna- rently 61% of U.S. companies al- panies are giving up space in moved locations within the
that’s a negative event for the tional Business Machines low employees remote work new leases. Seattle-based Hiya, same market in 2022 took 13%
market,” said Phil Mobley, Co- leased 320,000 square feet for –20 part or all of the week, up from a voice security software firm, less space, according to a re-
Star’s national director of office its Austin, Texas, office, less 51% at the beginning of the is increasing its workforce more port by commercial services
analytics. than half of what it used un- –30 year, according to Scoop Tech- than 20% a year but decided to firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Look for this trend to con- der its previous lease there. nologies, a software firm that reduce its space from about Law firm Katten Muchin
tinue, Mobley said, since more Smaller businesses are leasing –40 developed an index monitoring 22,000 square feet to 19,000 Rosenman last year renewed
than half the leases signed be- less space in renewals and workplace strategies. square feet when it moved into its lease for its Chicago office
fore 2020 have yet to expire. when they change locations. The number of companies a new location this year. taking 204,000 square feet, a
–50
The U.S. office vacancy rate rose In some cases, companies requiring workers to be in the Hiya asks workers to come to 22,000-square-foot reduction.
to 13.2% from 9.5% before the are shedding space because 2020 ’21 ’22 ’23 office full time has declined to the office two days a week. “Be- Some of the space was under-
pandemic. CoStar is forecasting their businesses have evolved. Source: CoStar Group 39% from 49% at the beginning fore the pandemic everything used before the pandemic. The
that it will increase to more Fluor, an engineering and con- of the year, Scoop said. That was about anticipating a future firm negotiated an additional
than 17% by the end of 2026. struction firm, will be cutting signs cubicles to employees number will likely continue to growth rate [in office space] contraction option in case its
Shrinking lease sizes are an- its office space by about 70% who work on the road. Fluor decrease because newer com- looking to double your capacity flexible workplace policy re-
other blow to office owners to 308,000 square feet in the engineers also now use com- panies tend to embrace flexi- every couple years,” said Kush sulted in more space efficien-
during one of the industry’s Houston area, in part because puters rather than drafting ta- ble work practices more than Parikh, president of Hiya. “Now cies, said Chicago office man-
worst slumps since World War the company no longer as- bles to create designs. older companies, according to we have a much more conserva- aging partner Gil Soffer.

BUSINESS NEWS

Retailers Comparable store-sales,

change from a year earlier
Share-price performance,
year to date

Warn on
125% 30%
Dick’s Sporting
Goods
20
100

Consumers 75
10

0
Dick's Sporting
Continued from page B1 50 –10
Goods
ing, but being choosy as infla-
Macy’s –20
tion weighs on their budget. 25
They are buying food and –30
other necessities but for
0
months have also been cutting –40 Macy’s
back on some discretionary
items. They have also directed –25 –50
more money toward services.
RICHARD B. LEVINE/ZUMA PRESS

FY2021 ’22 ’23 Jan. 2023 Aug.

That environment favors re- Note: Fiscal quarter ended July 29
tailers touting deals, necessi- Sources: the companies (sales); FactSet (performance)
ties or speedy delivery. Earlier
this month Walmart, the coun- short of analyst projections. earnings missed analyst fore-
try’s largest grocery seller, and “Our consumer is doing casts by nearly a dollar.
e-commerce retailer Ama- very well,” and consider Dick’s now expects earnings
zon reported strong earnings spending on sports, and out- of $11.33 to $12.13 a share this
and sales. TJX, which owns Macy’s reported declining sales. A display at its flagship department store in New York. door exercise as more of a ne- year, down from a prior out-
chains such as T.J. Maxx and cessity than in the past, said look for $12.90 to $13.80 a
HomeGoods and is known for the retailer is moving high- retail executives have recently Hobart on a call with analysts. Hobart. share.
discounts, also posted strong theft items away from store cited both shoplifting and or- Executives said they remain Shrink, the industry term Earlier this week Dick’s cut
sales and profit. entrances and taking other ganized-crime rings as reasons cautious about the health of for inventory lost through hundreds of corporate jobs.
Gennette said Macy’s Back- measures, but that the loss of for diminished profits. At Nike, consumers this year, but right theft or other reasons, ate into The company will reinvest
stage—its answer to T.J. Maxx goods from theft, misplace- thefts in stores and throughout now shoppers at all income profit margins, said executives, those savings elsewhere, exec-
and other off-price chains—is ment or other mistakes will be its distribution network have levels are spending. as did discounting to unload utives said Tuesday. It plans to
performing well but isn’t large at record levels for the second hurt its business. Overall sales were up 3.6% some excess inventory, primar- record $20 million of sever-
enough to make up for short- year in a row. For Dick’s, sales of team at $3.22 billion, just below an- ily outdoor gear such as kay- ance costs in the current quar-
falls elsewhere in the busi- Some other retailers, from sports products and footwear alyst forecasts for $3.24 bil- aks and bikes. ter and could have up to $50
ness. Target to Home Depot, have rose from the prior year, while lion. Comparable-store sales In the latest period, earn- million in additional expenses
Rising theft is also weighing cited increased theft as a prob- demand for apparel softened, were up 1.8% on a higher num- ings at Dick’s fell 23% to $244 from business restructuring ef-
on Macy’s. Gennette said that lem for their businesses. Some said Chief Executive Lauren ber of transactions, but fell million. On a per-share basis, forts this fiscal year.

Buyback repurchases among S&P 500

companies, according to Sil-
verblatt.
Share buybacks by companies
in the S&P 500, quarterly
the year was around $315
million.
The Internal Revenue Ser-
“but obviously with the di-
vided government and all the
politics around this, anything
cluding Booking.com, Priceline
and OpenTable, has repur-
chased $5.1 billion in shares in

Tax Hits
$300 billion
“It’s an annoyance, a pay- vice in June suspended re- is possible.” the first six months of the
ment, but compared to earn- porting and payment require- The 1% tax—which was a year, taking its authorized
ings this quarter of about 250 ments stemming from the last-minute addition to the cli- amount down to $19 billion

Companies $458 billion, the $1.6 billion is

not a lot,” he said.
At Liberty Energy, the tax
is now folded into the math—
Continued from page B1 added to the price of shares—
quarter, according to Howard when the Denver-based en-
Silverblatt, a senior index ana- ergy-services company is
lyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. buying back stock, said fi-
Despite the higher tax obli- nance chief Michael Stock.
gations, companies are This means less capital is
largely shrugging off the tax. available for repurchases, he
From April through June, S&P said.
500 companies are expected “So it’s less shares you’ll
to spend around $169 billion buy back,” according to Stock.
on stock buybacks, down “But it doesn’t actually change
about 20% from both the first the go, no-go decision, neces-
quarter of this year and from sarily, unless you’re kind of on
a year ago, the preliminary the borderline of the value at
S&P data show. Companies which you would buy back.”
have pulled back some be- Liberty Energy bought back
cause of macroeconomic un- around $134.7 million in
certainties, but the tax isn’t shares through June and ac-
significantly deterring share crued an excise tax of $1.2
200
150
100
50
0 nies will ultimately owe the
2019 ’20 ’21
Note: Data for 2Q 2023 is based on over 92%
of buybacks reported.
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices
million for that same period,
according to a regulatory fil-
ing. The company has around
$240 million worth of remain-
ing shares authorized for re-
purchase. Liberty Energy’s net
income during the first half of
buyback tax while the agency
works on guidance on
the scope of the tax, according
to Mark Friedlich, vice presi-
dent of government affairs at
Wolters Kluwer Tax & Ac-
counting who advises the
Treasury Department, the IRS
and Congress on various tax
matters. This means compa-
’22 ’23 1% tax for affected buybacks
from this year, but they aren’t
responsible for paying those
obligations yet, he said, add-
ing that the guidance is ex-
pected to indicate when com-
panies will have to start
reporting and making these
payments.
“I don’t think it’s going to
be immediate once the guid-
ance is issued,” Friedlich said,
mate, health and tax law
known as the Inflation Reduc-
tion Act passed last year—is
from $24 billion, CFO David
Goulden told analysts this
month. The company esti-
levied on net buybacks, mean- mates a buyback tax liability
ing total shares repurchased of $47 million for the six
minus new shares issued dur- months ended June 30. Its net
ing the year. The tax aims to income for the period was
create a more level playing $1.56 billion.
field between buybacks and At MetLife, the company
other ways of returning capi- repurchased around 23.7 mil-
tal to shareholders, such as lion shares in the front half of
dividends, and to raise money the year for around $1.5 bil-
to pay for expanded federal lion. The New York-based in-
programs. It has been pro- surance giant’s board in May
jected to raise $74 billion over increased the company’s
a decade by the Joint Commit- share-repurchase authoriza-
tee on Taxation, and would tion by $1 billion to around $4
have raised roughly $8.4 bil- billion. MetLife’s excise tax for
lion from S&P 500 companies buybacks through June 30
had it been in effect in 2021. came to $13 million, with net
Norwalk, Conn.-based income for the period at $384
Booking Holdings, which owns million, according to a regula-
travel-services websites in- tory filing.
 .

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. NY / NE Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | B7

BIGGEST 1,000 STOCKS

Net Net Net Net Net Net
How to Read the Stock Tables Footnotes: Stock Sym Close Chg Stock Sym Close Chg Stock Sym Close Chg Stock Sym Close Chg Stock Sym Close Chg Stock Sym Close Chg
The following explanations apply to NYSE, NYSE s-New 52-week high. CACI Intl CACI 327.43 1.18 Copart CPRT 43.79 0.30 EquityLife ELS 65.85 0.33 GraphicPkg GPK 21.64 0.17 KBR KBR 60.61 0.03 McDonald's MCD 280.31 0.27
Arca, NYSE American and Nasdaq Stock Market t-New 52-week low. CBRE Group CBRE 80.95 -0.54 Core&Main CNM 31.17 -0.22 EquityResdntl EQR 63.22 0.21 Grifols GRFS 9.96 -0.07 KKR KKR 59.04 -0.82 McKesson MCK 418.39 -7.46
listed securities. Prices are composite quotations dd-Indicates loss in the most recent four CCC Intelligent CCCS 10.70 0.01 CorebridgeFin CRBG 17.48 -0.37 ErieIndemnity ERIE 276.60 -4.10 GpoAeroportuar PAC 178.72 1.34 KLA KLAC 486.72 -3.99 Medpace MEDP 248.20 2.22
that include primary market trades as well as quarters. CDW CDW 202.88 1.46 Corning GLW 31.96 -0.04 EssentialUtil WTRG 36.99 0.21 GpoAeroportSur ASR 266.74 -0.49 Kanzhun BZ 14.73 0.16 Medtronic MDT 83.72 2.11
trades reported by Nasdaq BX (formerly Boston), FD-First day of trading. CF Industries CF 76.75 -2.38 t Corteva CTVA 49.38 -0.83 EssexProp ESS 234.05 0.90 HCA Healthcare HCA 274.83 0.01 KarunaTherap KRTX 174.61 -0.28 MercadoLibre MELI 1242.73 14.22
Chicago Stock Exchange, Cboe, NYSE National and h-Does not meet continued listing CGI A GIB 100.01 -0.64 Cosan CSAN 14.77 0.32 t EsteeLauder EL 149.59 -1.31 HDFC Bank HDB 62.96 -0.70 t Kellogg K 60.75 -0.37 Merck MRK 107.23 -2.41
Nasdaq ISE. standards CSGP 79.08 0.56 t Etsy DINO 56.55 -0.29 Kenvue KVUE 23.74 0.84 MetaData 1.02 ...
CH Robinson CHRW 92.86 -0.66 CoStar ETSY 73.48 0.16 HF Sinclair AIU
The list comprises the 1,000 largest companies lf-Late filing
CME Group CME 199.49 -3.11 Costco COST 538.37 -4.84 Everest EG 346.80 -1.80 HP HPQ 31.02 -0.27 KeurigDrPepper KDP 33.45 -0.18 MetaPlatforms META 287.60 -2.30
based on market capitalization. q-Temporary exemption from Nasdaq
Underlined quotations are those stocks with requirements. CMS Energy CMS 56.64 0.28 CoterraEnergy CTRA 27.90 -0.30 Evergy EVRG 56.44 0.36 HSBC HSBC 37.38 -0.37 KeyCorp KEY 10.44 -0.45 MetLife MET 61.32 -0.63
large changes in volume compared with the t-NYSE bankruptcy CNA Fin CNA 38.80 -0.27 Coty COTY 10.72 -0.25 EversourceEner ES 63.87 0.02 H World HTHT 43.28 0.17 KeysightTech KEYS 128.67 -0.92 Mettler-Toledo MTD 1160.97 -8.70
issue’s average trading volume. v-Trading halted on primary market. CNH Indl CNHI 12.90 -0.21 Coupang CPNG 18.65 -0.03 ExactSciences EXAS 81.86 -0.45 Haleon HLN 8.24 -0.03 KimberlyClark KMB 127.95 1.25 MicrochipTech MCHP 80.23 -0.29
Boldfaced quotations highlight those issues vj-In bankruptcy or receivership or being CRH CRH 57.21 0.65 Credicorp BAP 140.28 0.48 Exelixis EXEL 21.48 0.11 Halliburton HAL 38.58 -0.42 KimcoRealty KIM 18.58 -0.18 MicronTech MU 63.41 -0.55
whose price changed by 5% or more if their reorganized under the Bankruptcy Code, CSX CSX 30.51 -0.20 CrowdStrike CRWD 152.33 -1.57 Exelon EXC 40.00 0.26 HartfordFinl HIG 71.03 -0.38 KinderMorgan KMI 17.25 -0.11 Microsoft MSFT 322.46 0.58
previous closing price was $2 or higher. or securities assumed by such companies. CVS Health CVS 67.05 -0.03 CrownCastle CCI 98.71 -0.53 Expedia EXPE 108.59 0.52 Hasbro HAS 67.71 4.46 KinsaleCapital KNSL 371.58 0.78 MidAmApt MAA 141.52 -0.75
CadenceDesign CDNS 225.51 0.51 CrownHoldings CCK 87.78 0.41 ExpeditorsIntl EXPD 114.52 -0.08 HealthpeakProp PEAK 19.83 -0.04 Knight-Swift KNX 55.52 -1.05 Middleby MIDD 139.60 -1.88
CAE CAE 23.44 -0.15 CubeSmart CUBE 41.23 -0.18 ExtraSpaceSt EXR 126.50 -0.83 Heico HEI 166.01 1.04 Philips PHG 22.35 -0.12 MitsubishiUFJ MUFG 7.60 0.14
Wall Street Journal stock tables reflect composite regular trading as of 4 p.m. and CMI 234.59 0.99 ExxonMobil XOM 108.10 -0.61 Heico A HEI.A 132.38 0.82 KoreaElecPwr KEP MFG 3.17 0.05
CaesarsEnt CZR 51.61 0.32 Cummins 6.62 0.03 MizuhoFin
changes in the closing prices from 4 p.m. the previous day.
CamdenProperty CPT 105.11 -0.01 Curtiss-Wright CW 205.03 0.87 F5 FFIV 156.09 -0.08 HenrySchein HSIC 76.25 -0.19 KraftHeinz KHC 33.30 -0.18 Mobileye MBLY 34.74 0.11
s Cameco CCJ 36.20 0.15 FMC FMC 88.52 0.37 Hershey HSY 213.85 -2.44 Kroger KR 47.01 -0.38 Moderna MRNA 116.24 5.16
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 Net Net t CampbellSoup CPB 41.89 -0.17 D E F FactSet FDS 430.02 0.02 Hess HES 152.02 -1.65 LKQ LKQ 51.92 -0.43 MolinaHealthcare MOH 317.75 -2.25
Net Stock Sym Close Chg Stock Sym Close Chg t CIBC CM 39.23 -0.21 DTE Energy DTE 104.97 0.17 FairIsaac FICO 843.51 -1.89 HessMidstream HESM 28.94 0.03 LPL Financial LPLA 228.82 -3.15 MolsonCoorsB TAP 62.46 -0.32
Stock Sym Close Chg CanNtlRlwy CNI 112.04 -0.55 Danaher Fastenal FAST 56.85 -0.34 HewlettPackard HPE 16.79 -0.25 L3HarrisTech LHX 180.21 -0.71 monday.com MNDY 167.13 1.45
AmerTowerREIT AMT 175.73 0.71 BancoBilbaoViz BBVA 7.69 -0.06 DHR 249.70 -0.47
CanadianNatRscs CNQ 61.31 -0.11 Darden FederalRealty FRT 96.17 0.34 Hilton HLT 149.99 0.99 LabCorp.ofAmerica LH 214.78 -0.85 Mondelez MDLZ 70.21 -0.52
AmerWaterWorks AWK 138.40 0.91 BancoBradesco BBDO 2.68 0.02 DRI 156.01 0.72
A B C AmericoldRealty COLD 32.24 0.35 BancodeChile BCH 21.26 -0.17
CdnPacKC CP 78.20 -0.07 DarlingIngred DAR 61.37 -1.71 FedEx FDX 258.98 -0.96 Hologic HOLX 76.86 1.63 LamResearch LRCX 666.82 -2.42 MongoDB MDB 362.04 3.44
CapitalOne COF 100.30 -4.09 Datadog Ferguson FERG 155.07 0.52 HomeDepot HD 324.48 0.42 LamarAdv LAMR 88.50 0.85 MonolithicPower MPWR 500.63 1.74
DDOG 93.69 -1.00
AECOM ACM 87.35 0.49 Ameriprise AMP 328.65 -4.40 BancSanBrasil BSBR 5.38 0.06 CardinalHealth CAH 85.52 -1.42 DaVita Ferrari RACE 310.56 -1.41 HondaMotor HMC 30.80 0.14 LambWeston LW 96.27 1.78 MonsterBev MNST 57.35 -0.07
DVA 101.66 -0.23
t AES AES 17.96 0.05 AmerisourceBrgn ABC 177.96 -3.02 BcoSantChile BSAC 18.61 0.24 Carlisle CSL 259.53 -6.42 DeckersOutdoor DECK 555.37 -5.08 FidNatlFinl FNF 39.60 -0.33 Honeywell HON 186.01 -0.94 LandstarSystem LSTR 185.96 -2.22 Moody's MCO 327.01 2.23
Aflac AFL 73.39 -0.64 Ametek AME 154.69 0.07 BancoSantander SAN 3.80 -0.07 Carlyle CG 29.13 -0.16 Deere FidNatlInfo FIS 55.19 -0.49 HorizonTherap HZNP 105.27 0.29 LasVegasSands LVS 53.44 0.44 MorganStanley MS 82.98 -1.27
AMGN 257.62 -3.08 27.03 -0.36 DE 385.21 -5.58
AGCO AGCO 117.68 -0.57 Amgen BanColombia CIB CarMax KMX 79.14 -1.76 DellTechC FifthThirdBncp FITB 24.88 -0.80 HormelFoods HRL 38.95 0.01 LatticeSemi LSCC 91.08 -0.11 Morningstar MORN 216.67 1.82
Amphenol APH 85.80 0.33 BankofAmerica BAC 28.44 -0.71 DELL 55.80 -0.25
Ansys ANSS 295.97 -0.55 Carnival CCL 15.66 -0.05 DeltaAir FirstCitizBcshA FCNCA 1355.87 -29.79 DR Horton DHI 117.13 1.19 Lear LEA 140.98 -0.69 Mosaic MOS 38.86 -0.68
DAL 41.61 -0.13
APA APA 42.61 -1.29 AnalogDevices ADI 176.66 -0.56 BankMontreal BMO 82.18 -1.44 Carnival CUK 14.20 -0.05 DentsplySirona XRAY 37.52 -0.04 FirstHorizon FHN 12.20 -0.52 HostHotels HST 15.88 -0.07 LegendBiotech LEGN 69.61 1.53 MotorolaSol MSI 275.89 -1.27
ASE Tech ASX 7.41 -0.06 AngloGoldAsh AU 16.28 0.03 BankNY Mellon BK 42.81 -0.95 CarrierGlobal CARR 53.80 0.23 DeutscheBank DB FirstIndRlty FR 50.62 0.37 HoulihanLokey HLI 100.18 -0.36 Leidos LDOS 95.39 -1.08 MurphyOil MUR 44.79 -0.42
BUD 56.14 -0.06 BankNovaScotia BNS 45.44 -0.38 10.61 -0.12
ASML ASML 667.52 5.00 AB InBev Carvana CVNA 38.37 -1.97 DevonEnergy DVN 49.74 -0.43 FirstSolar FSLR 176.50 -5.20 HowmetAerospace HWM 48.69 0.12 Lennar A LEN 116.55 0.72 MurphyUSA MUSA 309.89 -3.07
AT&T T 14.26 0.16 AnnalyCap NLY 18.93 -0.16 Barclays BCS 7.27 -0.12 CaseysGenStores CASY 244.16 -4.01 DexCom FirstEnergy FE 36.06 0.17 Hubbell HUBB 307.18 -0.14 Lennar B LEN.B 105.59 0.52 NICE NICE 199.17 3.52
26.94 -0.84 BarrickGold GOLD 15.84 0.13 DXCM 106.98 2.30
AbbottLabs ABT 105.15 1.28 AnteroResources AR Catalent CTLT 44.41 -0.99 Diageo DEO 167.06 -1.46
Fiserv FI 119.26 0.17 HubSpot HUBS 504.54 1.52 LennoxIntl LII 350.51 2.56 NIO NIO 10.79 -0.16
AbbVie ABBV 148.24 -1.92 Aon AON 323.46 -0.29 Bath&BodyWks BBWI 34.94 -1.78 Caterpillar CAT 270.20 -2.55 DiamondbkEner FANG 148.30 -0.15 FiveBelow FIVE 187.36 -5.75 Humana HUM 484.19 -7.09 LiAuto LI 39.13 -0.67 NNN REIT NNN 38.98 0.44
AcadiaHealthcare ACHC 75.33 -0.32 APi Group APG 27.35 -0.26 Bausch+Lomb BLCO 19.44 0.10 Celanese CE 117.45 -0.56 Dick's FleetCorTech FLT 262.24 4.19 JBHunt JBHT 190.44 -1.18 LibertyBroadbandC LBRDK 87.69 -1.51 NOV NOV 20.24 -0.31
DKS 111.53 -35.51
Accenture ACN 308.90 2.39 ApolloGlbMgmt APO 81.53 -0.02 BaxterIntl BAX 41.61 -0.42 CelsiusHldg CELH 178.01 0.49 DigitalRealty DLR 123.72 2.76 Flex FLEX 25.94 -0.05 HuntingtonBcshs HBAN 10.65 -0.49 LibertyBroadbandA LBRDA 87.77 -1.59 NRG Energy NRG 36.96 0.09
ActivisionBliz ATVI 91.66 0.94 AppFolio APPF 183.73 -1.43 BectonDicknsn BDX 275.70 0.08 Cemex CX 8.06 0.10 DiscoverFinSvcs DFS 89.01 -3.02 Floor&Decor FND 98.21 0.29 HuntingIngalls HII 220.62 0.71 LibertyGlobal C LBTYK 18.60 -0.42 NVR NVR 6100.44 91.22
Adobe ADBE 519.48 -0.99 Apple AAPL 177.23 1.39 BeiGene BGNE 194.28 -1.84 CenovusEnergy CVE 19.13 -0.05 Disney FomentoEconMex FMX 114.50 0.28 HyattHotels H 112.10 -0.48 LibertyGlobal A LBTYA 17.40 -0.38 NXP Semi NXPI 199.66 -1.96
DIS 85.79 -0.09
AdvDrainageSys WMS 122.97 -0.89 ApplMaterials AMAT 147.85 -0.92 BentleySystems BSY 46.52 0.38 Centene CNC 63.80 -0.03 DocuSign DOCU 47.87 -0.10
FordMotor F 11.87 -0.10 ICICI Bank IBN 22.90 -0.21 LibertyFormOne A FWONA 57.93 0.04 Nasdaq NDAQ 51.96 0.17
AdvMicroDevices AMD 105.66 -2.56 s Applovin APP 39.48 0.47 Berkley WRB 60.72 -0.58 CenterPointEner CNP 28.26 -0.02 DolbyLab DLB 83.15 -2.51
Fortinet FTNT 58.32 -0.07 ICL Group ICL 6.02 -0.04 t LibertyFormOne C FWONK 65.85 -0.23 NationalGrid NGG 60.88 -0.34
Aegon AEG 5.11 -0.09 Aptargroup ATR 122.95 -0.83 BerkHathwy B BRK.B 350.57 -1.52 CentraisElBras EBR 6.89 0.08 DollarGeneral DG 159.83 -2.45 Fortis FTS 39.43 0.17 IdexxLab IDXX 488.35 6.38 LibertySirius C LSXMK 23.80 -0.11 NatlInstruments NATI 58.96 0.05
AerCap AER 61.46 -0.35 Aptiv APTV 96.13 -0.43 BerkHathwy A BRK.A 531840-2860.00 CeridianHCM CDAY 69.91 0.08 DollarTree Fortive FTV 76.52 0.04 ING Groep ING 14.08 -0.09 LibertySirius A LSXMA 23.28 -0.15 NatWest NWG 5.70 -0.10
ARMK 37.09 0.58 BerryGlobal BERY 62.60 -0.01 DLTR 140.71 -1.07 14.95 -0.04 Light&Wonder LNW 75.01 1.17 NetApp
AgilentTechs A 117.64 -1.22 Aramark ChampionX CHX 35.32 0.09 DominionEner D FortuneBrands FBIN 65.80 -0.37 Invesco IVZ NTAP 76.51 0.05
47.80 -0.32 IQV 214.02 -0.34 s EliLilly
agilon health AGL 16.89 -0.24 ArcelorMittal MT 26.13 0.35 BestBuy BBY 74.23 -4.65 CharlesRiverLabs CRL 200.22 -0.69 Domino's FoxA FOXA 32.86 -0.34 IQVIA LLY 553.66 3.61 NetEase NTES 101.86 1.46
DPZ 379.72 -0.16 95.78 0.18 LincolnElectric LECO 185.40 -0.34 Netflix
AgnicoEagleMines AEM 46.81 0.23 ArchCapital ACGL 74.57 -0.38 Bio-Techne TECH 78.24 -0.44 ChartIndustries GTLS 164.76 -0.21 Donaldson DCI 60.66 -0.08
FoxB FOX 30.59 -0.40 ITT ITT NFLX 413.17 4.88
AirProducts APD 285.07 -0.14 ADM ADM 80.77 -1.74 Bio-RadLab A BIO 379.07 -1.08 CharterComms CHTR 413.38 -6.70 DoorDash Franco-Nevada FNV 138.18 1.54 IcahnEnterprises IEP 19.47 -1.31 Linde LIN 377.59 0.10 Neurocrine NBIX 107.09 -1.23
DASH 77.84 1.24
Airbnb ABNB 127.08 3.08 AresMgmt ARES 98.50 0.29 Biogen BIIB 262.98 -2.09 CheckPoint CHKP 132.30 0.21 Dover FranklinRscs BEN 25.38 -0.42 Icon ICLR 250.17 1.34 LithiaMotors LAD 298.88 -1.78 NewOrientalEduc EDU 52.58 -0.15
DOV 139.89 -0.01
AkamaiTech AKAM 101.23 0.64 argenx ARGX 500.81 -3.42 BioMarinPharm BMRN 90.53 0.66 Chemed CHE 501.49 -2.56 Dow FreeportMcM FCX 38.89 0.16 IDEX IEX 221.62 0.40 Littelfuse LFUS 260.50 -1.97 NY CmntyBcp NYCB 11.74 -0.26
DOW 53.79 -0.38
Albemarle ALB 188.16 0.09 AristaNetworks ANET 187.52 2.85 BioNTech BNTX 123.82 6.29 CheniereEnergy LNG 166.88 2.75 DrReddy'sLab RDY 71.47 -0.26 FreseniusMed FMS 23.81 -0.25 IllinoisToolWks ITW 235.99 0.24 LiveNationEnt LYV 84.25 0.29 NYTimes A NYT 42.45 -0.07
Albertsons ACI 21.98 0.31 ArrowElec ARW 129.26 0.65 BlackKnight BKI 74.43 0.05 CheniereEnerPtrs CQP 51.28 -0.11 DraftKings FullTruck YMM 6.24 0.06 t Illumina ILMN 162.94 -4.47 LloydsBanking LYG 2.09 -0.02 Newmont NEM 38.60 0.35
DKNG 27.24 -0.05
Alcon ALC 84.03 0.39 AspenTech AZPN 193.80 0.48 BlackRock BLK 665.84 -5.75 ChesapeakeEner CHK 86.07 -0.71 Dropbox Futu FUTU 48.37 -0.27 ImperialOil IMO 55.57 -0.37 LockheedMartin LMT 452.94 1.45 NewsCorp A NWSA 20.66 0.07
DBX 27.08 0.17
AlexandriaRlEst ARE 114.42 0.15 Assurant AIZ 138.95 -2.58 Blackstone BX 98.26 -0.53 Chevron CVX 159.04 -1.32 DukeEnergy DUK 89.59 -0.04 Incyte INCY 64.79 -0.09 Loews L 61.38 -0.32 NewsCorp B NWS 21.13 0.09
Alibaba BABA 88.08 -0.49 AstraZeneca AZN 68.77 -0.11 Block SQ 56.07 -1.49 t Chewy CHWY 26.69 -0.73 DuPont DD 73.89 -0.91
G H I Infosys INFY 16.99 0.11 LogitechIntl LOGI 67.18 0.33 NextEraEnergy NEE 67.52 0.44
AlignTech ALGN 351.63 9.04 Atlassian TEAM 190.04 5.89 BlueOwlCapital OWL 10.90 -0.19 Chipotle CMG 1872.04 5.91 Dynatrace IngersollRand IR 66.85 0.17 Lowe's LOW 225.74 8.15 Nike NKE 101.46 -1.40
DT 46.14 -0.23 GE HealthCare GEHC 68.93 -0.04
Allegion ALLE 107.79 0.35 AtmosEnergy ATO 117.01 0.27 Boeing BA 230.07 2.85 Chubb CB 199.10 -0.95 EMCOR Ingredion INGR 100.74 0.31 Lucid LCID 6.07 -0.19 NiSource NI 26.37 0.03
EME 217.11 1.93 GFLEnvironmental GFL 34.00 0.41 t Insulet
AllegroMicro ALGM 38.58 -0.15 Autodesk ADSK 200.58 -1.44 Booking BKNG 3073.89 21.89 ChunghwaTel CHT 36.61 -0.04 ENI PODD 197.74 1.22 lululemon LULU 379.42 -5.48 Noble NE 50.67 -0.84
E 30.58 -0.23 GSK GSK 34.62 0.07
AlliantEnergy LNT 50.40 0.12 Autoliv ALV 93.99 -0.01 BoozAllen BAH 112.94 -0.11 Church&Dwight CHD 92.71 0.26 EOG Rscs Intel INTC 32.89 -0.25 LyondellBasell LYB 97.85 -0.06 Nokia NOK 3.80 -0.01
EOG 129.24 -1.13 GXO Logistics GXO 61.54 -0.98 s
Allstate ALL 105.12 -0.17 ADP ADP 249.53 -1.58 BorgWarner BWA 39.44 -0.43 ChurchillDowns CHDN 123.97 0.19 EPAM Systems EPAM 242.62 2.18 Gallagher InteractiveBrkrs IBKR 91.35 -1.69 Nomura NMR 3.73 0.04
AJG 222.12 0.68 M N
AllyFinancial ALLY 26.01 -1.14 AutoNation AN 158.19 -2.58 BostonProps BXP 62.53 -0.29 Cigna CI 280.07 -1.19 EQT ICE ICE 113.25 -0.61 Nordson NDSN 235.70 5.01
EQT 43.40 -1.17 Gaming&Leisure GLPI 46.06 0.33
AlnylamPharm ALNY 189.38 0.65 AutoZone AZO 2450.20 0.40 BostonSci BSX 50.41 -0.01 CincinnatiFinl CINF 103.22 -0.60 EastWestBncp EWBC 53.01 -1.76 Garmin InterContinentl IHG 76.21 0.26 NorfolkSouthern NSC 208.72 -1.37
GRMN 102.69 0.99 M&T Bank MTB 125.70 -2.69
Alphabet A GOOGL 129.08 0.71 Avalonbay AVB 177.69 0.10 BristolMyers BMY 61.86 -0.05 Cintas CTAS 485.61 -0.41 EastGroup IBM IBM 141.49 -0.79 NorthernTrust NTRS 74.26 -1.93
EGP 176.56 1.22 Gartner IT 332.62 0.51 MGM Resorts MGM 42.64 0.35
Alphabet C GOOG 129.69 0.76 Avangrid AGR 34.40 0.17 BritishAmTob BTI 32.21 0.09 CiscoSystems CSCO 55.46 0.02 EastmanChem EMN 82.08 -1.30 GenDigital IntlFlavors IFF 66.99 2.42 NorthropGrum NOC 437.73 4.04
GEN 20.53 -0.26 MPLX MPLX 34.86 -0.10
Altria MO 42.77 0.04 Avantor AVTR 21.95 -0.02 Broadcom AVGO 855.79 -9.35 Citigroup C 41.02 -1.05 Eaton
IntlPaper IP 33.77 -0.29 NorwegCruise NCLH 17.26 0.25
ETN 217.29 1.55 Generac GNRC 113.49 -2.69 MSA Safety MSA 175.43 0.20
Amazon.com AMZN 134.25 -0.43 AveryDennison AVY 176.62 -1.05 BroadridgeFinl BR 177.80 -0.13 Interpublic IPG 32.26 -0.03 Novartis NVS 102.59 -0.39
CitizensFin CFG 26.75 -0.69 eBay EBAY 43.27 0.23 GeneralDynamics GD 224.28 ... MSCI MSCI 527.91 3.17
Ambev ABEV 2.88 0.03 AvisBudget CAR 224.94 -4.93 BrookfieldAsset BAM 32.49 -0.82 Intuit INTU 487.90 -0.36 NovoNordisk NVO 185.01 -0.86
CivitasRscs CIVI 80.05 -0.31 Ecolab ECL 180.55 0.08 GeneralElec GE 111.66 -0.36 MagellanMid MMP 65.78 -0.07
Amcor AMCR 9.31 -0.14 AxonEnterprise AXON 198.96 2.02 Brookfield BN 32.08 -0.69 IntuitiveSurgical ISRG 287.16 0.49 NuHoldings NU 7.35 ...
CleanHarbors CLH 170.43 -1.78 Ecopetrol EC 11.25 0.02 GeneralMills GIS 68.44 -0.31 MagnaIntl MGA 55.84 0.23
Amdocs DOX 86.48 -0.19 BCE BCE 40.40 -0.10 BrookfieldInfr BIP 31.31 -0.36 Cleveland-Cliffs CLF 15.03 InvitatHomes INVH 33.19 0.32 Nucor NUE 168.42 0.76
0.05 EdisonIntl EIX 69.54 0.53 GeneralMotors GM 32.93 -0.34 ManhattanAssoc MANH 190.21 3.12
Ameren AEE 80.30 0.23 BHP Group BHP 55.36 -0.88 BrookfieldRenew BEPC 27.71 -0.39 IronMountain IRM 59.54 0.98 Nutanix NTNX 31.72 0.80
Clorox CLX 150.40 0.33 EdwardsLife EW 75.97 -0.36 Genmab GMAB 36.93 0.28 ManulifeFinl MFC 17.57 -0.06
AmericaMovil AMX 19.11 -0.14 BILL BILL 108.61 1.08 Brown&Brown BRO 71.71 0.07 ItauUnibanco ITUB 5.48 0.12 Nutrien NTR 60.36 -1.34
Cloudflare NET 59.80 1.23 ElbitSystems ESLT 196.97 -2.62 Genpact G 36.28 0.02 MarathonOil MRO 26.11 -0.33
AmerAirlines AAL 14.83 -0.33 BJ'sWholesale BJ 66.16 -3.58 Brown-Forman A BF.A 68.29 -0.78 Coca-Cola KO 60.06 -0.37 ElectronicArts EA 119.53 0.93 Gentex
nVentElectric NVT 51.68 -0.48
AEP AEP 78.62 0.06 BP BP 36.37 -0.21 Brown-Forman B BF.B 66.91 -0.86 Coca-ColaEuro CCEP 62.75
GNTX 31.80 -0.16
0.59 ElevanceHealth ELV 463.30 -2.97 GenuineParts GPC 153.12 -0.76
J K L MarathonPetrol MPC 142.95 0.10 s
Markel MKL 1464.83 -10.97
NVIDIA NVDA 456.68 -12.99
AmerExpress AXP 159.08 -1.80 BWX Tech BWXT 72.62 1.25 Bruker BRKR 62.65 0.33 Cognex CGNX 47.12 0.65 EmersonElec EMR 96.08 1.02 Gerdau 5.06 0.12 JD.com 33.28 0.06 MarketAxess MKTX 249.32 -1.02
AmericanFin AFG 112.87 -1.52 Baidu BIDU 128.36 3.44 BuildersFirst BLDR 131.81 -0.95 CognizantTech CTSH 69.59 0.83 t Enbridge
GGB
ENB 34.30 -0.43 GileadSciences GILD 76.35 0.41 JPMorganChase JPM 146.38
JD
-3.10 Marriott MAR 203.95 4.14
O P Q
AmHomes4Rent AMH 34.65 0.09 BakerHughes BKR 35.18 0.13 Bunge BG 111.39 -1.60 CoinbaseGlbl COIN 74.90 -0.38 EncompassHealth EHC 69.49 -0.47 GitLab GTLB 44.97 0.76 Jabil JBL 103.32 0.45 Marsh&McLen MMC 189.52 0.33 OGE Energy OGE 34.13 0.32
AIG AIG 57.34 -0.45 Ball BALL 52.51 -0.53 BurlingtonStrs BURL 163.92 -6.83 ColgatePalm CL 73.51 -0.29 Endeavor EDR 24.75 0.23 GlobalPayments GPN 123.45 -0.19 JackHenry JKHY 156.62 1.49 MartinMarietta MLM 436.32 3.77 ONEOK OKE 64.86 -0.40
Comcast A CMCSA 45.57 -0.29 EnergyTransfer ET 12.97 -0.03 GlobalFoundries GFS 54.03 -0.94 JacobsSolns J 136.39 0.23 MarvellTech MRVL 59.59 -0.44 ON Semi ON 92.37 -0.66
SABESP SBS 12.11 0.33 t EnphaseEnergy ENPH 128.32 -1.84 Globant GLOB 184.39 8.78 JamesHardie JHX 28.29 -0.44 Masco MAS 56.11 -0.02 OReillyAuto ORLY 934.03 -11.46
ConagraBrands CAG 29.76 -0.03 Entegris ENTG 97.21 -0.73 GlobeLife GL 111.09 -1.66 JazzPharm JAZZ 140.19 1.60 MasTec MTZ 97.01 1.69 OccidentalPetrol OXY 62.91 -0.82
Borrowing Benchmarks Confluent CFLT 32.42 -0.07 Entergy ETR 94.73 -0.35 GoDaddy GDDY 70.52 -0.09 JefferiesFinl JEF 34.25 0.01 Mastercard MA 397.84 4.64 Okta OKTA 71.38 -1.56
ConocoPhillips COP 116.15 -1.06 EnterpriseProd EPD 26.38 -0.17 GoldFields GFI 11.73 0.15 J&J JNJ 166.02 -1.33 MatadorRscs MTDR 60.88 -0.69 OldDomFreight ODFL 405.00 1.89
wsj.com/market-data/bonds/benchmarks ConEd ED 89.38 0.67 Equifax EFX 191.91 0.20 GoldmanSachs GS 318.79 -3.27 JohnsonControls JCI 58.65 -0.20 MatchGroup MTCH 44.82 0.43 OldRepublic ORI 26.84 -0.38
ConstBrands A STZ 257.32 -1.67 Equinix EQIX 752.86 10.53 Grab GRAB 3.34 0.07 JonesLang JLL 161.45 -0.32 Mattel MAT 21.27 0.18 Olin OLN 56.32 -0.36
ConstellationEner CEG 106.26 0.15 Equinor EQNR 30.58 -0.20 Graco GGG 75.71 0.15 JuniperNetworks JNPR 28.34 0.34 McCormickVtg MKC.V 82.37 -1.91 OmegaHealthcare OHI
Money Rates August 22, 2023 Cooper COO 370.18 -1.90 Equitable EQH 27.05 -0.49 Grainger GWW 698.87 -4.19 KB Financial KB 38.71 ... McCormick MKC 82.35 -1.31
30.29 0.10
Continued on Page B11

Key annual interest rates paid to borrow or lend money in U.S. and
international markets. Rates below are a guide to general levels but
don’t always represent actual transactions. ADVERTISEMENT
Week —52-WEEK—
Inflation
July index
level
Chg From (%)
June '23 July '22
Latest ago

Secondary market
High Low
Business Real Estate & Auctions
To advertise: email sales.realestate@wsj.com or WSJ.com/classifieds
U.S. consumer price index Fannie Mae
All items 305.691 0.19 3.2 30-year mortgage yields
Core 309.402 0.16 4.7 30 days 6.881 6.818 6.881 5.086 ILLINOIS INDIANA
60 days 6.904 6.852 6.988 5.128
International rates
Other short-term rates
Week 52-Week
Latest ago High Low
BANK-OWNED
Week 52-Week

Prime rates
Latest ago high low
REAL ESTATE AUCTION
U.S. 8.50 8.50 8.50 5.50
7.20 7.20 7.20 4.70
Call money
7.25 7.25 4.25
REAL ESTATE AUCTION SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
Canada 7.25
Japan 1.475 1.475 1.475 1.475
Commercial paper (AA financial)
Policy Rates
Euro zone
Switzerland
4.25
2.25
4.25
2.25
4.25
2.25
0.50
0.25
90 days n.a.

Secured Overnight Financing Rate

5.42 5.54 2.64

HOTEL PROPERTY FULLY ACCREDITED SURGICAL CENTER

2143 CALUMET AVE., HAMMOND/WHITING, INDIANA
Britain
Australia
5.25
4.10
5.25
4.10
5.25
4.10
1.75
1.85
5.30 5.30 5.31 2.25
1701 J DAVID JONES PARKWAY (JUST 30 MINUTES FROM DOWNTOWN CHICAGO)
SPRINGFIELD, IL
Value 52-Week
Overnight repurchase Latest Traded High Low Now closed because the long-term owner retired.
U.S. 5.31 5.34 5.35 2.25 DTCC GCF Repo Index Currently closed and in need of updating, this 2-story This 2-story, approximately 13,000 sq. ft. building is
Treasury 5.360 13.366 5.365 2.221 ideal to continue to be used as a surgical center,
U.S. government rates MBS 5.323 33.730 5.407 2.319
former Howard Johnson and most recently Motel 6
Discount Notes on data: flagged hotel has 79 rooms with a large parking area although zoning allows for multiple alternative uses.
5.50 5.50 5.50 2.50 and excess land situated on 8.61 acres. The property
U.S. prime rate is the base rate on corporate
loans posted by at least 70% of the 10 largest
Located just 1 mile from Chicago and the Illinois border,
Federal funds U.S. banks, and is effective July 27, 2023. Other features a restaurant, meeting rooms, breakfast rooms ALL equipment is included in the sale. Low Indiana
Effective rate 5.3400 5.3400 5.3400 2.3300 prime rates aren’t directly comparable; lending
practices vary widely by location; Discount rate and an outside pool. Good visibility, and is the closest property taxes and Doctor’s malpractice insurance.
High 5.6500 5.6500 5.6500 2.4500 is effective July 27, 2023. Secured Overnight
Low 5.3100 5.3100 5.3100 2.3000 Financing Rate is as of August 21, 2023. DTCC hotel to the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport. Large off-street parking lot. Across from Wolf Lake,
Bid 5.3300 5.3300 5.3300 2.3000 GCF Repo Index is Depository Trust & Clearing
Offer 5.3600 5.3600 5.3700 2.3200 Corp.'s weighted average for overnight trades in Previously Valued Well Over $2,000,000 Hammond Music Venue and lakefront development.
applicable CUSIPs. Value traded is in billions of
Treasury bill auction
5.280 5.840 2.150
U.S. dollars. Federal-funds rates are Tullett
Prebon rates as of 5:30 p.m. ET. Suggested Opening Bid $500,000 Previously Valued Over $5,000,000
4 weeks 5.280
13 weeks 5.300 5.295 5.300 2.740
Sources: Federal Reserve; Bureau of Labor
Statistics; DTCC; FactSet; On-site Inspections 12:30pm to 2:30pm Suggested Opening Bid $850,000
26 weeks 5.295 5.290 5.295 3.110 Tullett Prebon Information, Ltd.
on August 23, September 6 and 12 On-site inspections 10am to noon on August 22,
September 7 and 13
New Highs and Lows
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT
The following explanations apply to the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Arca, NYSE American
Rick Levin & Associates, Inc. | since 1991
and Nasdaq Stock Market stocks that hit a new 52-week intraday high or low in the latest
session. % CHG-Daily percentage change from the previous trading session. Rick Levin & Associates, Inc. | since 1991
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Hospitality Division 312.440.2000 | www.ricklevin.com
Stock
52-Wk %
Sym Hi/Lo Chg Stock
52-Wk %
Sym Hi/Lo Chg Stock
52-Wk %
Sym Hi/Lo Chg
312.440.2000 | www.ricklevin.com IN CONJUNCTION WITH RICK LEVIN, LICENSED INDIANA AUCTIONEER
RekorSystems REKR 3.55 -0.9 BluerockHomes BHM 13.06 -4.4
Highs RemitlyGlobal RELY
SeaportGlblAcqnII SGII
25.39 1.8 BoltBiotherap
11.67 0.1 BostonOmaha
BOLT
BOC
1.09 -3.5
16.37 -0.8
ACELYRIN SLRN 29.19 6.7 SpectrumBrands SPB 82.44 2.8 BowenAcqnRt BOWNR 0.15 ...
AZZ AZZ 47.74 0.5 AUCTIONS NEW YORK
AcriCapitalA ACAC 11.11 ...
Teekay TK 7.26 3.2 BraemarHtls BHR 2.22 0.9 MASSACHUSETTS
Telesat TSAT 20.91 6.7 BraemarHtlsPfd BHRpB 12.75 0.4
Adecoagro AGRO 11.17 1.3 Tradeweb TW 85.13 0.7 BraemarHtlsPfdD BHRpD 17.50 -2.9
AlphaProTech APT 4.70 -0.7
AnnalyCapPfdF NLYpF 25.69 0.1
Transcat
TurkcellIletism
TRNS
TKC
103.01 4.5 BrookfieldBusPtr BBU
5.45 2.1 BurkeHerbert BHRB
14.89 -1.0
49.28 -5.0
REAL ESTATE AUCTION
ApogeeTherap APGE 25.09 -0.4 TwinDisc TWIN 14.58 4.5 BuzzFeed BZFD 0.43 -0.9 SEPTEMBER 11, 2023. 1.5 ACRES NET SULLIVAN CO.
ApolloGlbPfdA APOpA 52.83 0.5 UBS Group UBS 23.94 1.0 CEA Inds CEAD 0.63 -5.4 20560-20638 LAKE COOK RD, PALATINE, IL TAX FORECLOSURE AUCTION
AUCTIONEERS • APPRAISERS
ApolloStratGrII APGB.U
AppliedOptoelec AAOI
10.50
16.15
0.7
0.3
Ultralife ULBI 10.45 30.0 CF Acqn VIII CFFEU 9.71 -1.7 UNINCORPORATE LAKE COUNTY
150+ NY Properties PAUL E. SAPERSTEIN CO., INC.
Applovin APP 40.69 1.2
VTEX VTEX
DSP
5.89 8.7 C3is
6.42 6.5 CalAmp
CISS
CAMP
0.41 -6.4
0.64 -5.8
HIGH TRAFFIC LOCATION 1ST SITE AFTER 144 Centre St. Holbrook MA, 02343 • Tel: 617-227-6553
ArcherAviationWt ACHR.WS 2.01 5.5
ViantTech
VinFastAuto VFS 46.98 108.9 CambiumNtwks CMBM 8.70 -2.8 LAST EXIT FROM RTE 53 September 6 & 7 @ 9:30AM www.pesco.com • MA Lic 295, N.H 2508, R.I 9246, VT 057-0002204
AresAcqnA AAC 10.68 0.1 WaldencastWt WALDW 1.11 3.7 CampbellSoup CPB 41.66 -0.4 FOR INFORMATION Contact Marion J. Valle ONLINE ONLY AUCTION Trustee in Bankruptcy Sale
AuroraAcqnWt AURCW
BRBR
0.32
40.32
-7.2
1.8
WW Ent WWE 115.66 1.1 CIBC CM 39.11 -0.5 Valle Realty - 312-806-4201 @ NYSauctions.com
BellRing
joanmarionvalle@msn.com
BukitJalilGlbAcqn1 BUJA
Cameco
Camtek
CCJ
CAMT
10.25
36.28
50.95
...
0.4
1.7 AES Un
Lows
AESC 70.49
CanadianSolar
CanoHealth
CapstoneGreen CGRN
... CardioDiag
CSIQ
CANO

CDIO
26.66 -12.9
0.29 -2.4
0.55 -3.8
0.48 -14.8
800-243-0061 AAR, Inc. & HAR, Inc. WORCESTER • LAND & BUILDINGS
CapricorTherap CAPR 8.11 -4.9 AES AES 17.75 0.3 CarverBancorp CARV 2.20 -6.7 CARIBBEAN
70 Winter St. & 85 Harding St., Worcester, MA • Thurs., Sept. 21, 2023 at 11AM
CatchaInvtA CHAA 10.73 0.8 AGBA AGBA 0.75 -1.3 CassavaSciences SAVA 16.55 2.7
ConcordAcqnIII CNDB.U 10.54 4.3 AMC Ent AMC 2.46 -18.3 Cato CATO 7.63 -2.0 Auction to take place in front of 70 Winter Street. 20,434+/-SF of land. Property
Vesta VTMX 37.50 2.5 AbCelleraBio ABCL 5.37 -1.4 cbdMD YCBD 1.09 ... being sold in the entirety. Two buildings: 85 Harding Street, comprised of 9 Condominium
Docebo DCBO 44.39 2.4 ActelisNtwks ASNS 1.15 -3.2 cbdMD PfdA YCBDpA 1.33 -36.8
EG Acqn
EG Acqn A
EGGF.U
EGGF
10.50
10.54
1.6
0.4
AcutusMedical AFIB
AdicetBio ACET
0.50 -3.2 Celularity
1.77 -5.8 CelularityWt
CELU
CELUW
0.27 -8.0
0.01 35.9
“SHOVEL READY” Units and common areas, which includes 70 Winter Street. Terms of sale: A deposit
of $100,000 by certified or bank check will be required at the time & place of the sale.
EarthstoneEner ESTE 19.94 2.1 Aditxt ADTX 9.92 -16.6 CenturyTherap IPSC 2.50 -1.9
50-acre real estate Deposit must be increased to 10% of bid price within 10 business days of the sale

SHOWROOM
Euroseas ESEA 25.99 0.7 AevaTechWt AEVA.WS 0.06 -1.6 ChargePoint CHPT 6.91 0.7 & balance of the bid price must be paid within 30 days. Sale and bidding procedures
FastAcqnII
FTAI Aviation
FZT.U
FTAI
10.97
35.73
-0.6
1.6
AgileThought AGIL
AgileThoughtWt AGILW
0.20 -30.8 CherryHillMtg
0.02 -41.1 Chewy
CHMI 3.70 -1.1
26.64 -2.7
subdivision for sale on subject to bankruptcy court approval. All interested parties should contact Michael
CHWY
Fabrinet FN 154.89 31.6 Agriforce AGRI 0.11 -3.4 ChickenSoupA CSSE 0.36 -9.2 Great Exuma, Bahamas. Saperstein at MSaperstein@pesco.com or our office at 617-227-6553 for more
ForgeRock FORG 23.80 6.1 Agrify AGFY 2.00 14.5 ChickenSoupNts CSSEN 22.00 -0.2
Two inland boat basins ADVERTISE TODAY information or to access the Property. Neither Auctioneer nor Trustee make any
GoldenStarAcqn GODN 10.34 0.2 AirspanNetworks MIMO 0.13 -4.5 ChijetMotor CJET 1.90 -12.8
representations as to the accuracy of the information contained herein. Hon. Chris J.
HitekGlobal
IDEAYA Bio
HKIT
IDYA
33.71
28.00
23.6
3.8
Akanda
Akerna
AKAN
KERN
0.45 5.9 ChinaLiberalEduc CLEU
0.33 -7.8 ClearSecure YOU
0.25 -12.9
21.46 ...
provide dock space for Panos, Bankruptcy Judge, Chapter 11, In Re: W Lofts Development, LLC, Case No. 23-40157-
InFinTAcqnA IFIN 11.03 0.2 AlaunosTherap TCRT 0.12 -11.1 CoeptisTherap COEP 0.81 -17.2 most of the 84 single- CJP. John O. Desmond, Trustee, By Attorney Kate E. Nicholson, Nicholson P.C, Cambridge, MA.
InFinTAcqnUn IFIN.U
InteractiveBrkrs IBKR
11.20
93.49
6.0
-1.8
Allakos
AlliedGaming
ALLK
AGAE
2.69 -6.0 CoffeeHolding JVA
0.84 -2.2 ComputerPrograms CPSI
1.27 -2.3
17.21 -0.3 family building sites, all (800) 366-3975 SALE TO BE HELD ON THE PREMISES
IntlGeneralIns IGIC 10.70 0.9 Alpine4 ALPP 1.14 -8.8 COMSovereign COMS 1.28 -0.8
LifewayFoods LWAY 10.40 4.2 Alset AEI 1.25 -6.9 ConnexaSports CNXA 0.06 -25.4
infrastructure in place, sales.showroom@wsj.com Deposit by cash, certified or bank check required at time and place of sale and balance 30
days (unless otherwise specified). All other terms announced at sale. Neither Auctioneer,
EliLilly
Macom Tech
LLY
MTSI
556.10
77.72
0.7
7.2
Altimmune ALT
AltisourceAsset AAMC
2.50 0.8 ConsensusCloud CCSI
8.21 -7.0 ContextLogic WISH
29.25 0.5
4.85 -0.8
paved roads. For more information visit: Mortgagee nor Attorney make any representations as to the accuracy of the information contained herein.
MindTechPfdA
MinisoGroup
MINDP
MNSO
11.38
22.46
36.2
9.8
Aravive ARAV 0.15 -23.6 ContraFect
ArrowFinancial AROW 17.12 -5.0 CorEnergyInfr
CFRX
CORR
0.80 -2.9
0.94 -3.1
For information: wsj.com/classifieds
Moog B
Moog A
MOG.B
MOG.A
116.20
116.79
1.4
0.9
AsensusSurg ASXC 0.27 0.2 Corteva
AshfordHospPfdH AHTpH 12.16 -4.7 CrackerBarrel
CTVA
CBRL
49.18 -1.7
82.27 0.5
gpb369@gmail.com
NetPowerWt NPWR.WS 4.75 -1.5 AshfordHospPfdI AHTpI 11.72 -5.7 Cutera CUTR 10.54 3.9
NewcourtAcqnA NCAC 11.25 0.9 AshfordHosp AHT 2.58 -3.6 DZS DZSI 2.11 -1.8
NexGenEnergy NXE 5.24 0.4 AshfordHospPfdD AHTpD 13.40 -4.4 DesignTherap DSGN 1.94 2.0
INVESTMENT PROPERTIES
NOTABLE
NVIDIA NVDA 481.87 -2.8 AshfordHospPfdF AHTpF 12.27 -2.0 Dingdong DDL 2.13 -3.1
OculisWt OCSAW 2.40 20.5 AssetEntities ASST 0.60 -14.0 DuckhornPtf NAPA 12.28 -1.8
OvidTherap OVID 4.14 -3.7 Atrion ATRI 480.21 -1.1 EastsideDistilling EAST 1.95 -3.0

COMMERICALPROPERTIES
PampaEnergia PAM 47.00 6.1 AultAlliance AULT 1.52 -13.4 eGain EGAN 6.30 2.3
ParTechnology
PepperLimeA
PAR
PEPL
40.81
10.76
4.0
0.6
AvaloTherap
AvidityBio
AVTX
RNA
0.09 -18.9 ElectraBatteryMtls ELBM
7.90 -0.6 ElectriqPower ELIQ
0.68 -1.0
1.41 -7.1
27-LOT RENO NV SUBDIVISION
PermianRscs PR 13.85 1.9 Azitra AZTR 2.02 1.9 Electro-Sensors ELSE 3.91 -6.3 Approved tentative map
PetIQ
Phenixfin
PETQ
PFX
20.87
39.95
4.2
1.5
BM Tech
ByndCannasoft BCAN
BMTX 2.36 6.0 EmergentBiosol EBS
1.04 -5.1 Enbridge ENB
4.19 -5.9
34.27 -1.2
City-View lots, Strong Bldr Mkt ADVERTISE TODAY
PlainsAllAmPipe PAA 15.48 -0.6 BaudaxBio BXRX 0.44 -4.7 EnphaseEnergy ENPH 127.34 -1.4 Suggest gated community, $1.1mm
PonoCapTwoA PTWO 11.56 0.9 BensonHill BHIL 0.59 -6.7 ErayakPwr RAYA 0.89 -2.9 © 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (800) 366-3975 | sales.realestate@wsj.com
PrimeNumberI Rt PNACR 0.56 6.4 BiondVaxPharm BVXV 1.25 -3.8 EsportsEnt GMBL 0.11 -21.5 FERRARI-LUND REAL ESTATE All Rights Reserved.
ProfireEnergy PFIE 2.40 13.3 Bionomics BNOX 1.14 -12.7 EsteeLauder EL 147.18 -0.9 Larry Barnes, Bs.21554 • 775-846-5080 © 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights
QuantaServices PWR 207.68 1.5 BlinkCharging BLNK 4.47 -2.8 EtaoInternational ETAO 0.35 -16.6 Lester Conklin, s.32291 • 775-762-0338
RegenPharm REGN 847.50 -0.4 BlueStarFoods BSFC 0.75 -11.6 Continued on Page B8
 .

B8 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 NY THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

ADVERTISEMENT NEW HIGHS AND LOWS

The Marketplace
To advertise: 800-366-3975 or WSJ.com/classifieds
Continued From Page B7 52-Wk % 52-Wk %
52-Wk % Stock Sym Hi/Lo Chg Stock Sym Hi/Lo Chg
Stock Sym Hi/Lo Chg LeaflyWt LFLYW 0.02 42.8 Premier PINC 23.95 -3.3
Leggett&Platt LEG 27.24 -0.1 Prenetics PRE 0.53 5.9
Etsy ETSY 72.40 0.2
LendingClub LC 6.23 -2.9 PurpleInnovation PRPL 2.08 -2.6
EvokePharma EVOK 1.11 0.9
LibertyFormOne C FWONK 65.68 -0.3 Quantum QMCO 0.61 2.7
ANNOUNCEMENTS NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE OF SALE Express EXPR 0.49 -2.0
LiquidMedia YVR 0.29 -18.9 RE/MAX RMAX 16.11 -1.7
FG Merger FGMC 8.55 -1.6
LixiangEduc LXEH 0.33 -5.6 RVL Pharm RVLP 0.13 -12.0
FOXOTechnologies FOXO 0.12 -5.4
LongeveronRt LGVNR 0.01 -69.9 Radcom RDCM 8.95 -0.2
Farmmi FAMI 0.34 -3.1
LoopMedia LPTV 1.23 -12.8 Recruiter.com RCRT 0.16 -2.0
UCC PUBLIC SALE NOTICE FateTherap FATE 2.60 -2.6
Gain an Edge Please take notice that Newmark & Company Real Estate, Inc. and/or one of its affiliates (“Newmark”), on behalf NOTICE OF PUBLIC UCC SALE FaZe FAZE 0.27 -5.0
LucyScientific
LufaxHolding
LSDI
LU
0.63
1.16
-11.6
-4.6
RelianceGlobal RELI
RepublicFirstBncp FRBK
2.15 -12.2
0.28 -55.9
in Marketing of ACM CRE SELLER 2, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, as successor to ACM CRE Fund 1-L, LP (“Secured PLEASE TAKE NOTICE, that in accordance with FirstLightAcqnA FLAG 8.98 -10.9
LumenTech LUMN 1.49 -7.4 ResMed RMD 162.43 -2.0
Stand Out with a Book: Your Creditor”), offers for sale at a Uniform Commercial Code sale (the “Public Auction”) to be held on September 13, 2023
at 2:00 p.m. ET at the offices of Ellis George Cipollone O’Brien Annaguey LLP, located at 152 W. 57th Street, 28th
applicable provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code as
enacted in New York and by virtue of certain Event(s) of
FirstWaveBio FWBI
FirsthandTechVal SVVC
0.34 -1.4
0.51 -3.5
Luxfer LXFR
MAIA
11.27
1.78
-0.9
-2.1
RevanceTherap RVNC
LAES
16.93 1.9
5.50 -12.0
Book. We Write & Publish it
MaiaBiotech SEALSQ
Floor, New York, New York 10019, and via Zoom at https://bit.ly/17W24UCC (URL is case sensitive), 100% of the Default under that certain Ownership Interests Pledge FlowersFoods FLO 23.27 -0.8
MSP Recovery LIFW 0.08 -5.9 SignaSports SSU 1.93 -8.8
issued and outstanding limited liability company interests (the “Interests”) of GRIFFON MONKEY, LLC (the “Mortgage and Security Agreement dated as of October 5, 2023 (the FootLocker FL 23.17 -4.8
for You. Affordable Marketing. Borrower”) delivered by DS 17 WEST 24th STREET HOLDINGS, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Pledgor”) to “Pledge Agreement”), executed and delivered by Queens ForemostLithium FMST 3.80 -28.9
Macy's M
MarinSoftware MRIN
12.57
0.41
-14.1
-3.2
SMXSecurityMatters SMX
SacksParenteGolf SPGC
1.72 -4.7
2.25 -14.9
BizSuccessBooks.com and for the benefit of Secured Creditor, along with such other property of Pledgor related to the Interests (collectively,
the “Collateral”) more fully described in Section 2 of the Pledge and Security Agreement (the “Pledge Agreement”)
Theater Holdco LLC (the “Pledgor”), RKO Flushing
Development Mezz LLC (the “Secured Party”) will offer
Fortrea FTRE
ForwardIndustries FORD
24.93 0.1
0.79 ...
MartiTech MRT 0.75 -8.5 Sagimet SGMT 10.51 -13.7
(904) 293-9893 * Since 1999 available for review at https://rimarketplace.com/listing/38890/ upon execution of a confidentiality and non-
disclosure agreement.
for sale at public auction all of Pledgor’s right, title, and Frontier ULCC 6.66 -1.5
MawsonInfr MIGI
MedicennaTherap MDNA
0.77
0.35
-21.9
0.7
SallyBeauty SBH
SarcosTech&Robotic STRC
9.69 -3.1
1.12 -5.8
interest in and to the following: (i) 100% of the limited FuelCell FCEL 1.41 -6.8
MethodeElec MEI 30.81 1.6 Satellogic SATL 1.52 -1.2
Mortgage Borrower owns, leases, and/or controls a commercial property located at 17 West 24th Street, New York, liability membership interests in Queens Theater Owner FullHouse FLL 4.60 -0.6
New York, 10010 (the “Property”). MissionProduce AVO 9.64 -2.2 SciSparc SPRC 0.17 -6.7
LLC (the “Company”); and (ii) all other collateral pledged GaleraTherap GRTX 0.21 -4.2 MobiquityTechWt
MOBQW 0.01 -32.8 Sea SE 36.48 -5.6
Secured Creditor made certain loans (the “Loans”) pursuant to an Acquisition Loan Agreement dated as of October pursuant to the Pledge Agreement ((i) and (ii) are the GeneDx WGS 4.17 -8.0 ModelN
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES 4, 2019 by and between Mortgage Borrower and Secured Creditor, as amended by, inter alia, that certain First “Collateral”). GeneticTech GENE 0.69 -2.9 Momentus
MODN 26.75 -3.5 SealedAir SEE 33.82 ...
Amendment to Acquisition Loan, Omnibus Amendment to Loan Documents and Satisfaction of Project Loan dated MNTS 0.23 -11.8 SeaStarMedical ICU 0.24 5.2
Based upon information provided by Pledgor and its GladstoneNts2028 GLADZ 24.45 0.2 Monro
as of October 4, 2022 by and between Mortgage Borrower and Secured Creditor, that certain Second Amendment to MNRO 33.48 1.0 SecooHolding SECO 0.48 0.2
affiliates, Secured Party’s understanding (made without GladstonePfdB LANDO 18.80 0.4 Movella
Acquisition Loan Agreement (Conversion to SOFR) dated as of March 28, 2023 by and between Mortgage Borrower MVLA 0.65 -10.4 Seer SEER 2.35 -2.9
any representation or warranty by Secured Party as to GoldResource GORO 0.45 -1.2 MovingiMage
and Secured Creditor (collectively, all of the foregoing constitutes the “Loan Agreement”) which were secured by, MITQ 0.87 -0.1 SelinaHospWt SLNAW 0.02 -12.2
alliance mortgage fund inter alia, the Pledge Agreement, by which Pledgor pledged the Collateral to Secured Creditor, and granted to Secured
the accuracy or completeness of the following matters)
is that: (i) Pledgor owns 100% of the limited liability
GoldRoyalty
GrafTechIntl
GROY
EAF
1.42 ... MullenAuto
3.56 -5.0 MultiWays
MULN 0.47 -23.4 Sharecare SHCR 0.92 -8.8
Creditor a first priority security interest in and to the Collateral. Secured Creditor is offering the Collateral for company membership interests in the Company; (ii) MWG 0.40 -1.4 SharecareWt SHCRW 0.04 -10.0

8%-9% Return
sale in connection with the foreclosure of the pledge of such Collateral. The Property owned by Pledgor is and will
remain subject to certain mortgages and other more senior obligations and liabilities of Mortgage Borrower recorded
against the Property, which are available for review at https://rimarketplace.com/listing/38890/ upon execution of
the principal asset of the Company is that certain
fee interest in real property commonly known as
135-35 Northern Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11354 (the
Greenlane
GromSocialEnts GROM
GrowGeneration GRWG
Gulf Resources GURE
GNLN 0.75 -1.3 NRX Pharm
0.25 0.4 NRX PharmWt NRXPW
2.65 -2.9 NanoStringTech NSTG
1.86 -2.6 NatlBankshares NKSH
NRXP 0.29
0.12
2.59
25.59
-5.2
-29.6
2.6
-3.4
Shineco SISI
ShoreBancshares SHBI
ShuttlePharm SHPH
0.17 1.5
10.61 -3.6
0.74 -2.6
1.38 -5.9
REAL ESTATE SECURED a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement. The sale of the Collateral will be subject to all applicable third party “Property”); and (iii) the Property is encumbered by and 60DegreesPharm SXTP
consents and regulatory approvals, if any. Hookipa HOOK 0.62 -4.9 NearIntelligence NIR 0.40 -3.0 SiyataMobile SYTA 2.51 -5.8
subject to, among other things, a first priority mortgage HanoverIns THG 104.03 -1.8 NemauraMedical NMRD
FIXED INCOME FUND The Collateral is being offered by Secured Creditor as a single lot, “as-is, where-is”, with no express or implied
warranties, representations, statements or conditions of any kind made by Secured Creditor or any person acting for
given by the Company securing indebtedness in the
original principal amount of $34,425,000.00. HarborCustom HCDI 1.26 -10.1 Netcapital NCPL
0.41
0.55
-40.4
-10.1
SocietalCDMO
SocietyPass
SCTL
SOPA
0.56 0.4
0.39 -12.0
HealthcareRealty HR 16.50 -1.1 Netgear
SEEKING RIA’S & or on behalf of Secured Creditor, without any recourse whatsoever to Secured Creditor or any other person acting for
or on behalf of Secured Creditor, and each bidder must make its own inquiry regarding the Collateral. The winning
Mannion Auctions, LLC (“Mannion”), under the
direction of Matthew D. Mannion, licensed auctioneer HillstreamBio HILS 0.23 -3.4 NeuroMetrix
NTGR
NURO
12.44
0.72
-0.7
-1.4
Sphere3D
Stepan
ANY
SCL
1.26 -8.5
85.88 -0.8
ACCREDITED INVESTORS bidder shall be responsible for the payment of all transfer taxes, stamp duties and similar taxes incurred in connection
with the purchase of the Collateral.
(DCA #1434494) (the “Auctioneer”), will conduct a public
sale consisting of the Collateral (as set forth in Schedule
HoraceMannEdu HMN
IMAC BACK
27.97 -1.2 Neuronetics
0.09 -7.8 Nevro
STIM
NVRO
1.56
17.88
-0.6
1.5
StrongGlbEnt
SunPower
SGE
SPWR
1.64 -8.3
6.90 1.0
CALL: Secured Creditor reserves the right to credit bid, reject all bids it deems to have been made by a bidder that is unable
to satisfy the requirements imposed by Secured Creditor upon prospective bidders in connection with the sale or to
A below) on October 4, 2023 at 3:30pm (New York time)
via Zoom per the following instructions: Meeting link:
I-Mab
iBio
IMAB
IBIO
1.78 3.7 NexalinTechnology NXL
0.34 -5.5 NextEraEnergy NEP
0.46
44.24
-21.3
0.5
SunRun
SuperLeagueGam SLGG
RUN 13.30 -0.9
0.11 -7.8

866-700-0600 whom in Secured Creditor’s sole judgment a sale may not lawfully be made, terminate or adjourn the sale to another
time, and to sell the Collateral at a subsequent public or private sale and to impose any other commercially reasonable
conditions upon the sale of the Collateral as Secured Creditor may deem proper. Secured Creditor reserves the right
https://bit.ly/RKOucc (URL is case sensitive), Meeting
ID: 856 1722 0080, Passcode: 734392. One Tap Mobile:
+16465588656,,85617220080#,,,,*734392# US (New
Illumina
ImpelPharm
ILMN
IMPL
indieSemiconWt INDIW
162.61 -2.7 NioCorpDevts

1.35 -1.4 Nkarta

NB
0.28 -10.5 NiSunIntlEntDevt NISN
NKTX
3.65
2.87
1.76
-3.4
-1.0
-2.7
Synaptogenix
TelusIntl
Target
SNPX
TIXT
TGT
0.46 -7.2
8.14 1.0
122.64 -2.2
ALLIANCE PORTFOLIO to determine, in its sole discretion, the qualifications of any bidder, including a prospective bidder’s ability to close York); +16469313860,,85617220080#,,,,*734392# US IndonesiaEnergy INDO 3.27 ... NorthwestNat NWN 39.81 -0.4 Theratechnologies THTX 0.94 -8.9
120 Vantis Dr., Ste. 515 • Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 the transaction on the terms and conditions referenced herein and to modify the terms of sale (the “Terms of Sale”). Dial by your location: • +1 646 558 8656 US (New York), InFinTAcqnWt IFIN.WS 0.03 1.6 NouveauMonde NMG 2.53 -2.3 3D Systems DDD 6.20 -0.6
www.AlliancePortfolio.com All bids (other than credit bids of Secured Creditor) must be for cash, and the successful bidder must be prepared to +1 646 931 3860 US, +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington Infobird IFBD 0.22 -7.3 NuSkinEnts NUS 23.78 -0.5 374Water SCWO 1.50 -8.5
deliver immediately available good funds within forty-eight (48) hours after the sale and otherwise comply with the DC), +1 305 224 1968 US, +1 309 205 3325 US, +1 312 InhibikaseTherap IKT 2.03 -10.3 NuScalePower SMR 6.23 -4.6 TopKingWin TCJH 1.20 -4.7
RE Broker • CA DRE • 02066955 Broker License ID
bidding requirements contained in the Terms of Sale . Further information concerning the Collateral, the requirements 626 6799 US (Chicago), +1 386 347 5053 US, +1 507 473 InMedPharm INM 0.82 -4.7 NuScalePowerWt SMR.WS 1.10 -8.3 TravereTherap TVTX 12.66 -2.7
for obtaining information, the requirements for bidding on the Collateral, and the Terms of Sale can be obtained 4847 US, +1 564 217 2000 US, +1 669 444 9171 US, +1 InnovativeEyewr LUCY 0.60 -5.8 ON24 ONTF 6.60 0.3 TreaceMed TMCI 15.11 2.0
by contacting Newmark using the contact information below. Please be advised that additional and/or updated 689 278 1000 US, +1 719 359 4580 US, +1 720 707 2699 InnovizTech INVZ 2.07 -2.8 Oatly OTLY 1.20 -3.1 Trinseo TSE 11.02 -5.1
information concerning the Collateral, the requirements for obtaining information and bidding on the Collateral, and US (Denver), +1 253 205 0468 US, +1 253 215 8782 US Inotiv NOTV 3.13 -3.6 Ocugen OCGN 0.40 -9.0 23andMe ME 1.03 -9.6
the Terms of Sale will be posted to https://rimarketplace.com/listing/38890/, and interested bidders should access (Tacoma), +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston), +1 360 209 Insulet PODD 193.25 0.6 OneStopSystems OSS 1.65 -3.5 22.62 -1.1
Enormous ESG Opportunity this site on a regular basis to access and review the most current information. 5623 US Intrusion INTZ 0.60 -0.8 Ontrak OTRK 1.50 -8.5
UGI
UGI Un
UGI
UGIC 56.87 -0.4
Tremendous Expansion Potential The Collateral includes the membership interests in Mortgage Borrower that have not been and will not at the The Collateral will be sold to the qualified bidder IntuitiveMachinesA LUNR 4.77 1.5 OptimizeRx OPRX 7.73 -1.9 USD Partners USDP 0.64 -0.9
time of sale have been registered for sale under any Federal or State securities or blue sky laws, and as such may submitting the highest and best bid; provided, however,
NY/CT Organic Recycling Business not be sold or otherwise transferred by a purchaser of any Collateral except in accordance with applicable law. As a
IronwoodPharm IRWD 9.22 -3.7 OrbitalInfr OIG 1.68 -12.9 UniversePharm UPC 1.44 ...
For Sale or Seeking Investor that Secured Party reserves the right to (i) for itself and iSpecimen ISPC 1.12 -4.2 Orgenesis ORGS 0.72 -3.4 Vacasa VCSA 0.57 -3.7
result, as more fully described in the Terms of Sale, each prospective bidder seeking to be a “Qualified Bidder” (as any assignee, bid (whether by cash and/or by crediting 11.34 2.8 OrmatTech
1,000 stops / res / com clients & service routes. iTeosTherap ITOS ORA 74.31 -0.4 VahannaTechI A VHNA 9.58 -3.6
determined by Secured Party in its sole and absolute discretion) shall be required, among other things, to affirm that some or all of its secured claim) and to become the
Family owned/operated, est 2016. JE Cleantech JCSE 0.30 -8.9 OsiskoDevtWt ODVWW 0.07 -34.3 VerbTech VERB 0.84 -5.8
such bidder: (i) will acquire the Collateral for investment purposes, solely for its own account and not with a view purchaser at the sale, (ii) reject any and all bids, (iii) JamesRiver JRVR 14.66 ... PAM Transport PTSI 21.17 -2.9 VerdeCleanFuelsA VGAS 4.19 1.9
Fully licensed, transferable permits. Including to distribution or resale; (ii) is an accredited investor within the meaning of the applicable securities laws; (iii) has cancel the sale in its entirety, and/or (iv) adjourn
sufficient knowledge and experience in financial and business matters so as to be capable of evaluating the merits JamfHolding JAMF 16.04 -1.9 Paragon28 FNA 12.87 -0.2 VersusSystems VS 0.31 -4.0
inventory & trucks. Optional mgmt contract avail. the sale. The sale is being held to enforce Secured JanOne JAN 0.61 -6.3 PassageBio
and risks of investment and has sufficient financial means to afford the risk of investment in the Collateral; and (iv) PASG 0.72 -2.4 VertexEnergy VTNR 4.05 -3.8
Party’s rights in the Collateral which secures payment Janover JNVR 1.23 -5.4 PaxMedica
Call/text 914-403-1766 Serious Inquiries Only will not resell or otherwise hypothecate the Collateral without either a valid registration under applicable federal or PXMD 0.50 -7.4 VerticalAerospace EVTL 1.00 -5.6
of outstanding indebtedness owing from Pledgor to 0.66 -36.3 PerfectWt
state laws, including without limitation the Securities Act of 1933 as amended, or an available exemption therefrom. Jet.AI Wt JTAIZ PERF.WS 0.08 -28.6 ViaSat VSAT 26.64 -1.9
Secured Party, following Pledgor’s defaults under
Contact Information for Newmark: Attn: Mr. Brock Cannon, 212-372-2066, brock.cannon@nmrk.com JetBlue JBLU 6.17 -1.7 PetcoHealth WOOF 6.46 -0.4 VistaGold VGZ 0.45 0.1
applicable loan documents. There shall be no warranty
KaivalBrands KAVL 0.43 -3.1 PetMedExpress PETS 11.05 -0.8 WalgreensBoots WBA 26.12 0.4
or representations relating to title, possession, quiet
enjoyment, merchantability, fitness, or the like, in this Kellogg K 60.71 -0.6 PhoenixMotor PEV 0.57 -3.2 WaterstoneFinl WSBF 12.28 -1.0
Investors Professional Sports Team disposition. KioraPharm KPRX 0.50 -1.9 Pixelworks PXLW 1.25 -2.3 WaverleyCap1 Wt WAVC.WS 0.01 -13.0
KiromicBiopharma KRBP 2.12 -3.6 PlaystudiosWt MYPSW 0.30 15.6 WheelerREIT WHLR 3.69 -4.5
$1,000,000 CAREERS CAREERS The public sale of the Collateral shall be subject to the
KodiakSciences KOD 2.24 -1.3 PolestarAutoWt PSNYW 0.53 1.8 XinyuanRealEst XIN 2.55 -1.5
further terms and conditions set forth in the “Terms of
Private Loan Wanted 3 - 5 Year Term. Sale” (including without limitation terms and conditions LQR House LQR 1.10 -3.9 PowerREIT PW 1.06 -3.9 YSBiopharma YS 0.80 -0.4
Fixed APR with respect to the availability of additional information, Largo LGO 3.37 -2.4 PreludeTherap PRLD 3.25 -1.2 Yoshitsu TKLF 0.92 -3.2

ROI range 4%-9% & Immediate Returns. bidding requirements, deposit amounts, bidding
Expanding Business Private Investors only Principal Consultant procedures, and the consummation of the public sale),
Finance-Associate The Capital Markets Company seeks Principal which are available by contacting the broker for Secured
($30,000 Min. Investment)
Fcomega20@gmail.com
(New York, NY): Execute mergers & acquisi-
tions, raise capital for clients, including equity &
Consultant in NY, NY, to mng complex, cross-
functional, multi-vendor Cloud transformation &
Party, Brock Cannon, Head of National Sales, Newmark,
125 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10017, (212)
372-2066, brock.cannon@nmrk.com (the “Broker”).
Dividend Changes
866-234-9864 debt capital, guide clients through financial re- Core Modernization program, to implement tar- Upon execution of a confidentiality and non-disclosure
structuring, discuss strategic alternatives get foundational arch. capabilities for IT apps to agreement, additional documentation and information Amount Payable /
geared towards competitive growth, & provide adopt & use. Req’mts: Bachelor’s or frgn equiv will be made available. Parties interested in bidding Company Symbol Yld % New/Old Frq Record
investment advice based on comprehensive in Bus. Mgmt, Legal Studies, or rel & 5 yrs re- must contact the Broker well in advance of the auction
CAREERS quantitative & qualitative financial models & sponsible exp in job offered or rel occupation: to receive the Terms of Sale, bidding instructions, and
required deposit and registration information. Parties Increased
analyses. Perform financial analysis & research overseeing delivery of lrg-scale technl initiatives
using Bloomberg, Factiva, FactSet, MergerMar- & all stages of proj. mgmt life cycle incl timelines who do not qualify to bid prior to 10:00 a.m. New York Marine Petroleum Tr Un MARPS 13.5 .1218 /.11017 Q Sep28 /Aug31
ket, Thomson Research, RISI, & HIS. Research time on September 28, 2023 and deliver a good faith MGE Energy MGEE 2.3 .4275 /.4075 Q Sep15 /Sep01
& bus. goals; liaising w/ clients on project status deposit of $110,000 by 10:00 a.m. New York time on
& follow industry trends to understand what is as well as sr stakeholders incl providing pro- October 3, 2023 will forfeit their opportunity to register NAPCO Security Techs NSSC 1.4 .08 /.0625 Q Sep22 /Sep01
Client Solutions Manager driving the market & growth. Utilize financial gram & project health visibility to C-Suite & sr Permian Basin Royalty Tr PBT 4.6 .0245 /.02175 M Sep15 /Aug31
and may be barred from bidding. Only qualified bidders
modeling & valuation techniques, including dis- client stakeholders & providing recommenda- will be permitted to bid. All deposits must be paid via PermRock Royalty Trust PRT 12.4 .0402 /.03969 M Sep15 /Aug31
ByteDance Inc, Client Solutions counted cash flow, leveraged buyout, & trans- tions on bus. goals, sales & operational objec- wire transfer. Persons interested in bidding should San Juan Basin Royalty SJT 26.8 .0207 /.01699 M Sep15 /Aug31
Manager (Mult.Pos.) New York, action & equity comparables, to prepare & eval- tives; providing support on technl programs w/i contact the Broker to obtain wire transfer instructions.
Within 24 hours after the conclusion of the auction the Virtus Invt Partners VRTS 3.9 1.90 /1.65 Q Nov15 /Oct31
NY. Provide strategic uate a wide variety of quantitative & qualitative Agile test driven dvlpmtl environ; & leveraging
analyses on industrial companies. Apply Agile Ceremonies to ensure progress dvlps successful bidder must deliver an additional deposit to
recommendations & the Secured Party such that the successful bidder has Reduced
knowledge of the Diversified Industrials & Aer- against client goals. Telecommuting &/or work- deposited an amount equal to 10% of the successful bid.
optimizations of ads by ospace & Defense sectors. Req’s Master’s degr ing from home permissible pursuant to co. poli- AAON AAON 0.5 .08 /.16 SA Sep29 /Sep08
The Collateral consists of membership interests in
monitoring & analyzing ad plus 2 yrs exp. The salary range is $125,000 - cies. When not telecommuting, must report to the Company and has not been and will not at the time Cross Timbers Royalty Tr CRT 11.1 .1242 /.19356 M Sep15 /Aug31
campaign performance data to $225,000 annually, based on various factors work site. Submit resume to kelsey.shep- of sale have been registered for sale under any Federal Medical Properties Trust MPW 8.9 .15 /.29 Q Oct12 /Sep14
such as experience, education, skills, internal & ard@capco.com & indicate job code or State securities or blue sky laws, and as such may Mesa Royalty Trust MTR 12.1 .041 /.05797 M Oct31 /Aug31
offer clients data-driven external market data, etc. Please forward your FC063023LA. Offered sal is betw $140,000 & not be sold or otherwise transferred by a purchaser
of any Collateral except in accordance with applicable
Permianville Royalty Tr PVL 18.1 .009 /.0535 M Sep15 /Aug31
business insights. Salary resume to Credit Suisse, P.O. Box D134CSNY, $162,250 per yr.
law. As a result, each prospective bidder seeking to be
Range: $76,800-$119,334/year. 909 Third Avenue, 15th floor, New York, NY a “Qualified Bidder” (as determined by Secured Party Stocks
To apply & info. on benefits 10022. No phone calls. in its sole and absolute discretion) shall be required, Digital Brands Group DBGI 1:25 /Aug22
offered visit: among other things, to execute and deliver to Secured
MISCELLANEOUS Party a “Bidding Certificate” certifying, among other Foreign
jobs.bytedance.com/en/ & type things, that such bidder: (i) will acquire the Collateral
for investment purposes, solely for its own account Atour Lifestyle Hldgs ADR ATAT 0.6 .15 Sep28 /Sep06
Job ID A22102 in search bar.
and not with a view to distribution or resale; (ii) is an Gold Field ADR GFI 4.0 .17107 SA Sep21 /Sep08
Contact accredited investor within the meaning of the applicable
lpresumes@bytedance.com if
Principal Consultant securities laws; (iii) has sufficient knowledge and Sources: FactSet; Dow Jones Market Data
The Capital Markets Company seeks Principal Finally new research experience in financial and business matters so as to be
you have difficulty applying. Consultant in NY, NY, to lead proj. teams to KEY: A: annual; M: monthly; Q: quarterly; r: revised; SA: semiannual; S2:1: stock split and ratio; SO:
capable of evaluating the merits and risks of investment
deliver end to end data analytics, data sci, data and has sufficient financial means to afford the risk of spin-off.
strategy initiatives across Tier 1 & 2 Fin’l Srvcs explains why humanity can’t investment in the Collateral; and (iv) will not resell or
clients. Req’mts: Bachelor’s or frgn equiv in otherwise hypothecate the Collateral without either a
valid registration under applicable federal or state laws,
Math, Stats, Fin. or rel fid & 5 yrs progressively avoid blunders!
responsible exp in job offered or rel occupation:
util’g coding language incl R, SQL, & Python for
including without limitation the Securities Act of 1933
as amended, or an available exemption therefrom. BANKRATE.COM® MMA, Savings and CDs
Talent Acquisition Partner
analysis; working w/ Bus. Intelligence tools incl
Tableau, PowerBi, & Qlik for building No one knows how our Average Yields of Major Banks Tuesday, August 22, 2023
dashboards & data driven decision reporting; PUBLIC NOTICES
ByteDance Inc, Talent delivering multiple proj’s following Agile &
Waterfall methodologies; & conducting brain really works! Type
National average
MMA 1-MO 2-MO 3-MO 6-MO 1-YR 2-YR 2.5YR 5YR
Acquisition Partner (Mult.Pos.) analyses by detailing user stories, & translating
New York, NY. Deeply to wireframes thru implementation.
Telecommuting &/or working from home
Now we can fix that! IN THE UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT Savings 0.52 0.43 0.50 1.50 1.30 1.50 1.31 1.17 1.09
understand the business logic, FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS Jumbos 0.88 0.44 0.51 1.55 1.40 1.63 1.45 1.29 1.23
permissible pursuant to co. policies. When not
org. model & hiring needs & telecommuting, must report to work site. SHERMAN DIVISION Weekly change
partner closely w/hiring Offered sal is betw $235,040-$235,040 /yr. 40 www.the-mindguide.com IN RE:
Case No. 94-40239 Savings 0.00 -0.01 -0.02 0.01 0.00 -0.01 0.00 0.00 -0.02
managers & stakeholders to hours per wk. Pls email resume to MERIT TECHNOLOGY INC Jumbos 0.01 -0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.01 0.00 0.00 -0.03
Debtor Chapter 7
dev. sourcing & hiring kelsey.shepard@capco.com & indicate job code
JH073123LA.
strategies. Salary Range:
$60,800-$92,000/year. To apply
NOTICE OF INTENT TO CONCLUDE CASE
AND DISTRIBUTE FUNDS Consumer Savings Rates
& info. on benefits offered visit: NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT Mark A. Weisbart, as
trustee (“Trustee”) for Debtor, Merit Technology, Inc. Below are the top federally insured offers available nationwide according to Bankrate.com's
jobs.bytedance.com/en/ & type weekly survey of highest yields. For latest offers and reviews of these financial institutions, please
Job ID A191618 in search bar. Finance-Credit (“Debtor”), intends to conclude this case and distribute
funds to allowed claimants on or before the first quarter visit bankrate.com/banking/reviews. Information is believed to be reliable, but not guaranteed.
Contact Investments Director UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE PUBLIC SALE NOTICE of 2024 in accordance with the priorities and provisions
lpresumes@bytedance.com if (New York, NY): Research & analyze non-in-
Please take notice that MANNION AUCTIONS, LLC,
of the United States Bankruptcy Code (11 U.S.C. §§101,
et seq.).
High yield savings
vestment grade leveraged loan & high yield
you have difficulty applying. bond offerings & make recommendations to the Matthew D. Mannion, licensed auctioneer (DCA If you believe you are a creditor or preferred shareholder Bank Yield Bank Yield
#1434494), on behalf ADVANTAGE CAPITAL LLC, a Phone number Minimum (%) Phone number Minimum
Credit Investments Group Credit Committee. Delaware limited liability company (“Secured Party”), of Debtor and you have not previously been given notice (%)
Evaluate financial instruments of public & pri- of the bankruptcy and deadline to file claims, filed a
vate companies within the Aerospace & De-
offers for sale at public auction on September 28, 2023
at 12:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) at the offices of Braunstein proof of claim or proof of interest, then you should Money market account Six-month CD
fense, Energy & Mining sectors to identify po- Turkish LLP, 7600 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 402, Woodbury, file a Proof of Claim (Official Bankruptcy Form 410) UFB Direct $0 5.25 Popular Direct $10,000 5.35
New York 11797, and simultaneously by remote auction in accordance with Section 501 of the United States
tential investments for purchase. Produce fi- Bankruptcy Code on before 30 days following the date (877) 472-9200 (800) 274-5696
nancial models & perform corporate valuation via Zoom (Meeting link: https://bit.ly/BerckmanUCC;
Meeting ID: 832 7984 6067; Meeting passcode: 346574; of this Notice. You may access the necessary proof of Popular Direct $100 5.20 Merrick Bank $25,000 5.35
Software Engineer for integration into the decision-making pro- claim form online at https://ecf.txeb.uscourts.gov/
cesses. Apply knowledge of credit analysis as Call-in number: +1 646 931 3860), in connection with a (800) 274-5696 (866) 638-6851
Uniform Commercial Code sale of one hundred percent b410.html or obtain such forms from the Bankruptcy
well as public & private debt markets (fixed in- (100%) of the limited liability company membership Clerk’s Office. Filing a proof of claim does not guarantee CFG Community Bank $1,000 5.17 America First FCU $500 5.30
ByteDance Inc, Software
come high yield markets & leveraged loan mar- interests (“LLC Interests”) in 125 BERCKMAN ST LLC, that your claim will be allowed or otherwise participate (888) 205-8388 (801) 627-0900
Engineer (Mult.Pos.) New kets). Req’s Bachelor’s degr plus 8 yrs exp. The a New Jersey limited liability company (“Borrower”), in the distribution.
York, NY. Gather user reqs. & salary range is $200,000 - $300,000 annually, which entity is the fee owner of real property located You may electronically file your Proof of Claim online at One-month CD One-year CD
based on various factors such as experience, at (i) 111-13 Sumner Avenue, Plainfield, NJ 07062; and https://www.txeb.uscourts.gov/electronic-proof-claim.
write code in various program (ii) 125-27 Berckman Street, Plainfield, NJ 07062. The
VirtualBank $10,000 2.48 Connexus Credit Union $5,000 5.61
education, skills, internal & external market The Bankruptcy Court strongly encourages e-Filing your
languages to assist the team LLC Interests are owned by Nayana Patel, an individual. Proof of Claim or Proof of Interest, which is fast, free, (877) 998-2265 (800) 845-5025
data, etc. Please forward your resume to Credit The LLC Interests are being offered as a single lot, “AS-
Suisse, P.O. Box D131CSNY, 909 Third Ave- and does not require a login or password. Lone Star Bank $1,000 0.20 Rising Bank $1,000 5.50
in building high-quality & fully IS, WHERE-IS”, with no express or implied warranties,
nue, 15th floor, New York, NY 10022. No phone representations, statements or conditions of any kind Claims may also be filed with the Clerk of the United (713) 358-9400 (888) 222-9484
performing S/W that complies States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of
calls. made by the Secured Party or any person acting for or Presidential Bank, FSB $1,000 0.10 LendingClub Bank $2,500 5.50
w/ coding standards. Salary on behalf of the Secured Party, without any recourse Texas, 660 North Central Expressway, Suite 300B, Plano,
Texas 75074; Telephone: (972) 509-1240. (800) 799-1424 (888) 596-3157
Range: $129,960- whatsoever to the Secured Party or any other person
$246,240/year. To apply &
acting for or on behalf of the Secured Party. The winning
bidder shall be responsible for the payment of all
Claims must be filed with the Clerk’s Office. Claims sent
to the Trustee, Debtor, or the United States Trustee will
Two-month CD Two-year CD
info. on benefits offered visit: Producer transfer taxes, stamp duties and similar taxes incurred NOT be filed or recognized. VirtualBank $10,000 2.74 Merrick Bank $25,000 5.15
in connection with the purchase of the LLC Interests. (877) 998-2265 (866) 638-6851
jobs.bytedance.com/en/ & Rockstar Games, Inc. seeks All interested parties shall be required to provide a DATED: AUGUST 21, 2023
Producer in New York, NY (50% minimum deposit of $100,000 with Secured Party’s MARK A.WEISBART, TRUSTEE Lone Star Bank $1,000 0.20 Luana Savings Bank $2,000 5.06
type Job ID A156153 in counsel at least 5 days prior to the auction, and all bids (713) 358-9400 (800) 666-2012
telework permitted). Plan & sched.
search bar. Contact (other than credit bids of the Secured Party) must be in
roadmaps, organize training & U.S. Dollars, and the successful bidder must be prepared Presidential Bank, FSB $1,000 0.10 Rising Bank $100 5.05
lpresumes@bytedance.com if attend team meetings taking notes to deliver immediately available good funds by wire or (800) 799-1424 (888) 222-9484
you have difficulty applying. for Tech. Art Team. Job reqs bank check to the Secured Party, within twenty-four
Bach’s* in Graph. Arts, Animation (24) hours after the sale and otherwise comply with the Three-month CD Five-year CD
bidding requirements.
or rltd & 3 yrs of exp in any occup.
invlvng Game Dev. *Emplyr will
Interested parties who would like additional information
concerning the sale of the LLC Interests should contact
SHOWROOM Goldwater Bank
(480) 281-8200
$5,000 5.00 First National Bank of America $1,000
(800) 968-3626
4.65

accept combo of degrees, diplomas the Secured Party’s counsel, Braunstein Turkish LLP, (800) 366-3975 Popular Direct $10,000 4.75 Popular Direct $10,000 4.60
&/or exp equal to Bach’s. Salary 7600 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 402, Woodbury, New York wsj.com/classifieds (800) 274-5696 (800) 274-5696
11797, Attn: Vincent L. Georgetti, Esq., Tel: (516) 802- © 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
range $134,500-$146,000/yr. 0700 x312, E-mail: vg@braunsteinturkish.com. Merrick Bank $25,000 4.75 First Internet Bank of Indiana $1,000 4.59
All Rights Reserved.
Email CV to RSprocess@ (866) 638-6851 (888) 873-3424
Senior Developer take2games.com. Ref: “Producer
David Yurman Enterprises LLC: 2404847”
High yield jumbos - Minimum is $100,000
Senior Developer – New York, NY
- Conceptualize & interface with Money market account Six-month CD
end-users to determine requests Investor UFB Direct 5.25 Merrick Bank 5.35
for new custom software TCMI Inc. dba TCV seeks an (877) 472-9200 (866) 638-6851

THEMARKETPLACE
development needs & objectives. Investor in New York, NY (various Vio Bank 5.15 Popular Direct 5.35
Job reqs bach deg in Comp Sci, unanticipated future U.S. work (888) 999-9170 (800) 274-5696
Comp Info Sys, or rltd fld + 5 yrs in locations). 15% nat’l & int’l travel Western State Bank 5.15 America First FCU 5.30
any job title involving progressive, required. Job duties include
post-bach exp in developing (701) 277-5003 (801) 627-0900
evaluate invstmnt opps & conduct
Oracle apps, designing SW app
solutions, & writing code. TLW
benefit up to 2 days/wk permitted.
due diligence, mrkt/customer
research, biz analysis,
financials/modeling, expert calls,
ADVERTISE TODAY One-month CD
VirtualBank 2.48
One-year CD
Connexus Credit Union 5.76
(877) 998-2265 (800) 845-5025
To apply, send resume identifying memos, etc. Job reqs Bach’s in Bis, Lone Star Bank 0.20 LendingClub Bank 5.50
Job Code DY 100 to Econ, Math, or rel or frgn equiv + 2
(713) 358-9400 (888) 596-3157
joinDY@davidyurman.com. No yrs of financial analysis exp at
invstmnt bank, strategy consulting Presidential Bank, FSB 0.10 Popular Direct 5.50
calls.
firm, or invstmnt fund. Salary (800) 799-1424 (800) 274-5696
$165k/year. Email cvr ltr & CV to Two-month CD Two-year CD
recruiting@tcv.com. Ref “Investor
VirtualBank 2.74 Connexus Credit Union 5.26
3966454”.
(800) 366-3975 (877) 998-2265 (800) 845-5025
Lone Star Bank 0.20 Luana Savings Bank 5.22

Financial Services Financial Services

Morgan Stanley Services Group Inc. hiring for
For more information visit: (713) 358-9400
Presidential Bank, FSB 0.10
(800) 666-2012
Merrick Bank 5.15
Morgan Stanley & Co, LLC hiring for following
roles thruout facilities in NY, NY: Vice President following roles thruout facilities in NY, NY: Vice
President, Enterprise Tech & Services to design wsj.com/classifieds (800) 799-1424 (866) 638-6851
to help define & drive data governance & data
& dvlp API- & UI-driven self-srvc capabilities Three-month CD Five-year CD
strategy framework for ISG Global, which incl
overall governance, client strategy, internal & (3237666, sal range $163,800 to $200,000); Goldwater Bank 5.00 Popular Direct 4.60
external data solutions & platforms (3236367, Associate, Institutional Securities Tech to work (480) 281-8200 (800) 274-5696
closely w/ sales & trading teams to design &
sal range $190,000 to $250,000); Associate, In-
dvlp softw solutions (3235676, sal range Merrick Bank 4.75 First Internet Bank of Indiana 4.59
vestment Banking to analyze & synthesize fin’l (866) 638-6851 (888) 873-3424
& operating info about co.’s, industries, &/or $160,000 to $160,000); Associate, Institutional
gov’ts (3236485, sal range $225,000 to Securities Tech to design, dvlp, & maintain crit- Popular Direct 4.75 Barclays Bank 4.50
$225,000). All positions req rel degree &/or exp ical bus. apps (3236500, sal range $151,000 to (800) 274-5696 (888) 720-8756
&/or skills. Multiple open positions at various $151,000). All positions req rel degree &/or exp
prof’l levels. For more info & to apply, visit &/or skills. Multiple open positions at various Notes: Accounts are federally insured up to $250,000 per person. Yields are based on method of
https://ms.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobsearch. prof’l levels. For more info & apply, visit compounding and rate stated for the lowest required opening deposit to earn interest. CD
ftl?lang=en Scroll down to “Join our team” https://ms.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobsearch. figures are for fixed rates only. MMA: Allows six (6) third-party transfers per month, three (3) of
heading & search for these opp’tys. No calls ftl?lang=en Scroll down to “Join our team”
heading & search for these opp’tys. No calls which may be checks. Rates are subject to change.
please. EOE © 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Source: Bankrate.com, a publication of Bankrate, Inc., Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
please. EOE
All Rights Reserved.
Internet: www.bankrate.com
 .

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. * Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | B9

MARKETS DIGEST
EQUITIES

Dow Jones Industrial Average S&P 500 Index Nasdaq Composite Index
Last Year ago Last Year ago Last Year ago
34288.83 t 174.86, or 0.51% Trailing P/E ratio 24.97 19.34 4387.55 t 12.22, or 0.28% Trailing P/E ratio * 22.43 23.18 13505.87 s 8.28, or 0.06% Trailing P/E ratio *† 30.07 27.21
High, low, open and close for each P/E estimate * 19.04 18.05 High, low, open and close for each P/E estimate * 20.15 18.38 High, low, open and close for each P/E estimate *† 27.15 24.36
trading day of the past three months. Dividend yield 2.09 2.16 trading day of the past three months. Dividend yield * 1.56 1.54 trading day of the past three months. Dividend yield *† 0.85 0.82
All-time high 36799.65, 01/04/22 All-time high 4796.56, 01/03/22 All-time high: 16057.44, 11/19/21

Current divisor 0.15172752595384

35800 4600 14500
Session high
DOWN UP
t

Session open Close

35200 4500 14000
Close Open
t

Session low 34600 4400 13500

34000 4300 13000

65-day moving average 33400 4200 12500

65-day moving average
65-day moving average
32800 4100 12000

Bars measure the point change from session's open

32200 4000 11500
May June July Aug. May June July Aug. May June July Aug.
*Weekly P/E data based on as-reported earnings from Birinyi Associates Inc.; † Based on Nasdaq-100 Index

Major U.S. Stock-Market Indexes Late Trading Trading Diary

Latest 52-Week % chg Most-active and biggest movers among NYSE, NYSE Arca, NYSE Amer. Volume, Advancers, Decliners
High Low Close Net chg % chg High Low % chg YTD 3-yr. ann. and Nasdaq issues from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET as reported by electronic NYSE NYSE Amer.
Dow Jones trading services, securities dealers and regional exchanges. Minimum Total volume* 745,097,847 7,910,960
Industrial Average 34514.04 34256.84 34288.83 -174.86 -0.51 35630.68 28725.51 4.2 3.4 7.1 share price of $2 and minimum after-hours volume of 50,000 shares. Adv. volume* 265,591,937 3,250,226
Transportation Avg 15797.40 15542.16 15591.94 -113.07 -0.72 16695.32 11999.40 6.5 16.4 12.5 Most-active issues in late trading Decl. volume* 468,978,054 4,356,716
Utility Average 878.35 869.05 875.70 2.60 0.30 1061.77 838.99 -15.3 -9.5 2.7 Volume After Hours Issues traded 3,023 320
Company Symbol (000) Last Net chg % chg High Low
Total Stock Market 44052.77 43704.59 43746.74 -126.56 -0.29 45969.67 36056.21 5.3 13.6 8.1 Advances 1,238 135
Kenvue KVUE 7,189.7 23.74 … unch. 23.74 23.64
Barron's 400 985.78 976.26 976.61 -5.70 -0.58 1036.97 825.73 1.1 6.1 10.3 Declines 1,672 159
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY 6,758.2 438.28 0.13 0.03 448.81 433.27
Unchanged 113 26
Nasdaq Stock Market Johnson & Johnson JNJ 5,995.7 166.00 -0.02 -0.01 168.62 165.55 New highs 37 2
Nasdaq Composite 13598.77 13484.38 13505.87 8.28 0.06 14358.02 10213.29 9.1 29.0 6.1 Toronto-Dominion Bank TD 5,203.5 60.85 -0.01 -0.02 62.27 60.85 New lows 81 24
Nasdaq-100 15037.79 14883.98 14908.96 -27.73 -0.19 15841.35 10679.34 15.7 36.3 8.9 Snap SNAP 4,200.1 9.25 … unch. 9.27 9.24 Closing Arms† 1.28 1.46
iSh MSCI Emerging Mkts EEM 3,660.0 38.50 0.09 0.23 38.50 36.05 Block trades* 3,942 140
S&P
-0.28
Invesco QQQ Trust I QQQ 3,180.7 363.45 0.07 0.02 363.60 355.04
500 Index 4418.59 4382.77 4387.55 -12.22 4588.96 3577.03 6.3 14.3 8.9 Nasdaq NYSE Arca
Weibo ADR WB 3,151.8 13.19 0.03 0.23 13.19 13.00
MidCap 400 2589.96 2564.95 2568.49 -12.84 -0.50 2728.44 2203.53 1.9 5.7 10.4 Total volume*4,282,431,362 228,359,122
SmallCap 600 1203.35 1190.47 1193.44 -2.77 -0.23 1315.82 1064.45 -3.6 3.1 10.1 Percentage gainers… Adv. volume*1,624,749,569 94,971,230
Apellis Pharmaceuticals APLS 1,158.3 39.50 8.74 28.41 42.24 30.00 Decl. volume*2,587,717,583 124,777,341
Other Indexes
Urban Outfitters URBN 1,054.6 35.79 1.70 4.99 36.97 32.65 Issues traded 4,509 1,771
Russell 2000 1866.19 1847.27 1850.84 -5.18 -0.28 2003.18 1655.88 -3.6 5.1 6.0
Advances 1,764 603
NYSE Composite 15796.68 15681.85 15690.28 -55.93 -0.36 16427.29 13472.18 2.3 3.3 7.0 Matterport MTTR 70.3 2.60 0.10 4.00 2.66 2.50
Declines 2,529 1,135
Value Line 560.63 556.03 556.83 -2.07 -0.37 606.49 491.56 -2.5 3.8 5.7 Old Republic Intl ORI 143.0 27.72 0.88 3.28 27.72 26.84
Unchanged 216 33
NYSE Arca Biotech 5263.07 5234.54 5239.48 -2.48 -0.05 5644.50 4390.11 9.2 -0.8 -1.0
Babcock & Wilcox Ents BW 53.0 5.05 0.16 3.27 5.05 4.89
New highs 43 8
NYSE Arca Pharma 915.37 910.51 911.11 -3.61 -0.39 916.50 737.84 15.6 5.0 10.7 ...And losers New lows 242 26
KBW Bank 81.66 79.36 79.42 -2.14 -2.62 115.10 71.96 -27.3 -21.3 2.3 BJ's Wholesale Club BJ 203.2 64.10 -2.06 -3.11 66.75 64.10 Closing Arms† 1.11 0.69
PHLX§ Gold/Silver 112.86 111.27 112.81 0.84 0.75 144.37 91.40 6.2 -6.7 -8.6 Proto Labs PRLB 77.6 27.96 -0.87 -3.02 28.83 27.96 Block trades* 35,601 1,162
PHLX§ Oil Service 91.53 90.12 90.24 -1.15 -1.26 94.51 56.08 26.6 7.6 36.3 Roivant Sciences ROIV 58.5 10.82 -0.33 -2.96 11.15 10.81 * Primary market NYSE, NYSE American NYSE Arca only.
PHLX§ Semiconductor 3610.15 3516.75 3527.69 -33.05 -0.93 3861.63 2162.32 23.2 39.3 17.1 Mattel MAT 163.1 20.66 -0.61 -2.87 21.50 20.66 †(TRIN) A comparison of the number of advancing and declining
issues with the volume of shares rising and falling. An
Cboe Volatility 17.58 16.61 16.97 -0.16 -0.93 33.63 12.91 -29.6 -21.7 -9.0 PBF Energy PBF 586.3 45.12 -1.24 -2.67 46.52 45.12 Arms of less than 1 indicates buying demand; above 1

Nasdaq PHLX Sources: FactSet; Dow Jones Market Data indicates selling pressure.

International Stock Indexes Percentage Gainers... Percentage Losers

Latest YTD
Region/Country Index Close Net chg % chg % chg Latest Session 52-Week Latest Session 52-Week
Company Symbol Close Net chg % chg High Low % chg Company Symbol Close Net chg % chg High Low % chg
World MSCI ACWI 669.34 0.23 0.03 10.6 VinFast Auto VFS 36.72 19.14 108.87 46.98 10.45 ... Digital Brands Group DBGI 11.11 -5.92 -34.74 420.25 8.75 -97.0
MSCI ACWI ex-USA 294.00 1.58 0.54 4.5 Fulcrum Therapeutics FULC 5.43 1.51 38.52 15.00 2.25 -33.4 SOS ADR SOS 6.17 -2.78 -31.06 9.50 2.54 -5.2
MSCI World 2909.19 –1.33 –0.05 11.8 Fabrinet FN 153.66 36.88 31.58 154.89 90.19 42.4 Foremost Lithium Resource FMST 4.30 -1.75 -28.93 12.99 3.80 -49.4
MSCI Emerging Markets 966.69 6.90 0.72 1.1 MicroCloud Hologram HOLO 5.86 1.37 30.51 35.00 1.33 -42.6 Dick's Sporting Goods DKS 111.53 -35.51 -24.15 152.61 98.01 0.4
Americas MSCI AC Americas 1659.81 –4.25 –0.26 13.9 Ultralife ULBI 10.43 2.41 30.05 10.45 3.67 111.6 Armata Pharmaceuticals ARMP 2.75 -0.86 -23.82 5.26 0.83 -31.3
Canada S&P/TSX Comp 19691.21 –93.66 –0.47 1.6 Regencell Bioscience RGC 18.00 4.00 28.57 34.00 12.00 -43.3 AMC Entertainment AMC 2.55 -0.57 -18.27 10.94 2.46 -73.3
Latin Amer. MSCI EM Latin America 2369.10 35.56 1.52 11.3 AMTD Digital ADR HKD 6.37 1.37 27.40 385.00 4.80 -96.5 Aditxt ADTX 10.01 -1.99 -16.58 1139.60 9.92 -97.0
Brazil BOVESPA 116156.01 1726.66 1.51 5.9 Prestige Wealth PWM 7.89 1.60 25.44 31.88 4.60 ... WISeKey Intl Hldg ADR WKEY 2.80 -0.51 -15.40 8.00 2.02 -32.8
Chile S&P IPSA 3473.90 20.20 0.58 9.5 Hitek Global HKIT 27.80 5.30 23.56 33.71 4.11 ... Hongli Group HLP 3.23 -0.57 -15.00 8.68 2.23 ...
Mexico S&P/BMV IPC 53127.93 18.17 0.03 9.6 Matrix Service MTRX 7.87 1.48 23.16 9.52 3.31 35.5 Sacks Parente Golf SPGC 2.35 -0.41 -14.86 30.00 2.25 ...
EMEA STOXX Europe 600 451.70 3.04 0.68 6.3 Neuraxis NRXS 6.00 0.85 16.50 6.93 4.45 ... Motorsport Games MSGM 3.96 -0.68 -14.66 49.50 2.01 -33.4
Eurozone Euro STOXX 449.49 3.28 0.73 9.6 Agrify AGFY 2.45 0.31 14.49 416.00 2.00 -98.6 Toro TORO 5.25 -0.87 -14.22 26.00 1.42 ...
Belgium Bel-20 3624.70 28.36 0.79 –2.1 Golden Matrix Group GMGI 3.27 0.39 13.54 4.46 1.89 -19.7 Macy's M 12.66 -2.07 -14.05 25.12 12.57 -34.4
Denmark OMX Copenhagen 20 2148.78 13.49 0.63 17.1 Novavax NVAX 9.16 1.09 13.51 37.91 5.61 -74.9 Thorne Healthtech THRN 7.18 -1.17 -14.01 8.67 3.41 45.9
7240.88 0.59 11.8 Profire Energy PFIE 2.30 0.27 13.30 2.40 0.85 101.8 EzFill Holdings EZFL 4.13 -0.66 -13.78 7.84 1.46 -28.3
France CAC 40 42.82
Germany DAX 15705.62 102.34 0.66 12.8
Israel Tel Aviv 1853.86 11.33 0.61 3.2
Most Active Stocks Volume Movers Ranked by change from 65-day average*
Italy FTSE MIB 28164.99 178.07 0.64 18.8 Volume % chg from Latest Session 52-Week Volume % chg from Latest Session 52-Week
Company Symbol (000) 65-day avg Close % chg High Low Company Symbol (000) 65-day avg Close % chg High Low
Netherlands AEX 738.21 4.62 0.63 7.1
Norway Oslo Bors All-Share 1427.67 –4.51 –0.31 4.8 EBET EBET 194,217 229.1 0.06 -14.50 2.66 0.03 AMTD Digital ADR HKD 39,887 3557 6.37 27.40 385.00 4.80
South Africa FTSE/JSE All-Share 73277.88 –482.33 –0.65 0.3 Tesla TSLA 130,274 -2.0 233.19 0.83 313.80 101.81 Acri Capital Acqn Cl A ACAC 307 3024 10.89 ... 11.11 9.97
0.55 Novo Integrated Sciences NVOS 126,832 540.7 0.19 7.48 1.79 0.07 Field UVA Uncon Med-Term FFIU 159 2976 21.15 0.09 22.62 20.53
Spain IBEX 35 9314.00 51.20 13.2
798.62 0.78 2.1 Tivic Health Systems TIVC 126,630 259.5 0.04 -33.22 2.08 0.04 26 Capital Acquisition A ADER 279 1993 11.20 0.45 11.40 9.85
Sweden OMX Stockholm 6.17
ProSh UltraPro Shrt QQQ SQQQ 119,033 -4.0 19.98 0.55 69.55 16.38 Overlay Shares Core Bd OVB 149 1951 19.99 0.40 22.39 18.97
Switzerland Swiss Market 10875.68 27.34 0.25 1.4
Turkey BIST 100 7771.30 –25.35 –0.33 41.1 Sidus Space SIDU 111,093 4225.7 0.17 3.04 4.22 0.12 InFinT Acquisition Cl A IFIN 943 1865 11.00 0.18 11.03 10.10
U.K. FTSE 100 7270.76 12.94 0.18 –2.4 AMC Entertainment AMC 108,163 253.1 2.55 -18.27 10.94 2.46 God Bless America ETF YALL 125 1763 26.85 -0.86 28.69 19.38
18024.26 0.70 –4.4 T2 Biosystems TTOO 100,047 -4.3 0.48 -8.64 6.80 0.05 Digital Brands Group DBGI 227 1402 11.11 -34.74 420.25 8.75
U.K. FTSE 250 125.27
Faraday Future FFIE 99,363 26.3 0.19 -9.76 1.91 0.15 PGIM Active Hi Yield Bd PHYL 161 1351 33.80 0.10 35.50 32.51
Asia-Pacific MSCI AC Asia Pacific 158.09 1.43 0.91 1.5
Kenvue KVUE 90,440 422.0 23.74 3.67 27.80 22.36 Landsea Homes LSEA 2,683 1332 9.50 -8.48 12.45 4.48
Australia S&P/ASX 200 7121.60 6.13 0.09 1.2
* Volumes of 100,000 shares or more are rounded to the nearest thousand * Common stocks priced at $2 a share or more with an average volume over 65 trading days of at least
China Shanghai Composite 3120.33 27.36 0.88 1.0 5,000 shares =Has traded fewer than 65 days
Hong Kong Hang Seng 17791.01 167.72 0.95 –10.1
65220.03 0.01 7.2
Scan this code
India S&P BSE Sensex 3.94
Japan NIKKEI 225 31856.71 291.07 0.92 22.1 Get real-time U.S. stock quotes CURRENCIES & COMMODITIES
Singapore Straits Times 3159.88 5.85 0.19 –2.8 and track most-active stocks,
South Korea KOSPI 2515.74 6.94 0.28 12.5 new highs/lows, mutual funds Currencies
Taiwan TAIEX 16437.61 56.12 0.34 16.3 and ETFs. U.S.-dollar foreign-exchange rates in late New York trading
Thailand SET 1545.60 19.75 1.29 –7.4
All are available free at WSJMarkets.com US$vs, US$vs,
Sources: FactSet; Dow Jones Market Data Tues YTDchg Tues YTDchg
Country/currency in US$ per US$ (%) Country/currency in US$ per US$ (%)
Americas Vietnam dong .00004177 23940 1.3
CREDIT MARKETS Argentina peso .0029349.9670 98.0 Europe
Brazil real .2025 4.9377 –6.6 Czech Rep. koruna .04503 22.208 –1.6
Canada dollar .7379 1.3552 –0.01 Denmark krone .1455 6.8715 –1.1
Consumer Rates and Returns to Investor Benchmark
Treasury yield Yields
curve Forex Race Chile peso .001150 869.55 2.5 Euro area euro 1.0846 .9220 –1.3
U.S. consumer rates Selected rates andtoRates
Yield maturity of current bills, Yen, euro vs. dollar; dollar vs. Colombiapeso .000243 4114.10 –15.1 Hungary forint .002834 352.91 –5.5
notes and bonds major U.S. trading partners Ecuador US dollar 1 1 unch Iceland krona .007558 132.31 –6.5
A consumer rate against its Five-year ARM, Rate Mexico peso .0591 16.9104 –13.2 Norway krone .0941 10.6277 8.3
benchmark over the past year 5.00% Uruguay peso .02643 37.8350 –5.4 Poland zloty .2425 4.1232 –5.8
Bankrate.com avg†: 6.50% t 14% Asia-Pacific Russia ruble .01055 94.751 28.5
Texas Bank and Trust 5.88% Tradeweb ICE 4.00 Euro Sweden krona .0915 10.9316 4.7
s Australiadollar .6422 1.5571 6.1
5-year 7.00% Longview, TX 903-237-5500 Tuesday Close 7 Switzerland franc 1.1357 .8805 –4.8
China yuan .1371 7.2936 5.7
adjustable-rate 3.00 Turkey lira .0368 27.2043 45.6
Grow Financial FCU 6.13% t Yen Hong Kong dollar .1276 7.8372 0.4
mortgage (ARM) 6.00 0
s Ukraine hryvnia .0271 36.8500 unch
One year ago 2.00 India rupee .01203 83.094 0.4
t Hillsborough, FL 800-839-6328 UK pound 1.2732 .7854 –5.0
Indonesia rupiah .0000653 15324 –1.6
5-year Treasury 5.00 Hanscom Federal Credit Union 6.50% 1.00 –7 s Japan yen .006855 145.88 11.3 Middle East/Africa
note yield Hanscom AFB, MA 800-656-4328 WSJ Dollar Index Kazakhstan tenge .002205 453.61 –2.0 Bahrain dinar 2.6525 .3770 –0.01
t 4.00 Macau pataca .1238 8.0770 0.4 Egypt pound .0324 30.9055 24.9
STAR Financial Bank 6.50% 0.00 –14
Malaysia ringgit .2151 4.6480 5.5 Israel shekel .2639 3.7892 7.5
Fort Wayne, IN 765-622-4185 1 3 6 1 2 3 5 7 10 20 30 2022 2023
3.00 New Zealand dollar .5946 1.6818 6.8 Kuwait dinar 3.2442 .3082 0.7
Terre Haute Savings Bank 6.50% month(s) years
S O N D J FMAM J J A Pakistan rupee .00336 297.500 31.2 Oman sul rial 2.5973 .3850 ...
Terre Haute, IN 888-245-1929 maturity Philippines peso .0178 56.301 1.1 Qatar rial .2747 3.641 –0.7
2022 2023
Sources: Tradeweb ICE U.S. Treasury Close; Tullett Prebon; Dow Jones Market Data Singapore dollar .7365 1.3578 1.3 Saudi Arabia riyal .2666 3.7511 –0.2
Yield/Rate (%) 52-Week Range (%) 3-yr chg South Korea won .0007458 1340.80 6.2 South Africa rand .0532 18.7904 10.4
Interest rate Last (l)Week ago Low 0 2 4 6 8 High (pct pts)
Corporate Borrowing Rates and Yields Sri Lanka rupee .0030840 324.25 –11.8
Close Net Chg % Chg YTD%Chg
Federal-funds rate target 5.25-5.50 5.25-5.50 2.25 l 5.50 5.25 Taiwan dollar .03126 31.990 4.4
Yield (%) 52-Week Total Return (%) Thailand baht .02856 35.020 1.2 WSJ Dollar Index 98.29 0.15 0.15 1.80
Prime rate* 8.50 8.50 5.50 l 8.50 5.25 Bond total return index Close Last Week ago High Low 52-wk 3-yr
SOFR 5.30 5.30 2.25 l 5.31 5.23 Sources: Tullett Prebon, Dow Jones Market Data
U.S. Treasury, Bloomberg 2073.880 4.710 4.600 4.710 3.300 –3.934 –5.630
Money market, annual yield 0.60 0.57 0.12 l 0.60 0.36
Five-year CD, annual yield 2.85 2.83 1.85 l 2.86 2.18 U.S. Treasury Long, Bloomberg 3004.900 4.550 4.450 4.590 3.390 –13.271–14.919 Commodities
30-year mortgage, fixed† 7.70 7.63 5.90 l 7.71 4.65 Aggregate, Bloomberg 1943.570 5.200 5.100 5.210 3.810 –3.511 –5.005 Tuesday 52-Week YTD
Pricing trends on someClose
raw materials, or commodities
Net chg % Chg High Low % Chg % chg
15-year mortgage, fixed† 6.92 6.82 5.06 l 6.92 4.31 Fixed-Rate MBS, Bloomberg 1917.060 5.270 5.180 5.380 3.790 –4.797 –4.655
Jumbo mortgages, $726,200-plus† 7.77 7.71 5.91 l 7.78 4.70 DJ Commodity 984.52 -3.13 -0.32 1113.32 930.59 -10.30 -6.12
High Yield 100, ICE BofA 3290.458 8.216 8.037 8.753 7.022 4.889 1.437 Refinitiv/CC CRB Index 273.99 -0.75 -0.27 301.75 253.85 -7.53 -1.35
Five-year adj mortgage (ARM)† 6.50 6.42 4.37 l 6.50 3.29
Muni Master, ICE BofA 560.810 3.618 3.460 3.936 2.757 0.288 –1.645 Crude oil, $ per barrel 80.35 -0.37 -0.46 97.01 66.74 -14.28 0.11
New-car loan, 48-month 7.32 7.31 5.10 l 7.64 3.06
Bankrate.com rates based on survey of over 4,800 online banks. *Base rate posted by 70% of the nation's largest EMBI Global, J.P. Morgan 785.246 8.063 7.917 9.159 7.102 2.268 –4.544 Natural gas, $/MMBtu 2.560 -0.072 -2.74 9.375 1.991 -72.15 -42.79
banks.† Excludes closing costs.
Sources: FactSet; Dow Jones Market Data; Bankrate.com Sources: J.P. Morgan; Bloomberg Fixed Income Indices; ICE Data Services
Gold, $ per troy oz. 1896.40 3.10 0.16 2048.00 1623.30 8.56 4.21
 .

B10 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 * THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

COMMODITIES wsj.com/market-data/commodities

Futures Contracts Open

Contract
High hilo Low Settle Chg
Open
interest Open
Contract
High hilo Low Settle Chg
Open
interest Open
Contract
High hilo Low Settle Chg
Open
interest

Metal & Petroleum Futures Dec 625.00 639.00 621.25 627.50 2.00 195,422 British Pound (CME)-£62,500; $ per £ Mini S&P 500 (CME)-$50 x index
Wheat (KC)-5,000 bu.; cents per bu. Sept 1.2759 1.2804 1.2721 1.2741 –.0025 212,904 Sept 4410.25 4440.00 4394.25 4399.25 –13.25 2,194,361
Contract Open Dec 1.2786 1.2799 1.2719 1.2738 –.0024 12,184 Dec 4458.75 4488.50 4442.50 4447.25 –13.50 31,669
Sept 740.00 749.50 735.25 740.00 –1.00 24,742
Open High hi lo Low Settle Chg interest Swiss Franc (CME)-CHF 125,000; $ per CHF
Dec 748.00 756.50 742.50 747.75 –.50 102,895 Mini S&P Midcap 400 (CME)-$100 x index
Copper-High (CMX)-25,000 lbs.; $ per lb. Cattle-Feeder (CME)-50,000 lbs.; cents per lb. Sept 1.1416 1.1441 1.1384 1.1396 –.0021 43,057 Sept 2584.20 2600.80 2570.00 2574.40 –12.60 38,117
Aug 3.7460 3.7590 3.7370 3.7505 0.0385 401 Aug 246.900 246.925 245.075 245.500 –1.275 5,475 Dec 1.1544 1.1553 1.1497 1.1508 –.0021 839 Dec 2600.00 2616.80 2600.00 2592.40 –13.10 n.a.
Dec 3.7565 3.8095 3.7515 3.7885 0.0340 101,821 Oct 252.750 253.125 250.875 251.225 –1.425 19,321 Australian Dollar (CME)-AUD 100,000; $ per AUD Mini Nasdaq 100 (CME)-$20 x index
Gold (CMX)-100 troy oz.; $ per troy oz. Cattle-Live (CME)-40,000 lbs.; cents per lb. Sept .6421 .6464 .6409 .6429 .0007 219,614 Sept 14974.50 15118.25 14932.00 14958.50 –27.25 254,424
Aug 1894.60 1896.80 1892.80 1896.40 3.10 554 Aug 178.900 178.975 177.625 177.950 –1.025 5,583 Dec .6439 .6484 .6431 .6450 .0008 3,406 Dec 15159.00 15306.75 15118.75 15143.75 –28.75 9,702
Sept 1896.30 1905.70 1890.80 1898.60 2.90 3,520 Oct 179.950 180.125 178.250 178.625 –1.250 127,636 Mexican Peso (CME)-MXN 500,000; $ per MXN Mini Russell 2000 (CME)-$50 x index
Oct 1905.90 1915.20 1899.70 1908.10 3.00 32,991 Hogs-Lean (CME)-40,000 lbs.; cents per lb. Sept .05846 .05891 .05844 .05884 .00033 226,192 Sept 1861.30 1875.00 1850.00 1856.60 –5.00 516,677
Oct 80.550 81.225 79.175 79.575 –1.050 80,313 Dec .05750 .05791 .05748 .05785 .00032 3,034 Dec 1889.00 1892.90 1869.00 1875.50 –4.60 3,031
Dec 1924.00 1933.20 1917.50 1926.00 3.00 366,841
Feb'24 1943.80 1952.20 1937.60 1945.90 3.00 15,506 Dec 73.425 73.550 71.950 72.350 –1.375 57,966 Euro (CME)-€125,000; $ per € March'24 1893.50 1907.50 1893.00 1893.00 –5.10 17
Lumber (CME)-27,500 bd. ft., $ per 1,000 bd. ft. Sept 1.0911 1.0945 1.0847 1.0866 –.0047 740,918 Mini Russell 1000 (CME)-$50 x index
April 1962.90 1971.80 1956.70 1964.70 2.80 7,348
Sept 532.00 536.50 522.50 529.00 –5.50 3,768 Dec 1.0960 1.0992 1.0895 1.0914 –.0047 10,538 Sept 2423.90 2423.90 2405.90 2407.90 –6.80 8,165
Palladium (NYM) - 50 troy oz.; $ per troy oz. Nov 533.00 536.50 525.00 530.00 –3.50 3,421
Aug 1253.90 25.70 U.S. Dollar Index (ICE-US)-$1,000 x index
Milk (CME)-200,000 lbs., cents per lb. Index Futures Sept 103.22 103.63 102.93 103.47 .27 29,352
Sept 1246.00 1296.00 1240.50 1264.80 25.70 11,555 Aug 17.28 17.28 17.22 17.22 –.06 4,956
Platinum (NYM)-50 troy oz.; $ per troy oz. Mini DJ Industrial Average (CBT)-$5 x index Dec 102.80 103.28 102.60 103.13 .27 1,692
Sept 18.88 19.19 18.42 18.50 –.38 5,147
Aug 919.50 11.50 4 Sept 34501 34652 34307 34344 –180 97,195
Cocoa (ICE-US)-10 metric tons; $ per ton.
Oct 915.10 932.40 912.80 925.50 12.00 76,165 Dec 34821 34975 34650 34677 –183 1,122 Source: FactSet
Sept 3,368 3,375 3,311 3,329 –26 8,406
Silver (CMX)-5,000 troy oz.; $ per troy oz. Dec 3,456 3,464 3,407 3,423 –25 145,373
Aug 23.345 23.345 23.345 23.420 0.116 1 Coffee (ICE-US)-37,500 lbs.; cents per lb.
Dec 23.710 23.830 23.590 23.763 0.104 81,909 Sept 147.90 150.40 146.10 146.60 –.95 4,014
Crude Oil, Light Sweet (NYM)-1,000 bbls.; $ per bbl. Dec 151.50 153.35 149.55 150.05 –.75 115,767 Cash Prices | wsj.com/market-data/commodities Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Sept 80.80 81.04 80.10 80.35 –0.37 17,382 Sugar-World (ICE-US)-112,000 lbs.; cents per lb.
Oct 80.25 80.37 79.46 79.64 –0.48 340,767 Oct 23.48 23.71 23.31 23.40 … 381,226 These prices reflect buying and selling of a variety of actual or “physical” commodities in the marketplace—
Nov 79.88 80.06 79.18 79.35 –0.41 186,018 March'24 23.76 24.01 23.62 23.71 … 252,318 separate from the futures price on an exchange, which reflects what the commodity might be worth in future
Dec 79.48 79.73 78.86 79.03 –0.35 220,170
Sugar-Domestic (ICE-US)-112,000 lbs.; cents per lb. months.
Nov 40.01 40.01 40.01 40.01 … 1,446
June'24 77.27 77.65 76.79 76.94 –0.26 134,876
March'24 41.67 41.67 41.67 41.67 .38 3,260 Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday
Dec 75.23 75.60 74.72 74.86 –0.23 122,070
Cotton (ICE-US)-50,000 lbs.; cents per lb. Iron Ore, 62% Fe CFR China-s n.a. Wheat,Spring14%-pro Mnpls-u 8.8850
NY Harbor ULSD (NYM)-42,000 gal.; $ per gal. Oct 84.90 84.90 84.61 84.99 .53 82 Energy
Sept 3.1279 3.1570 3.0936 3.1388 .0226 39,481 Shredded Scrap, US Midwest-s,m n.a. Wheat,No.2 soft red,St.Louis-u 5.6175
Dec 83.92 84.91 83.60 84.36 .65 124,119
Oct 3.1060 3.1305 3.0705 3.1125 .0213 83,166 Coal,C.Aplc.,12500Btu,1.2SO2-r,w 70.000 Steel, HRC USA, FOB Midwest Mill-s n.a. Wheat - Hard - KC (USDA) $ per bu-u 7.8000
Orange Juice (ICE-US)-15,000 lbs.; cents per lb.
Gasoline-NY RBOB (NYM)-42,000 gal.; $ per gal. Sept 320.40 320.75 312.05 318.05 –2.15 2,898 Coal,PwdrRvrBsn,8800Btu,0.8SO2-r,w 14.300 Battery/EV metals Wheat,No.1soft white,Portld,OR-u 7.0000
Sept 2.7869 2.7931 2.7551 2.7891 .0165 48,926 Nov 311.35 313.00 305.15 308.70 –2.50 5,950 Metals BMI Lithium Carbonate, EXW China, =99.2%-v,w 33075 Food
Oct 2.5659 2.5766 2.5438 2.5725 .0186 110,818 BMI Lithium Hydroxide, EXW China, =56.5% -v,w 32325
Natural Gas (NYM)-10,000 MMBtu.; $ per MMBtu. Interest Rate Futures Gold, per troy oz BMI Cobalt sulphate, EXW China, >20.5% -v,m 6090 Beef,carcass equiv. index
Sept 2.618 2.636 2.540 2.560 –.072 69,548 Engelhard industrial 1898.00 BMI Nickel Sulphate, EXW China, >22%-v,m 4638 choice 1-3,600-900 lbs.-u 291.72
Oct 2.732 2.739 2.632 2.652 –.091 181,280
Ultra Treasury Bonds (CBT) - $100,000; pts 32nds of 100% Handy & Harman base 1892.75 BMIFlakeGraphite,FOBChina,-100Mesh,94-95%-v,m 620 select 1-3,600-900 lbs.-u 265.83
Sept 123-020 123-260 122-200 123-200 24.0 1,432,908 Broilers, National comp wtd. avg.-u,w 1.1104
Nov 3.182 3.193 3.091 3.106 –.087 201,586 Handy & Harman fabricated 2100.95
Dec 3.682 3.699 3.609 3.617 –.086 75,894
Dec 124-160 125-090 124-020 125-030 24.0 234,296
LBMA Gold Price AM *1890.10
Fibers and Textiles Butter,AA Chicago-d 2.6900
Treasury Bonds (CBT)-$100,000; pts 32nds of 100% Cheddar cheese,bbl,Chicago-d 181.25
Jan'24 3.912 3.930 3.847 3.859 –.070 92,385
Sept 117-300 118-160 117-180 118-110 15.0 1,248,643
LBMA Gold Price PM *1889.85 Burlap,10-oz,40-inch NY yd-n,w 0.7200
3.514 3.533 3.456 3.478 –.055 80,124 Krugerrand,wholesale-e 1983.04 Cheddar cheese,blk,Chicago-d 194.75
March Dec 118-020 118-210 117-240 118-160 15.0 179,378 Cotton,1 1/16 std lw-mdMphs-u 0.8199
Maple Leaf-e 2030.49
Milk,Nonfat dry,Chicago lb.-d 110.25
Treasury Notes (CBT)-$100,000; pts 32nds of 100% Cotlook 'A' Index-t *94.10 Coffee,Brazilian,Comp-y 1.4895
Agriculture Futures Sept 109-025 109-090 108-280 109-020 –.5 4,583,891 American Eagle-e 2030.49 Hides,hvy native steers piece fob-u n.a. Coffee,Colombian, NY-y 1.8232
Dec 109-155 109-230 109-095 109-155 –1.0 300,163 Mexican peso-e 2448.16 Wool,64s,staple,Terr del-u,w n.a.
Corn (CBT)-5,000 bu.; cents per bu. Eggs,large white,Chicago-u 1.3150
5 Yr. Treasury Notes (CBT)-$100,000; pts 32nds of 100% Austria crown-e 1863.08
Sept 469.25 472.50 t 461.00 466.50 –2.75 203,659 Grains and Feeds Flour,hard winter KC-p 18.90
Sept 105-192 105-230 105-142 105-167 –3.0 5,330,653 Austria phil-e 1992.53
Dec 482.25 485.50 474.25 479.50 –3.00 660,695 Hams,17-20 lbs,Mid-US fob-u 0.89
Dec 106-017 106-062 105-295 106-000 –3.2 457,347 Silver, troy oz. Barley,top-quality Mnpls-u n.a. Hogs,Iowa-So. Minnesota-u 93.87
Oats (CBT)-5,000 bu.; cents per bu. 2 Yr. Treasury Notes (CBT)-$200,000; pts 32nds of 100% Engelhard industrial 23.4500 Bran,wheat middlings, KC-u,w 148 Pork bellies,12-14 lb MidUS-u n.a.
Sept 442.00 447.00 438.50 441.25 .25 815 Sept 101-087 101-098 101-058 101-066 –2.7 3,800,460 Handy & Harman base 23.4100 Corn,No. 2 yellow,Cent IL-bp,u 4.9500 Pork loins,13-19 lb MidUS-u 1.1965
Dec 466.00 470.00 462.25 465.25 .25 3,086 101-219 101-231 101-188 101-196 –3.1 189,418
Dec Handy & Harman fabricated 29.2630 Corn gluten feed,Midwest-u,w 152.0 Steers,Tex.-Okla. Choice-u n.a.
Soybeans (CBT)-5,000 bu.; cents per bu. 30 Day Federal Funds (CBT)-$5,000,000; 100 - daily avg. LBMA spot price *£17.9600 Corn gluten meal,Midwest-u,w 540.9
Sept 1369.50 1381.00 1341.75 1351.50 –18.50 26,612
Steers,feeder,Okla. City-u,w 268.88
Aug 94.6700 94.6725 94.6700 94.6700 383,958 (U.S.$ equivalent) *22.8800 Cottonseed meal-u,w 350
Nov 1361.75 1373.50 1339.00 1346.00 –15.75 317,104 Oct 94.6350 94.6350 94.6300 94.6350 397,986 Coins,wholesale $1,000 face-a 20193 Hominy feed,Cent IL-u,w 145 Fats and Oils
Soybean Meal (CBT)-100 tons; $ per ton. Three-Month SOFR (CME)-$1,000,000; 100 - daily avg. Other metals Meat-bonemeal,50% pro Mnpls-u,w 438 Degummed corn oil, crude wtd. avg.-u,w n.a.
Sept 410.00 416.80 401.30 406.30 –3.50 49,793 June 94.7625 94.7625 94.7600 94.7600 1,123,545
LBMA Platinum Price PM *911.0 Oats,No.2 milling,Mnpls-u 4.5125 Grease,choice white,Chicago-h 0.6600
Dec 396.50 403.30 390.50 395.00 –1.50 205,188 Dec 94.5750 94.5850 94.5600 94.5650 –.0200 1,234,016
Platinum,Engelhard industrial 932.0 Rice, Long Grain Milled, No. 2 AR-u,w 37.25 Lard,Chicago-u n.a.
Soybean Oil (CBT)-60,000 lbs.; cents per lb. Palladium,Engelhard industrial 1300.0 Sorghum,(Milo) No.2 Gulf-u n.a. Soybean oil,crude;Centl IL-u,w 0.7214
Sept 68.15 68.46 65.03 65.21 –2.78 56,789 Currency Futures Aluminum, LME, $ per metric ton *2068.5 SoybeanMeal,Cent IL,rail,ton48%-u,w 427.90 Tallow,bleach;Chicago-h 0.6950
Dec 63.92 64.29 61.64 61.80 –1.98 194,718 Japanese Yen (CME)-¥12,500,000; $ per 100¥ Copper,Comex spot 3.7505 Soybeans,No.1 yllw IL-bp,u 13.9000 Tallow,edible,Chicago-u n.a.
Rough Rice (CBT)-2,000 cwt.; $ per cwt. Sept .6869 .6902 .6859 .6886 .0011 246,585
Sept 15.52 15.61 15.47 15.49 –.03 4,136 Dec .6970 .7003 .6961 .6987 .0011 3,781
KEY TO CODES: A=ask; B=bid; BP=country elevator bids to producers; C=corrected; D=CME; E=Manfra,Tordella & Brookes; H=American Commodities Brokerage Co;
Nov 15.84 15.91 15.80 15.82 –.01 5,274 Canadian Dollar (CME)-CAD 100,000; $ per CAD K=bi-weekly; M=monthly; N=nominal; n.a.=not quoted or not available; P=Sosland Publishing; R=SNL Energy; S=Platts-TSI; T=Cotlook Limited; U=USDA; V=Benchmark
Wheat (CBT)-5,000 bu.; cents per bu. Sept .7386 .7403 .7375 .7379 –.0005 162,497 Mineral Intelligence; W=weekly; Y=International Coffee Organization; Z=not quoted. *Data as of 8/21
Sept 599.00 610.75 594.50 601.75 2.50 63,121 Dec .7395 .7412 .7384 .7388 –.0005 4,495 Source: Dow Jones Market Data

Bonds | wsj.com/market-data/bonds/benchmarks
Tracking Bond Benchmarks Corporate Debt
Prices of firms' bonds reflect factors including investors' economic, sectoral and company-specific
Return on investment and spreads over Treasurys and/or yields paid to investors compared with 52-week expectations
highs and lows for different types of bonds
Total Total
Investment-grade spreads that tightened the most…
return YTD total Yield (%) return YTD total Yield (%) Spread*, in basis points
close return (%) Index Latest Low High close return (%) Index Latest Low High Issuer Symbol Coupon (%) Yield (%) Maturity Current One-day change Last week

Broad Market Bloomberg Fixed Income Indices Mortgage-Backed Bloomberg Fixed Income Indices Caterpillar Financial Services … 4.800 5.21 Jan. 6, ’26 47 –33 n.a.
1943.57 -0.3 U.S. Aggregate 5.200 3.810 5.210 1917.06 -0.9 Mortgage-Backed 5.270 3.790 5.380 –10
National Australia Bank NAB 4.966 5.42 Jan. 12, ’26 69 75
U.S. Corporate Indexes Bloomberg Fixed Income Indices 1896.32 -0.4 Ginnie Mae (GNMA) 5.280 3.790 5.370
–8
Citigroup C 4.125 5.92 July 25, ’28 143 140
2892.76 0.8 U.S. Corporate 5.860 4.630 6.130 1125.40 -1.0 Fannie mae (FNMA) 5.260 3.790 5.390
General Motors Financial … 5.400 6.15 April 6, ’26 140 –6 139
2827.37 1.5 Intermediate 5.830 4.430 6.050 1733.31 -0.6 Freddie Mac (FHLMC) 5.420 3.780 5.420
Halliburton HAL 7.450 6.11 Sept. 15, ’39 149 –5 n.a.
3767.02 -0.7 Long term 5.930 5.010 6.370 560.81 0.8 Muni Master 3.618 2.757 3.936
Bank of Montreal BMO 5.300 5.66 June 5, ’26 92 –4 91
554.72 n.a. Double-A-rated 5.250 4.020 5.320 401.14 0.8 7-12 year 3.274 2.392 3.794
1.3 448.42 1.3 12-22 year 3.993 3.257 4.428 John Deere Capital … 4.700 5.16 June 10, ’30 73 –4 79
769.72 Triple-B-rated 6.130 4.950 6.440
High Yield Bonds ICE BofA 419.93 1.9 22-plus year 4.626 4.019 5.131 Dow DOW 7.375 5.76 Nov. 1, ’29 129 –4 n.a.
490.21 5.8 High Yield Constrained 8.729 7.781 9.623 Global Government J.P. Morgan†
520.70 -0.2 Global Government 3.430 2.370 3.440
…And spreads that widened the most
471.17 12.1 Triple-C-rated 13.753 13.506 16.916
United Airlines UAL 5.800 5.91 July 15, ’37 158 9 n.a.
3290.46 5.7 High Yield 100 8.216 7.022 8.753 756.33 -1.0 Canada 3.910 2.880 3.910
5.1 337.45 1.3 EMU§ 3.415 2.134 3.490 UBS UBS 4.550 6.14 April 17, ’26 140 9 140
426.30 Global High Yield Constrained 8.784 7.868 9.945
325.10 5.2 Europe High Yield Constrained 7.533 6.537 8.508 623.85 0.7 France 3.290 1.920 3.340 Verizon Communications VZ 4.862 6.10 Aug. 21, ’46 148 7 147
U.S Agency Bloomberg Fixed Income Indices 445.03 0.3 Germany 2.700 1.280 2.760 Sumitomo Mitsui Financial SUMIBK 2.632 5.77 July 14, ’26 107 4 n.a.
1712.22 1.3 U.S Agency 5.140 3.530 5.140 278.14 0.1 Japan 1.040 0.630 1.060 4
Wells Fargo WFC 4.100 6.02 June 3, ’26 127 126
1517.66 1.4 10-20 years 5.140 3.500 5.140 480.43 0.2 Netherlands 2.980 1.620 3.040
Williams WMB 5.400 5.69 March 2, ’26 96 4 90
3183.99 -0.1 20-plus years 5.090 3.960 5.240 736.97 -5.8 U.K. 4.780 2.760 4.840
American Honda Finance HNDA 1.000 5.56 Sept. 10, ’25 53 3 49
2563.33 1.2 Yankee 5.650 4.360 5.840 785.25 2.2 Emerging Markets ** 8.063 7.102 9.159
Canadian Natural Resources CNQCN 7.200 6.11 Jan. 15, ’32 176 2 177
*Constrained indexes limit individual issuer concentrations to 2%; the High Yield 100 are the 100 largest bonds † In local currency § Euro-zone bonds
** EMBI Global Index Sources: ICE Data Services; Bloomberg Fixed Income Indices; J.P.Morgan
High-yield issues with the biggest price increases…
Bond Price as % of face value
Global Government Bonds: Mapping Yields Issuer Symbol Coupon (%) Yield (%) Maturity Current One-day change Last week
Yields and spreads over or under U.S. Treasurys on benchmark two-year and 10-year government bonds in 6.450 6.45 Sept. 15, ’36 100.011 0.59
Occidental Petroleum OXY 101.076
selected other countries; arrows indicate whether the yield rose(s) or fell (t) in the latest session 0.47
OneMain Finance OMF 7.125 8.06 March 15, ’26 97.875 97.857
Country/ Yield (%) Spread Under/Over U.S. Treasurys, in basis points
Coupon (%) Maturity, in years Latest(l)-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 Previous Month ago Year ago Latest Prev Year ago Teva Pharmaceutical Finance Netherlands … 3.150 6.87 Oct. 1, ’26 89.750 0.46 89.779
4.750 U.S. 2 5.035 s l 4.990 4.846 3.335 0.45
Embarq EMBARQ 7.995 15.26 June 1, ’36 59.625 60.040
3.875 10 4.327 t l 4.339 3.837 3.035
0.250 Australia 2 3.945 s l 3.943 4.120 2.962 -109.9 -107.4 -35.2 Prime Security Services Borrower PRSESE 5.750 6.78 April 15, ’26 97.559 0.43 97.750
3.000 10 4.284 s l 4.277 4.014 3.529 -4.5 -5.9 50.3 Ford Motor F 4.750 7.47 Jan. 15, ’43 72.375 0.38 73.365
0.000 France 2 3.316 t l 3.358 3.351 0.739 -172.7 -166.0 -257.5 0.25
Bath & Body Works BBWI 6.875 8.01 Nov. 1, ’35 91.250 92.750
3.000 10 3.187 t l 3.248 2.985 1.894 -114.2 -108.8 -113.3
3.100 Germany 2 3.071 t l 3.104 3.095 0.895 -197.2 -191.3 -241.8 …And with the biggest price decreases
2.600 10 2.645 t l 2.701 2.466 1.309 -168.4 -163.5 -171.8 –0.69
Dish DBS … 5.875 12.60 Nov. 15, ’24 92.563 93.750
3.600 Italy 2 3.757 t l 3.808 3.753 1.852 -128.7 -120.9 -146.2
Transocean RIG 6.800 9.72 March 15, ’38 77.500 –0.50 79.500
4.350 10 4.319 t l 4.408 4.064 3.595 -1.1 7.3 56.8
Albertsons … 8.700 7.49 May 1, ’30 106.250 –0.25 n.a.
0.005 Japan 2 0.027 t l 0.031 -0.036 -0.069 -501.7 -498.7 -338.3
0.400 10 0.672 s l 0.655 0.466 0.231 -365.8 -368.1 -279.6 Deutsche Bank … 4.500 7.18 April 1, ’25 96.007 –0.12 96.181
0.000 Spain 2 3.471 t l 3.503 3.460 1.074 -157.3 -151.5 -224.0 –0.07
Xerox XRXCRP 3.800 7.15 May 15, ’24 97.666 97.599
3.550 10 3.695 t l 3.752 3.465 2.472 -63.4 -58.4 -55.5
Ford Motor Credit … 4.134 6.81 Aug. 4, ’25 95.192 –0.02 94.125
0.625 U.K. 2 5.144 t l 5.231 4.923 2.601 10.0 21.3 -71.2
4.250 10 4.654 t l 4.729 4.273 2.514 32.5 39.3 -51.3 *Estimated spread over 2-year, 3-year, 5-year, 10-year or 30-year hot-run Treasury; 100 basis points=one percentage pt.; change in spread shown is for Z-spread.
Note: Data are for the most active issue of bonds with maturities of two years or more
Source: Tullett Prebon, Tradeweb ICE U.S. Treasury Close Source: MarketAxess

Mutual Funds Data provided by

Fund
Net YTD
NAV Chg % Ret Fund
Net YTD
NAV Chg % Ret Fund
Net YTD
NAV Chg % Ret Fund
Net YTD
NAV Chg % Ret Fund
Net YTD
NAV Chg % Ret Fund
Net YTD
NAV Chg % Ret
SAIUSLgCpIndxFd NA ... 15.5 SrsIntlVal NA ... 8.7 Lord Abbett I R2040 26.92 -0.06 10.2 SmCapAdml 93.28 -0.37 6.9 VANGUARD INDEX FDS
Top 250 mutual-funds listings for Nasdaq-published share classes by net assets. SeriesBondFd NA ... -0.1 TotalBond NA ... 1.2 ShtDurInc p 3.80 ... 2.2 Putnam Funds Class A SmGthAdml 77.90 +0.01 10.8 ExtndIstPl 273.46-0.96 10.6
e-Ex-distribution. f-Previous day’s quotation. g-Footnotes x and s apply. j-Footnotes e and s SeriesOverseas NA ... 10.7 Fidelity SAI Metropolitan West PutLargCap p 29.74 -0.20 6.1 STBondAdml 9.85 ... 1.2 IdxIntl 17.50-0.01 6.4
apply. k-Recalculated by Lipper, using updated data. p-Distribution costs apply, 12b-1. r- SerLTTreBdIdx NA ... -4.1 TotalBd NA ... 1.2 TotRetBdI 8.79 ... -0.2 Schwab Funds STIGradeAdml 9.94 ... 1.8 MdCpGrAdml 85.69 +0.02 11.2
Redemption charge may apply. s-Stock split or dividend. t-Footnotes p and r apply. v-Footnotes SmCpIdxInstPrem NA ... 6.3 U.S.TreBdIdx NA ... -0.5 TRBdPlan 8.24 ... -0.3 1000 Inv r 94.59 -0.28 NA STIPSIxAdm 23.64 +0.01 1.7 MdCpVlAdml 70.17 -0.31 1.2
x and e apply. x-Ex-dividend. z-Footnote x, e and s apply. NA-Not available due to incomplete TMktIdxInstPrem NA ... 14.8 Fidelity Selects MFS Funds S&P Sel 67.85 -0.19 NA TotBdAdml 9.29 ... -0.1 SmValAdml 70.31-0.49 4.2
price, performance or cost data. NE-Not released by Lipper; data under review. NN-Fund not TotalMarketIndex NA ... 14.8 Semiconductors r NA ... 61.8 IIE 30.98 -0.04 10.1 TSM Sel r 74.78 -0.21 NA TotIntBdIdxAdm 19.27 +0.04 2.8 TotBd2 9.18 ... -0.1
tracked. NS-Fund didn’t exist at start of period. TtlIntIdxInstPr NA ... 6.5 Softwr NA ... 28.0 MFS Funds Class I TIAA/CREF Funds TotIntlAdmIdx r 29.27 -0.01 6.4 TotIntlInstIdx r 117.04-0.06 6.4
USBdIdxInstPrem NA ... -0.2 Tech NA ... 43.2 GrowthI 162.82 -0.03 23.1 EqIdxInst 31.12 -0.09 NA TotStAdml 105.94 -0.30 14.7 TotItlInstPlId r 117.07-0.06 6.4
Fidelity Freedom First Eagle Funds ValueI 47.87 -0.20 1.0 IntlEqIdxInst 20.70 -0.04 8.4 TxMCapAdml 226.77 -0.57 15.4 TotSt 105.91-0.30 14.6
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 FF2025 NA ... 6.0 GlbA 62.02 -0.10 7.0 Natixis Funds LrgCpGrIdxInst 47.13 -0.04 27.2 TxMIn r 14.36 -0.02 7.6 VANGUARD INSTL FDS
Net YTD Net YTD Net YTD FF2030 NA ... 7.0 Franklin A1 LSGrowthY 22.30 -0.07 37.0 VANGUARD ADMIRAL USGroAdml 129.48 -0.06 27.8 DevMktsIndInst 14.38 -0.02 7.7
Fund NAV Chg % Ret Fund NAV Chg % Ret Fund NAV Chg % Ret FF2035 NA ... 8.6 IncomeA1 2.24 ... 2.4 Northern Funds 500Adml 405.62 -1.12 15.5 ValAdml 55.12 -0.33 1.9 DevMktsInxInst 22.47 -0.03 7.6
AB Funds Artisan Funds US CoreEq1 33.22 -0.13 12.4
FF2040 NA ... 10.3 FrankTemp/Frank Adv StkIdx 46.75 -0.13 15.4 BalAdml 42.48 -0.06 8.6 WdsrllAdml 72.25 -0.33 10.1 ExtndInst 110.81 -0.39 10.6
Freedom2030 K NA ... 7.0 IncomeAdv 2.21 -0.01 2.1 Old Westbury Fds CAITAdml 11.08 -0.02 1.2 WellsIAdml 58.64 -0.06 0.7 GrwthInst 143.30 ... 31.0
MuniIncmShares 10.67 -0.04 1.3 IntlVal Inst 43.32 -0.06 12.3 US CoreEq2 30.01 -0.12 11.4 Freedom2035 K NA ... 8.6 FrankTemp/Franklin A CapOpAdml r 169.20 -0.38 15.8 InPrSeIn 9.32 +0.02 0.1
AB Funds - ADV Baird Funds US Small 40.90 -0.15 6.3 LrgCpStr 16.07 -0.03 10.2 WelltnAdml 69.58 -0.07 6.1
Freedom2040 K NA ... 10.3 Growth A 118.39 -0.15 15.9 Parnassus Fds DivAppIdxAdm 43.41 -0.12 6.4 InstIdx 366.97 -1.02 15.5
LgCpGrAdv 84.59 -0.06 21.0 AggBdInst 9.44 +0.01 0.2 US SmCpVal 41.05 -0.35 5.4 WndsrAdml 72.00 -0.36 6.3
Idx2030InsPre NA ... 6.7 RisDv A 86.81 -0.16 5.7 ParnEqFd 53.43 -0.17 14.2 EMAdmr 33.23 +0.07 3.1 InstPlus 366.97 -1.02 15.5
American Century Inv CorBdInst 9.74 +0.01 0.6 US TgdVal 28.94 -0.24 6.5 VANGUARD FDS
Idx2035InsPre NA ... 8.2 Guggenheim Funds Tru PGIM Funds Cl Z EqIncAdml 84.32 -0.60 1.0 InstTStPlus 76.16 -0.22 14.7
Ultra 70.81 -0.01 28.4 BlackRock Funds USLgVa 42.44 -0.25 3.4 DivdGro 35.36 -0.07 1.2
Idx2040InsPre NA ... 9.6 TotRtnBdFdClInst NA ... 1.1
TotalReturnBond 11.53 +0.01 NA
ExplrAdml 94.31 -0.26 8.6 MidCpInst 58.61 -0.12 5.9
American Funds Cl A HiYldBd Inst 6.74 +0.01 6.0 Dodge & Cox ExtndAdml 110.82 -0.39 IntlVal 38.84 -0.02 8.7
Idx2045InsPre NA ... 10.0 Harbor Funds PIMCO Fds Instl
10.6 MidCpIstPl 289.05 -0.61 5.9
AmcpA 35.34 ... 17.8 BlackRock Funds III Balanced 97.19 -0.34 6.1 Fidelity Invest CapApInst 84.47 -0.21 34.6 GNMAAdml 8.95 -0.01 -0.5 LifeCon 19.81 ... 5.0
RealEstaInstl 17.54 +0.06 -1.0
AMutlA 49.14 -0.13 2.4 iShS&P500IdxK 515.42 -1.43 15.5 GblStock 14.15 -0.06 12.2 Balanc AllAsset 10.65 +0.03 NA LifeGro 38.95 -0.05 9.2
NA ... 12.3 Harding Loevner GrwthAdml 143.29 ... 31.0 SmCapInst 93.27 -0.38 6.9
BalA 30.15 -0.05 5.5 BlackRock Funds Inst Income 12.12 +0.02 1.3 BluCh TotRt 8.28 +0.01 NA LifeMod 29.08 -0.03 7.0
NA ... 38.8 IntlEq 24.47 -0.01 4.5 HlthCareAdml r 88.81 -0.31 2.2 SmCapIstPl 269.23 -1.07 6.9
BondA NA ... NA EqtyDivd 18.58 -0.09 4.4 Intl Stk 47.37 -0.02 9.9 BluChpGr K6 PIMCO Funds A PrmcpCor 30.92 -0.12 13.8
NA ... 38.8 Invesco Funds A HYCorAdml r 5.17 +0.01 4.2 STIGradeInst 9.94 ... 1.9
CapIBA 62.98 -0.12 1.4 StratIncOpptyIns 9.09 ... 1.7 Stock 228.55 -1.63 7.7 Contra IncomeFd 10.27 ... NA STAR 25.88 -0.02 8.0
NA ... 25.9 EqIncA 9.92 -0.04 2.0 InfProAd 22.87 +0.04 ... STIPSIxins 23.66 +0.01 1.7
CapWGrA 56.36 -0.04 10.4 TotRet 9.66 +0.01 NA DoubleLine Funds PIMCO Funds I2 TgtRe2020 26.70 -0.01 5.3
CpInc NA ... 6.0 Invesco Funds Y IntlGrAdml 96.87 -0.07 7.2 TotBdInst 9.29 ... -0.1
EupacA 52.90 -0.04 8.2 Calamos Funds TotRetBdI 8.56 +0.01 NA GroCo Income 10.27 ... NA ITBondAdml TgtRe2025 17.77 -0.01 6.5
NA ... 33.1 DevMktY 37.69 +0.03 7.8 9.90 ... 0.1 TotBdInst2 9.18 ... -0.1
FdInvA 67.44 -0.15 13.6 MktNeutI 14.58 ... 6.4 Edgewood Growth Instituti PIMCO Funds Instl ITIGradeAdml 8.22 +0.01 TgtRe2030 33.70 -0.03 7.4
InvGrBd NA ... 0.8 JHF III DispVal 1.3 TotBdInstPl 9.29 ... -0.1
GwthA 60.36 -0.06 22.0 Columbia Class I EdgewoodGrInst 38.79 +0.01 23.9 LowP NA ... 3.6 DispValMCI 25.84 -0.07 5.8 IncomeFd 10.27 ... NA LarCapAd 101.20 -0.27 15.9 TgtRe2035 20.94 -0.03 8.2 TotIntBdIdxInst 28.92 +0.06 2.8
HI TrA 9.11 +0.01 4.8 DivIncom I 29.72 -0.14 3.8 Fidelity Price Funds LTGradeAdml 7.50 +0.05 TgtRe2040 37.07 -0.05 9.0
Magin NA ... 17.6 John Hancock -0.9 TotStInst 105.96 -0.30 14.7
ICAA 47.17 -0.06 15.1 Dimensional Fds 500IdxInstPrem NA ... 15.5 NASDAQ NA ... 29.8 BondR6 13.05 +0.02 0.5 BlChip 138.03 -0.13 33.3 MidCpAdml 265.31 -0.56 5.9 TgtRe2045 25.07 -0.04 9.9 ValueInst 55.12 -0.33 1.9
IncoA 22.40 -0.05 0.5 5GlbFxdInc 10.12 ... 3.0 Contrafund K6 NA ... 24.6 OTC NA ... 28.9 JPMorgan I Class DivGro 67.29 -0.23 5.6 MuHYAdml 10.23 -0.03 2.1 TgtRe2050 41.69 -0.07 10.3 Victory Port
N PerA 54.28 -0.05 14.7 EmgMktVa 28.15 +0.07 7.5 ExtMktIdxInstPre NA ... 10.6 Puritn NA ... 11.1 CoreBond 9.92 +0.01 0.3 Growth 81.10 -0.12 31.6 MuIntAdml 13.28 -0.03 1.2 TgtRe2060 42.83 -0.07 10.3 VsycamoreFnd 45.41 -0.33 2.1
NEcoA 50.62 -0.09 16.4 EmMktCorEq 21.29 +0.04 6.9 FidSerToMarket 14.46 -0.04 14.8 SAIUSQtyIdx NA ... 17.7 EqInc 22.03 -0.13 -1.2 LgCapGow I 59.80 -0.04 30.2 MuLTAdml 10.48 -0.04 1.3 TgtRet2055 46.50 -0.08 10.3 WCM Focus Funds
NwWrldA 72.61 +0.16 9.3 IntlCoreEq 14.30 -0.02 7.6 GrowthCompanyK6 NA ... 31.6 SrsEmrgMkt NA ... 6.0 LgCpGwth 54.24 -0.02 21.3 MidCap 98.12 -0.22 10.6 MuLtdAdml 10.64 -0.01 1.2 TgtRetInc 12.62 ... 4.1 WCMFocIntlGrwIns 21.30 +0.01 8.3
SmCpA 60.92 +0.13 8.6 IntSmCo 18.10 ... 5.3 IntlIdxInstPrem NA ... 8.5 SrsGlobal NA ... 6.5 JPMorgan R Class NHoriz 52.53 +0.12 13.4 MuShtAdml 15.58 -0.01 1.6 WellsI 24.21 -0.02 0.6 Western Asset
TxExA 11.98 -0.03 1.2 IntSmVa 19.99 +0.02 7.9 LgCpGwId InstPre NA ... 27.3 SrsGroCoRetail NA ... 31.4 CoreBond 9.94 +0.01 0.4 R2025 15.62 -0.02 6.8 PrmcpAdml r 154.22 -0.49 17.9 Welltn 40.29 -0.04 6.0 CoreBondI 10.30 +0.01 NA
WshA 54.07 -0.20 7.5 LgCo 29.97 -0.08 15.5 MidCpInxInstPrem NA ... 6.4 SrsIntlGrw NA ... 10.7 CorePlusBd 6.99 +0.01 0.5 R2030 23.60 -0.03 8.0 RealEstatAdml 113.30 +0.38 -1.0 WndsrII 40.73 -0.18 10.1 CorePlusBdI 9.08 +0.01 NA
 .

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. * * * * * Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | B11

MARKETS & FINANCE

S&P 500 Slips on Worries Sentence Determined

In NFT Insider Case
About Consumer Spending BY ERIN MULVANEY
AND CORINNE RAMEY
punishment was difficult. The
judge said Chastain saw rela-
tively little financial gain and he
BY KAREN LANGLEY Value Fund. A former employee of NFT questioned whether the case
The declines for stocks were marketplace OpenSea was would have been prosecuted if it
Stocks edged lower after broad-based, with seven of the sentenced to three months in hadn’t happened in a new and
disappointing earnings reports S&P 500’s 11 sectors and 20 of prison for what federal prose- sexy area of commerce. But,
from retailers cast doubt on the 30 stocks in the Dow indus- cutors described as the first Furman said, Chastain knew
the strength of the consumer. trials retreating. insider-trading case involving what he was doing was wrong.
The cautionary signals Concerns about consumer digital tokens. Chastain expressed remorse:
landed on a market focused on spending helped pull Nike Nathaniel Chastain was con- “I prided myself on solving
two events later this week: shares lower for a ninth con- victed of wire fraud and money problems for my company, and I
Wednesday’s quarterly report secutive day, the longest losing laundering in May. Prosecutors regret that I created one.”
from Nvidia, which could test streak ever for the athletic- said he used confidential infor- Prosecutors said he should
investors’ shoe maker, according to Dow mation to trade on nonfungible serve between 21 and 27 months
TUESDAY’S faith in the ar- Jones Market Data. tokens ahead of OpenSea adver- in prison, saying such a sentence
MARKETS
JASON ALDEN/BLOOMBERG NEWS

tificial-intelli- Markets have been fixated tising them on its home page. was needed to send a message.
gence trade, this year and last on the cen- Before handing down the Chastain’s lawyers said a sen-
and Friday’s speech from Fed- tral bank’s campaign to tame sentence, which included a tence without jail time would be
eral Reserve Chairman Jerome price pressures by lifting inter- $50,000 fine and three months more appropriate. His attorney,
Powell, which could hold clues est rates. Inflation is now much of home confinement, U.S. Dis- David Miller, said the case
to the path of interest rates. lower than at its recent heights trict Judge Jesse Furman said wouldn’t have been brought had
The S&P 500 declined 0.3%, but remains above the Fed’s 2% determining the appropriate it not been a novel issue.
while the Dow Jones Industrial target.
Average retreated 0.5%, or Concerns about consumer spending helped pull Nike shares Money managers will scruti-
about 175 points. The Nasdaq
Composite added 0.1% as tech
heavyweights including Apple
and Microsoft defied the
lower for a ninth day in a row

Index performance on Tuesday

nize Powell’s remarks Friday
for signs of how committed of-
ficials are to lowering inflation
to their target level and
Hawaiian Electric
downdraft.
“Investors are unwilling to
make any major bets in ad-
0.8%

0.6
Nasdaq Composite
whether they plan to raise
rates again to do so.
“The Fed holds all the keys.
Hires Guggenheim
S&P 500
vance of the Powell Jackson That’s what everybody’s watch-
Dow Jones Industrial Average BY ALEXANDER GLADSTONE ing advisory work after inves-
Hole speech on Friday morn- ing,” said Jonathan Waite, fund
0.4
ing,” said Matthew Palazzolo, co-manager and senior re- tors sold off its stock and
senior investment strategist at search analyst at Frost Invest- Hawaiian Electric said it bonds and Maui residents be-
Bernstein Private Wealth Man- 0.2 ment Advisors. has begun working with in- gan filing lawsuits alleging it
agement. “I’m not surprised The climb in the benchmark vestment bank Guggenheim was negligent before and dur-
we’re seeing some sideways ac- U.S. government bond yield Securities as it seeks to ad- ing the fires.
tion.” 0 paused. The yield on the 10- dress difficulties arising from The Journal reported that
Tuesday’s earnings reports year U.S. Treasury note fell to the Maui wildfires. Hawaiian Electric concluded
from Dick’s Sporting Goods –0.2 4.327% from 4.339% on Mon- “We are seeking advice in 2019 that it needed to do
and Macy’s sent those shares day. That had been its highest from various experts as we more to prevent its power
tumbling and raised questions settlement since 2007. position HEI and Hawaiian lines from emitting sparks,
about consumer spending more –0.4 Oil prices retreated, with Electric to be the strong, fi- but did little work to upgrade
broadly. Dick’s shares plunged Brent crude, the global bench- nancially healthy local utility its infrastructure and equip-
24% after the sporting-goods mark, falling 0.5% to $84.03 a that the people of Maui and ment for fire safety.
–0.6 Five-minute intervals
chain slashed its profit targets barrel as worries about China’s Hawai’i need,” a company Credit-ratings companies
and said thefts of merchandise 10 a.m. 11 noon 1 p.m. 2 3 4 economy weighed on expecta- spokesperson said. “One of downgraded Hawaiian Electric
had been higher than expected. Source: FactSet tions for demand. those experts is Guggenheim to junk status, with S&P
Macy’s shares fell 14% after Overseas, the Stoxx Europe Securities, and their deep ex- Global Ratings last week say-
the department-store chain re- Investors said the pullback go as far and they buy lower 600 advanced 0.7%. Early perience working with other ing the wildfires destroyed a
ported that consumers bought by consumers could have re- volumes of things, the whole Wednesday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 utilities will be invaluable as significant segment of the
fewer goods at its stores and percussions beyond the retail- economy slows down,” said was up 0.3% but the Shanghai we move forward.” company’s customer base. On
delinquencies rose among its ers’ results. Lauren Hill, co-portfolio man- Composite was down 0.6%. S&P The Wall Street Journal re- Monday, Fitch Ratings said
credit-card holders. “As consumers’ dollars don’t ager of the Westwood Quality 500 futures rose 0.3%. ported last week that the util- the utility’s potential liabili-
ity was in talks with firms ties from the Maui fires could
that specialize in restructur- be upward of $3.8 billion.

Merit Energy to Invest in Mature Oil Fields

BY LUIS GARCIA rates began rising last year, ac-
cording to investment bankers.
Merit Energy stands ready
to invest $1 billion, including
Financing uncertainty can
raise the odds against closing
$485 million in a just-closed deals in the sector, the bankers
fund, through a strategy that said.
targets mature oil-and-gas With capital in hand, Merit
fields just as consolidating en- is poised to take advantage of
ergy companiedding assets. current market
The Dallas firm, which op- conditions
erates energy assets and man- without outside
ages investment funds, said in help. Consolidation in
an investor letter that it took A desire to
just over seven months to raise expand in the
its Merit Energy Partners L ve- consolidating
hicle. Combined with earlier shale industry
commitments to previous is driving re-
driving recent
pools, the fundraising enabled cent mergers
Merit to reach its goal of among energy
amassing about $1 billion of companies.
available capital, said Meghan Such deals in-
Cuddihy, Merit’s vice president volving U.S. oil-and-gas pro-
of investor relations. ducers doubled to $24 billion
Merit banked the money in the second quarter from
months into a period during about $12 billion in the year-
which some banks have grown earlier period, according to En-
reluctant to lend to oil-and-gas verus, an energy-focused data-
businesses, a trend that analytics company. Average
emerged even before interest first-half deal value climbed to
$905.6 million, nearly 2.5
times the average $362.5 mil-
lion size for all of last year, an
indication of larger but fewer
transactions this year, En-
verus’s data showed.
Energy companies usually
re-evaluate their assets after
large deals and
sell less impor-
tant holdings,
creating acqui-
the shale sition opportu-
nities for inves-
industry is tors such as
Merit, said
Sarah McLean,
deals. joint head of
Shearman
Sterling’s U.S.
energy group
and a partner in the law firm’s
private-equity and mergers
and acquisitions practices.
“Big companies selling non-
core assets are a good source
of acquisitions for fund man-
agers,” she said. McLean added
that noncore doesn’t necessar-
ily mean lower quality but only
S&P Cuts Banks’ Ratings,
that an asset doesn’t fit the
seller’s postmerger strategy.
“It’s not always the fringy
But Says Sector Is Stable
stuff.”
Merit’s Cuddihy said the BY DAVID BENOIT slate of banks. S&P said rising
firm expects to continue bene- interest rates and Federal Re-
fiting from sector deal activity The spring deposit crisis serve tightening is still weigh-
as well as a dearth of private- continues to keep U.S. regional ing on banks’ profits and their
equity capital, as many spe- banks under pressure with assets. It’s expecting higher-
cialist firms struggle to raise S&P Ratings cutting credit for-longer interest rates, rais-
new funds. Industry researcher ratings on five institutions. ing its concern that picture
PitchBook Data said in a recent But S&P’s tone was some- will get worse.
report that fundraising by pri- what muted: It said the five Still, it noted stability in
vate-equity firms fell as much banks it cut all have stable the U.S. banking sector has
as 25% in this year’s first half outlooks, meaning there isn’t improved significantly in re-
compared with the year-earlier an immediate fear they will be cent months, citing modest
period, with real-assets strate- cut again. Of all the banks it deposit declines and solid
& gies seeing an even larger covers, 90% are stable. earnings. “Profitability will
drop. Among the names S&P cut, likely worsen further in 2024,
“There’s less competition KeyCorp and Comerica were but we still expect most rated
for deals—not zero competi- the biggest and both closed banks to generate a healthy
tion, but there’s less if you down more than 4% Tuesday. level of capital through earn-
look over our [nearly] 35 years The KBW Nasdaq Regional ings retention,” the agency
in business,” she said. “Today’s Banking Index was down 2.7%, concluded.
environment has less capital while the S&P 500 ended That hardly sounds like the
and most private-equity firms down 0.3%. fear of March and April when
tend to look for different types S&P’s move comes two three banks collapsed and
of acquisitions.” weeks after Moody’s cut a bank stocks cratered.

Exchange-Traded Portfolios | WSJ.com/ETFresearch

Closing Chg YTD Closing Chg YTD Closing Chg YTD Closing Chg YTD
Largest 100 exchange-traded funds, latest session ETF Symbol Price (%) (%) ETF Symbol Price (%) (%) ETF Symbol Price (%) (%) ETF Symbol Price (%) (%)
iSh MSCI EM EEM 38.41 –0.21 1.3 JPMEquityPrem JEPI 54.51 –0.18 0.0 SPDR S&P Div SDY 120.31 –0.23 –3.8 VangdLC VV 200.44 –0.29 15.1
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 Closing Chg YTD
ETF Symbol Price (%) (%) iShMSCIEAFEValue EFV 48.37 –0.04 5.4 JPM UltShIncm JPST 50.12 0.02 –0.0 TechSelectSector XLK 167.92 –0.11 34.9 VangdMC VO 214.27 –0.20 5.1
Closing Chg YTD iShNatlMuniBd MUB 104.75 –0.10 –0.7 ProShUltPrQQQ TQQQ 37.99 –0.45 119.6 UtilitiesSelSector XLU 63.27 0.29 –10.3 VangdMC Val VOE 135.49 –0.38 0.2
ETF Symbol Price (%) (%) iShCoreS&P MC IJH 256.65 –0.44 6.1 iSh1-5YIGCorpBd IGSB 49.85 –0.06 0.1 SPDRBbg1-3MTB BIL 91.70 0.01 0.3 VangdInfoTech VGT 425.17 0.04 33.1 VangdMBS VMBS 44.47 0.07 –2.3
CnsmrDiscSelSector XLY 164.77 0.15 27.6 iShCoreS&P SC IJR 98.05 –0.19 3.6 iSh1-3YTreaBd SHY 80.88 –0.05 –0.4 SPDR DJIA Tr DIA 342.96 –0.50 3.5 VangdSC Val VBR 163.70 –0.68 3.1 VangdRealEst VNQ 79.93 0.29 –3.1
CnsStapleSelSector XLP 72.12 –0.57 –3.3 iShCoreS&PTotUS ITOT 96.58 –0.35 13.9 iShRussMC IWR 71.28 –0.31 5.7 SPDR Gold GLD 176.10 0.16 3.8 VangdExtMkt VXF 146.02 –0.41 9.9 VangdS&P500ETF VOO 402.61 –0.28 14.6
DimenUSCoreEq2 DFAC 26.85 –0.44 10.6 iShCoreTotalUSDBd IUSB 44.22 0.09 –1.6 iShRuss1000 IWB 240.70 –0.28 14.3 SPDRPtfDevxUS SPDW 31.49 –0.16 6.1 VangdSC Grwth VBK 221.64 0.06 10.5 VangdST Bond BSV 75.16 –0.07 –0.2
EnSelSectorSPDR XLE 87.57 –0.77 0.1 iShCoreUSAggBd AGG 95.24 0.11 –1.8 iShRuss1000Grw IWF 271.44 –0.08 26.7 SPDRS&P500Value SPYV 42.49 –0.33 9.3 VangdDivApp VIG 159.99 –0.27 5.4 VangdSTCpBd VCSH 75.21 –0.05 0.0
FinSelSectorSPDR XLF 33.62 –0.94 –1.7 iShEdgeMSCIMinUSA USMV 73.88 –0.22 2.5 iShRuss1000Val IWD 156.09 –0.47 2.9 SPDRPtfS&P500 SPLG 51.53 –0.29 14.6 VangdFTSEAWxUS VEU 52.84 –0.13 5.4 VangdShortTrea VGSH 57.57 –0.07 –0.4
HealthCareSelSect XLV 133.20 –0.35 –2.0 iShRussell2000 IWM 183.83 –0.30 5.4 SPDRS&P500Growth SPYG 60.56 –0.18 19.5 VangdFTSEDevMk VEA 44.67 –0.22 6.4 VangdSC VB 194.76 –0.37 6.1
iShEdgeMSCIUSAQual QUAL 135.56 –0.44 19.0
IndSelSectorSPDR XLI 105.86 –0.24 7.8 iShS&P500Grw IVW 69.94 –0.19 19.6 SPDR S&P 500 SPY 438.15 –0.27 14.6 VangdFTSE EM VWO 39.84 –0.18 2.2 VangdTaxExemptBd VTEB 49.17 –0.22 –0.6
iShGoldTr IAU 35.94 0.20 3.9
InvscQQQI QQQ 363.38 –0.14 36.5 iShS&P500Value IVE 158.51 –0.34 9.3 SchwabIntEquity SCHF 34.45 –0.20 7.0 VangdFTSE Europe VGK 59.92 –0.37 8.1 VangdTotalBd BND 70.62 0.13 –1.7
iShiBoxx$HYCpBd HYG 74.11 0.05 0.7 iShSelectDiv DVY 111.28 –0.47 –7.7 SchwabUS BrdMkt SCHB 51.06 –0.21 13.9 VangdGrowth VUG 278.45 0.03 30.7 VangdTotIntlBd BNDX 48.19 0.27 1.6
InvscS&P500EW RSP 146.67 –0.39 3.8
iShCoreDivGrowth DGRO 51.20 –0.52 2.4
iShiBoxx$IGCpBd LQD 103.80 0.31 –1.5 iSh7-10YTreaBd IEF 93.06 0.04 –2.8 SchwabUS Div SCHD 72.96 –0.76 –3.4 VangdHlthCr VHT 243.73 –0.28 –1.7 VangdTotIntlStk VXUS 54.49 –0.18 5.4
iShCoreMSCIEAFE IEFA 65.43 –0.15 6.1 iShJPMUSDEmBd EMB 83.98 0.27 –0.7 iShShortTreaBd SHV 110.32 0.02 0.4 SchwabUS LC SCHX 51.77 –0.25 14.7 VangdHiDiv VYM 105.87 –0.66 –2.2 VangdTotalStk VTI 217.68 –0.27 13.9
iShCoreMSCIEM IEMG 48.09 –0.19 3.0 iShMBS MBB 90.16 0.04 –2.8 iShTIPSBondETF TIP 104.98 0.17 –1.4 SchwabUS LC Grw SCHG 73.91 –0.05 33.0 VangdIntermBd BIV 73.17 0.05 –1.5 VangdTotWrldStk VT 95.21 –0.21 10.5
iShCoreMSCITotInt IXUS 60.81 –0.16 5.1 iShMSCIACWI ACWI 94.01 –0.22 10.8 iSh20+YTreaBd TLT 93.23 0.77 –6.4 SchwabUS SC SCHA 42.99 –0.35 6.1 VangdIntrCorpBd VCIT 76.93 0.05 –0.7 VangdValue VTV 141.32 –0.60 0.7
iShCoreS&P500 IVV 440.39 –0.29 14.6 iShMSCI EAFE EFA 69.97 –0.19 6.6 iShUSTreasuryBd GOVT 22.29 0.09 –1.9 SPDR S&PMdCpTr MDY 469.59 –0.46 6.1 VangdIntermTrea VGIT 57.49 –0.07 –1.7 WisdTrFRTrea USFR 50.50 0.04 0.5

Biggest 1,000 Stocks | WSJ.com/stocks Stock

Net
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Continued From Page B7 Net Net
RyanSpecialty RYAN 45.49 0.24 SOQUIMICH SQM 65.09 0.15 TIM TIMB 14.91 0.29 TotalEnergies TTE 62.60 -0.08 UnumGroup UNM 48.37 -0.69 WebsterFin WBS 41.19 -0.83
Net Stock Sym Close Chg Stock Sym Close Chg
Ryanair RYAAY 99.52 -0.07 SOFI 8.15 -0.14 TJX TJX 89.10 -0.52 ToyotaMotor TM 164.99 2.20 VF WFC 41.50 -0.99
SoFiTech VFC 18.96 -1.40 WellsFargo
Stock Sym Close Chg SAP 138.47 1.76 SolarEdgeTech SEDG 164.16 1.16 T-MobileUS TMUS 135.16 -0.39 TractorSupply TSCO 215.00 -0.62 VICI Prop WELL 79.85 -0.47
PetroleoBrasil PBR 13.52 0.31 RTX RTX 85.33 -0.19 SAP VICI 30.15 0.29 Welltower
S&P Global SPGI 383.54 5.06 Sony SONY 81.90 -0.68 TPG TPG 26.76 0.41 TradeDesk TTD 74.59 1.25 VailResorts MTN 225.12 -0.12 WescoIntl WCC 153.00 -0.59
Omnicom OMC 79.14 -0.19 PetroleoBrasilA PBR.A 12.35 0.30 RalphLauren RL 113.10 -1.95
OnHolding ONON 29.38 -0.36 Pfizer PFE 36.84 -0.17 RangeResources RRC 31.72 -0.63 SBA Comm SBAC 218.11 -0.11 Southern SO 67.73 0.12 T.RowePrice TROW 107.41 -0.07 s Tradeweb TW 84.87 0.59 Vale VALE 12.69 0.39 WestPharmSvcs WST 393.18 0.50
94.03 -0.30 RaymondJames RJF 102.43 -2.41 SEI Investments SEIC 60.62 -0.55 SoCopper SCCO 79.22 0.64 TaiwanSemi TSM 92.24 -0.32 TraneTech TT 197.23 -1.19 ValeroEnergy VLO 130.89 -0.27 WesternDigital WDC 40.42 0.02
OpenText OTEX 37.79 0.44 PhilipMorris PM
Oracle ORCL 116.54 -0.05 Phillips66 PSX 112.94 -0.39 RealtyIncome O 56.32 0.09 SK Telecom SKM 19.35 -0.06 SouthwestAir LUV 31.50 -0.42 TakeTwoSoftware TTWO 140.48 0.92 TransDigm TDG 855.24 2.93 VeevaSystems VEEV 187.27 -0.79 WesternMidstrm WES 27.29 -0.32
SS&C Tech SSNC 55.58 0.51 SouthwesternEner SWN 6.59 -0.11 TakedaPharm TAK 15.04 0.01 TransUnion TRU 76.23 -0.69 Ventas VTR 41.94 0.30 Westlake WLK 130.50 -0.60
Orange ORAN 10.99 -0.09 PinnacleWest PNW 78.70 1.02 RegalRexnord RRX 149.25 1.62
PINS 26.97 -0.55 RegencyCtrs REG 60.21 -0.20 Saia SAIA 409.41 1.57 Splunk SPLK 98.16 -0.44 Tapestry TPR 33.16 -0.65 Travelers TRV 159.94 -1.66 VeriSign VRSN 202.99 1.06 WestRock WRK 31.65 0.13
Orix IX 89.60 0.32 Pinterest
Salesforce CRM 206.76 -2.27 Spotify SPOT 133.44 0.95 TargaResources TRGP 83.70 -0.83 Trex TREX 68.43 0.44 VeriskAnalytics VRSK 231.74 -0.64 Weyerhaeuser WY 32.69 0.28
OtisWorldwide OTIS 82.95 -0.57 PioneerNatRscs PXD 235.11 -2.18 s RegenPharm REGN 840.63 -3.74
Ovintiv OVV 47.64 -0.55 s PlainsAllAmPipe PAA 15.33 -0.09 RegionsFinl RF 18.42 -0.97
Samsara IOT 23.93 0.20 StanleyBlackDck SWK 89.46 -0.19 t Target TGT 124.94 -2.85 Trimble TRMB 52.12 -0.76 Verizon VZ 33.20 0.20 WheatonPrecMet WPM 41.61 0.32
PlainsGP PAGP 15.88 -0.03 Sanofi SNY 54.02 0.31 Stantec STN 65.89 0.76 TechnipFMC FTI 18.16 -0.16 Trip.com TCOM 38.05 0.35 VertexPharm VRTX 350.40 -0.34 Whirlpool WHR 136.00 2.77
OwensCorning OC 135.88 -0.41 ReinsGrp RGA 135.41 -1.22
SareptaTherap SRPT 113.69 -0.07 Starbucks SBUX 96.07 -0.39 TeckResourcesB TECK 40.39 0.84 TruistFinl TFC 28.05 -0.56 Vertiv VRT 34.97 -0.10 Williams WMB 34.63 -0.20
PDD PDD 77.49 -0.57 PolestarAuto PSNY 3.59 0.05 RelianceSteel RS 277.20 0.22 Sasol SSL 12.59 -0.24
POOL 351.60 1.43 RenaissanceRe RNR 176.98 -0.60 StateStreet STT 65.85 -1.57 TeledyneTech TDY 406.26 1.84 Twilio TWLO 60.23 -0.33 Viatris VTRS 11.16 -0.09 Williams-Sonoma WSM 125.15 -3.68
PG&E PCG 16.78 0.10 Pool
PNC Finl PNC 119.02 -3.91 Primerica PRI 200.45 -1.81 RentokilInit RTO 36.82 -0.53 Schlumberger SLB 56.41 -1.03 SteelDynamics STLD 104.85 0.99 Teleflex TFX 217.22 -1.17 TylerTech TYL 375.60 0.55 s VinFastAuto VFS 36.72 19.14 WillisTowers WTW 200.49 -0.43
PrincipalFinl PFG 74.69 -1.21 SchwabC SCHW 56.46 -2.94 Stellantis STLA 18.09 -0.04 Ericsson ERIC 4.95 0.01 TysonFoods TSN 54.04 -0.77 Vipshop VIPS 16.08 0.27 WillScotMobile WSC 41.55 -0.40
POSCO PKX 104.27 0.47 Repligen RGEN 161.81 0.84 t Sea 8.55 0.06 s UBS Group UBS 23.73 0.24 Visa 4.99 0.01
SE 36.52 -2.15 Steris STE 223.33 0.57 TelefonicaBras VIV V 240.57 1.11 Wipro WIT
PPG Ind PPG 138.36 -0.24 ProcoreTech PCOR 62.48 0.11 RepublicSvcs RSG 146.40 -0.34 Seagate STX 65.89 0.39 Stevanato STVN 30.63 -0.69 Telefonica TEF 3.87 -0.01 UDR UDR 38.18 0.09 Vistra VST 29.66 -0.34 WoodsideEnergy WDS 24.21 -0.63
PPL PPL 25.30 0.08 Procter&Gamble PG 151.83 0.06 t ResMed RMD 162.58 -3.31 Seagen WWD 125.25 0.43
Progressive PGR 130.53 -1.65 RestaurantBrands QSR 69.06 -0.28 Sempra
SGEN 194.28 0.98 StifelFinancial SF 62.24 -0.76 TelekmIndonesia TLK 24.24 ... U-Haul UHAL 55.94 -0.92 VMware VMW 162.00 -0.48 Woodward
PTC PTC 141.52 0.55 WDAY 226.26 -0.97
PLD 121.02 0.88 Revvity SRE 71.30 0.19 STMicroelec STM 46.92 0.05 TempurSealy TPX 42.77 0.24 U-Haul N UHAL/B 52.74 -1.40 Vodafone VOD 9.05 -0.05 Workday
Paccar PCAR 84.93 0.35 Prologis RVTY 114.02 0.13 ServiceCorp SCI 61.73 -0.34 Stryker SYK 275.48 -0.76 Tenaris TS 32.92 -0.51 US Foods USFD 40.13 0.01 VoyaFinancial VOYA 69.10 -1.08 s WW Ent WWE 115.14 1.26
PackagingCpAm PKG 145.07 -0.17 PrudentialFinl PRU 90.22 -0.99 RexfordIndlRealty REXR 51.83 0.83 ServiceNow NOW 561.82 7.12 TencentMusic TME 6.39 -0.11 UWM UWMC 5.56 -0.01 VulcanMatls VMC 214.58 WynnResorts WYNN 95.04 0.84
PUK 24.14 0.01 RioTinto SumitomoMits SMFG 8.78 0.16 2.01
PalantirTech PLTR 14.67 0.17 Prudential RIO 60.32 0.37 Shell 26.22 0.81
PublicServiceEnt PEG 60.06 -0.18 SHEL 60.93 -0.49 SunComms SUI 120.94 1.34 TenetHealthcare THC 72.68 1.05 Uber UBER 44.35 -0.28 XP XP
PaloAltoNtwks PANW 234.56 -6.25 RIVN 20.08 -1.10 SherwinWilliams SHW 270.41
Rivian
ParamountA PARAA 17.65 -0.17 PublicStorage PSA 273.70 0.45 RobertHalf RHI 75.22 0.15 ShinhanFin SHG 26.02
0.03 SunLifeFinancial SLF 46.92 -0.35 Teradyne TER 102.75 0.01 Ubiquiti UI 156.46 -0.51 W X Y Z XPO XPO 69.33 -0.97
-0.22 SuncorEnergy SU 32.55 -0.18 Tesla TSLA 233.19 1.91 UiPath PATH 15.29 0.19 XcelEnergy XEL 57.95 -0.01
ParamountB PARA 14.54 -0.10 PulteGroup PHM 78.83 0.87 Robinhood HOOD 10.38 -0.01 ShockwaveMed SWAV 220.79 1.04 TetraTech TTEK 158.41 0.12 UltaBeauty ULTA 430.58 -17.33 WEC Energy WEC 85.06 -0.03 XPeng XPEV 15.94 -0.49
SuperMicroComp SMCI 258.09 5.45
ParkerHannifin PH 398.10 0.63 PureStorage PSTG 37.45 0.13 Roblox RBLX 26.62 -0.34 50.59 0.06 WEX WEX 184.44 3.11 Xylem XYL 99.50 -0.41
QGEN 44.24 0.50 RocketCos. RKT 10.31 0.07 Shopify SHOP 53.96 0.03 Suzano SUZ 10.09 0.08 TevaPharm TEVA 9.75 0.14 Unilever UL
Paychex PAYX 119.45 -1.12 Qiagen W.P.Carey WPC 64.14 0.45 YPF YPF 14.62 0.22
QRVO 100.16 -0.46 Rockwell SimonProperty SPG 110.93 -1.79 SynchronyFinl SYF 31.79 -1.12 TexasInstruments TXN 167.11 -0.84 UnionPacific UNP 222.41 -1.56
PaycomSoftware PAYC 286.86 3.21 Qorvo ROK 292.64 -0.19 SimpsonMfg SSD 153.32 0.83 TexasPacLand TPL 1882.14 5.70 UnitedAirlines UAL 49.43 -0.20 WPP WPP 47.22 -0.19 Yum!Brands YUM 129.45 0.65
QCOM 109.47 -1.21 RogersComm B RCI Synopsys SNPS 436.39 -0.08
Paylocity PCTY 194.58 0.57 Qualcomm 39.27 -0.18 SiriusXM Wabtec WAB 110.88 -0.55 YumChina YUMC 52.48 -0.56
s SIRI 4.27 -0.13 SYY 70.20 -0.87 TexasRoadhouse TXRH 104.75 1.50 UnitedMicro UMC 6.75 -0.10
PYPL 60.98 1.47 QuantaServices PWR 206.63 3.06 RoivantSciences ROIV 11.15 0.19 SiteOneLandscape SITE 155.50
Sysco
PayPal
QuestDiag DGX 132.38 -0.51 2.26 Textron TXT 75.37 -0.18 UPS B UPS 166.86 -1.63 t WalgreensBoots WBA 26.54 0.10 ZTO Express ZTO 23.60 0.01
Pearson PSO 10.45 0.11 Roku ROKU 78.66 0.47 SkechersUSA SKX 50.15 -1.26 T U V ThermoFisher TMO 527.05 -5.21 UnitedRentals URI 441.63 -10.85 Walmart WMT 157.01 -0.50 ZebraTech ZBRA 269.36 1.83
PembinaPipeline PBA 30.25 -0.34 Rollins ROL 39.34 -0.52 Skyworks ThomsonReuters TRI 126.14 -1.20 US Bancorp USB 35.84 -0.92 WarnerBrosA WBD 12.54 -0.11 Zillow C 49.90 0.77
PenskeAuto PAG 166.68 -1.77
R S RoperTech ROP 487.57 1.58 SmithAO
SWKS 105.27
AOS 69.42
-1.77
0.56 TC Energy TRP 35.30 -0.43 3M MMM 98.51 -0.68 US Steel X 32.02 0.09 WarnerMusic WMG 32.37 -0.16 Zillow A
Z
ZG 48.62 0.75
Pentair PNR 66.27 -0.19 RB Global RBA 57.98 1.05 RossStores ROST 117.79 -1.37 Smith&Nephew SNN 27.00 -0.33 TD Synnex SNX 97.75 0.09 Toast TOST 21.49 -0.21 UnitedTherap UTHR 231.06 -0.08 WasteConnections WCN 137.15 -0.85 ZimmerBiomet ZBH 115.75 -4.60
Penumbra PEN 252.44 3.73 RELX RELX 31.45 -0.28 RoyalBkCanada RY 88.28 -1.29 Smucker SJM 139.67 -0.06 TE Connectivity TEL 127.77 -0.51 Toll Bros TOL 75.92 0.87 UnitedHealth UNH 492.34 -5.34 WasteMgt WM 158.13 -0.74 Zoetis ZTS 181.82 1.01
PepsiCo PEP 175.70 -1.35 RH RH 333.66 -10.52 RoyalCaribbean RCL 99.36 0.09 Snap SNAP 9.25 -0.11 Telus TU 16.82 -0.16 TopBuild BLD 284.66 2.83 UnitySoftware U 34.05 -0.46 Waters WAT 267.97 0.80 ZoomVideo ZM 65.83 -1.44
PerformanceFood PFGC 60.99 -1.22 R1 RCM RCM 16.54 -0.17 RoyalGold RGLD 108.29 0.59 Snap-On SNA 264.96 -2.23 Ternium TX 39.99 0.28 Toro TTC 97.70 -0.24 UnivDisplay OLED 150.77 -2.02 Watsco WSO 349.08 -0.54 ZoomInfoTech ZI 17.91 0.36
s PermianRscs PR 13.43 0.25 RPM RPM 99.83 -1.33 RoyaltyPharma RPRX 29.62 -0.02 Snowflake SNOW 152.58 0.70 TFI Intl TFII 129.92 -0.49 TorontoDomBk TD 60.86 -0.82 UniversalHealthB UHS 130.72 2.42 Wayfair W 65.31 -4.69 Zscaler ZS 141.90 -0.88
 .

B12 | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

HEARD STREET ON
THE
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

Profit From U.S. Factory Revival Microsoft

Plays Long
Manufacturing-automation specialist Rockwell has huge opportunity amid reshoring wave
Game With
There is a factory-building boom $200 billion
Activision
ANGELA PETERSON/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL/USA TODAY NETWORK/REUTERS

under way in the U.S., and Rockwell

Automation stands out as an under- 175
appreciated beneficiary.
Rockwell supplies hardware and 150 Total U.S. Give Microsoft credit for this
software for factory automation, in- manufacturing much—it doesn’t think in the
cluding for cutting-edge industries 125 construction short term.
such as electric vehicles and semi- spending In the 19 months that the soft-
conductors. This puts the Milwaukee 100 ware giant has been trying to com-
company at the center of powerful plete its proposed acquisition of Ac-
trends in the U.S. economy. 75 tivision Blizzard, Microsoft has
Yet its stock lately has been mov- made a few moves that seem coun-
ing on short-term concerns, such as 50 ter to the running logic of how the
a minor supply disruption in its videogame industry operates. One
most recent quarter. That spells op- 25 of those was the many deals it
portunity for investors. signed early on with makers of rival
According to U.S. Census Bu- 0 game platforms to keep Activision
reau data, total annualized manu- games such as the mega-popular
2002 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20
facturing construction spending in “Call of Duty” franchise available to
Note: Seasonally adjusted annualized rate
the U.S. came to nearly $196 bil- Source: U.S. Census Bureau, via the Federal Reserve them instead of keeping them exclu-
lion in June, which was the high- Rockwell Automation expects orders to start growing again next fiscal year. Bank of St. Louis sive to its own Xbox console.
est reading in at least two de- The latest move came Tuesday,
cades, up 80% from a year earlier maintaining the temperature, clean- tanked by 7.5% in a day when it re- in the form of a restructured deal
and up 148% from two years prior. liness and air flow in sensitive areas. ported fiscal third-quarter results As the company explained on a that essentially cedes rights to
“We’re seeing indications of re- It provides technology for transport- this month, and it continued drifting call with analysts, customers in fis- stream Activision games over
ally the early innings of what we ing wafers around the facilities. downward since. The company beat cal 2021 and 2022 responded to cloud-gaming services. The conces-
think is a multiyear investment Moret says these offerings were “a consensus analyst estimates for shortages in things such as semicon- sion is aimed at securing the ap-
cycle for certain types of manufac- very strong application for us in earnings per share, according to Vis- ductors by placing “unusually large proval of U.K. regulators, who rep-
turing,” said Rockwell Chief Exec- Asia, and as people are building new ible Alpha. But it missed estimates advance orders,” leading to a multi- resent the final roadblock to closing
utive Blake Moret. fabs in the U.S., it’s a great opportu- slightly on revenue due to what it billion-dollar backlog. Now that the deal after Microsoft won a
Pandemic disruptions and rising nity because we have the highest described as a “longer-than-ex- shortages are improving and old or- court victory over the Federal
geopolitical tensions with China put market share in the U.S.” pected changeover to a new third- ders are being fulfilled, new orders Trade Commission last month. Un-
new focus on supply-chain resil- Analysts at UBS note the U.S. ac- party logistics supplier at our North are subsiding. Crucially, the third- der the new agreement, videogame
ience, driving some reshoring of in- counts for about 16% of global in- American distribution center,” quarter earnings presentation publisher Ubisoft would control
dustry. New subsidies in the Chips dustrial production, down from an which caused it to miss “almost a showed an expectation for orders to cloud-streaming rights for Activi-
Act and the Inflation Reduction Act average of about 23% in the decade week of planned shipments.” start growing again next fiscal year sion games for the next 15 years
are turbocharging investment in the before China joined the World Trade Analysts were most disappointed thanks to the factors driving manu- worldwide, save for the countries in
domestic production of semiconduc- Organization in 2001. They estimate by the company’s guidance on total facturing investment in the U.S. the European Economic Area,
tors, EV batteries, solar panels and bringing that ratio back up to 20% orders: It said it expects orders for Now trading at 22.3 times for- where Microsoft would retain
so on. A tight labor market encour- by 2040 would require some $4.5 the fiscal year to come in between ward earnings, according to Fact- cloud-streaming rights because of
ages investment in automation. trillion of capital investment—a $8.5 billion and $9 billion, down Set, Rockwell isn’t cheap. But that deals the company struck with
Take semiconductors. Rockwell huge opportunity for companies from its guidance the prior quarter is a slight discount to its five-year other game-platform operators.
assists chip makers with facilities such as Rockwell. of “about $9 billion.” Total orders in average of 23.8 times. Wall Street’s At first glance, giving up cloud
management and control systems, Nonetheless, Rockwell’s stock the first half came to $4.8 billion. shortsightedness could prove to be rights might seem like a concession
investors’ gain. —Aaron Back too far. Spending $75 billion on Ac-
tivision was never about giving the
Xbox an advantage: Videogame

Arm IPO Will Test Investors’ AI Conviction

The rise of generative artificial license and royalty fees for devices
intelligence, like that used in Chat- that use its designs and technology.
GPT, has pushed any stock vaguely And the hope is that model will one
related to AI up this year. The com- day extend to many other markets,
ing initial public offering of British like for the central-server processors
chip designer Arm will put this used in AI. There are some concrete
market frenzy—and its parent Soft- signs those hopes
Bank’s AI ambitions—to the test. might be realized, too:
Riding the AI wave, Arm, which Nvidia’s Grace server
filed to go public on the Nasdaq ex- chips are based on The total value
change next month, could be the Arm’s architecture. of IPOs in the
largest new listing this year. The to- The two planned to
tal value of IPOs in the U.S. has merge in 2020, but U.S. amounted
amounted to $13 billion in 2023 so the deal collapsed due
far, according to Dealogic. The mar- to regulators.
to $13 billion in
ket for new listings has only started The pricing for 2023 so far.
to show signs of recovery quite re- Arm’s IPO isn’t out
cently, after a lackluster 2022. yet, but SoftBank
The boom in AI stocks could help dropped hints. The
Arm’s IPO. Chip stocks rebounded company just bought back a 25%
strongly this year: The PHLX Semi- stake in Arm from the SoftBank-
conductor index surged 41%. Nvidia, managed Vision Fund for $16.1 bil-
the leader in AI chips, led the rally. lion. That implies a valuation of
Its share price more than tripled. about $64 billion for Arm. SoftBank
Arm’s chip architecture goes into warned this price won’t reflect the
almost every smartphone due to its IPO price for Arm as it is based on
low power consumption. It charges prior contractual agreements.
Around two-thirds of the almost
$100 billion in committed capital for
the Vision Fund came from outside
investors like the sovereign-wealth
funds of Saudi Arabia and Abu
Dhabi. The transaction could trans-
fer some profits to
the fund, which re-
turned to a small
profit last quarter af-
ter five consecutive
quarters of losses.
The Vision Fund
bought the stake for
$8 billion from Soft-
Bank in 2017.
At $64 billion,
Arm would be trad-
ing at a lofty valua-
tion: equal to 24 times revenue or
122 times earnings, using financial
data for the fiscal year ending in
March—more expensive than most
chip peers. Nvidia trades at even
higher multiples, but its net in-
come is expected to more than tri-
ple year over year in this fiscal
year ending in January, according
to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
That makes Nvidia’s forward price-
to-earnings ratio just 48 times.
And Arm will likely keep suffer-
ing from the sluggish smartphone
market. Its net profit for the three
months ended in June more than
halved from a year earlier.
The question is: Will buyers pay
up for Arm’s AI prospects? Much
depends on whether investors be-
lieve Arm will experience the same
explosive growth as Nvidia. That is
no sure thing. The AI frenzy seems
to have cooled lately: The Nasdaq
Composite is down 6% in August.
SoftBank, which bought Arm for
$32 billion in 2016, has a lot riding
on the deal. Its stock gained 18% this
year, partly because of hopes of
higher valuations for an Arm IPO.
The AI frenzy lifted the chip
sector this year. The Arm IPO is
shaping up as a stress test for all
the rosy assumptions baked into
that rally. —Jacky Wong
hardware is a low-margin business
in which Microsoft is running a dis-
tant third behind Sony’s PlayStation
and Nintendo’s Switch. But while
game streaming is a nascent busi-
ness, it is a natural fit for Micro-
soft, which is a titan in cloud-com-
puting services. The Microsoft
Cloud segment generated nearly
$112 billion in revenue in the com-
pany’s most recent fiscal year
ended in June—more than the total
revenue of Sony and Nintendo com-
bined for the same period.
But that sort of scale allows Mi-
crosoft to play a very long game.
It is unlikely Microsoft’s strength
in the overall cloud business will
vanish over the next 15 years, es-
pecially with the company’s bold
moves to implement generative ar-
tificial intelligence into those ser-
vices. And the company will retain
the rights to put Activision games
onto subscription-based services
such as Xbox Game Pass.
That is an important stepping-
stone to establishing any game-
streaming industry, as much of the
industry’s current business models
remain centered on selling full
games as digital downloads or disks
at retail. Microsoft’s Game Pass is
the leader in game-subscription
services: Analyst Michael Pachter of

Gap’s Discount Is Too Big to Ignore Wedbush compared Microsoft’s

new deal to Netflix’s losing access
to “The Office” and “Friends” in
2020, which didn’t derail the
streamer’s growth momentum.
Gap has been losing popularity Enterprise value as a multiple of Leaning on data isn’t bad prac- Another example is RH CEO Adding Ubisoft to the mix com-
for so long that few Millennials— next-12-month sales tice, per se, but perhaps what Gap Gary Friedman, a former merchan- plicates the picture somewhat as
never mind Gen Zers—will remem- was lacking is a leader who knew dising executive whose effort to there is no guarantee the French
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
ber the brand was once cool. But how to use it correctly. Gap’s new- take the brand up the “luxury game publisher will choose to offer
just as low-rise jeans are trendy Inditex est CEO has led global design and mountain” paid off: Its shares cloud rights to games such as “Call
again, Gap may have a shot at a development at the Jones Group, gained more than 400% since of Duty” on attractive terms. But
comeback with its new leader. which included Nine West and Friedman started in 2014. Ubisoft has been more willing to
H&M
Investors have plenty of reasons Anne Klein. And he seems to know Fortunately for Gap’s incoming experiment with new business
to be skeptical. Shares of the com- a thing or two about fixing trou- CEO, many of its mistakes from 2021 models than some of its larger pub-
pany, which owns Old Navy, Athleta Hanesbrands bled brands: He helped revive Bar- have been cleaned up under interim lishing rivals. It was an early
and Banana Republic, declined 5.4% bie in the early 2000s by simplify- CEO Bob Martin. Inventory in the backer of Google’s Stadia cloud
over the past 21 years, during which American ing the product lineup and again in quarter ended Apr. 29 was down gaming service, even putting its
time the S&P 500 more than quintu- Eagle 2014 by adding more body styles 27% from a year earlier and back to popular “Assassin’s Creed” and “Far
pled. Over that period, Gap churned and ethnicities. In addition to Dick- levels before Old Navy’s strategic Cry” franchises on the platform be-
Abercrombie
through four chief executives (ex- son, Gap hired Chris Blakeslee, for- misstep. The company shed more fore Google shut down the service
& Fitch
cluding interim CEOs), each of mer president of fast-growing Alo than 2,000 corporate jobs—a move earlier this year. Ubisoft’s Paris-
whom was hired with the mission of Gap Yoga, as the CEO of Athleta earlier that not only comes with roughly listed shares jumped 8.5% on Tues-
turning the company around. this month. $300 million in annual cost savings day after news of the deal.
Richard Dickson, who is credited Source: FactSet There was a reason Gap’s former but the promise of more nimble de- Microsoft’s shares also edged
for reviving Mattel’s Barbie brand, is CEO Art Peck was skeptical about cision-making. The company has higher by the market close. The
picking up that heavy baton this pany’s decline in the early 2000s. creative types, but sometimes they about 10% fewer stores than it did new deal is seen as raising the
week and sparking some optimism. Since his up-and-down tenure, Gap are the only answer to a sinking four years ago after shedding less- odds of the merger’s finally get-
Gap shares gained 10% since the an- avoided leaders with apparel mer- brand. One example is Abercrombie productive locations. Gap is ex- ting closed as the U.K.’s Competi-
nouncement in late July, but that chandising backgrounds. This meant & Fitch, which was in steady decline pected to return to profitability in tion and Markets Authority called
did little to move the needle on the CEOs were able to fix a few weak starting in 2011 when its logo-plas- the current fiscal year. the new arrangement “substan-
company’s bargain-bin valuation. spots here and there, but not the tered apparel and cool-kids-only The apparel industry is expected tially different from what was put
Gap’s enterprise value is about 57% fundamental problem. messaging started losing appeal. to face headwinds in the next few on the table previously.” In a note
of the revenue it is expected to gen- Paul Pressler, who succeeded Fran Horowitz, previously the months. Shoppers are being more to clients, analyst Andrew Marok
erate in the next 12 months—about Drexler, was able to clean up Gap’s company’s chief merchant, took the selective about discretionary pur- of Raymond James said the deal
29% below its depressed two-decade troubled balance sheet but messed top job in 2017 and successfully re- chases and a resumption of student- should address the CMA’s con-
average. It is 34% and 21% cheaper up on merchandising: He used fo- vamped the brand: Its clothes now loan repayments could further un- cerns, noting “it is hard to argue
than American Eagle Outfitters and cus-group data to inform design lack visible logos and cater to work- ravel apparel spending. that providing rights to a rival
Abercrombie & Fitch on that mea- decisions, an approach that proved ing-age adults who might be search- The benefit of having four brands firm restricts competition in the
sure, respectively. to be too backward looking. Sonia ing for tasteful wedding guest out- with roughly $15 billion in annual market, especially when that rival
Dickson’s hiring marks the first Syngal, the latest CEO, made a sim- fits. Comparable sales in its flagship sales—value-focused Old Navy, ba- firm is then given permission to
creative-minded leader at Gap since ilar mistake. The Old Navy brand brand rose 12.3% in its last fiscal sics-focused Gap, athleisure brand act in their economic interest with
“merchant prince” Mickey Drexler, made a huge bet on inclusive siz- year after surging 29% the year be- Athleta and Banana Republic, which the rights they have received.”
whose eye for style led the company ing, relying on internal research. It fore. Abercrombie’s shares jumped sells office wear—is that the com- For Microsoft, buying Activision
to fast growth in the 1990s. But that backfired when in-demand sizes by about 80% one year after Horo- pany is well-positioned for whatever is becoming more like a game that
cuts both ways—Drexler’s creative sold out quickly while too-small witz took over the job. They are up kind of economic trend prevails in never seems to end.
decisions arguably led to the com- and too-large items piled up. by 255% since her promotion. the next 12 months. —Jinjoo Lee —Dan Gallagher