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London (CNN Business)Economists around the world are closely watching a resurgence of coronavirus cases across Europe for signs of what may be to come this winter.

What’s happening: The spike in cases is feeding fears that the region’s strong economic recovery from the pandemic could be in jeopardy. So far, the new Covid-19 wave has had only a limited impact on business activity in the 19 countries that use the euro. The Purchasing Managers’ Index from IHS Markit, a key gauge of the economy, rose in November after slipping to a six-month low in October, according to data released Tuesday.

Covid surge threatens Europe's economic recoveryBut expectations for the future are darkening. Austria announced last week that it’s going back into a national lockdown. Skyrocketing infections in Germany have also sparked questions about whether the region’s largest economy could reimpose sweeping restrictions.

“A stronger expansion of business activity in November defied economists’ expectations of a slowdown, but is unlikely to prevent the euro zone from suffering slower growth in the fourth quarter, especially as rising virus cases look set to cause renewed disruptions to the economy in December,” said Chris Williamson, IHS Markit’s chief business economist.Read MoreFrance could announce further Covid-19 rules as well after it reported more than 30,000 new infections on Tuesday, a level last seen in early August. Government officials are expected to discuss new measures on Wednesday.Ruben Segura-Cayuela, Europe economist at Bank of America, told me that more data is needed to assess what restrictions in Europe could mean for the region’s economy. He noted that with each wave of Covid-19 infections, the economic impact has declined as businesses and consumers learn to cope.”We know there will be a reaction, we just don’t know if it’s going to be the same magnitude,” he said. “I would assume, based on what we’ve seen over the last few months, it’s going to be smaller.”Much now depends on how the situation unfolds in Germany, said Jessica Hinds, Europe economist at Capital Economics. She told me it’s “plausible” that Europe could stagnate at the end of the year if its biggest economy enters a lockdown.”We are likely to see some hit to economic activity just as rising case numbers make consumers more fearful and governments require more stringent Covid pass [screening] for various activities,” Hinds said.Around the world: Uncertainty in Europe comes as officials in China consider fresh stimulus measures to fight stagnation at a shaky moment for the economy, given the sharp uptick in prices. Shortfalls of workers and supply chain delays are also weighing on output in the United States, where the PMI from IHS Markit is at a two-month low, though expectations for the future are improving on hopes for more stability next year.The global recovery from the pandemic remains intact. Consumer spending is still elevated as shoppers tap pent-up savings.”The US economy continues to run hot,” Williamson said. “Despite a slower rate of expansion of business activity in November, growth remains above the survey’s long-run pre-pandemic average as companies continue to focus on boosting capacity to meet rising demand.”But more than 20 months into the pandemic, reading the direction of the economy remains a difficult task, making it essential to keep close watch on fresh numbers.Watch this space: A US data dump is coming Wednesday ahead of Thanksgiving. Shortly, we’ll get the second estimate of third quarter GDP, jobless claims for last week, personal income and spending details, a crucial inflation measure and minutes from the Federal Reserve.

Market shrugs off the release of millions of barrels of oil

The announcement from the White House this week that China, India, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom are all joining the United States in the first coordinated emergency oil release in a decade hasn’t eased gas prices ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Why Biden's bid to lower gas prices is more of a Band-Aid than a game changerThe latest: US oil prices are flat on Wednesday after gaining 2.3% on Tuesday. The average price of gasoline across the United States remains stubbornly at $3.40 per gallon compared to $2.11 one year ago.What gives? First, investors had been anticipating the move. US oil dropped about 10% from late October as chatter about tapping strategic reserves grew. Prices are still about 7% below the levels they reached toward the end of last month.Investors also started pricing in a hit to oil demand over the winter due to a rise in coronavirus cases, said strategist Damien Courvalin at Goldman Sachs.Additionally, the number of barrels to be put on the market — estimated at between 70 million and 80 million — is smaller than the 100 million barrels or more that had been expected, per Courvalin.What next: Gasoline prices may still start to drop in the near-term. The “best case” is that prices slide by 15 to 20 cents a gallon, Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group told my CNN Business colleague Matt Egan.But the coordinated release isn’t expected to make a lasting difference, given the overarching market dynamics.Oil supply hasn’t kept up with surging demand as the global economy recovers from Covid-19. There’s a finite amount of oil in reserves, which can’t be tapped indefinitely. And oil companies aren’t ramping up production as quickly as they might have in the past. Some are prioritizing giving money back to shareholders over new investment; others are lowering output to refocus on renewable energy as pressure builds to tackle the climate crisis.

The latest headache for supply chains? Disappearing ships

Just as some of the problems clogging up global supply chains start to ease, another complicating factor has cropped up: ships in Chinese waters are disappearing from industry tracking systems.Analysts told my CNN Business colleague Laura He that they started noticing the drop-off in shipping traffic toward the end of October, as China prepared to enact legislation governing data privacy.Usually, shipping data companies are able to track ships worldwide because they are fitted with an Automatic Identification System, or AIS, transceiver. This system allows ships to send information — such as position, speed, course and name — to stations that are based along coastlines using high-frequency radio.But that’s not happening in the world’s second-largest economy, a critical player in global trade. In the past three weeks, the number of vessels sending signals from the country has plunged by nearly 90%, according to data from the global shipping data provider VesselsValue.Analysts believe the culprit is China’s Personal Information Protection Law, which took effect Nov. 1. It requires companies that process data to receive approval from the Chinese government before they can let personal information leave Chinese soil — a rule that reflects the fear in Beijing that such data could end up in the hands of foreign governments.The law doesn’t mention shipping data. But Chinese data providers might be withholding information as a precaution.Why it matters: With Christmas approaching, a loss of information from mainland China — home to six of the world’s 10 busiest container ports — could create more problems for an already troubled global shipping industry.

Up next

Deere reports results before US markets open.Also today:

• The second estimate of US third quarter GDP, initial jobless claims for last week and durable goods orders for October post at 8:30 a.m. ET.
• That’s followed by personal income and spending data at 10 a.m. ET, along with the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation and new US home sales.
• Minutes from the Fed’s November meeting arrive at 2 p.m. ET.

Coming up: US markets are closed for Thanksgiving and will shut early on Friday. We’re taking a break for the holiday, and hope you can, too. Before the Bell will be back in your inbox on Sunday.

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New York (CNN Business)President Biden and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell are committed to fighting inflation. But the two may face an uphill battle bringing consumer prices down due to a factor that many experts may not be pricing into the economic picture: the rise of ESG investing.

Investors have increasingly been looking to back companies that support sustainable environmental, social and governance practices. But some may be ignoring the impact the so-called “greenification” of the global economy is having on inflation, according to a recent report by Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Global Investors, an asset management firm. She called the phenomenon “en-flation.”Shah said that the increased focus by big businesses and governments on cleaner environmental policies could be inflationary in the short-term.

“I can’t see a reason why the Fed will not acknowledge the ‘E’ in its inflation outlook for much longer,” Shah said in an interview with CNN Business. “We will see more central banks consider climate change, and I suspect the Fed will do so, too. The green movement is not going away.”

So what is it about “going green” that could be a problem on the inflation front?Read MoreFor one, Shah noted that higher costs for carbon credits, or permits that companies can buy to offset emissions, could potentially get passed on to consumers.

There's a major problem with the narrative on inflationShe also pointed out that more businesses will potentially need to pay penalties if they don’t meet UN climate targets, something that also could lead companies to raise prices in order to preserve profit margins.Businesses may also face higher costs for labor, capital spending and other expenses associated with the transition to a more eco-friendly business model, Shah said.

Green monetary policy could mean more red for the market in the short-term

Of course, this is a necessary price that businesses — and consumers — will have to pay now for the good of the planet long-term. But it could come at the expense of earnings and shareholder returns in the short-term if companies have to eat some of those increased costs that they aren’t able to pass on to customers. “Someone is going to have to eat these costs,” Shah said. “It’s either consumers or businesses.” It’s also a sign that inflation won’t be “transitory” as Powell, until recently, has repeatedly claimed. “The outlook for inflation is one that should stay elevated for the next 10 years due to ESG cost integration and a tight oil and natural gas supply,” Sebastien Galy, senior macro strategist with Nordea Asset Management, said in a recent report.US oil companies are in no rush to solve Biden's gas price problemThe ESG revolution is just one more reason why the Fed will continue to have difficulty tamping down price pressures anytime soon — unless it begins to tighten monetary policy by raising interest rates, said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist with Federated Hermes.

“The Fed tightening is the right thing to do in light of how ugly inflation is,” Orlando said. “It is not temporary or transitory. This is sustainable.” Orlando is predicting that the Fed will need to hike rates twice next year and four more times in 2023 in order to bring inflation under control. And as long as businesses continue to spend more to be good environmental stewards, that could push inflation pressures up even further.

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New York (CNN Business)Dollar Tree will soon be $1.25 tree.

The company — one of America’s last remaining true dollar stores — said Tuesday it will raise prices from $1 to $1.25 on the majority of its products by the first quarter of 2022. The change is a sign of the pressures low-cost retailers face holding down prices during a period of rising inflation.Dollar Tree (DLTR) said in a quarterly earnings release Tuesday that its decision to raise prices to $1.25 permanently, however, was “not a reaction to short-term or transitory market conditions.”

Exclusive: Prices will go up on Cheerios, Fruit Roll-Ups, Betty Crocker and more next yearSelling stuff strictly for $1 hampered Dollar Tree, the company said, and forced it stop selling some “customer favorites.” Raising prices will give Dollar Tree more flexibility to reintroduce those items, expand its selection and bring new products and sizes to its stores.

Dollar Tree also said that hiking prices will help the company increase its profit margins by “mitigating historically high merchandise cost increases,” including freight and distribution costs, as well as wage increases.Read More”This is the appropriate time to shift away from the constraints of the $1 price point,” CEO Michael Witynski said in a statement.

The end of dollar stores

Dollar Tree carries primarily seasonal goods, toys, stationary, home decor, kitchenware and party items. It caters to suburban, middle-income shoppers, unlike Dollar General (DG), its more rural-focused rival. Family Dollar — owned by Dollar Tree — targets mostly low-income shoppers in cities.Dollar Tree has sold products at $1 for 35 years and was the last of the major dollar store chains to actually be a dollar store. (The company was called “Only $1.00” in the late part of the 20th century, before changing its name to Dollar Tree in 1993.)

CVS is closing 900 stores, and the big winner is Dollar GeneralDollar Tree had started moving away from only offering goods for $1 in recent years, in part as a response to pressure on Wall Street to raise prices. Dollar Tree has lagged Dollar General and other discount chains.In 2019, an activist investor took a stake in the company and pressed the chain to raise prices. The group ended its fight after Dollar Tree announced it planned to test different prices. In September, Dollar Tree said it planned to begin selling items at $1.25 and $1.50 at some stores for the first time. It also said it would add $3 and $5 items to more stores, expanding on a prior strategy to offer these prices at select locations.Since that announcement, a different activist investor built a stake in Dollar Tree and has tapped a former Dollar General CEO to push for changes at the company.

Although Dollar Tree said its decision to permanently raise prices was not a reaction to short-term inflation, one analyst was unconvinced.”The pace of rollout, along with [the] engaged investor, Mantle Ridge, clearly suggests otherwise,” Kelly Bania, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said in a note to clients Tuesday.

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But China’s recent crackdown on the tech sector has slowed earnings momentum at big brand name firms including Baidu (BIDU), Alibaba (BABA) and WeChat owner Tencent (TCEHY). Continued human rights concerns, brought to the forefront once more following questions about the safety of tennis star Peng Shuai, are also a problem for some investors.

So can (and should) you avoid the world’s second largest economy? Some experts think that’s exactly what investors should be doing.

“Investors have underestimated autocracy risk,” said Perth Tolle, sponsor of the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets (FRDM) ETF, a fund that has no exposure to Chinese stocks. Read More

Where Xi's China is heading”You can’t always factor in the risk of a government coming in overnight and saying to a company ‘you can’t really make a profit,'” she said. Tolle told CNN Business that investors should be more concerned about capital flowing out of the country due to worries about Beijing exerting more control over companies in mainland China.That’s why her fund has more exposure to other markets such as Taiwan and South Korea instead of China. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) and Samsung (SSNLF) are two top holdings in the FRDM ETF.

Emerging markets funds doing better without China exposure

Tolle isn’t the only one screening out China from emerging markets funds. Big fund companies such as iShares and Columbia Threadneedle also have emerging market ETFs that leave Chinese companies out of their holdings. The funds have outperformed broader emerging markets funds this year, too, showing that investing for social good can be profitable. The FRDM ETF, as well as the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ex China ETF (EMXC) and Columbia EM Core ex-China ETF (XCEM), are each up between 6% and 8% in 2021. That’s compared to a 2% drop for the broader iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM), which owns Tencent, Alibaba and Chinese food delivery service Meituan as top holdings.

Biden-Xi meeting yielded no major breakthroughs. But Beijing has already claimed victoryOther investing experts argue that Chinese president Xi Jinping’s recent push to crack down on big tech firms is not a good sign for earnings in the short-term.”We like the longer-term view, but in the near- term, we’re more cautious,” said Jeff Mortimer, director of investment strategy at BNY Mellon Wealth Management. “Some other emerging markets have better growth potential.””The move from promoting more entrepreneurship to an equal growth sharing of the pie changes the equation,” he added. “We took some money off the table and reduced our exposure to China.”Another portfolio manager argued that trying to predict which companies or sectors will come under the “Xi Jinping thought sphere of influence” makes investing there a challenge. Major Chinese education stocks have taken a hit this year as well due to regulatory concerns. “The investor perception of risk has risen in China, and it has risen with cause,” said Paul Espinosa, portfolio manager with Seafarer Capital Partners. Espinosa also said China isn’t as attractive as other emerging markets simply because stocks outside of the country are better bargains.

Companies in Brazil and others parts of Latin America are more compelling values than Chinese-based firms, Espinosa said. He’s also looking at investment opportunities in the Middle East.”Everyone is so focused on China, and it is dominated by growth investors,” he said. “But there are more opportunities outside of China.”

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New York (CNN Business)Shares of upstart electric truck maker Rivian plunged as much as 17% in morning trading Monday after confirming reports that it is no longer working with Ford to jointly develop vehicles.

Both Ford and Rivian had already signaled they were moving away from earlier plans to work together on EVs. But the news first reported late Friday by Automotive News sent Rivian shares down 3% in the last hour of trading Friday, and wider reports sent shares sharply lower Monday. By midday Rivian shares were off their lows of the day but still down about 13%.Rivian and Ford both issued statements saying that their plans and needs had changed since the original collaboration was announced, and pointed out that Ford remains a major investor in Rivian, holding roughly 12% of its shares outstanding.

Ford had announced a $500 million investment in Rivian in April 2019 that included plans for joint EV development. But a year later it dropped plans to develop a Lincoln-branded EV pickup with Rivian, and no new plans had been announced.

“As Ford has scaled its own EV strategy and demand for Rivian vehicles has grown, we’ve mutually decided to focus on our own projects and deliveries,” said a statement from Rivian. “Our relationship with Ford is an important part of our journey, and Ford remains an investor and ally on our shared path to an electrified future.”Read More

Rivian CEO and founder RJ Scaringe, left, and Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford in 2019 when they announced a strategic partnership between the two companies. News that the companies would no longer work together sent shares of Rivian’s high flying stock sharply lower Monday.Rivian shares have soared in value since its initial public offering earlier this month, despite the fact that it has yet to report any revenue from sales of its electric trucks. Even with the plunge in price Monday, the company’s market value of $96 billion is still about 20% more than the value of Ford’s (F) shares. Amazon (AMZN), which has a contract to buy electric delivery vans from Rivian, holds an 18% stake in the company. Production of Rivian’s pickup started in September, although it is still in ramp-up mode. The company is planning to use at least some of the proceeds from its stock sales to increase its own capacity.Meanwhile Ford recently announced a $7 billion investment — the largest single investment in its history — in a new assembly factory and three new battery plants it will jointly own with Korean supplier SK Innovations. The factory, which will build electric pickups, will be in Tennessee, and the battery plants will be in Tennessee and Kentucky. It is part of Ford’s plan to invest $30 billion in electric vehicles in the next five years, with the goal of 40% of its total sales being of electric vehicles by 2030.

Rivian has $0 in revenue and is now the third most valuable carmaker on the planetFord expects to begin deliveries of its own electric pickup, the F-150 Lightning, which is being built at a new plant in Detroit, sometime next year. Ford said that its battery electric vehicle plans are in “a much different place than we were even a year ago.”

“While Rivian is doing lots of interesting things and we’ve got great respect for R.J. [Scaringe, the Rivian CEO] and his team, we like very much where we’re at, and Ford and Rivian have both agreed we’ll not pursue any kind of joint vehicle development or platform sharing,” said Ford’s statement. Shares of Ford (F) were up in midday trading.

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A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.

London (CNN Business)For months, there have been warnings to shoppers: Get through your holiday to-do list early. Wait until Black Friday or later, and you may not be able to find what you want.

But as stores prepare for the peak of the most important season for retailers, bigger companies are starting to send a different message: You may not have to worry about empty shelves after all.What’s happening: Anxious about huge shipping delays, large chains have been stocking up on products for months. Some, like Walmart (WMT) and Costco (COST), have been chartering their own ships to travel from production hubs in Asia, while others have been leveraging long-term relationships with suppliers to get what they need.

“The availability of inventory is going to be better at the large, well-positioned retailers who either have more scale or flexibility to navigate through these challenges, or they’ll be viewed as preferential partners for their vendors,” UBS analyst Michael Lasser told me.

Walmart’s inventory levels rose 11.5% during its most recent quarter compared with a year ago, the company said last week, while Target’s inventory levels increased 18%. TJX (TJX) said its inventory has climbed a more modest 4%.Read More”Most of the inventory we need for the holiday season has already been delivered to us or is scheduled to arrive in stores and online in time for the holidays,” TJX CEO Ernie Herrman told analysts last week.These companies have faced higher costs to secure hot items. But unlike some competitors, they can afford to pay more when needed.Not everyone has gotten it right. Ross Stores (ROST) said that despite chartering an ocean vessel, it had some concerns about getting merchandise in time for the holidays due to clogged ports.Victoria’s Secret also said that nearly 50% of its holiday merchandise is stuck in transit as Black Friday approaches. The company is trying to rely on planes to deliver merchandise, but it may be too late. Compared to this time last year, the retailer has 30% less pajama sets, a popular gift item. Lasser said the US companies struggling the most are those that import a larger share of their products from overseas. Walmart, he noted, sources two-thirds of its goods domestically, which helps insulate them from issues at ports.Then there’s smaller retailers, which can’t just throw money at the problem. They could fall even further behind the biggest players in the coming weeks.The gap “has been widening for years,” Lasser said. “I would expect that to continue to be the case this holiday season.”

Casting doubt on Covid’s ‘Great Migration’

The “Great Migration” may not be as pronounced as once thought.The US Census Bureau recently released data showing that migration activity has fallen to its lowest rate in more than 70 years, my CNN Business colleague Alicia Wallace reports. The findings toss some cold water on anecdotes that Americans were relocating more than ever during the pandemic.

The 'Great Migration' during Covid may not have actually happenedFrom 2020 to 2021, nearly 27.1 million Americans, or 8.4% of the US population, reported living in a different residence than the year prior. That’s down from 9.3% the previous year. The migration rate has been falling steadily since 2014.Rethinking the narrative: There might not have been a massive overall trend of people moving across the country. But net migration out of urban neighborhoods did climb during the early stages of the pandemic, said Stephan D. Whitaker, a policy economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland who has been closely studying migration patterns.”Flows of migrants out of high-cost, large metro areas did increase during the pandemic,” Whitaker said. “However, many other types of moves, both long distance and local, declined. Summing all these moves reveals that, overall, fewer people relocated during the first year of the pandemic.”Whitaker has found that some outflows from high-cost metro areas continued through spring 2021, as people relocated to smaller cities nearby and fast-growing destinations like Las Vegas and Nashville.At the same time, people started returning to large cities — though not enough to replace those who had left.

Up next

Monday: US existing home sales; Urban Outfitters and Zoom earningsTuesday: IHS Markit PMI data; Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Best Buy (BBY), Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS), Dollar Tree (DLTR), J.M. Smucker (SJM), Dell (DELL), Gap (GPS) and Nordstrom (JWN) earningsWednesday: US personal spending data, new home sales and PCE inflation; Federal Reserve minutes; Deere (DE) earnings

Thursday: US markets closedFriday: Half day for US markets; Pinduoduo (PDD) earnings

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With Black Friday a week away, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) is up an astonishing 61% this year. That’s extraordinary, considering it does not have gigantic positions in Amazon (AMZN), Walmart (WMT) or Target (TGT) among its top holdings, iThe ETF has roughly equal weightings in more than 100 stocks. Many of the mall-based companies that investors left for dead in 2020 during the pandemic but have since roared back to life this year are more responsible for powering the ETF’s stellar 2021 performance.

Dillard’s (DDS), Macy’s (M), Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and jeweler Signet (SIG), the owner of Jared and Kay, make up some of the larger weightings in the fund. And they have each more than doubled in 2021.

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Attention holiday shoppers: Buy now before it is out of stock

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Attention holiday shoppers: Buy now before it is out of stock 01:44Macy’s reported earnings and sales that topped forecasts Thursday morning and issued a bullish outlook for the holidays. The stock soared more than 20% on the news. Read More”The consumer is healthy, and we expect the strong demand to continue, particularly as people return to work,” said Macy’s chief financial officer Adrian Mitchell during a conference call with analysts.Another notable holding in the ETF, Kohl’s (KSS), is also thriving. The stock surged 10% Thursday after it, too, reported strong third quarter results. The stock is up nearly 55% this year.

Healthy economic tide lifting many retail boats

Consumers, armed with more money from bigger paychecks and a high amount of savings thanks to stimulus checks from earlier this year, seem more than willing to venture back out to the mall to shop in physical stores instead of sitting at home and buying things on their phones or laptops.It also appears that larger retailers are doing a better job of restocking their shelves, despite supply chain concerns, shipping delays and inventory challenges that are hurting smaller stores.Just look at how well the two companies that used to be part of the once-struggling L Brands are now doing. L Brands broke up earlier this year into two publicly traded companies: Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret. Both companies, which are each in the retail ETF, reported strong earnings earlier this week and their stocks surged on the news.

Americans say they hate the economy but act like they love itOf course, the threat from Amazon hasn’t gone away. Although Amazon shares briefly dipped after reporting earnings last month that underwhelmed Wall Street, the stock has bounced back lately and is once again not far from an all-time high. So investors in some of the former retail laggards have to hope that some of these brick and mortar stalwarts will be able to do a better job in the digital commerce realm. Some retailers, most notably Kohl’s, are also partnering with Amazon to try and capture some of its e-commerce magic. Kohl’s lets Amazon customers return orders at its stores.

“Let me just say that with Amazon, we continue to be pleased with that partnership,” said Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass during its earnings call Thursday. “And we continue to see new customers from that program. So we saw that build.”Gass added that Kohl’s own digital efforts are reaping rewards too, with digital revenue growing from both last year and pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Digital sales now account for nearly 30% of total revenue at Kohl’s.

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New York (CNN Business)Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wants federal regulators to investigate whether any laws were broken by the shell company that is facilitating former President Donald Trump’s return to Wall Street.

In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Warren cited a report by The New York Times that found Trump began discussing a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. long before the blank-check company went public and before such talks were disclosed to investors. Yet Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs, are not supposed to have merger targets planned before they raise money from the public. And Digital World repeatedly told shareholders that it had not held substantive talks with a target company.

“DWAC and Trump Media and Technology Group appear to have brazenly flouted these rules,” Warren wrote in the letter, sent Wednesday to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.

Marjorie Taylor Greene invested as much as $50,000 in the Trump SPAC before its stock plungedWarren argued the apparent omissions had the result of “enriching big investors” and “trapping retail investors in a stock bubble” and she urged the SEC to investigate. Read More”I have frequently spoken about the need to hold public officials accountable for lawbreaking and ethics violations. This includes the former president, who is not above the law,” the Massachusetts Democrat wrote. The SEC declined to discuss the matter. “We don’t comment on the existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation,” a spokesperson said. Neither Digital World nor Trump’s media venture responded to requests for comment. Shares of Digital World skyrocketed as much as 1,657% in the days after the SPAC announced it would merge with Trump Media & Technology Group, a new venture chaired by the former president that vowed to “stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech.” Even though little is known about the Trump venture (filings did not indicate how much revenue, if any, the firm generates), the SPAC achieved meme stock status almost overnight. Even Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene bought as much as $50,000 worth of shares in the stock. However, the boom proved fleeting. Digital World is currently trading at around $56, down by about two-thirds from its October 22 peak of $175. The SEC has signaled a desire to crack down on potential fraud in the SPAC craze and Warren is hoping the Trump deal will be a high-profile catalyst to do so. Her letter included a list of questions for Gensler to respond to by November 29. “The reports that DWAC may have violated securities laws and harmed investors during its acquisition of Trump Media and Technology Group are deeply troubling,” Warren wrote, “and provide an opportunity for the SEC to follow through on its commitment to investigate wrongdoing and fraud in the SPAC space.” Warren argued Digital World “appears to have misled regulators and the public on multiple occasions” through its filings. For instance, she cited a May filing by Digital World where the blank check company told investors it did not yet have a merger partner. “We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target,” Digital World wrote in that filing.

Yet the New York Times report, citing unnamed sources and a confidential investor presentation, said Trump had been discussing a deal with Digital World CEO Patrick Orlando since at least March. “If these reports are true, the agency has a responsibility to act,” Warren wrote.

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New York (CNN Business)Alibaba reported sales and earnings for the third quarter that missed forecasts and warned that results for the year will be below estimates as well. The stock sank on the news.

Shares of Alibaba (BABA) were down 10% in early trading Thursday. The Chinese e-commerce giant reported sales growth of 29% from a year ago, to $31.1 billion. But Wall Street was expecting revenue of $32.1 billion. Earnings per share fell 38% from a year ago and also were below expectations.The company also said that sales for its current fiscal year should rise between 20% and 23% from a year ago. Analysts were predicting growth of nearly 28%.

Alibaba, co-founded by Jack Ma, and fellow Chinese tech giants Tencent (TCEHY), Baidu (BIDU) and TikTok owner ByteDance, have been subject to increased regulatory scrutiny from the Chinese government lately. Beijing has cracked down on large corporations, which has hurt results.

Buffett pal Charlie Munger is doubling down on Alibaba betIn its earnings release, Alibaba cited “regulations” and a “regulatory environment that affect Alibaba’s business operations” as well as “privacy and data protection regulations and concerns” as some of the uncertainties it was facing.Read MoreEarlier this year, Alibaba was forced to cancel plans to take its Ant Group affiliate, which owns fintech giant Alipay, public. Alibaba’s giant cloud business continues to post impressive results though. Revenue rose 33% from a year ago for that unit. Alibaba Cloud has helped the company expand beyond China as well, a key goal.”Alibaba continued to firmly invest into our three strategic pillars of domestic consumption, globalization, and cloud computing to establish solid foundations for our long-term goal of sustainable growth in the future,” Alibaba chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang said in a statement.Alibaba’s results come one week after the company wrapped up its annual Singles Day online shopping extravaganza. Chinese consumers continued to shop for bargains during the event, but sales growth for the platform was slower than last year.Part of that is probably because of the regulatory environment, but Alibaba is also facing tougher competition as well as a slowdown in the Chinese economy.During a conference call with analysts Thursday, Zhang said “economic headwinds, coupled by intensifying market competition also affected our core commerce business in China.” He noted that there was a slowdown in apparel and general merchandise but that consumer electronics and furniture demand remained resilient.

Singles Day stock tip: Forget Alibaba and look at JDRival JD.com (JD) also reported earnings Thursday morning. Sales and profits topped forecasts, and the company’s shares were up nearly 4% in early trading.

“Consumers and business partners increasingly trust and rely on JD, and we were able to outpace the industry growth in China in the third quarter,” JD.com president Lei Xu said in the earnings release. JD.com’s stock has surged more than 25% in the past six months while Alibaba shares have fallen nearly 25% during the same time frame.

Source: edition.cnn.com

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The findings illustrate how CEOs are not immune to the exhaustion that has swept hundreds of millions of workers worldwide since the onset of the pandemic and has pushed many to consider a new job or lifestyle in a wave dubbed “The Great Resignation.” “Our belief is that it will only accelerate going into next year as people have delayed their retirements,” said Jeff Sanders, co-managing partner of Heidrick’s global CEO and board practice.

What's it really like to work at a company? Here's how to find outThere were 103 CEO appointments in the first half of 2021 out of 1,095 companies in 24 regions that Heidrick studied, including the United States, China and some European countries.

Six months prior, in the second half of 2020, 49 companies changed CEOs, according to the study.Read MoreMost companies kept their leaders in place last year as they closed ranks to deal with the challenges of the pandemic. But as it receded with the help of vaccines, companies felt they were stable enough to find a new leader, Sanders said.”Many CEOs didn’t have to travel as much,” which helped them preserve their energy, Sanders said. But communicating “virtually” in a new medium was “exhausting,” he said.The reluctance of many boards to meet CEO candidates physically or place risky bets on outsiders while the pandemic lingers favored internal applicants, the study found. Nearly two-thirds of new CEOs were internal candidates, up from just a little over half during the same period in 2020.Women made up 13% of the new CEOs in the first half of this year, up from 6% in the prior period in the regions the report studied.

Yet the churn did not lead to big strides in diversity, according to the study. It found that 3% of Fortune 100 CEOs are Black, 4% are Hispanic or Latino, 4% are Asian and 1% are Middle Eastern or North African, less than their share of the U.S. population.”I don’t think (CEO diversity) is where it needs to be,” Sanders said.

Source: edition.cnn.com

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