7/11-13/11

Business

Rivian, a maker of electric vehicles backed by Amazon, had a successful stockmarket debut on the Nasdaq. Its stock rose by 30% above the offer price, giving it a market capitalisation of over $100bn, more than either Ford or General Motors. The company raised around $12bn, making it the biggest IPO in America since Alibaba’s listing in 2014. Rivian has yet to make any sales thus far, and it is hoping to deliver its first vehicles by the end of the year.

General Electric decided to split into three, independently run companies. Its health-care assets will be spun off in 2023; energy and power will be rolled into one and spun off in 2024; and aviation is to remain the sole focus of today’s GE.

Separately, Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest health-care company by sales, announced plans to separate its consumer-health division into another publicly traded firm in the next two years.

Japanese conglomerate Toshiba has confirmed plans to split the company into three separate businesses. Toshiba said the three companies would be focused on infrastructure, semiconductors and devices.

Economy

The price of fuel is a big factor behind America’s surging inflation. The annual rise in the government’s consumer-price index leapt to 6.2% in October, up from 5.4% in September, the largest jump since late 1990. Stubborn inflation is putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to bring forward an interest-rate rise.

Britain’s economic growth rate slowed in the third quarter, to 1.3%. As in other countries, supply-chain problems are hindering the recovery. GDP is still 2.1% smaller than in the final three months of 2019.

Politics

President Biden was able to claim a big victory when the House of Representatives at last passed his $1trn infrastructure bill. The bill had seemed in peril when left-wing Democrats insisted that welfare legislation should come up for a vote at the same time.

Separately, America and China issued a joint declaration to work together to reduce emissions. The two countries said they were committed to keeping the increase in Earth’s mean surface temperature to “well below” 2°C compared with pre-industrial levels.

Belarus kept dumping migrants at the border with Poland and barring them at gunpoint from retreating. It has been luring them onto flights from the Middle East with false promises of easy passage to the European Union. The migrants cannot enter Poland, and with winter coming, may soon freeze. The despotic regime of Alexander Lukashenko apparently hopes to cause another political crisis in the EU about refugees. Poland has sent 15,000 troops to the area.