Huawei gets its breather, sort of

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Trump follows through with his Huawei reprieve

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed yesterday that the Trump administration will issue licenses for American companies that want to do business with Huawei “where there is no threat to national security,” Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson of the NYT report.

• Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said that the U.S. had “relaxed a bit” the licensing requirements from the Commerce Department for companies that sell to Huawei.
• Another top official suggested the move would allow chip makers to continue selling certain technology to Huawei.

That could be good news for some U.S. tech companies, including Broadcom, Intel and Qualcomm, who all sell microchips to Huawei. American businesses “have lobbied the administration, saying that the ban will cut them off from a major source of revenue, while doing little to hold back Huawei’s technological advancement,” Mr. Tankersley and Ms. Swanson write.

But the reprieve is not a broad amnesty. Mr. Ross, speaking at an export-control conference in Washington, said the administration would continue efforts to protect America’s advanced technologies. “It is wrong to trade sensitive I.P. or source codes for access to a foreign market,” he said, “no matter how lucrative that market might be.”

More: Trade talks between the U.S. and China have resumed. Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke with the Chinese vice premier, Liu He, and commerce minister, Zhong Shan, yesterday to continue negotiations.

The labor secretary is in the hot seat over Jeffrey Epstein

As a federal prosecutor, Alexander Acosta oversaw a controversial plea deal for the financier a decade ago. Now, Glenn Thrush and Patricia Mazzei of the NYT report, he faces pressure to resign — including from inside the Trump administration.

Mr. Acosta defended the agreement — in which Mr. Epstein, who was accused of sexually abusing dozens of young women and girls, served 13 months in a state jail and was allowed to leave for work six days a week — as the toughest available. The deal was also kept secret from victims, which a judge ruled in February was illegal.

President Trump praised the labor secretary yesterday as “excellent” and said he felt “badly” for him. But he added that the White House would look into the matter “very carefully.” (The president himself remains under scrutiny for his longtime friendship with Mr. Epstein.)

Others in the Trump administration are out for blood. Mr. Acosta had already lost favor with a top domestic policy adviser, Joe Grogan. And the White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, is reportedly urging Mr. Trump to fire Mr. Acosta, according to Politico, citing unnamed sources.

The scandal is ensnaring more boldfaced names:

• Mr. Epstein was the sole director for the family foundation of Leon Black, the private equity billionaire, Business Insider reports.
• The journalist Vicky Ward accused Graydon Carter, the former editor of Vanity Fair, of toning down a 2003 exposé of the financier.
• Shares in the parent company of Victoria’s Secret slid yesterday amid concern that its chief, Les Wexner, would face blowback over his longtime association with Mr. Epstein.

Jay Powell prepares to testify. What will he say?

The Fed is stuck between a rock and a hard place as its (still-divided) committee works out whether the central bank should lower interest rates. Whatever it decides in its next policy meeting this month, it will probably take heat, Jeanna Smialek of the NYT writes:

• Reduce rates, and many commentators will argue that the central bank caved to political pressure from President Trump.
• Stand pat, and it will “deliver an unwelcome surprise to markets and could incur the White House’s wrath.” (A small comfort: The Fed appears to have bipartisan support among lawmakers.)

That will be on the mind of Mr. Powell, the Fed chairman, when he testifies before Congress today and tomorrow. “Markets are fully pricing in a 0.25 percentage-point rate cut this month, and the Fed’s pre-meeting blackout period starts July 20,” Ms. Smialek writes. “So officials have just this week and next to manage expectations.”

He will have to tread carefully, as little has happened in the last few weeks to make the Fed’s decision easier.

• “If anything, the economic snapshot may be blurrier. Job gains have rebounded after a slow May, and Mr. Trump and President Xi Jinping of China spoke at a summit in Osaka, Japan, averting an immediate escalation of the trade war between their nations.”
• “But temporary relief is not a permanent solution, and tensions could reignite, creating uncertainty that threatens economic growth.”

“They are in a bit of a bind,” Joseph Song, U.S. economist at Bank of America, told the NYT.

More: The Fed’s stress tests for banks are about to be simplified.

The one where “Friends” enters the content wars

As AT&T’s WarnerMedia prepares to roll out its new streaming service — now known as HBO Max — it has unveiled a new attraction: exclusive rights to the TV show “Friends,” Ed Lee of the NYT writes.

HBO Max will have 10,000 hours of content, including new series like “Dune: The Sisterhood” and feature films from the likes of Reese Witherspoon.

But “Friends” is probably the most notable title. It was the second most-watched show on Netflix last year, which is why the service was paying WarnerMedia (which originally created the show) $80 million annually for the streaming rights.

Now HBO Max will pay $425 million to carry the show for five years starting in 2020, Joe Flint of the WSJ reports. Yes, it’s basically one arm of WarnerMedia paying another.

It’s the latest blow to Netflix, which is also losing “The Office” to that show’s parent company, NBCUniversal. But not everyone thinks losing those programs is fatal, since Netflix can instead focus on developing and acquiring more content. (Like “Red Notice,” a $130 million movie starring Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot that Netflix just bought the rights to.)

Airbus could soon overtake Boeing

Boeing may soon cede its spot as the world’s biggest plane maker to Airbus, Doug Cameron and Robert Wall of the WSJ report.

The U.S. company has held the spot for seven years, delivering more jets each year than its European rival. It had previously been in second place for a decade.

But the 737 Max scandal could end that. Boeing’s jet deliveries “fell by more than a third in the first half of 2019 with the grounding of its 737 Max aircraft,” Mr. Cameron and Mr. Wall write. Boeing hasn’t had any orders for Max aircraft for three straight months.

“Airbus shipped 389 planes through June and is on track to deliver a record number of jets this year,” Mr. Cameron and Mr. Wall write. It has also committed to increasing output of its A320neo, a direct rival to the Max jets.

“Boeing now builds its 737 jets at a rate of 42 a month after cutting output by almost a fifth in April and shelving its plan to boost production,” Mr. Cameron and Mr. Wall write. And 150 undelivered Max jets are parked around the U.S., which will cost Boeing.

Ross Perot, the billionaire turned presidential candidate, has died

Mr. Perot, who made his fortune as a computer entrepreneur and ran for president by denouncing a North American trade deal, died yesterday. He was 89.

The businessman founded Electronic Data Systems, a provider of computer services, which processed the paperwork for Medicare among other things. He sold the company for $2.5 billion to G.M. in 1984. (He later created Perot Systems, which Dell bought for $3.9 billion in 2009.)

He was best-known for his 1992 presidential campaign. Considered an unlikely candidate — an outspoken, wealthy businessman who had never held public office — he mounted a surprisingly effective third-party bid. His main campaign message was to scrap the newly born Nafta: “We do the world’s dumbest trade deals,” he later said.

Sound familiar? John Harris of Politico writes: “A quarter-century before Donald Trump, Perot was a brash, can-do showman who expressed contempt for politics as usual and promised voters who shared his disdain that the path to national greatness was to send an autocratic businessman with a touch of jingo to the White House to kick ass in Washington.”

Revolving door

Bob Forrester was fired as C.E.O. of the Newman’s Own Foundation after employees accused him of inappropriate behavior.

Chilton Trust, the wealth management firm, hired Pepper Anderson from JPMorgan Chase as its C.E.O.

Surterra Wellness, a cannabis start-up, hired Fareed Khan, the former C.F.O. of Kellogg, as its finance chief.

Citigroup said that it plans to hire more senior investment bankers, especially in the health care and tech sectors.

The speed read

Deals

• IBM’s $34 billion takeover of the software maker Red Hat closed yesterday. (NYT)
• The founder of the South Korean gaming business Nexon has reportedly abandoned efforts to sell control of its parent company, which would have been a $16 billion deal. (Reuters)
• Levi Strauss blamed costs from its I.P.O. for missing quarterly profit estimates. (Business Insider)
• Cisco agreed to buy Acacia Systems, a maker of optical network components, for $2.8 billion. (Reuters)
• Bayer is reportedly in talks with Elanco to merge their animal health businesses. (Reuters)

Politics and policy

• A federal judge ruled that President Trump can’t block critics on Twitter. (NYT)
• Joe Biden and his wife have earned more than $15 million since leaving the White House, according to federal disclosure forms. (NYT)
• Twenty-four governors, including three Republicans, called on Mr. Trump to halt efforts to weaken pollution standards for cars. (NYT)
• Could states ever give up corporate tax incentives? (NYT editorial)
• The Mueller report, as adapted by the author of “Black Hawk Down,” with comic-book art. (Business Insider)

Brexit

• The British pound fell to a two-year low on worries about a no-deal Brexit. (NYT)
• The ties between the U.S. and Britain are especially frayed these days. (NYT)

Trade

• President Trump reportedly told President Xi Jinping of China last month that America would tone down criticism of Beijing’s handling of Hong Kong to revive trade talks. (FT)
• Nintendo will soon move production of some of its Switch consoles to Vietnam from China, perhaps because of the trade war. Sony and Microsoft could follow suit. (FT)

Tech

• After a year of internal debate and external criticism, Twitter has backed off imposing broad limits on “dehumanizing” speech. (NYT)
• The House antitrust subcommittee has asked executives from Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google to testify at a hearing on “online platforms and market power” next week. (WSJ)
• Facebook’s latest annual diversity report shows only modest improvements in underrepresented groups in its work force. (Business Insider)
• European regulators are beginning to examine real-time ad bidding that shares user data with as many as 2,000 companies. (WSJ)
• The videoconferencing software maker Zoom brushed off security concerns about its products on Macs — only to change course and fix the issues after continued outcry. (Quartz)

Best of the rest

• Critics have attacked Deutsche Bank over the size of severance packages for top executives who have departed over the last year. Its C.E.O., Christian Sewing, has said that the bank will still pay bonuses to deserving staff members. (FT, Bloomberg)
• Here’s another report on McKinsey & Company’s internal hedge fund, and its potential conflicts of interest. (Institutional Investor)
• Thirty-five employees of France Télécom committed suicide. Will their bosses go to jail? (NYT)
• A British watchdog said that all of Britain’s leading accounting firms failed an audit quality test. (Reuters)
• U.S. Customs seized a ship owned by JPMorgan Asset Management after the authorities found $1 billion worth of drugs on it. (Markets Insider)

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