Wal-Mart Challenges Amazon & Other News You Need to Know Now

Good morning! Here’s what we’ll be keeping an eye on today: any announcement out of the US-Gulf summit at Camp David; a Senate vote on giving President Obama “trade authority;” ECB chief Mario Draghi speaking to the IMF; and earnings including King (Candy Crush) and Kohl’s.

Wal-Mart will offer a $50 a year unlimited three-day delivery subscription. At half the price, it’s a serious challenge to Amazon Prime but Wal-mart’s e-commerce ambitions are slowed by its size and its culture as a legacy retail business. The beta test is for now invitation-only and limited to a few unnamed markets.

Five big banks are expected to plead guilty to felony fraud and antitrust charges in the LIBOR-rigging case. Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and RBS are expected to pay billions in fine and likely will have to formerly reapply to operate in some lines of business. UBS too and it may have a harder time than its peers. Still, no one’s spending a night in prison. 

Google has received 250,000 requests to be “forgotten” in the year since the EU Court of Justice granted European citizens the right to be removed from search results. Google has rejected three out of four requests  with an average response time of 16 days. 

Uber poached Google’s head of comms Rachel Whetstone. David Plouffe, of Obama campaign fame, who joined Uber last year, will move to its board. With anti-Uber legislation a dime a dozen, rampant accusations of sexism and a likely IPO next year, Whetstone will have her hands full. 

Outgoing Cisco CEO John Chambers loosened up a bit in his final earnings call, promising to be a helpful “wingman” to incoming CEO Chuck Robbins. US tech companies are suffering, he added, from political tensions with China and Russia, which have cut them off from two critical markets. “Until our countries get along better, we’re not going to see an improvement,” he said. Cisco reported revenue up 5% and profit up 6% year on year. 

The DuPont uprising failed. Shareholders voted againt activist investor Nelson Peltz and his hedge fund Trian. The stock still took a nearly 7 percent hit. 

Shake Shack turned up an unexpected profit of $0.04 a share after sales went up 56% in the first quarter. McDonald’s can keep worrying. 

A fire engulfed a shoe factory in Manilla, killing at least 72 workers. The factory, where survivors describe sweatshop conditions, made rubber flip-flops. 

Housing.com CEO Rahul Yadav wants to give all his shares of the company to his employees. That’s 4.5% of the company, about $30 million, divided between 2,000 people. The bad boy of Indian startups abruptly resigned last week before taking it back. He’s also know for publicly calling an investor a name I will not republish on a professional social network. 

Christie’s signed the art world’s first billion-dollar week. Billion-plus dollar half-week really: its Wednesday auction netted $658.5 million, after a $705.9 million sale Monday. Starving artists, where? 

High rents don’t just hurt your wallet; they hurt the economy. Economists estimate that if residential real estate in New York, San Francisco and San Jose had been allowed to grow enough to house the workers their industries needed, the US economy would be 9.5% bigger today. It’s better explained here.

It’s the third long weekend in a row in much of Europe. It’s Ascension Day in the Catholic calendar and many in France, Germany, Belgium or Scandinavia might “faire le pont” – build a bridge with the weekend and take Friday off as well. May is notoriously bad for productivity in Europe – but it’s a boon to the travel and hospitality industries.

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