Bloomberg Evening Briefing

US producer prices rose last month by less than forecast amid an ongoing moderation in inflation. Excluding volatile food and energy categories, the figure was unchanged in July from the prior month, its tamest reading in four months. The wholesale inflation numbers precede the more closely watched consumer price index, which is expected to show a modest increase in data to be released tomorrow. With employment numbers slowly softening and the economy continuing to cool, the cement on the conventional wisdom of a September rate cut seems to have set.

Here are today’s top stories

Bloomberg Exclusive: Breaking up Google is one of the options being considered by the US Justice Department after a landmark court ruling found that the company monopolized the online search market, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations. The move would be Washington’s first push to dismantle a company for illegal monopolization since unsuccessful efforts to break up Microsoft two decades ago.

There’s a gender divide in how recent college graduates are responding to a cooling US job market. While young college-educated women are sticking with their job search even as the number of vacancies shrinks, many of their male peers are choosing to take a break. The share of male college graduates participating in the workforce has declined in the past year, with 1 in 5 under the age of 25 neither employed nor actively looking.

Starbucks has named Chipotle Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol as the coffee chain’s new CEO and chairman, replacing Laxman Narasimhan after just over a year in the role. The leadership shakeup comes after activist investors Elliott Investment Management and Starboard Value  reportedly amassed stakes in the company. Starbucks shares jumped a record 23% on the news while Chipotle shares fell as much as 13%.

India’s banks are expanding into new geographies and businesses, driven by a nationwide credit boom and a go-go period of economic growth. But the pressure for firms to deliver has yielded a worrying side effect: one of the world’s worst attrition rates for bankers. As more of India’s 1.4 billion people seek out loans, some managers are pushing their youngest staff to the brink, driving thousands out of the industry. By one estimate, attrition is nearly double the global average.

Within the moneyed circles of the Middle East, there’s increasing talk of a shifting power dynamic at the upper echelons of high finance. Gone are the days of private equity bigwigs and hedge fund honchos flying to the Gulf, shuttling between five-star hotels and gleaming office towers then leaving with massive checks for their latest funds. Sitting atop nearly $4 trillion and acutely aware of their importance to Western capital markets, the Middle East’s biggest state-controlled funds are increasingly asking asset managers what they’ll do for them

Sovereign wealth funds from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are flexing their financial might. Photographer: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg

US Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are in a tax policy arms race as they court battleground voting blocs ahead of a looming fight in Washington to rewrite the tax code (a job which falls to Congress, not them). The duel highlights the central place of the economy in November’s vote, in case anyone had doubted it. Another big issue for Americans will be home prices. The median home price in Silicon Valley topped $2 million in the second quarter, the first time a US metropolitan area has exceeded that threshold. Prices for existing single-family houses in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area rose 11.6% in the second quarter from a year earlier to $2.08 million. 

New Zealand immigration slowed to its weakest in 16 months while record numbers of citizens head overseas for job opportunities and better pay. Annual net immigration dropped to 73,270 in June from a revised 83,740 in the 12 months through May, Statistics New Zealand said Tuesday in Wellington. That’s the lowest level since February 2023. 

New Zealand’s parliament complex in Wellington Photographer: Brendon O’Hagan

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

EV Promises 700 Miles a Charge (Just Add Gas)

Shopping for his first family car, Yuan, a 31-year-old Shanghai resident, test-drove pure electric vehicles from Nio and Xpeng, popular EV brands in China. But he was worried about running out of juice and the hassle of charging his car on the go. So instead, he tried something new: an extended-range electric vehicle, or EREV. They can go more than 600 miles on a charge compared with the typical 300, thanks to a small internal combustion engine on board whose sole purpose is to automatically recharge the battery. An EREV turned out to be the perfect fit, and in May he paid about $34,000 for a Li Auto L6, a five-seat sport utility vehicle that’s become one of the hottest-selling models in China.

Illustration: Baptiste Virot

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