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Fewer Americans than expected sought unemployment benefits last week as Initial jobless claims decreased by 36,000 to 837,000, according to the Trump administration. Continuing claims fell to 11.8 million in the week ended Sept. 19. A separate report Thursday showed Americans’ incomes fell in August by the most in three months after the government’s supplemental unemployment benefits expired, presenting a growing threat to consumer spending. And Friday’s jobs report is projected to have even more bad news. —David E. Rovella

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Here are today’s top stories

The global cull of banking jobs continues with Goldman Sachs joining the growing list of lenders resuming cuts paused during the coronavirus pandemic. The Wall Street firm is embarking on a plan to eliminate about 1% of its workforce. Adding that to disclosures this week by other banks would take the total number of job eliminations announced this year to 67,844, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told top Democrats Thursday that she’s skeptical of getting a deal for a new economic bailout package in negotiations with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Talks today between the two did not yield a breakthrough. Oil fell on fears of oversupply. Here is the markets wrap.

Russia’s military is now more capable than at any time since the end of the Cold War, a development that comes as Western nations are increasingly concerned about any efforts to tilt the coming U.S. election, President Vladimir Putin’s continued aggression in Ukraine after annexing Crimea and his military support for the Syrian government in a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. Now there is another conflict that is attracting Russia’s attention.

Dark days for Britain. The European Union is starting legal proceedings against the U.K. over Boris Johnson’s plan to breach terms of its divorce from the continent and break international law. Financial services firms operating in the U.K. have shifted about 7,500 employees and more than 1.2 trillion pounds ($1.6 trillion) of assets to the EU ahead of the split, with more likely to follow in coming weeks. And the nominee for the EU’s top financial oversight job warned the U.K. to expect “consequences” if London decides to split with the bloc on how it regulates the financial industry. Meanwhile, a surge in coronavirus infections in Britain have forced the government to extend a ban on household mixing to parts of northeast England. A key public health official in London said the capital city is at a “tipping point.” Here is the latest on the pandemic.

Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai

Source: Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg

A U.S. Senate panel voted Thursday to subpoena the chief executive officers of Facebook, Google and Twitter to testify on a legal shield that is key to their online platforms’ business models. The Senate Commerce Committee moved to compel appearances by Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey after failing to reach agreements with the companies to send the CEOs voluntarily. The vote is part of increasing bipartisan concern in Washington about the power of the technology giants, in particular ahead of the November presidential election. In India, founders of dozens of startups gathered to discuss setting up a startup collective to fight the power of Google and Facebook.

The risk of a housing-market bubble increased in cities across the globe during the pandemic, as prices continued to rise despite warning signals. These are the cities with the riskiest housing markets.

What’s Lorcan Roche Kelly thinking about? The Bloomberg cross-asset editor says a lot has been written about how cryptocurrencies and Blockchain will change the world. But apart from spawning an endless stream of get-rich-quick ads, they have yet to make any real impact on most people’s lives, Lorcan says.The digital currencies that are more likely to enter everyday use are the ones based on what people already see as actual money. They are central bank-issued digital currencies, and should in theory work just like a regular currency, only without the need to ever have physical cash, or even a traditional bank account.

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Ozaki Is the Wagyu Upgrade, at $45 an Ounce

Even in New York, a city blessed with the best in prime beef, some cuts have the power to grab the imagination. One was a $185 steak sandwich that Don Wagyu, a compact storefront in the Financial District, started selling in 2018. The star of that dish, which created lines down the block, was a melt-in-your-mouth piece of meat densely marbled with flavorful fat. Called Ozaki, the beef came from one small farm in Japan. Generally speaking, Japanese beef is richer and has a more luscious bite than its counterparts because of the care farmers take with their cattle. That’s why wagyu, which means “Japanese cow” and encompasses any of the ­country’s four breeds, has become synonymous with quality. But in the world of premium wagyu, Ozaki is in a league of its own. 

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