‘I got this wrong’

Mark Zuckerberg fired 11,000 employees from Facebook-parent Meta, whose stock has plunged 71% this year amid disappointing earnings and sliding revenue. The retrenchment, the company’s most drastic since the founding of Facebook in 2004, reflects a sharp slowdown in the digital advertising market amid fears of an as-yet-unrealized recession and Zuckerberg’s multibillion-dollar investment in a speculative virtual-reality push he calls the “metaverse.” Zuckerberg said in a statement, in which he took responsibility for the mass terminations, that he’d anticipated the surge in web traffic from the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdowns would be part of a permanent acceleration. But that’s not what happened. “I got this wrong,” the multibillionaire CEO said. “I’m especially sorry to those impacted.” —David E. Rovella

Democratic Party voters breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday as the frenzied predictions of a “red wave” by Republicans, pollsters and much of the American media failed to materialize. Indeed, Democrats did much better at the state level than predicted, too. Still, when all the votes are counted, the GOP may take control of both houses of Congress anyway.

While most US voters say they feel the pain of inflation, fewer than one-third see it as the defining issue of whether to support President Joe Biden and the Democrats. The issue of abortion rights, ignited by a Republican-appointee majority of the Supreme Court, played a decisive role, exit polls showed.

US stocks dropped as disappointing earnings and renewed selling in cryptocurrencies weighed on risk sentiment ahead of a key inflation report. The dollar gained for the first time in four days. Here’s your markets wrap.

Russia ordered a retreat from Kherson, the first major regional center seized in its invasion of Ukraine. If true, the Russian failure would be a significant setback for Vladimir Putin. With Kyiv’s forces pressing their counteroffensive in the region bordering occupied Crimea, Moscow officials ordered the withdrawal on television. Meanwhile, other Russian officials contradicted previous, thinly veiled nuclear threats by Putin and his deputies. Russian diplomats circulated a memo saying the Kremlin’s use of nuclear weapons against conventional forces would only occur if the existence of the country was at stake.

Carbon-dioxide emissions from building construction and operations hit an all-time high in 2021, according to the most recent data, a sign that the push to decarbonize the industry by 2050 may be slipping out of reach.

Apple and Amazon were accused in a lawsuit of striking an unlawful deal to drive up prices for iPhones and iPads. How? By allegedly wiping out hundreds of third-party sellers who often offered steep discounts.

New Covid cases in Beijing jumped to the highest level in more than five months, with officials alarmed by infections being found outside of quarantine that show the virus is still spreading in the community.

Bloomberg continues to track the global coronavirus pandemic. Click here for daily updates.

Belinda Storey finds visits to her family’s holiday home in New Zealand unsettling. The house, built by her father using timber milled from their farm, sits just meters from a pristine beach on the fringes of the South Pacific. It’s one of her favorite places, but as a climate economist, it’s also a reminder that the nation is in deep denial about rising sea levels.

Get the Bloomberg Evening Briefing: If you were forwarded this newsletter, sign up here to receive it in your mailbox daily along with our Weekend Reading edition on Saturdays.

Bloomberg CEO Forum: CEOs and business leaders will convene on the sidelines of the G20 on Nov. 11 to discuss actionable solutions to the most pressing issues the world now faces to ensure responsible, inclusive and sustainable growth. Register here to secure your spot and join us in Bali or virtually.