The S&P 500 topped 3,000 Wednesday for the first time as Wall Street became more certain that the Fed would cut interest rates this month, a move U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, testifying before Congress, said bad news from around the world outweighed good news at home. But when asked what he would say if Trump told him to pack up and leave, Powell answered that he would tell him “no.” —David E. Rovella

Here are today’s top stories

Embattled Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, a former prosecutor, sought to defuse calls for his resignation over a 2007 plea deal offered to fund manager Jeffrey Epstein, who now faces sex trafficking charges in New York. At a press conference, Acosta didn’t directly answer a question about whether Epstein got a better deal due to his wealth or influence. 

When Walmart paid $16 billion for control of India’s e-commerce pioneer Flipkart last year, the American retail giant got a little-noticed digital payments subsidiary as part of the deal. Now the business is emerging as one of the country’s top startups.

A unanimous ruling by three Republican-appointed federal judges handed Trump another victory in his effort to fight off claims that he is violating the Constitution because his businesses receive payments from foreign governments.

Federal agencies have five weeks to rip out Chinese-made surveillance cameras in order to comply with a ban imposed by Congress. But thousands of the devices are still in place and chances are most won’t be removed before the deadline.

There’s at least one thing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Trump adviser Larry Kudlow agree on.

Buying a house on the water? By the time your 30-year mortgage expires, you could be facing as many as 135 days of high-tide flooding, depending on where you live.

What’s Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director says that it seems like every day we’re greeted with some new, odd fact from the world of bonds, whether it’s emerging markets floating century bonds, Italy seeing massive demand for 50-year paper or yields on European junk debt going into negative territory.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

• In New Orleans, the threat of a two-sided storm is growing.
• We ranked the best states to retire in. No. 1 may be a surprise.
• Angela Merkel faces more calls for transparency over her health.
• Walmart workers are rebelling against its push to add robots.
• Here’s how the biggest hedge fund managers are doing this year.
• Businessweek says lawsuits against Bayer are sprouting like weeds.
• Volkswagen bids a sad goodbye to the Beetle.

What you’ll want to read tonight

U.S. Homebuyer Bidding Wars Are Fading Fast

Here’s how rapidly the U.S. housing market has cooled: Buyers are now about four times less likely to face a bidding war than they were just a year ago. In June, 12% of them faced competition compared with 52% a year earlier. While San Francisco is the most competitive market, the share of listings that got multiple offers fell to 28% from 65%.

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