Slowing growth

JPMorgan cut its US midyear economic growth forecast after an influx of weaker data this week—most notably a slowdown in consumer spending. The bank reduced its estimate for annualized gross domestic product growth to 1% for the second quarter, down from 2.5% previously. The third quarter is also seen at 1%, down from 2%. Growth will tick up to 1.5% in the final three months of the year, helped by stronger car production and lower inflation, the bank’s economists said. Still, oil could reach wild heights if Vladimir Putin goes all-in on cutting off supply. Big Oil, namely Exxon Mobil, is already cleaning up thanks in part to his war on Ukraine. As for what you should be doing right now with your cash, one JPMorgan strategist says it’s just fine to hoard it. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

Toronto-Dominion Bank, the Canadian bank that’s been expanding through acquisitions, is weighing a deal for the brokerage firm Cowen Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

Elon Musk’s fortune plunged almost $62 billion. Jeff Bezos saw his wealth tumble by about $63 billion. Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth was slashed by more than half. All told, the world’s 500 richest people lost $1.4 trillion in the first half of 2022, a dizzying decline that marks the steepest six-month drop ever for the global billionaire class.

Investors reeling from the emerging markets selloff are fleeing the rupee as India’s currency hit new lows, prompting the government to curb gold imports and oil exports to arrest a widening deficit. The world’s sixth-biggest economy, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are feeling the heat.

Russia killed almost two dozen civilians in a missile strike near Odesa a day after retreating from nearby Snake Island, authorities reported. The European Union is working on new sanctions to target Russian gold, matching a move by the Group of Seven nations aimed at further choking off Moscow’s revenue.

The elimination of federal abortion rights by the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority shifted the debate to the states, where the legal landscape is a mess. Red states with “trigger laws” are finding that quickly imposing restrictions on reproductive freedoms is harder than they thought—for now anyway.

Covid-19 has returned to the central Chinese city where it first emerged, with two cases reported in Wuhan and a swelling outbreak in a neighboring province that’s already seen counties locked down. In the US and the UK, hospitalizations continue to rise. And in case you’re asked, the answer is no: the pandemic is “absolutely” not over.

To judge by Turkey’s pro-government media, Recep Tayyip Erdogan scored a major geopolitical victory for his country at the NATO summit in Madrid this week. “Turkey slammed its fist on the table, Europe came to its knees,” declared one conservative daily. Not so much, Bobby Ghosh writes in Bloomberg Opinion. He says Erdogan blew his big opportunity.

After attracting crypto firms, property investors and Russian billionaires, Dubai is drawing a new crowd: hedge fund managers. Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management and Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital Management, one of the largest multi-strategy hedge funds in the world, are among the newcomers.

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