Here are today’s top stories

After losing re-election, President Donald Trump continues to fall further behind as more absentee ballots are counted in states across the country. Nevertheless, Trump (and fellow Republicans led my Mitch McConnell) has refused in unprecedented fashion to concede, though the Biden transition is well underway. Instead, Trump has promised to continue pursuing litigation over evidence-free assertions of electoral malfeasance. There’s only one problem: his own advisers think the effort is pointless. Three more of Trump’s aides meanwhile have contracted the coronavirus.

Jonathan Bernstein writes in Bloomberg Opinion that Trump’s refusal to accept defeat won’t affect the outcome of the election but may do immense harm to the country. Meanwhile, Trump’s General Services Administration chief, Emily Murphy, has refused to issue paperwork that would enable funds to flow to the Biden transition. She is quickly becoming a central figure in the post-election guessing game over whether there will be a peaceful transfer of power.

Trump administration official Emily Murphy

Photographer: Susan Walsh/AP

Oil spiked on news of the promising vaccine as fossil-fuel producers hoped demand would soon rise. More broadly, the global economic outlook could materially change as a result of the good news.

Several online trading platforms broke down Monday as individual investors tried to take advantage of heavy trading.

Two big deals, one potential. VF Corp. jumped the most in 33 years after agreeing to buy streetwear fashion label Supreme for $2.1 billion to bolster its portfolio of apparel and footwear brands. Adobe said it will acquire Workfront for $1.5 billion to add a collaboration tool to its marketing software. And home improvement giant Lowe’s is in preliminary talks to buy building products distributor HD Supply Holdings.

Bloomberg Quicktake reveals how Richard Branson’s Virgin Hyperloop conducted its first test with passengers.

A full-scale passenger Hyperloop capsule

Photographer: Cristina Quicler/AFP/Getty Images

What’s Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director says there’s always a lot of talk about financial stocks and how they’ve been sucking wind for years. But not all financials are doing so badly; mostly it’s just the banks. On the other hand, check out a company like ICE, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. Ten years ago, it had a market cap of just $8.2 billion; today it’s a bit over $56 billion. A big part of the story is how exchanges continue to move up the food chain, offering more value-added services beyond merely being passive trading venues.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

How the incoming administration may go about prosecuting Trump.
World leaders slowest to congratulate Biden are his biggest worries.
Trump fires Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
N.J. imposes more Covid limits as infections jump in Northeast.
Beijing’s halt to Ant Group’s IPO will take $140 billion off the top.
For billionaires, Embraer offers a jet to match their Porsche.
What to do when you lose? If you’re Mike Pence, you go to Florida.

What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Pursuits

These Travel Companies Are Actually Thriving

In January, the experiential travel platform Peek celebrated the milestone of having notched $1 billion in bookings since its founding. Then the novel coronavirus hit. Fast-forward to midsummer, though, and Peek and a few other nimble travel firms found themselves booming again. This is how they did it.

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