Making a killing on shipping

While the supply chain continues its dysfunction, inflation soars and consumers struggle to find what they need, shipping companies have made a $150 billion killing. Ocean rates are expected to stay elevated well into 2022, setting up another year of booming profits for global cargo carriers. Economists however warn that they’re playing an outsized role in stoking high prices. Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the world’s second-largest container carrier, was on track for an annual profit last year that would match or surpass its combined results from the past nine years. Its shares hit a record high this month, as did those of Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd AG. “Small- and medium-sized enterprises are being badly affected,” said Amruth Raj, managing director of Green Gardens, an Indian vegetable processor. “They exploit our desperation.” —David E. Rovella

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

Microsoft just made its largest purchase ever. The software giant plans to buy embattled game-maker Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, acquiring the company responsible for franchises like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Microsoft will use the deal to expand its own offerings for the Xbox console and push into the fast-growing markets for mobile gaming and the “metaverse.” Activision has been better known of late for allegations of sexual misconduct and discrimination under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick. When the deal is done, incoming CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer will be the boss. But Kotick does get a consolation prize: $375 million.

Rising yields and anxiety that earnings growth will slow dealt another gut punch to tech stocks, pushing the Nasdaq Composite Index to the brink of a correction. Stocks fell across the board and Treasury yields surged amid a ramp-up in speculation that central banks will have to boost interest rates sooner than earlier anticipated. Here’s your markets wrap.

A small lab study in South Africa yet to be peer reviewed provided some hope for a pandemic retreat. But there’s bad news, too: Lions and pumas at a zoo in Pretoria got severe Covid-19 from asymptomatic zoo handlers, raising concerns that new variants could emerge from animals. Hong Kong is culling thousands of small animals, after nearly a dozen hamsters imported from the Netherlands and sold at a local pet store were found to be infected with the delta variant and are suspected of having spread the virus to humans. In Europe, a record of more than 200,000 people in Switzerland are in quarantine or isolation after testing positive or coming into contact with a person infected with Covid-19. In Japan, the greater Tokyo region is set to come under a state of quasi-emergency for three weeks as the government tries to rein in a surge in the virus. In the U.S., the Biden administration’s Covid test distribution effort began as the postal service launched a website that allows households to order them for free. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

Officials at the U.K. Foreign Office have been told to be ready to move into “crisis mode” at very short notice, highlighting the increased concern that Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine could escalate into another unprovoked invasion of its neighbor. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made it clear on a visit to Moscow that the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline would be a target for retaliation if Russia uses energy as a weapon. The U.S. has pledged grave financial consequences for the Kremlin should Vladimir Putin choose to attack.

Human rights are a “luxury belief,” according to dealmaker Chamath Palihapitiya. The part-owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors said “nobody cares” about the plight of more than a million Uyghur Muslims who have been detained in camps in Xinjiang, China, and reportedly subject to forced labor or worse. The furor that’s resulted from Palihapitiya’s comments on a podcast came as news broke that a blank-check firm he started with Suvretta Capital is merging with medical technology company ProKidney. Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. III and ProKidney will have a combined equity value of $2.64 billion.

An ex-Citigroup banker is fighting to get his job back after he alleged that he was fired for blowing the whistle on a “toxic” culture at the bank’s Dubai office.

There is little doubt that advanced countries will pull back on the ultra-stimulative monetary policies they have pursued for several years. What is more consequential, Mohamed A. El-Erian writes in Bloomberg Opinion, is when and how this will lead to a meaningful tightening of financial conditions and what the spillover effects will be for the global economy.

East Hampton, the ultra-wealthy New York summer retreat for Wall Street, is making it harder for the moneyed classes to get there in style. The town’s board is expected to vote to deactivate its airport and reopen it as a more limited facility, which means getting a seat on a helicopter will be much harder come the high season.

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