Aurelia Butler

The company’s employees were previously set to return to offices on February 1, according to the report, citing a memo sent by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook.Growing worries over the rapidly spreading Omicron coronavirus variant have derailed several companies’ plans for a return to normalcy.Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) told its employees they would lose pay and eventually be fired if they did not follow the company’s vaccination rules, according to a report, while JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) & Co has asked its unvaccinated staff in Manhattan to work from home.Apple’s store closures in Miami, Annapolis and Ottawa come a day after the company reinstated its policy requiring all customers at its stores in the U.S. to wear masks.All the employees at the three stores will be tested before the stores are reopened, the company said.Through the pandemic, Apple has closed some stores for short periods of time around the world as coronavirus-related lockdowns were brought in and lifted.COVID-19 cases are rising again in parts of Canada and the United States, with Canada’s government imploring its residents on Wednesday not to leave the country. More

(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said that while policymakers have decided on a swifter end to the asset purchases that have been padding its easy-money policy throughout the pandemic, they have made no decision yet on whether to start shrinking the central bank’s balance sheet.That issue will be among the many – including whether to raise interest rates to combat stiff inflation – that the Fed will discuss in its coming meetings, Powell said at a news conference after the central bank’s latest policy meeting at which it decided to double the pace of its bond purchase “tapering” exercise. The Fed will cease adding to its nearly $8.2 trillion stash of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities by mid-March, about three months earlier than under the initial tapering pace announced last month.Officials have not decided what to do about the asset holdings beyond that, Powell said. Even held at a steady level starting in March, the stockpile will still provide accommodation, he said, just not “further accommodation.””So (we) haven’t made any decisions at all about when run-off would start,” Powell said, but “those are exactly the decisions we will be turning to in coming meetings.”The Fed launched the bond purchases in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic triggered widespread lockdowns that seized up the economy and sent key financial markets including the U.S. Treasury market into a tailspin. It opened the program with a blitz of $2 trillion of purchases in the space of a couple of months and then throttled that back to $120 billion a month starting in the summer of 2020 after markets and the economic free fall had stabilized.Officials decided at their November meeting to start to taper those purchases in the face of inflation that is running at more than twice their targeted annual rate of 2% and indications that the job market is making substantial progress toward its maximum-employment goal. Inflation has only accelerated since then – and job market gains have persisted – prompting them to accelerate the wind-down on Wednesday.The tapering program now under way is only the second ever undertaken by the Fed. It will wrap up in roughly half the time as the previous exercise in 2014 that had brought an end to the last of three bond-buying episodes the Fed used to help the economy recover from the 2007-2009 financial crisis. After the 2014 taper, the Fed held its balance sheet in essentially a steady state for about three years, reinvesting the proceeds from maturing bonds. It eventually began to shrink its holdings starting in 2018 by allowing some bonds to roll off the portfolio without reinvesting the principal at maturity, a process that became known as “quantitative tightening” or “QT.”The QT program ended abruptly in September 2019 when upheaval in a key funding market for banks and money market funds indicated that the Fed had pushed the reduction too far, and officials are keen not to see that repeated. “We looked back at what happened last cycle and people thought that was interesting and informative,” Powell said, “but to one degree or another people noted that this is just a different situation, and those differences should inform the decisions we make about the balance sheet this time.” More

Click here to listen to the latest news in less than three minutes. Top Stories Today is an audio news digest that gets you up to speed on the day’s headlines.The Biden administration will place eight Chinese companies including DJI, the world’s largest commercial drone manufacturer, on an investment blacklist for their alleged involvement in the surveillance of the Uyghur Muslim minority. The US Treasury will put DJI and the other groups on its “Chinese military-industrial complex companies” blacklist on Thursday, according to two people briefed on the move. US investors are barred from taking financial stakes in the 60 Chinese groups already on the blacklist.The measure marks the latest effort by US president Joe Biden to punish China for its repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in the north-western Xinjiang region. Here are the rest of the companies included on the black list. Go deeper: The crackdown by US authorities on Chinese listings has prompted talk of the end of a long and lucrative trade on Wall Street. Do you agree with the Biden administration’s move? Why or why not? Tell me what you think at [email protected]. Thanks for reading FirstFT Asia. Here’s the rest of today’s news — EmilyFive more stories in the news1. Fed officials expect three rate rises next year The more hawkish interest rate forecasts were published alongside a plan to double the pace at which the Federal Reserve withdraws or “tapers” the massive bond-buying programme it put in place at the start of the pandemic. It will in January begin cutting purchases by $30bn a month as it aims to tame inflation.Markets: US stocks jumped yesterday despite the Federal Reserve confirming that it would quicken the wind down its bond-buying programme.2. SEC proposes greater transparency for Archegos swaps US markets regulators have proposed rules to inject more transparency into the derivatives that blew up hedge fund Archegos Capital, which would compel investors to disclose swaps positions that have allowed them to build up unseen holdings in public companies.3. Iran allows IAEA cameras into key nuclear facility Iran has agreed to allow the UN’s atomic watchdog to reinstall cameras at one of its key nuclear facilities in a move that will ease tensions with the International Atomic Energy Agency as Tehran holds talks with world powers over the future of its 2015 accord.4. Lithuania pulls diplomats from China As Beijing retaliates against the Baltic nation’s efforts to strengthen ties with Taiwan, Lithuania has pulled its remaining diplomats out of China over concerns for their safety. The fallout threatens a dilemma for the EU.Elsewhere in foreign affairs: Germany is set to expel Russian diplomats after a court accused the Kremlin of “state terrorism” or ordering the killing of a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park in 2019.5. Kaisa offshore investors in talks to buy group’s distressed loans International investors in Kaisa are in talks to buy up to $1bn of the Chinese property developer’s distressed loans from mainland banks, in a push to gain information about its opaque restructuring process as the sector reels from the collapse of Evergrande.Coronavirus digestTwo doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine provide “insufficient” antibodies against the Omicron variant, according to researchers in Hong Kong.Data showed that Pfizer’s and Moderna’s booster jabs offer protection against Omicron, a top US health official said. “At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster,” said Anthony Facui. The UK has recorded its highest number of daily coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, as more than 78,000 people tested positive in a single day.The world will face a shortfall of 3bn vaccine shots early next year if richer nations “aggressively” boost adults and offer immunisation to children, the World Health Organization warned.The day aheadInterest rate decisions It’s a big day for interest rate decisions. Economists expect the UK’s Bank of England to keep the interest rate at 0.1 per cent when it meets today. Policymakers at the European Central Bank as well as the Swiss National Bank are also set to announce decisions. Rivian earnings The electric vehicle start-up that surged on its Nasdaq debut last month is set to report third-quarter earnings. European Council summit The Brussels meeting will be the first attended by Germany’s new chancellor Olaf Scholz.Thanks to readers who took our poll yesterday. Eighty-six per cent of respondents said inflation has caused goods to become more expensive where they live. What else we’re reading and watchingFT Person of the Year: Elon Musk Despite facing an army of doubters in the traditional auto industry and on Wall Street, the controversial Tesla chief executive has triggered a historic shift towards electric vehicles. That is why the FT is naming Musk its Person of the Year. Editor Roula Khalaf explains more in a letter to readers.

Musk is staking a claim to be the most genuinely innovative entrepreneur of his generation © AFP via Getty Images

Putin and Xi discuss closer co-operation Russia sought to portray Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping’s call this week, the 37th meeting between them since 2013, as a show of support at a time when both countries’ relationships with the west are deteriorating to lows not seen since the cold war more than three decades ago.Kathryn Murdoch has a plan (and $100m) to fix US politics It’s been more than 20 years since she married into the family known for its media empire. Her family has profited from partisanship. Now she’s using the gains to try to rehabilitate the centre. (And no she said hasn’t watched HBO’s Succession.) ‘Green defectors’ ditch high-flying careers A growing number of executives are quitting blue-chip jobs to work on tackling climate change. Those who have switched acknowledge they are fortunate to have the financial security to allow them to quit their jobs. To those who would like to follow suit, but fear the consequences, many say the shift is ultimately worth it.The tennis players struggling to break even Tennis champions Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka are among the best paid athletes in the world. But lower ranked players often struggle to make a living. For this video, the FT followed two players fighting to get to the top and get paid.Music Musician Nile Rodgers wants you to play his guitars. The co-founder of disco group Chic, whose hits include “Le Freak” and “Good Times”, is putting dozens of electric and acoustic guitars from his personal collection up for auction at Christie’s in New York this week in the hope that they find a new life.

© Getty Images More

Good evening,This morning’s news that UK inflation hit its highest level in a decade in November is just the latest sign of price pressures impinging on recovery prospects around the globe.The Office for National Statistics said the jump in consumer prices to 5.1 per cent, from 4.2 per cent the previous month, was driven by increases in the price of petrol and used cars, but affected almost all sectors of the economy.Today’s data put extra pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates when it gives an update on monetary policy tomorrow. Inflation is now more than double the BoE’s 2 per cent target. The FT Editorial Board however advised policymakers to be cautious until more was known about the effect of the Omicron variant.The IMF has also pitched in, declaring yesterday in its annual health check on the UK economy that the Bank should “withdraw the exceptional support” and not delay a rise in rates. It predicts UK inflation will hit 5.5 per cent by early next year.The US Federal Reserve is facing similar pressure to rein in its pandemic stimulus programme, following data yesterday that showed producer prices rising at their fastest pace on record. They were up 0.8 per cent in November, making the annual increase 9.6 per cent, which is the fastest year-on-year rate since the data were first collected in 2010. This sent stocks down on expectations that interest rates might rise sooner than expected. The Fed will publish its rates decision and its thinking on monetary policy today at 2pm ET (7pm UK).Tomorrow, it will be the turn of the European Central Bank, when its president Christine Lagarde is expected to announce a timeline for ending the ECB’s €1.85tn of emergency pandemic measures. This Big Read lays out the challenges ahead as the ECB struggles to get inflation under control.Investors however are not yet convinced that the world’s central banks can tame the beast: they are pouring billions into assets that profit from or hedge against rising prices. Use our inflation tracker to compare country performance and expectations across the worldLatest newsUS homebuilder confidence hit a 10-month high on robust demand for new homesEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Omicron would likely be the dominant strain of Covid-19 in Europe by mid-January (Bloomberg)Italy’s surprise move to introduce mandatory negative PCR or rapid tests for those travelling within the EU faced a backlash in BrusselsFor up-to-the-minute news updates, visit our live blog. And if you want to listen to the latest headlines in under three minutes, listen to our Top Stories Today audio digestNeed to know: the economyMore data have confirmed China’s recovery is slowing. Retail sales increased at a less than expected 3.9 per cent in November and new home prices fell at the steepest rate since 2015. The Asian Development Bank yesterday downgraded growth forecasts for developing countries in the region to 7 per cent, from 7.1 per cent this year and 5.3-5.4 per cent next year.Health experts have warned that the US would struggle to contain the spread of Omicron because of low vaccination rates, inadequate testing and inconsistent rules about mitigation such as mask wearing. The total number of US deaths has now passed 800,000.Latest for the UK and EuropeThe UK employment rate rose to 75.5 per cent in the three months to the end of October, despite the end of the government’s furlough scheme, fuelled by the return of part-time work that had dried up during the pandemic. Unemployment fell to 4.2 per cent, while vacancies reached a record high of more than 1.2m in the three months to November. Wage growth also remained strong. Meanwhile, two-thirds of UK employers have backed a rise in statutory sick pay.Spain is the second biggest beneficiary of EU recovery fund grants after Italy, but — in common with several other member states — it faces an uphill struggle to spend the allocated €70bn of funds fast enough. Problems include the complexity and number of projects under consideration, as well as complicated negotiations with Brussels about the rules and fears of taking legal risks by hurrying.Industrial production in the eurozone bounced back in October, giving some optimism for fourth-quarter growth prospects that have been battered by supply chain problems. The 1.1 per cent rise in factory output from the previous month left it 3.3 per cent higher than a year ago, but still 0.7 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. Global latestUS retail sales grew a less than forecast 0.3 per cent in November, compared with the previous month, after an earlier than usual start to the holiday shopping season. Congress voted to increase government borrowing limits in an eleventh hour effort to avoid a default before the end of the year.The World Health Organization said rich countries’ rush to administer booster jabs would cause a 3bn vaccine shortfall in poorer nations. Just 7 per cent of people in lower income countries have had at least one shot and 98 countries have fallen short of reaching the WHO target of immunising 40 per cent of their populations.Need to know: businessPunch Pubs has been bought by Fortress Investment Group for about £1bn, the latest in a string of private equity deals in the struggling hospitality sector. Business leaders are unhappy with the lack of UK government support to help with new coronavirus restrictions and fear serious labour shortages if Omicron spreads as rapidly as expected. But there will apparently be no further tightening of the rules in England before Christmas, according to a government minister earlier today.The darkening outlook for air travel seems to have brought an end to Iberia owner IAG’s takeover of Spanish rival Air Europa. The initial €1bn deal was signed in late 2019 before the pandemic and had been renegotiated down to €500m in January this year as IAG ran up billions of euros in losses.Inditex, the world’s biggest clothing retailer and owner of the Zara chain, has reported record sales and profits, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Sales for the nine months ending October 31 hit €19.3bn, a 37 per cent increase on 2020, and net profit reached €2.5bn, nearly four times higher than the previous year. The group increased online sales during the pandemic, while keeping them tightly integrated with stores.The streaming wars between Disney, WarnerMedia, Netflix, Amazon and others that took off during the pandemic have entered a new phase, as the lifting of restrictions allows filming of new material. Buyout groups are spending massive sums on production facilities for TV shows and films.Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are planning bonus bonanzas for their investment bankers after a frenzy of dealmaking brought in record fees. The value of US deals in the first 11 months of 2021 totalled an all-time high of $2.3tn.Join us for the FT Women At The Top Americas Summit on December 15 and 16 to learn how to advance your career and business in the workplace.The World of WorkThe rise of remote working has called into question the standard five-day working week. Is it a good idea to spread your working hours to include the weekend, or is it a sinister erosion of our free time? Listen to the new edition of our Working It podcast.US companies and health officials are taking further measures to boost vaccination rates among their workers. Supermarket chain Kroger is ending pandemic-related sick leave for unvaccinated employees and charging some of them a monthly healthcare fee. But judges have blocked the government’s plans to make vaccination compulsory for healthcare workers and federal contractors, as well as proposals to force companies with at least 100 employees to get their workers jabbed or make them take weekly Covid-19 tests.Get the latest worldwide picture with our vaccine trackerAnd finally . . . Looking for Christmas gift inspiration? Check out the choices of FT writers and critics in our comprehensive Best Books of the Year series.©  Cat O’Neil More

The writer is a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy SchoolEconomic sanctions have become the hammer in the US diplomatic toolbox, used repeatedly on foreign policy nails. The idea is to punish egregious behaviour without going to war. But they have never been great at coercing behavioural changes and President Joe Biden’s threat to impose “economic consequences like none he’s ever seen” on Russia’s Vladimir Putin is not likely to be particularly effective. An invasion of Ukraine would be met “with a range of high impact economic measures that we have refrained from using in the past,” according to secretary of state Antony Blinken. Those could include impeding Russia’s ability to convert roubles into western currencies, kicking Russia out of the Swift payments system, restricting its sovereign debt purchases and encouraging Germany to halt the Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline that will bring gas from Russia directly to Europe. But Russia is already heavily sanctioned. After its annexation of Crimea in 2014 the US imposed travel bans, asset freezes, finance and trade restrictions and a ban on assistance to Russian oil and gas companies. Russian banks were blacklisted by the US, with Visa and Mastercard also blocking some from using their payment systems. We do not know what would have happened without these sanctions, but they do not seem to have resolved the Ukraine crisis, reduced human rights violations in Russia or deterred new cyber attacks. They have no doubt knocked a few points off Russian GDP growth, but the economy has nevertheless adapted. According to the Treasury Department’s 2021 Sanctions Review, US sanctions use has increased 933 per cent between 2000 and 2021. During Barack Obama’s first term, the US designated an average of 500 entities for sanctions per year, a figure that nearly doubled under Donald Trump. Biden has imposed new sanctions against Myanmar, Nicaragua and Russia and this week will put eight Chinese companies on an investment blacklist for their involvement in repressing the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang. You might hope this explosion of US sanctions means they’re really effective. One generous study published in 2014 determines they lead to concessions about half the time. Since then, that percentage has probably fallen. After the 9/11 attacks, the US weaponised its financial system, making it harder for financial institutions to engage in dollar transactions with sanctioned governments, companies or people. But the proliferation of digital currencies and alternative payment platforms has created new loopholes around economic sanctions, giving targets the opportunity to hold and transfer funds outside of the traditional, dollar-based system. Economic sanctions have lost efficacy in a globalised world, too. China has emerged as a “black knight”, stepping in to offer trade diversion and other relief to sanctioned entities. The Venezuelan state-owned oil company, under US sanctions in a bid to topple the government, nevertheless sold oil to China via the Russian state-owned oil company, Rosneft. Iran is heavily sanctioned, yet China continues to buy its oil. The ratchet effect also makes US economic sanctions less effective. It is much easier for leaders to impose sanctions than remove them, for fear of appearing weak. Only Congress can permanently revoke sanctions mandated by law rather than by executive order, such as those against Cuba and Russia. Rising political polarisation makes this a very heavy lift. If there is no credible path towards removing sanctions, the target doesn’t have much incentive to change or negotiate. If economic sanctions are not a silver bullet, why does the US keep using them? Dan Drezner, a professor in international politics at Tufts University, offers one explanation. He argues they are both a reflection of American decline (adversaries are less afraid of the US and American leaders have fewer tools at their disposal) and a catalyst for it. Sanctions antagonise enemies, irritate allies, impose costs on innocent people and drive targets to find alternatives to the US financial system, undermining dollar supremacy. The Ukraine issue is a difficult one. Biden and Putin failed to resolve their differences in a two-hour phone call last week. It’s not clear what inducements the US and its allies can offer Putin to back off. Yet the threat of more sanctions may not accomplish much. They would impose a cost, but, to paraphrase Richard Nephew, former principal deputy co-ordinator for sanctions policy at the state department, “One can’t blame the [hammer] if it fails to perform the work of a screwdriver.” More