>>> What to look at today - 5th of september 2024

Asian stocks trimmed their gains and US stock futures slid as traders awaited this week’s US payrolls data to gauge the extent of the Federal Reserve’s easing.  The MSCI Asia Paficic Index erased most of its 0.8% gain. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell more than 1%, while benchmarks in Hong Kong and South Korea turned lower. Taiwan’s Taiex index jumped more than 1%, led by a rebound in the shares of chipmakers.  Treasury yields climbed after the 10-year rate dropped eight basis points in the prior session, as a slowdown in the US labor market bolstered bets on steep rate cuts by the Fed. An index of dollar strength steadied after weakening by 0.3% on Wednesday. The yen, earlier supported by an increase in Japan’s real wages, erased gains.  Traders are back in wait-and-see mode ahead of the US payrolls report due Friday, one of the most important data points before the Fed’s decision later this month. Financial markets have displayed outsized reactions to US economic data as focus shifts to the risk of a recession. Skepticism over the artificial intelligence hype has also hurt risk assets, with Nvidia Corp. seeing its worst two-day plunge since October 2022.   US futures edged lower in Asian trading after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 ended Wednesday down 0.2%.   Shares of Nippon Steel Corp. snapped a three-day drop. The Japanese steelmaker is in focus after US President Joe Biden was said to block its $14.1 billion takeover of United States Steel Corp.. Shares of US Steel closed 17% lower in New York, the biggest decline since April 2017.  Sentiment remains weak over Chinese equities. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped its buy recommendation for the nation’s stocks, citing weak policy support and potential volatility linked to the US presidential election. A gauge of Chinese shares in Hong Kong slumped to its lowest in two weeks.  With the Fed set to begin cutting rates in a few weeks, monthly US employment data due Friday will help determine how big the move will be. Chair Jerome Powell has made it clear the Fed is now more concerned about risks to the labor market than inflation.  In commodities, oil rose after closing at the lowest level since June 2023 as an industry report pointed to a big draw in US crude stockpiles. Meanwhile, gold traded at around $2,495 after finding support following the US job openings data.  US After Hours VRNT -16.6%, AI -16.1%, CRDO -12.6%, CHPT -10.1%, AVAV -4.1%, CXM -3.7%, HPE -3.1% lower on earnings; MODG +2.7% to seek to split in two.

Nikkei -1.17% Hang Seng -0.50% CSI -0.01% Shanghai -0.07% Shenzen +0.35%

Eur$ 1.1079 CNH 7.1013 CNY 7.1011 JPY 143.50 GBP 1.3150 CHF 0.8462 RUB 87.5116 TRY 34.0279 WTI$ 69.43 +0.35% Gold 2,498 +0.10% BTC 57,200 -1.44% ETH 2,412 -1.74%

S&P -0.09% Nasdaq -0.19% EuroStoxx -0.15% FTSE -0.23% Dax -0.15% SMI -0.21%

Macro :
- Goldman’s Rubner Sees Market Correction If Payrolls Come In Weak
- JPMorgan Abandons Bullish China Call as US Election Stirs Angst
- Saudi Arabia External Balances Weaken on Oil Drop, IMF Says
- Economic Security Key in US Steel Takeover Proposal, Japan Says
- Oaktree’s Marks Says Fed Cuts to Take US Rates No Lower Than 3%
- Japan’s Kono Says Inappropriate for Govt to Block US Steel Deal

Keep an eye on :
- BIM FP : BioMerieux Boosts FY Organic Sales Forecast
- BP/ LN : Ex-BP Exec Gets Go-Ahead for Biggest African Mangrove Project
- BRBY LN : Burberry Group to Leave FTSE 100 Index, Hiscox to Join
- CRI FP : Chargeurs 1H Recurring Operating Profit EU17.0M Vs. EU12.7M Y/y
- ATD CN : Couche-Tard 1Q Adjusted EPS Misses Estimates
- ATD CN : Couche-Tard Says Hunting for US Deals, Stays Quiet on Seven & I
- CVC NA : One of Year’s Best European IPOs Faces Earnings Test: ECM Watch
- EUROPASTRY IPO : Spain’s Europastry Mulls Resuming IPO This Fall: Expansion
- GRF SM : *BROOKFIELD AIMS TO PAY GRIFOLS B SHRS AT LOWER PRICE: EXPANSION
- HELN SW : Helvetia 1H IFRS Net CHF258.6M Vs. CHF257.8M Y/y
- HSX LN : Burberry Group to Leave FTSE 100 Index, Hiscox to Join
- IDL FP : ID Logistics Group Offers Up to EU125 million Shares
- BAER SW : Julius Baer Buys All Shares in Kuoni Mueller & Partner
- KENDR NA : Kendrion Raises Dividend Payout Policy in New Mid-Term Targets
- MC FP : Tiffany to Halve China Flagship Store as Luxury Spending Dives
- SAN SM : Banco Santander Named Retail Banking Partner of Formula 1
- SSABA SS : SSAB Says Head of SSAB Europe to Retire Next Year
- STLAM IM : Jeep Cuts Output of Wranglers, Grand Cherokees -- WSJ
- SLPB SS : Swedish Landlord SLP Hires Banks for SEK1b New Share Sale
- TEL2B SS : Tele2 Says CEO Kjell Johnsen Will Step Down
- TOM NO : Tomra Systems Targets 18% Return on Capital Employed by 2030
- MODG US : Topgolf Callaway Brands: Two Independent Companies Will Be Callaway and Topgolf >MODG
- NSKOG NO : Norske Skog Delays France Containerboard Production Start
- ULVR LN : Russia Allows Unilever to Sell Local Assets, RBC Says
- VOLVB SS : Volvo Cars to Expand Collaboration With Nvidia
- X US : US Steel Says to Pursue All Legal Options for Nippon Steel Deal
- X US : Economic Security Key in US Steel Takeover Proposal, Japan Says
- X US : Japan’s Kono Says Inappropriate for Govt to Block US Steel Deal
- VLTSA FP : Voltalia 1H Normalized Ebitda EU75.0M Vs. EU56.0M Y/y
- WPP LN : Amazon Picks Omnicom, WPP for Consumer Ads Account: Adweek
- XPEV US : XPeng ADRs Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT $11.50

FT : Old Masters glorify Paris mansion at reopened Musée Jacquemart-André

Old Masters glorify Paris mansion at reopened Musée Jacquemart-André
‘Masterpieces from the Borghese Gallery’ unites a Roman cardinal’s Renaissance collection with French patrons’ rococo taste


In a scintillating start to Paris’s autumn season, one superb collection welcomes another, legendary one: the Musée Jacquemart-André reopens, more opulent than ever after a year’s refurbishment, to host Masterpieces from the Borghese Gallery. It’s a heady meeting: two villa museums evolved from the private homes and art of visionary collectors, each preserving its distinctive taste.

The Parisian collection was extravagantly nostalgic: packing their Boulevard Haussmann mansion with pictures and precious objects from the Renaissance to the rococo, Second Empire banker Édouard André and society painter Nélie Jacquemart created a gilded refuge from 19th-century industrialisation and turmoil.

Cardinal Scipione Borghese’s collection, by contrast, was dazzlingly of its time: in the early 17th century he sought the best contemporary and recent art to adorn his Villa Pinciana, the “villa of delights” which became Rome’s Borghese Gallery.

Highlights sent to Paris celebrate the Borghese’s full dramatic, aesthetic and emotional range. The cool watchful blonde “Lady with Unicorn”, Raphael’s enigmatic answer to the “Mona Lisa”, surveys us from her loggia. Bernini’s self-portrait, black eyes flashing, seethes with restless ambition. Titian’s “Scourged Christ”, indomitable, violated, heroic, based on the Belvedere Torso, emerges in half-light to fix his executioners with a look of terrible defiance.

Annibale Carracci depicts a huge, sinewy “Samson in Chains” at an instant of tension and resolve, about to burst free, illuminated by a divine glow in his dark prison. And the earth moves in Veronese’s tilting, fluid “St John the Baptist Preaching”: layers of shifting perspectives around the powerful diagonal figure show his listeners responding, startled, challenged, intrigued, in different tones.


All were artists favoured by Scipione, who amassed his collection with the notorious Borghese ruthlessness. He acquired the show’s seductive opening stunner, Caravaggio’s “Boy with Basket of Fruit”, by contriving criminal charges against its owner, painter-collector Giuseppe Cesari, who avoided jail by “donating” his works to the Borghese family. It is a fantastically worldly picture, Caravaggio’s pouting décolleté playboy hugging blushing peaches, spilling pomegranates, fat figs — fruits depicted, with almost sinister realism, tipping into over-ripeness, withering leaves a summons to enjoy life’s fleeting pleasures.

The story of Scipione’s rarefied collection plays in dialogue with the adventures of André and Jacquemart, as ruthless in their way. From a villa in Mira in the Veneto in 1893, they snagged and dismantled, to local horror, Tiepolo’s monumental yet light and airy fresco “Henri III being welcomed to the Contarini Villa”, depicting courtiers greeting the French king in Venice. Reassembled atop the gold and white marble double helix staircase in the Jacquemart’s exhilarating Winter Garden, it gives every visitor today the frisson of a royal welcome.


In their dining room — now the museum’s café — the couple installed a Tiepolo ceiling fresco: comic spectators, some masked, dangling hats and parasols, lean over trompe l’oeil balconies to ogle us, the crowds, below; the starring character is a monkey about to tumble out of the picture into our space. Throughout the museum an 18th-century decorative spirit — Boucher, Fragonard — presides, interrupted by velvet-lined galleries of Florentine and Venetian painting. Renaissance trophies dot luxuriant interiors: Donatello’s playful “Spiritelli” candle holders, Bernini’s chiselled bronze of wise, frail reformer-pope Gregory XV, sharp eyes gazing at us and into eternity.

Now Gregory is joined from Rome by Bernini’s marble portrait of his Borghese predecessor, Paul V, austere, commanding, blankly staring from pupil-less eyes, compelling too in virtuoso tactile details of skin and fabric. This was commissioned by Scipione, who grasped the precocious teenage Bernini’s importance when he sculpted the shaggy beast feeding an infant Jupiter, “The Goat Amalthea”, also visiting Paris. Flatteringly, Amalthea symbolised the cornucopia of Borghese largesse, ushering in a new Roman golden age.

Refined and astute, Scipione generously patronised the early Baroque artists who were his contemporaries. Grace within tension characterises his choices: Giovanni Baglione’s “Judith and Holofernes”, the slayer’s sinuous beauty set against her victim’s brutal body; Guido Reni’s “Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law”, the patriarch’s furious gestures matched by leaden skies, his open, screaming mouth blood red like the lustrous cloak rippling elegantly across the picture.

But it was Scipione’s quest for the most sophisticated 16th-century masterpieces which really make the collection stellar. From the Medici, he acquired Brescianino’s pearly-pink-grey “Venus and Two Cupids”, the goddess, between flesh and stone, framed statue-like in a niche and admiring her reflection in a conch shell, referencing her sea birth, as well as Jacopo Zucchi’s erotic jewel-adorned nudes “Cupid and Psyche”. Spotlit by Psyche’s lamp in a crimson-curtained interior, this is full of historical allusions: Cupid reclines in the pose of Michelangelo’s “River God”; the lovers’ bed is engraved with a figure from his “Night”, executed to decorate Medici tombs.

In the exhibition’s most exquisite room, “Amour et Éros”, these hang with one of the earliest, finest copies of Leonardo’s lost “Leda”, the nude held in the swan’s winged embrace, watching their cherubic twins and an unhatched egg hidden in the grass, and with Scipione’s great Titian, “Venus Blindfolding Cupid”. This late arcane picture is painted in rapid loose strokes which break up forms but at a distance blend texture, figures and ground in intense gold-reds. Venus holds the yellow ribbon around Cupid’s head delicately, neither tightening nor loosening it, the restraint possibly an allegory for conjugal love balancing sensuality and order.

A lesser-known delight in this room is another “Leda”, Ghirlandaio’s fleshy Mannerist heroine seen from the back as she twists uncertainly towards us, attracted to though wary of the insistent, insolent swan.

Masterpieces from the Borghese plunges you into the mindset of privileged Borghese Rome, its dovetailed classical and religious learning, yet there are moments which feel utterly in the present. At the opening, Bassano’s vibrant multicoloured “Last Supper” pulls you into a feast of timeless, even irreverent characters: Saint John dozing at the table, disciples casually quarrelling, a cat sneaking in, a dog comfortably curled up. The expressions and gestures in Giulio Romano’s “Madonna and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist”, taking place in a bedroom, are so lively and natural that the scene conjures any young mother negotiating demands of a baby and toddler, with pet dog patiently waiting.

A tremendous portrait gallery showcases charismatic young men. Antonello da Messina’s has a warm, ironic smile, features strongly sculpted; Parmigianino’s is a disquieted, strict youth in black; and, most affecting, Lorenzo Lotto’s dark-eyed, bearded widower, with two wedding rings, holds a tiny skull, his melancholy expression imploring, introspective, mysterious. You could meet any of them now as you emerge from this absorbing exhibition into Le Nélie café (expect queues), where Tiepolo’s monkey is still laughing, and the sky on the ceiling is always blue.

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 5th of September 2024

>>> Up
* Arkema Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley; PT 104 euros
* Klepierre Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan; PT 29 euros
* Lanxess Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley; PT 37 euros
* Nordstrom Raised to Equal-Weight at Barclays; PT $23
* RS Group Raised to Buy at Citi; PT 900 pence
* Wacker Chemie Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley

>>> Down
* Air Liquide Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley; PT 149 euros
* Nordic Semiconductor Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley
* Novartis Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT 103 Swiss francs
* Novartis ADRs Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT $121
* SSP Cut to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
* Syensqo Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley; PT 66 euros

>>> Initiation
* Elkem Rated New Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
* Galderma Rated New Buy at Berenberg; PT 104.40 Swiss francs
* Netflix Rated New Hold at China Renaissance; PT $680
* On Holding Rated New Hold at HSBC; PT $52
* Origin Rated New Buy at Berenberg; PT 4.30 euros

>>> Call
* Akzo Nobel Top Pick as Morgan Stanley Shifts Chemicals Ratings
* Galderma Offers ‘Blockbuster Potential,’ New Buy at Berenberg
* Goldman’s Rubner Sees Market Correction If Payrolls Come In Weak
* JPMorgan Abandons Bullish China Call as US Election Stirs Angst
* SSP Cut, Edenred Raised and Now Among Morgan Stanley’s Top Picks

>>> US After Hours Summary: VRNT -16.6%, AI -16.1%, CRDO -12.6%, CHPT -10.1%, AV

After Hours Summary: VRNT -16.6%, AI -16.1%, CRDO -12.6%, CHPT -10.1%, AVAV -4.1%, CXM -3.7%, HPE -3.1% lower on earnings; MODG +2.7% to seek to split in two

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: YEXT +2.6%, PHR +2.4%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: MODG +2.7% (to pursue separation into two independent companies: Callaway and TopGolf), BNED +2.3% (files $40 mln mixed shelf securities offering), LQDT +1.9% (selected to sell more than 30 drilling rigs), PSTX +1.8% (presents new case study for CAR-T Therapy), AMCR +1.1% (names new CEO), QGEN +0.8% (QGEN enters into collaboration with LLY to support development of QIAstat-Dx in-vitro diagnostic), NVDA +0.7% (co did not receive a DOJ subpoena, according to Reuters), ASML +0.5% (CEO says US export restrictions to China are economically motivated, according to Reuters), JNJ +0.1% (to secure more votes in favor of talc settlement plan after increasing offer, according to WSJ), RLGT +0.1% (acquires Foundation Logistics & Services), LLY +0.1% (QGEN enters into collaboration with LLY to support development of QIAstat-Dx in-vitro diagnostic), RTX +0.1% (awarded $405 mln U.S. Navy contract modification), VZ +0.1% (increases dividend)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: VRNT -16.6%, AI -16.1%, CRDO -12.6%, CHPT -10.1% (also to reduce workforce by approximately 15%), BASE -8.6%, BBCP -7.7%, CPRT -5.4%, DSGX -5.1%, AVAV -4.1%, CXM -3.7%, HPE -3.1%, CASY -0.3%, T -0.1%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: VVX -8.1% (2 mln share offering), XPO -6.7% (reports LTL data for August), CSWI -5.3% (commences 1 mln share offering; also files mixed shelf securities offering), ZETA -4.5% (commences 11 mln share offering with Zeta offering 8.8 mln shares and selling stockholder offering 2.2 mln shares; also raises its Q3 revenue guidance), ODFL -3.4% (reports LTL operating metrics for August), TRVI -1.1% (to present data from Ph2a CANAL Trial), HUYA -0.3% (names Raymond Peng Lei as Acting Co-CEO and CFO)

WSJ :

Kamala Harris Pares Back Biden’s Capital-Gains Tax Proposal
Advisers believe a more modest increase would balance taxing wealthy households and encouraging investment

WASHINGTON—Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris proposed a less drastic increase in the top capital-gains tax rate on Wednesday, breaking with a plan President Biden outlined in his budget blueprint earlier this year.

“We will tax capital gains at a rate that rewards investment in America’s innovators, founders and small businesses,” she said in a speech at a New Hampshire brewery, detailing her plan to promote small businesses.

The all-in top rate would be 33%, which would include a new 28% capital rate cited by Harris on Wednesday as well as Biden’s proposal to raise a 3.8% investment income tax to 5%, people familiar with the plan said. Biden, by contrast, wanted a near-doubling of today’s 23.8% top rate to 44.6%, taxing capital gains at roughly the same rate as ordinary income.

The break from Biden on the capital-gains tax rate—the clearest effort yet from her campaign to distance herself from the president—comes days before her debate with former President Donald Trump, who has tried to tie her to Biden’s economic policies and attacked her for being too far to the left.

Her advisers believe the Biden proposal puts the rate too high and a more modest rate increase could better encourage investment in entrepreneurship and access to capital for small businesses, the people said. Harris’s allies argue the latest proposal still aligns with Harris’s plan for the wealthy and corporations to pay more in taxes, with her advisers viewing it as a more appropriate balance, the people said.

Even at 33%, the all-in top capital-gains rate would be the highest since 1978. Any plan would require congressional approval, and that could be difficult, even if the Democrats control the House, Senate and White House next year.

Earlier in the campaign, Harris aides had signaled that she was in favor of the full $5 trillion of tax increases outlined in Biden’s most recent budget. Dialing back the capital-gains tax rate increase would mean less money available to pay for her agenda.

Under current law, the top long-term capital-gains rate is 23.8%—20% plus a 3.8% tax on investment income. It’s owed only when taxpayers sell assets, or realize gains, and unrealized gains escape the income tax if passed to heirs.

The Biden budget would make several changes to those rules. It would tax unrealized gains at death above a $5 million per person exclusion and tax unrealized gains during life for people with a net worth over $100 million. Harris’s rate change doesn’t necessarily alter her approach to those structural changes or break with Biden on those policies.

The Biden budget would tax capital gains at ordinary income rates—which Democrats want to raise to 39.6% from 37%—for households with taxable income over $1 million. The Biden budget also would increase that 3.8% investment income tax to 5%, making the all-in rate 44.6%—and the top rate would have been over 50% in some states.

In recent weeks, Harris has focused on explaining her economic vision for the country, pitching herself to voters as an advocate for the middle class and small businesses. Harris has repeatedly acknowledged that prices under the current administration have remained too high and centered her message on lowering costs for families.

Harris also proposed in her speech Wednesday a 10-fold expansion of a tax deduction for new small businesses and announced a goal of 25 million new small-business applications in her first term if elected president.

“I believe America’s small businesses are an essential foundation to our entire economy,” Harris said, adding that if elected, strengthening small businesses would be one of her “highest priorities.”

As part of her new proposal, Harris said she would expand the startup-expense deduction for small businesses to $50,000. Currently, business owners can deduct up to $5,000 in startup expenses—costs they incur for items such as market surveys, advertisements and salaries for workers in training even before the business officially begins operating.

Harris has been criticized for changing her policy views on issues like fracking for political expediency. Those close to the vice president argue she is a pragmatic politician who is open to changing policy specifics as long as she agrees with the end goal.

“My values have not changed,” Harris said in a recent interview with CNN when asked about her shifting policy views.

The U.S. has usually set capital-gains tax rates below ordinary-income rates for several reasons—to encourage investment and to adjust for the fact that some taxed gains are due to inflation over relatively long holding periods.

And, because taxpayers can escape the income tax by holding assets until death, higher capital-gains rates can just discourage people from selling—for the rest of their lifetimes or until a new Congress comes along and cuts the rate. Without structural changes, just raising the capital-gains rate by more than a few points could actually reduce federal revenue.

But in recent years, Democrats have pushed to raise the capital-gains tax and to change the basic rules, as part of their push to impose higher taxes on the wealthiest households. The idea of taxing wealth the same as work carries significant weight in Democratic circles and led to Biden’s proposals, which officials have refined.

Capital gains are particularly concentrated at the top of the income scale. The Tax Policy Center estimates that the top 0.1% of households receive more than half of long-term capital gains.

The Biden changes are designed to work together. By changing the tax treatment of capital gains at death, the rate can go higher and still raise revenue.

FT : Canada’s government under threat as Trudeau coalition partner exits

Canada’s government under threat as Trudeau coalition partner exits
Move by New Democrat party leader raises chance of snap election

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s critical coalition partner has torn up a deal to support his Liberal government, throwing Canada into new political uncertainty and raising the chance of a snap election.

Jagmeet Singh, leader of the left-leaning New Democratic party, said in a social media post on Wednesday that he had ended a 2022 deal with Trudeau to prop up the minority Liberal party. 

“Today I notified the PM that I have ripped up the supply and confidence agreement,” he said on X, using the term for co-operation in a parliamentary coalition.

The NDP leader’s announcement means Trudeau can no longer automatically command a majority in Canada’s 338-member parliament, leaving it vulnerable to a vote of no confidence that could end the Liberals’ nine years of power in Ottawa.

Trudeau sought to brush aside the threat on Wednesday.

“An election will come in the coming year, hopefully not until next fall, because in the meantime, we’re going to deliver for Canadians,” he told reporters.

While the NDP’s 24 members will in future decide on a vote-by-vote basis whether to support the Liberals, the move does not automatically trigger a snap election or a vote of no confidence.

However, it will deepen doubts over the future of Trudeau, who has faced calls to end his reign as Liberal leader just as his party gears up for a federal election that must be held by October 2025. The Liberals have ruled Canada since 2015.

Trudeau’s popularity has plummeted in recent months amid a cost of living crisis triggered by skyrocketing housing and widespread inflation. On Wednesday the Bank of Canada cut interest rates for the third time since June.

Singh described the coming election as “a battle for the middle class” and warned that Trudeau was poised to lose to the Conservative party and its leader Pierre Poilievre, who has opened a 17-point polling lead.

While Singh criticised Trudeau, he also warned voters about a Conservative government.

“The Liberals have let people down, they don’t deserve another chance,” he said. “But there is an even bigger battle ahead. The threat of the Pierre Poilievre and Conservatives cuts.”

Canada’s federal parliament in Ottawa is divided between four parties, with the Liberals holding 154 seats, the Conservatives on 119 and the Bloc Québécois, the third-largest party, on 32. The NDP’s 24 seats make it the fourth party.

The NDP has used the arrangement to push its main priorities, such as a national dental care plan, while a bill to lower drug costs has passed the House of Commons and is being reviewed in the Senate.

Trudeau said after Singh’s announcement that he hoped the “NDP stays focused on how we can deliver for Canadians, as we have over the past years, rather than focusing on politics”.

Poilievre, who wrote to Singh last week urging him to pull out of the coalition, on Wednesday described the NDP leader’s announcement as a “media stunt”.

WSJ : Verizon Nearing Deal for Frontier Communications

Verizon Nearing Deal for Frontier Communications
Deal for Dallas-based fiber provider could be announced this week

Verizon VZ -1.19%decrease; red down pointing triangle is in advanced talks to acquire Frontier Communications FYBR 8.38%increase; green up pointing triangle in a deal that would bolster the company’s fiber network to compete with rivals including AT&T, according to people familiar with the matter.

An announcement could come this week, granted the talks don’t hit any last-minute snags, the people said.

A deal would be sizable, given Frontier’s market value of over $7 billion.

WSJ : Kamala Harris to Pare Back Biden’s Capital-Gains Tax Proposal

Kamala Harris to Pare Back Biden’s Capital-Gains Tax Proposal
Advisers believe a more-modest increase would balance taxing wealthy households and encouraging investment

WASHINGTON—Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is planning to propose a less drastic increase in the top capital-gains tax rate, breaking with a plan President Biden outlined in his budget blueprint earlier this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Harris’s advisers have been discussing the move behind the scenes in recent days, the people said. The vice president is set to speak Wednesday afternoon in New Hampshire about promoting small businesses, but it’s unclear if she will discuss the capital-gains proposal in those remarks.

A Harris campaign spokesman declined to comment.

Harris’s advisers believe the Biden proposal puts the rate too high and a more modest rate increase could better encourage investment in entrepreneurship and access to capital for small businesses, the people said. Harris’s allies argue the latest proposal still aligns with Harris’s plan for the wealthy and corporations to pay more in taxes, with her advisers viewing it as a more appropriate balance, the people said.