>>> US Close Dow +0.40% S&P +1.02% Nasdaq +2.03% Russell +1.05%

Closing Stock Market Summary
The stock market started the final session of the week on a higher note, building on gains through the day. A modest move lower in the late afternoon left the major indices off their highs, which had the S&P 500 just shy of the 5,100 level.

Earnings-related gains in Alphabet (GOOG 173.69, +14.75, +10.0%), which reached a new all-time high today, and Microsoft (MSFT 406.32, +7.28, +1.8%) provided a boost to the broader market. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) rose 1.9%.

Outperforming semiconductor shares, benefiting from buzz around AI following the aforementioned earnings news, also acted as a boost to the broader market. The PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) jumped 2.6%. Intel (INTC 31.88, -3.23, -9.20%) was an exception from the SOX, sliding nearly 10% after reporting disappointing quarterly results. Competitor NVIDIA (NVDA 877.35, +51.03, +6.2%) jumped more than 6.0%.

Six of the S&P 500 sectors closed higher and five registered a decline. The communication services sector led the outperformed thanks to a big move higher in Alphabet. The information technology (+1.9%) and consumer discretionary (+1.3%) sectors were the next best performers, reflecting leadership from mega caps.

Meanwhile, the energy sector was among the weakest performers, clipped by a loss in Exxon Mobil (XOM 117.95, -3.37, -2.8%) after its earnings report. Chevron (CVX 165.89, +0.61, +0.4%) was also lower early in the session following its earnings report, but shares settled higher.

Market participants were also digesting the March Personal Income and Spending report that showed solid spending activity, but stalled progress on inflation. The market also received the final reading of the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment survey for April (actual 77.2; Briefing.com consensus 77.9; prior 77.9), which showed a weakening from the preliminary reading and an uptick in inflation expectations.

Treasuries had a calm response to the data and settled mostly higher today. The 10-yr note yield declined four basis points to 4.67% and the 2-yr note yield settled unchanged at 5.00%.

  • S&P 500:+6.9% YTD
  • Nasdaq Composite: +6.1% YTD
  • S&P Midcap 400: +4.1% YTD
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average: +1.5% YTD
  • Russell 2000: -1.2% YTD

Reviewing today's economic data:
  • March Personal Income 0.5% (consensus 0.5%); Prior 0.3%; March Personal Spending 0.8% (consensus 0.6%); Prior 0.8%; March PCE Prices 0.3% (consensus 0.3%); Prior 0.3%; March PCE Prices - Core 0.3% (consensus 0.3%); Prior 0.3%
    • The key takeaway from the report is the recognition that progress on inflation has stalled. Therefore, market participants should continue to expect the Fed to stall on any rate cut.
  • April Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment - Final 77.2 (consensus 77.9); Prior 77.9
    • The key takeaway from the report is that consumer sentiment is holding steady despite an uptick in inflation expectations. Presumably, that can be owed to the ongoing strength in the labor market and rising personal income.
Looking ahead, there is no notable U.S. economic data on Monday's calendar.

WSJ : Trump Allies Draw Up Plans to Blunt Fed’s Independence

Trump Allies Draw Up Plans to Blunt Fed’s Independence
Some Trump advisers argue that the president should be consulted on interest-rate decisions

WASHINGTON—Donald Trump’s allies are quietly drafting proposals that would attempt to erode the Federal Reserve’s independence if the former president wins a second term, in the midst of a deepening divide among his advisers over how aggressively to challenge the central bank’s authority.

Former Trump administration officials and other supporters of the presumptive GOP nominee have in recent months discussed a range of proposals, from incremental policy changes to a long-shot assertion that the president himself should play a role in setting interest rates. A small group of the former president’s allies—whose work is so secretive that even some prominent former Trump economic aides weren’t aware of it—has produced a roughly 10-page document outlining a policy vision for the central bank, according to people familiar with the matter.

The group of Trump allies argues that he should be consulted on interest-rate decisions, and the draft document recommends subjecting Fed regulations to White House review and more forcefully using the Treasury Department as a check on the central bank. The group also contends that Trump, if he returns to the White House, would have the authority to oust Jerome Powell as Fed chair before his four-year term ends in 2026, the people familiar with the matter said, though Powell would likely remain on the Fed’s board of governors.

It couldn’t be determined whether Trump is aware of or signed off on the effort, but some people close to the discussions believe the work has received the blessing of the former president.

“Let us be very specific here: unless a message is coming directly from President Trump or an authorized member of his campaign team, no aspect of future presidential staffing or policy announcements should be deemed official,” Trump senior advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement.

Trump, who often tells advisers that he loves low interest rates and expressed frustration that he couldn’t influence them as president, hasn’t yet decided exactly how he would approach the Fed in a second term, people close to him said. He is focused foremost on the coming election, his continuing legal troubles and his search for a running mate. But he has had informal discussions with advisers about possible candidates to lead the central bank, and he has asked associates whether they would be interested in the job, the people said. Trump has repeatedly complained—in public and in private—about Powell, continuing a yearslong campaign to discredit the man he picked to lead the Fed.

Several people who have spoken with Trump about the Fed said he appears to want someone in charge of the institution who will, in effect, treat the president as an ex officio member of the central bank’s rate-setting committee. Under such an approach, the chair would regularly seek Trump’s views on interest-rate policy and then negotiate with the committee to steer policy on the president’s behalf. Some of the former president’s advisers have discussed requiring that candidates for Fed chair privately agree to consult informally with Trump on the central bank’s decisions, the people familiar with the matter said. Others have made the case that Trump himself could sit on the Fed’s board of governors on an acting basis, an option that several people close to the former president described as far-fetched.

The discussions have alarmed some Trump advisers with more-traditional views of the role of the Fed, as well as Republican lawmakers. They worry that chiseling away at unwritten norms around keeping politics at arm’s length from Fed decisions could backfire, particularly if political interference leads investors to conclude that the central bank is willing to tolerate higher inflation. That could raise long-term interest rates, including rates on mortgages, credit cards and auto debt, when the U.S. government has to roll over trillions of dollars in debt annually. One former Trump administration official described the prospect of Trump’s influencing interest rates as a “horrifying thought.”

“Given their charge, their independence is critical to doing it in an unbiased, nonpolitical way,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.), who said he would oppose efforts by any president to challenge the Fed’s autonomy. “There’s a reason that there’s not just one decision maker—that there are safeguards built into a board of governors.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) said he, too, wouldn’t condone efforts by a president, including Trump, to interfere with monetary policy. “I have to think about the Fed for the next 50 years, not the next four, and independence is important,” he said.

Any effort by Trump to exert control over the Fed would face significant institutional hurdles. Even if a court upheld an effort to demote Powell as chair, Trump would likely need to elevate one of the Fed’s other six governors to the position because there are no vacancies on the central bank’s board. Two of those governors were installed by Trump.

A Fed appointment is akin to putting a jurist on the Supreme Court: Once someone is installed, it is difficult to force him or her out. Supreme Court justices have a lifetime appointment, and Fed governors have 14-year terms to provide a degree of independence from politics.

Lawyers who have studied the issue believe the president lacks the power to fire Fed governors over a policy dispute. Whether the president has the authority to demote the chair and replace him or her with a sitting governor isn’t clear. When he was in office, Trump privately contemplated dismissing Powell but never did so, in part because his advisers told him he didn’t have the authority.

After the publication of this article online, analysts said they thought several of the boldest proposals were legally dubious but could still roil bond and currency markets if the White House attempted them. “The market would react very badly to any effort to tame the Fed, and we think this would cause the administration to back off,” said Krishna Guha, vice chairman at Evercore ISI, in a note to clients Friday.

In a second term, Trump would face two differences from his first term on Fed policy.

First, the central bank’s seven-person board isn’t scheduled to have any vacancies until January 2026. In his first year as president, Trump had the opportunity to fill four vacancies on the Fed’s board, plus a fifth when Chairwoman Janet Yellen departed in 2018.

Second, inflation is a more serious concern. In 2017, Fed officials were gently raising interest rates from very low levels. Inflation only briefly edged up to the Fed’s 2% target, and inflation-adjusted interest rates were above zero for only a few months. By contrast, the Fed lifted rates last year to the highest level since 2001 and has held them there to combat inflation that soared to a four-decade high in 2022 and is still running above the Fed’s target.

The Fed has a mandate to keep inflation low and labor markets healthy. Presidents have the ability to influence the Fed through their appointments, but that authority can be limited because of the checks and balances built into the central-bank system.

Interest-rate policy is decided by the Federal Open Market Committee, which includes seven members of the Washington-based board of governors, who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and 12 presidents of regional Fed banks, who are appointed by those banks’ private boards. The governors and the New York Fed president have a permanent vote, and four reserve bank presidents rotate onto the committee for one year at a time.

Some Trump advisers want the president to make a sustained effort to remake the central bank by encouraging closer ties between the administration and the Fed’s board. They think the central bank and its backers in Washington and on Wall Street have made a fetish of the Fed’s operational autonomy, sometimes referred to as its independence, to a degree that isn’t supported by constitutional law and isn’t good for the economy.

The draft document written by the group of Trump advisers would, among other matters, roll back some of the Fed’s autonomy in regulatory policy by subjecting the agency to the review process applied to other executive-branch agencies within the Office of Management and Budget when issuing new regulations or rules. It would also call for a more muscular role for the Treasury Department in overseeing any emergency lending programs that are done jointly with the Fed.

Installing a loyalist at the Fed could be difficult because the central bank’s leaders have been haunted by the example of Arthur Burns, who headed the central bank from 1970 to 1978. Burns was a highly credentialed economist, but he is remembered for failing to corral the runaway inflation that ended only after Paul Volcker put the economy through two painful recessions in the early 1980s.

In addition to other missteps, Burns was regarded by historians (and some former colleagues) as being overly preoccupied with currying favor with the president. Since then, central bankers have fought to preserve their political autonomy.

In 2017, Trump’s advisers persuaded him to elevate Powell, at the time a Fed governor, to lead the central bank, in part because they feared Trump would retain Yellen, a Democrat who is currently the Treasury secretary. The silver-haired Powell, who was a private-equity investor after serving in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, had publicly supported Yellen’s policy of keeping interest rates at very low levels.

Whatever illusions Trump enjoyed about Powell’s pliability were dashed in 2018, when the Fed continued to lift interest rates. Trump began an unusual campaign of publicly browbeating Powell, first for raising rates and later for not lowering them enough.

Powell publicly resisted such pressure. “We’re human. We’ll make mistakes—I hope not frequently,” Powell said in 2019. “But we won’t make mistakes of integrity or character.”

>>> Weekly Market Update

Weekly Market Update: Mega-tech earnings drive the market as central bank chatter fades behind a nonchalant BOJ


Ahead of the BoJ meeting and US PCE data the corporate calendar took center stage this week with 1/3 of S&P reporting. A host of consumer, industrial, and technology companies offered up commentary that investors welcomed by signaling strong underlying demand. On the other hand, weakness in a subset of firms tilted more towards discretionary spending illustrated that the consumer is feeling pinched and maybe starting to pull back where they can. Meta shares sold off hard on Thursday after raising FY24 expense expectations towards $100B. A significant dip in the NASDAQ was short-lived though. Google and Microsoft received much ballyhoo after posting standout results, energized by AI and the cloud. Google CEO Pichai revealed he expects YouTube and Cloud to exit 2024 at a combined annual run rate of over $100B.

US Treasury yields moved up this week into the PCE data as markets continued to reprice Fed rate cut expectations. Thursday’s Q1 GDP release spooked markets initially. The lower-than-expected print and hotter-than-expected accompanying inflation readings led to whispers of potential stagflation. The US 2-year rate retook 5% while futures markets continued to push back expectations for Fed rate cuts towards after the election. March US PCE came largely in line with what the markets expected, and with no revisions to the hotter numbers earlier in Q1. The sticky, supercore services index at 0.4% m/m, remained above what the Fed likely wants to see to pull the trigger on a rate cut. Nevertheless, the March data were no worse than originally estimated on the basis of the CPI and PPI figures, offering some sense of relief for investors coming into Friday’s trading session.

The Japanese Yen plummeted to fresh three-decade lows on Friday and remained on intervention watch. The BOJ left policy settings unchanged as expected. Governor Ueda declined to comment on short term FX moves a day after US Treasury Secretary Yellen emphasized intervention in currency markets should only occur on rare occasions. USD/JPY surged above 157 as traders applied pressure, potentially looking to force policy-makers’ hands amid the growing intervention speculation.

Aside from aforementioned Meta, Microsoft and Google earnings reports, other big tech names were in the news this week as well. Tesla shares finally rebounded as it reported a slight miss of earnings expectations, but promised to accelerate the launch of new vehicle models, and dropped more hints about more affordable cars and robotaxi functionality in the future. Apple shares lingered near 52-week lows on reports that China iPhone sales are down sharply in Q1, ahead of its earnings report next week. Amazon introduced a $9.99/month unlimited grocery delivery subscription benefit for Prime members, putting renewed pressure on grocery competitors. Meanwhile, Walmart’s CEO said they continue to take down prices in areas like meat and fresh food, taking prices in line with where they were 12 months ago. Boeing stock fell further after reporting depressed earnings and made the understated admission that the company is in a “tough moment.” Another long time blue chip, GM, had a great quarter, touting consistent strong expectations for the rest of 2024 as well as making strides in its cost control efforts. On the M&A front, IBM snapped up Hashicorp for $6.4B to bolster its cloud business, while Hibbett agreed to be bought by JD Sports for an enterprise value of $1.1B. Stocks had a strong rebound this week, with the S&P gaining 2.7%, the DJIA rising 0.7%, and the Nasdaq surging 4.2%.


MON
4/22
(CN) US SAID TO BE DRAFTING SANCTIONS THAT THREATEN TO 'CUT SOME CHINA BANKS OFF FROM THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM' FOR HELPING RUSSIA'S WAR EFFORT – WSJ
(US) US said to be considering sending additional military advisers to the embassy in Kyiv; The advisers would not be in a combat role, but rather would advise and support the Ukrainian govt and military - Politico
(TW) Taiwan Mar Export Orders Y/Y: +1.2% v +4.0%e (**Note: Feb YoY was -10.4%); Sees April orders +1.2-5.9% y/y
ACI Reports Q4 $0.54 v $0.54e, Rev $18.3B v $18.4Be
CAH Announces nonrenewal of UnitedHealth's OptumRx customer contracts, which expire at the end-June 2024 [sales to OptumRx generated 16% of CAH's FY23 Rev]; Affirms FY24 $7.20-7.35 v $6.28e; Affirms long-term targets
ENSU.NO Completes its first shipment of the world’s first fully functional multi-layer solid-state lithium microbatteries
GALP.PT Recent notable strength being attributed to the Galp's statement that Mopane field, off the coast of Namibia, could contain at least 10B barrels of oil
PKG Reports Q1 $1.72 v $1.64e, Rev $1.98B v $1.91Be
TROX Reports prelim Q1 Rev $774M +9% y/y v $727Me (3 est); Sees continued strengthening of the market recovery; Notes demand outpaced expectations for both TiO2 and zircon
SAP.DE Reports Q1 €0.81 v €1.28e, Rev €8.04B v €8.19Be; Affirms FY guidance
UNH *Updates on Change Healthcare cyberattack: Found files containing protected health information (PHI) or personally identifiable information (PII), which 'could cover a substantial proportion of people in America'; Pharmacy services are now back to near-normal levels

TUES 4/23
(FR) FRANCE APR PRELIMINARY MANUFACTURING PMI: 44.9 V 46.8E (16th month of contraction); Services PMI records first expansion in 11 months; Notes intensifying price pressures across France
(JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) will discuss the impact of the Yen's rapid slide at this week's policy meeting - Nikkei
(UK) APR PRELIMINARY MANUFACTURING PMI: 48.7 V 50.4E (moves back into contraction); Notes rate of inflation up sharply from March and the highest since May 2023
(US) APR RICHMOND FED MANUFACTURING INDEX: -7 V -8E
(US) APR PRELIMINARY S&P MANUFACTURING PMI: 49.9 V 52.0E (first read in contraction territory this year)
(US) MAR NEW HOME SALES: 693K V 669KE
AAPL Reportedly Q1 iPhone sales in China -19% y/y (v down 24% y/y during first six weeks of 2024); Q1 Huawei phone sales +69.1% y/y - press citing Counterpoint Research data
AKZA.NL Reports Q1 Adj EBITDA €363M v €305M y/y, Rev €2.64B v €2.61Be
AMZN Introduces new $9.99/month grocery delivery subscription benefit now available to Prime members and customers using EBT in more than 3,500 cities and towns across the U.S.
GE Reports Q1 $0.82 v $0.67e, Rev $15.2B** v $15.7Be; Raises outlook
GE CEO: Experiencing a tremendous demand cycle for services - post earnings comments
GM Reports Q1 $2.62 v $2.06e, Rev $43.0B v $40.6Be; Raises outlook
FNMA Exec: Recently seen evidence that some potential home sellers are becoming more acclimated to the higher mortgage rate environment and putting their homes on the market
FI Reports Q1 $1.88 v $1.77e, Rev $4.54B v $4.56Be; Organic revenue +20% y/y
HIBB To be acquired by JD Sports for $87.50/shr in cash at EV of $1.11B; Expected to be earnings accretive from year one
LMT Reports Q1 $6.33 v $5.80e, Rev $17.2B v $16.2Be; Encouraged by the progress towards delivery of the first TR-3 configured aircraft
MSFT Introduces three smaller AI models that are part of a technology family named Phi-3, which do not need high-end Nvidia chips, can fit on a smartphone and used even not connected to the internet; Notes even the smallest of the three performed almost as well as GPT-3.5 – NYT
NOVN.CH Reports Q1 Core EPS $1.80 v $1.73e, Rev $11.8B v $11.5Be; Raises outlook; Proposes Dr. Giovanni Caforio as Chair of the Board of Directors at AGM 2025
HCP Reportedly IBM near a deal to acquire HashiCorp; Deal could be announced in the coming days and could be at a premium to current price – press
KER.FR Reports Q1 Rev €4.5B v €4.5Be; Confirms FY24 decline in recurring operating income of 40 to 45% in H1
PHM Reports Q1 $3.10 v $2.36e, Rev $3.95B v $3.59Be
UPS Reports Q1 $1.43 v $1.33e, Rev $21.7B v $22.0Be; Notes average daily volume in the U.S. showed improvement through the quarter
RTX Reports Q1 $1.34 v $1.23e, Rev $19.3B v $18.4Be
- Affirms FY24 $5.25-5.40 v $5.39e, Rev $78.0-79.0B v $78.6Be (prior: $5.25-5.40, Rev $78.0-79.0B)
TSLA Reports Q1 $0.45 v $0.46e, Rev $21.3B v $22.2Be; To accelerate launch of new models; Hints again of more affordable models; Currently working on ride-hailing functionality that will be available in the future
TXN Reports Q1 $1.20 v $1.06e, Rev $3.66B v $3.61Be
- Guides Q2 $1.05-1.25 v $1.17e, Rev $3.65-3.95B v $3.77Be
V Reports Q2 $2.51 v $2.43e, Rev $8.80B v $8.60Be; Notes 'stable consumer spending'
V See relatively stable volumes in the U.S. across credit and debit; Consumer spend across all segments from low to high spend has remained relatively stable; Our data does not indicate any meaningful behavior change across consumer segments - conference call
V Recent Apr 1-21st U.S. Payments Volume Growth was around +4% y/y vs +6% y/y during Mar - earnings supplement

WED 4/24
(DE) GERMANY APR IFO BUSINESS CLIMATE: 89.4 V 88.8E (highest since May 2023)
(US) DOE CRUDE: -6.4M V +0.5ME; GASOLINE: -0.6M V -1.5ME; DISTILLATE: +1.6M V -1ME
(US) TREASURY $70B 5-YEAR NOTE AUCTION DRAWS 4.659% V 4.235% PRIOR, BTC 2.39 V 2.41 PRIOR AND 2.48 OVER THE LAST 12
(US) MAR PRELIMINARY DURABLE GOODS ORDERS: 2.6% V 2.5%E; DURABLES (EX-TRANSPORTATION): 0.2% V 0.2%E
USD/JPY *TESTS ABOVE 155.00 (highest since 1990)
**Note: Analysts denote 155.00 level as key potential intervention level. For the record, the FX pair’s 1990 intraday high was 160.20 on April 17th.
2330.TW Confirms debuted its next technology on its roadmap, A16 (1.6nm chips) to combine TSMC’s Super Power Rail architecture with its nanosheet transistors for planned production in 2026; N2 on track for production in the H2 2025
ASSAB.SE CEO: US residential market appears to be bottoming out
BA Reports Q1 -$1.13 v -$1.43e, Rev $16.6B v $16.3Be; Notes in the near term it is 'in a tough moment'; To largely deliver 737, 787 inventory by year-end
BA CEO: Still strongly believe our free cash flow targets will hold; Current efforts will cost us 6 months in achieving FCF goals - CNBC interview
BG Reports Q1 $3.04 v $2.55e, Rev $13.4B v $13.8Be
CA.FR Reports Q1 Rev €22.2M v €22.9Me; Affirms FY outlook
F Reports Q1 $0.49 v $0.42e, Rev $42.8B v $40.6Be
HEIA.NL Issues Q1 Trading Update: Rev €8.18B +7.2% y/y, Organic Rev +9.4% v +6.0%e; Organic beer volume 55.4Mhl +4.7% y/y v +2.1%e
HLT Reports Q1 $1.53 v $1.41e, Rev $2.57B v $2.56Be; Notes great momentum across signings, starts and openings
LRCX Reports Q3 $7.79 v $7.26e, Rev $3.79B v $3.70Be
HUM Reports Q1 $7.23 v $6.02e, Rev $29.6B v $28.6Be; Raises Individual Medicare Advantage membership outlook
HUM No longer believe $6 to $10 of adj EPS growth is the appropriate target range for 2025; We expect benefit levels, plan stability and choice for seniors to be negatively impacted by the 2025 final MA rate notice, which is not sufficient to address the current medical cost trend environment; We are excited about our momentum in Medicaid - prepared remarks
META Reports Q1 $4.71 v $4.32e, Rev $36.5B v $36.3Be; Raises midpoint of FY expense guidance; Expect Capex to continue to increase next year
NOD.NO Reports Q1 EBITDA -$22.8M v +$14.6M y/y, Rev $74.5M v $145.4M y/y
ROG.CH Reports Q1 (CHF) Rev 14.4B v 14.6Be
SYF Reports Q1 $1.18** adj v $1.42e, Rev $4.80B v $4.45Be; Approves additional $1.0B share buyback
UMC Reports Q1 (NT$) 0.84 v 1.31 y/y, Rev 54.6B v 55.0B y/y
VRT Reports Q1 $0.43 v $0.37e, Rev $1.64B v $1.64Be; Seeing order patterns with longer lead times based on customer build schedules, largely in 2025 and beyond, suggesting AI is starting to scale

THRS 4/25
*(JP) BANK OF JAPAN (BOJ) LEAVES TARGET RANGE UNCHANGED BETWEEN 0.0-0.10%; AS EXPECTED
(US) Q1 ADVANCE GDP ANNUALIZED Q/Q: 1.6% V 2.5%E; PERSONAL CONSUMPTION: 2.5% V 3.0%E
(US) Nevada reports Mar casino gaming Rev $1.29B, -1.7% y/y, Las Vegas strip Rev $715.9M, -1.2% y/y
(US) MAR PENDING HOME SALES M/M: 3.4% V 0.4%E; Y/Y: -4.5% V -3.0%E
(US) MAR PRELIMINARY WHOLESALE INVENTORIES M/M: -0.4% V 0.3%E
(US) TREASURY $44B 7-YEAR NOTE AUCTION RESULTS: DRAWS 4.716% V 4.185% PRIOR, BID-TO-COVER RATIO: 2.48 V 2.61 PRIOR AND 2.56 OVER LAST 12 AUCTIONS
(US) Former Pres Trump allies reportedly draft up plans to 'blunt' the Fed's independence; Some Trump advisers argue that the president should be consulted on interest-rate decisions – WSJ
(US) BOFA INSTITUTE: WEEK-TO-APR 20TH TOTAL CARD SPENDING -0.5% Y/Y V +2.6% PRIOR WEEK AND +0.3% AVERAGE IN MAR
(US) INITIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS: 207K V 215KE; CONTINUING CLAIMS: 1.781M V 1.82ME
(US) INITIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS: 207K V 215KE; CONTINUING CLAIMS: 1.781M V 1.82ME
300750.CN Unveils Shenxing Plus battery, the world's first lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery enabling a driving range of more than 1,000km; The new battery gets 600km range from 10 minutes charge - Beijing Auto Show
AAL.UK BHP confirms to offer 0.7097 shares for each share in Anglo American (implies £25.08/shr offer) in all-stock deal valued at £31.1B [*Note: The deal would create the world's biggest copper miner with ~10% of global output]
AIR.FR Reports Q1 €0.75 v €0.59 y/y, Rev €12.8B v €12.9Be; Affirms FY24 deliveries outlook
BAS.DE Reports Q1 €1.68B v €1.39e, Adj EBIT €1.75B v €1.5Be; Rev €17.6B v €18.4Be; Affirms outlook
CAT Reports Q1 $5.60 v $5.12e, Rev $15.8B v $16.1Be
CAT Reports Q1 dealer statistics: Total machines -5% v +8% prior (1st negative print since Q2 2022); North America Machines -1% v +11% prior
CAT Guides Q2 Rev lower y/y [implies <$17.3B v $17.3Be], adj Op margin similar y/y; Affirms FY24 Rev 'broadly similar' y/y [implies $67.1B v $67.7Be] (prior Rev to be broadly similar y/y) - earnings slides
COF Reports Mar net charge-offs 6.15% v 5.95% prior
GOOGL Reports Q1 $1.89 v $1.49e, Rev $67.6B v $66.0Be; Initiates first-ever $0.20/shr quarterly dividend; Additional up to $70B buyback (3.6% of market cap)
GOOGL CEO: We expect YouTube overall and Cloud to exit 2024 at a combined annual run rate of over $100B - earnings call comments
INTC Reports Q1 $0.18 v $0.13e, Rev $12.7B v $12.8Be; Guides Q2 below estimates
KEX Reports Q1 $1.19 v $0.97e, Rev $808M v $784Me; Sees favorable markets continuing; Data center demand and the need for backup power is very strong; Appoints Christian O’Neil as President and COO; effective April 26, 2024
MSFT Guides Q4 Rev $63.5-64.5B (calculated) v $64.5Be; Guides FY24 Op margins +2 ppt y/y (prior: Op margins+1-2ppt) - earnings call
NESN.CH Reports Q1 (CHF) Rev 22.1B v 23.5B y/y
NOC Reports Q1 $6.32 v $5.83e, Rev $10.1B v $9.78Be
RCL Reports Q1 $1.77 v $1.30e, Rev $3.73B v $3.64Be; Notes demand continues to be very robust; Still in a record booked position
SBRY.UK CEO: Some evidence UK consumers have started to trade up again - post earnings comments
TRU Reports Q1 $0.92 v $0.81e, Rev $1.02B v $978Me; Guides Q2 higher and raises FY24
UNA.NL Reports Q1 Rev €15.0B v €14.7Be; Notes increasing confidence in its ability to deliver sustained volume growth and positive mix as accelerate gross margin expansion
WDC Reports Q3 $0.63 v $0.21e, Rev $3.46B v $3.33Be; Guides Q2 strong

FRI 4/26
(JP) BOJ Gov Ueda: Must pay due attention to financial and FX market moves and their impact on inflation; To adjust the degree of monetary easing if price trend rises - post rate decision comments
(US) Atlanta Fed GDPNow: Set initial Q2 GDP forecast at 3.9%
(US) APR FINAL UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CONFIDENCE: 77.2 V 77.9 PRELIM
(US) MAR PCE DEFLATOR M/M: 0.3% V 0.3%E; Y/Y: 2.7% V 2.6%E (1st back-to-back reacceleration since Aug 2023 and highest annual pace since Oct 2023)
(US) MAR PERSONAL INCOME: 0.5% V 0.5%E; PERSONAL SPENDING: 0.8% V 0.6%E
AAL.UK Unanimously rejects bid from BHP Group; Notes it significantly undervalues Anglo American and all-share offer required Anglo to complete two separate demergers
ABBV Reports Q1 $2.31 v $2.26e, Rev $12.3B v $12.0Be
AMS.CH Reports Q1 adj EBIT €44M v €41.1M y/y, Rev €847M v €842Me; Expects to exit certain non-core semiconductor businesses; Notes robust demand from Automotive, while the demand from industrial and medical markets remains muted
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WSJ : Biden Administration Drops Plan to Ban Menthol Cigarettes

Biden Administration Drops Plan to Ban Menthol Cigarettes
White House had been weighing health benefit of ban against angering Black voters

The Biden administration is reversing course on its plan to ban menthol cigarettes, after the White House weighed the potential public-health benefits of banning minty smokes against the political risk of angering Black voters in an election year.

The administration is expected to announce on Friday that it is delaying a decision on whether to impose a ban, contending that it needs more time to consult with outside groups on the matter, according to people familiar with the matter. There is no timeline for the administration to revisit the decision as President Biden competes with former President Trump for votes in November.

Menthols account for more than a third of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. each year and are predominantly used by Black and Hispanic smokers. Some 81% of Black smokers used menthols in 2020, compared with 30% of white smokers and 51% of Hispanic smokers, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

The Biden administration in 2021 began pursuing a ban on menthol cigarettes, saying the policy move would reduce youth initiation, increase the success rate for smokers trying to quit and address health disparities among people of color. The plan was part of the administration’s Cancer Moonshot initiative to reduce the death rate from cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration had been expected to adopt a new rule banning menthols last year, but the plan was delayed as the White House mulled its political repercussions.

Some Black community leaders had fought the measure, saying a ban would expand the illicit market for cigarettes and lead police to racially profile Black smokers. The American Civil Liberties Union and some members of the Congressional Black Caucus expressed similar concerns.

The two largest U.S. cigarette makers, Altria Group MO -0.40%decrease; red down pointing triangle and Reynolds American, disputed the FDA’s conclusions on the health effects of menthols and argued that a ban would have unintended consequences.

Reynolds makes Newport, the leading U.S. menthol-cigarette brand, and funded opposition efforts by Black leaders. British American Tobacco BATS -0.47%decrease; red down pointing triangle in 2017 spent about $50 billion to take full control of Reynolds American.

For decades, cigarette companies marketed menthol brands such as Newport, Kool and Salem to Black people, distributing free packs in Black neighborhoods and running magazine and billboard ads depicting Black smokers. The companies also encouraged the belief that menthols had a medicinal effect.

A study from the University of Waterloo in Canada, which evaluated bans on menthol cigarettes in Canada and the European Union, projected that a U.S. ban on menthol cigarettes would prompt 1.3 million smokers to quit, including more than 380,000 Black smokers, in the first four to 23 months after the ban went into effect.

California and Massachusetts have implemented their own bans on menthol cigarettes, as have more than 100 municipalities across the U.S. The EU imposed a similar ban in 2020.

FT : Anglo American set to be bought or broken up after rejecting £31bn BHP offe

Anglo American set to be bought or broken up after rejecting £31bn BHP offer, investors believe
UK-listed company says Australian miner’s takeover approach ‘significantly undervalues’ it

Investors believe mining company Anglo American is set to be bought or broken up even after the 107-year-old London-listed group rejected a £31bn hostile takeover approach from Australian rival BHP.

Anglo on Friday said BHP’s indicative all-stock offer “significantly undervalues” the company and would be “highly unattractive” to its shareholders.

But investors including activist hedge fund Elliott Management are circling and Anglo chief executive Duncan Wanblad now faces a fight to keep the FTSE 100 company intact.

“I cannot see Anglo existing as an independent company by the end of the year in its current form,” said one top-10 Anglo shareholder.

The company’s position has been further complicated by US-based Elliott building up a $1bn stake using derivatives, roughly equivalent to 2.5 per cent of the company’s shares, according to regulatory filings.

Analysts and investors have predicted Anglo’s rejection of the offer will encourage competitors such as Glencore and Rio Tinto to table rival bids and BHP to improve its price. BHP has until May 22 to make a formal approach under UK takeover rules.

The move on Anglo represents the latest attempt by Melbourne-based BHP — known colloquially as “The Big Australian” in its home market — to reshape the global mining industry.

Under Mike Henry, the company veteran who was appointed chief executive four years ago, BHP has refocused its business on what it calls “future-facing” minerals, including copper and potash, while disposing of its oil and gas exploration assets.

The current all-stock approach excludes Anglo’s platinum and iron ore businesses in South Africa, which are independently listed in Johannesburg. BHP said, if successful, it would review Anglo’s other assets such as De Beers diamonds and manganese operations in South Africa.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, which is preparing for general elections in May, reacted with anger to the proposed break-up of one its most-storied companies.

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Why South Africa is Anglo American’s ‘poison pill’

“If [companies] don’t want South African assets, then they don’t want Anglo,” Gwede Mantashe, the country’s mining minister, told the Financial Times on Friday. “Anglo is a South African industry. Anglo isn’t a foreign entity. It was born and grew here, out of our cheap labour . . . so you can’t want Anglo and not want South Africa.”

Some large Anglo shareholders said this week they expected BHP to make a higher offer. As a result, BHP’s shares closed 4.6 per cent lower on Friday amid investor concerns about the company overpaying. The decline lowers the valuation of the bid from £31bn to under £30bn.

BHP declined to comment on Anglo’s rejection of its proposal.

Anglo’s share price rose a further 3.5 per cent on Friday on the news of the Elliott stake. They are up more than a fifth this week.

Haaretz : Explained: Why Is This Week in the Israel-Gaza Campus Wars Different F

Explained: Why Is This Week in the Israel-Gaza Campus Wars Different From All Other Weeks?
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik was supposed to speak at the December congressional hearing that proved disastrous for the presidents of Harvard and Penn. By a stroke of luck, she was out of town. In retrospect, U.S. campuses might be looking different today had she made herself available

NEW YORK – Israel has withdrawn most of its troops from Gaza, and a steady stream of humanitarian aid is finally making its way into the devastated Strip.

With the worst of the fighting between Israel and Hamas behind us, why now, of all times, are the tensions sparked by the war suddenly spinning out of control on campuses across America?

It turns out that an event in Washington that wasn't even supposed to take place at this time has ignited some of the biggest student protests around the country since the Vietnam War.

  • Jewish students are no longer safe at Columbia University
  • Nazis and Zionists: The Columbia protests according to two tribes and two algorithms
  • Columbia University's president is the latest scapegoat in America's antisemitism wars

What triggered it all?

The event that set everything in motion was an April 17 congressional hearing on rising incidents of antisemitism at Columbia. Nemat Minouche Shafik, the university's president, had originally been invited to attend the hearing held by the House committee on higher education in December, along with three of her colleagues – the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT. She notified the committee that she would be out of the country then, and her hearing date was rescheduled for April 17.

So Shafik had four months to learn from the mistakes of her colleagues – two of whom lost their jobs because of their disastrous testimony. Flanked by the co-chairs of Columbia's Board of Trustees and the co-director of the university's task force on antisemitism, Shafik came prepared with many of the answers the Republican-controlled committee wanted to hear. She acknowledged that Columbia hadn't done a good enough job cracking down on antisemitism and promised to do better.

To prevent their president from stealing the limelight from their struggle, pro-Palestinian student groups on campus sprang into action a few hours before Shafik boarded her flight to the capital. They pitched dozens of tents on Columbia's east lawn without obtaining the necessary permits. They called it the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment." And even when, several times throughout the day, they were ordered to leave or face disciplinary action, they stayed put.

After returning to New York the following day, Shafik saw an opportunity to show the congressional committee she meant business. She asked the New York Police Department for help in evicting the students. More than 100 were suspended and taken into custody in this extraordinary crackdown. If Shafik had hoped that photos and footage of students being herded into police trucks, their hands zip-tied behind them, would extinguish the rebellion, it accomplished the exact opposite.

Within hours, hundreds of students had occupied the west lawn, just across the walkway. Within days, they had pitched their tents again. Since early last week, Columbia has been restricting access to its main campus in Morningside Heights to university ID holders. Following the arrests, hundreds of anti-Israel activists have been gathering on the sidewalk of Broadway just outside the locked campus gates holding their own loud protests, sometimes in coordination with the students camping out inside.

Drawing inspiration from Columbia, pro-Palestinian student groups across the country have been setting up their own encampments in solidarity with Gaza, in defiance of university rules. In recent days, the movement has gone international, with tent cities cropping up at universities as far away as Australia.

As the protests have swept across the country, the crackdown has intensified. On Thursday, police reportedly used tear gas to fend off protesters at Emory University in Atlanta. On Wednesday, state troopers were called in to restrain protesters at the University of Texas at Austin.

On Thursday, the University of Southern California announced that it was closing its campus until further notice, and that the main graduation ceremony would be canceled this year, after nearly 100 students were arrested following clashes with campus police and the LAPD. At New York University, the administration set up a plywood wall to block a main campus plaza, after several protesters were arrested there this week, and at Harvard, the main Palestinian student group was expelled.

Where do things stand at Columbia right now?

The campus is bracing for another possible showdown between the administration and the protesters Friday. After the demonstrators repeatedly ignored orders to dismantle the new encampment, Shafik announced at 10 P.M. Tuesday that she would give them two hours to disperse or face consequences. Rumors began to spread that she intended to call in the National Guard this time. Hundreds of students headed out to the campus in the middle of night, bracing for a possible historic event.

At about 3 A.M., the administration extended its deadline to 8 A.M. Just as time was running out, a breakthrough was reported in negotiations between student leaders and the administration, and the ultimatum was extended for another 48 hours. According to the administration, the protesters had agreed to take down their tents, among other concessions.

The protesters, meanwhile, say they have no intention of packing up until the university meets their demands to divest from Israel and grant amnesty to all students and faculty members who were suspended or fired for participating in the protests.

Shafik is in a tough position. Bringing in the National Guard or the NYPD would likely add further fuel to the flames. It might also cost the president her job, as many members of the faculty and the university senate are furious that she summoned police to campus last week.

On the other hand, if she allows the anti-Israel protesters – whose rhetoric has sometimes crossed the line into antisemitism – to continue flouting the rules, she will have lost her authority and be seen as breaking her promise to make Columbia a safe place for Jewish students.

The deadline of 8 A.M. Friday has already passed. Columbia has yet to take action to clear the south lawn, as it has threatened. That doesn't mean it won't.

Could there be another reason this is all happening now?

For sure. It is spring, the weather is getting warm, the trees are blooming, and who doesn't want to be outside this time of year? It is not a coincidence that in the bitter cold of December, when the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT faced hostile questioning in Congress about antisemitism at their schools, no student protesters were pitching tents on campus and trying to steal the show.

Neither is it a coincidence that the last time police arrested students at Columbia was also in April – April 1968. Springtime is always a great season for protests.

Haaretz : The Israeli Artist Whose Twist on French Masters Is Impressing Paris

The Israeli Artist Whose Twist on French Masters Is Impressing Paris
For her exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay, Nathanaëlle Herbelin's works have been placed next to paintings by revolutionary French Postimpressionists. She tells Haaretz how she takes that legacy forward

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Nathanaëlle Herbelin at her Paris atelier. 'I remember painting on my bed when I was a girl. Painting has always been a therapeutic tool for me.'Credit: Anaïs Boileau


When Nathanaëlle Herbelin studied painting two decades ago, Israel's plastic arts world was thick with conceptual art, and painting was considered a fringe pursuit. Those were the days when Israel's Hamidrasha art school was riding high, and the Israeli style Want of Matter ruled the day. Figurative painters were virtually turned away.

Herbelin was born in Israel to a French father and an Israeli mother, and grew up in the town of Tzoran northeast of Tel Aviv. After the army, she left Israel to study in Paris.

"I remember painting on my bed when I was a girl. Painting has always been a therapeutic tool for me, and I was drawn to realistic painting. I painted Scouts' shirts and was my class' painter, " she says.

Herbelin wasn't accepted to the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts near Tel Aviv, "which turned out for the best: I think they were looking for teenagers who were more in tune with conceptual art. I found myself painting with former Soviet artists who gave me technical tools that I use to this day. I decided that this was what I wanted to pursue, and I felt that it would be hard to express in Israel."

Herbelin dreamed of attending Paris' École des Beaux-Arts. "Paris is a city of radical conservatism, and that suited me fine," she says. "It was very hard to get accepted to the Beaux-Arts. I lost 10 kilos [22 pounds] studying for the exams. And it worked. I studied there for six years. I went to a prep school and then did five years of studies – and also won a scholarship and studio space."


After graduating, she exhibited her work in galleries in Paris and New York, and in group exhibits in other cities. She was hardly shown in Israel save for a solo exhibit at the Umm al-Fahm Art Gallery and one at the Institut Français in Tel Aviv.

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Nathanaëlle Herbelin, 2022. 'Paris is a city of radical conservatism, and that suited me fine.'Credit: HV-studio / Nathanaëlle herbeli

In recent years, she has been spending most of her time in Paris. Her parents, sister – painter Emmanuelle Herbelin – and brother Yehonatan live in Israel. Yehonatan is author of the novel "I Was There," which takes place in the Gaza Strip.

Two years ago she married her French partner, Jérémie Werner, and the two have a daughter together. About a year ago her Paris studio was visited by Musée d'Orsay curators Christophe Leribault and Nicolas Gausserand, who had stumbled across her paintings at a solo exhibit in an unusual Paris exhibition space in 2022. That exhibit was curated by Philippe Ségalot, who was international head of contemporary art at Christie's

"I saw an abandoned space with a unique atmosphere," Herbelin says. "We decided not to make it a sales exhibit – in this way we broke the commercial aspect. It was like a pop-up exhibit for a few days, presented at the same time as Art Basel. People actually stood in line to see it."

'Paris' power is that I know painters and friends from all over – Italian, Chinese, Georgians, Iranians, Jews and Muslims – and it's all very enriching.'
Herbelin was nine months pregnant when Leribault and Gausserand visited her studio; they offered her a solo exhibit. She was surprised and flattered. The Musée d'Orsay is one of the city's three leading museums, after the Louvre and the Pompidou Center. The d'Orsay, a bastion of Impressionism, shows very little contemporary art. Her work is being shown there until June 30.

"I told them, 'Well done: You're either very progressive guys or you have no idea how busy with the baby I'm going to be,'" Herbelin says.

She kept working on the exhibit even after October 7. "The people at the d'Orsay were very respecting and sensitive; I felt a lot of support with the difficulties I went through," she says. "They didn't see a connection with my exhibition, which was in the works a long time before that as a dialogue between 19th-century painters and the current reality in the Middle East.

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Painter Nathanaëlle Herbelin at her atelier in Paris.Credit: Anas Boileau
"I think my name doesn't automatically brand me as Israeli or Jewish. I mean, I don't hide it; people know I'm Israeli. It's mentioned in the exhibit's text, but my paintings are universal and inviting. So far, nobody has asked me about Israel. It doesn't come up as a subject in conversations. But it may happen."


Grandma's ghost

Herbelin agrees that the subject of antisemitism remains complicated; it's hard to distinguish criticism of Israel from antisemitism.

"It comes in waves, and I think it will pass this time too," she says. "Criticism of Israel and Jews has a flip side. French people also think that Jews are smart and good, and Jews are very involved in cultural affairs. The Jewish community here is large and powerful."


Either way, Herbelin's private life is filled with people from different cultures. "Paris' power is that I know painters and friends from all over – Italian, Chinese, Georgians, Iranians, Jews and Muslims – and it's all very enriching. I've become friends with several Muslims," she says.

"One of them, Ahmed, lives in the 18th arrondissement and earns a living as a sawyer. I came over to have a few things fixed, and he always struck me as melancholy. He emigrated from Egypt and couldn't leave Paris for his father's funeral because he has no residency permit. I donated a painting for him to sell and also painted him once. I mostly paint universal and personal themes, but sometimes I touch on political or social themes."

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From the exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay.Credit: Objets Pointus
At the opening of her exhibit, Herbelin said that during her first decade in Paris, before she met Werner, her only family in France was her grandmother, who died two months before she and her future husband met. Once a week she would ride to the suburbs to visit her grandmother and wash her clothes.

"Now, three years after she passed away, I'm a young mother and, God knows, I devote 20 percent of my time to doing the laundry. And when I shrink almost all of my love Jérémie's pants, I think of her."

Herbelin adds that her grandmother kept all of her "worst paintings."

'I was painting a bar manager named Augustin, a good friend of mine who fell asleep while I was painting. He was a pretty bad model.'
"When she died, I had to take back a hundred paintings to the studio, and now I'm improving them, adding layers," she says. "It's like living with ghosts. Painting on the paintings I brought over from her place keeps reminding me of her."

When she was young, Herbelin wandered among the works of Degas, Monet, Manet, Courbet and Camille Corot at the Musée d'Orsay. In her current exhibition, the curators have placed her work among paintings by the artists of the Nabis movement, a revolutionary Postimpressionist group founded in 1888 and 1889 at the Académie Julian in Paris. The artists of that stream whose work appears with Herbelin's include Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard and Félix Vallotton. (The name Nabis derives from the Hebrew word for "prophet.")

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La chambre sacrée des érythréens, 2020, Nathanaëlle Herbelin.Credit: Nicolas Lafon / Nathanaëlle Herbelin
In the accompanying text, the curators write that Herbelin's art provides a sense of continuity to the history of painting. As they put it, the paintings present a new dynamic of relationships, a preoccupation with women's body hair, female pleasure and a contemporary female gaze that responds directly to the male gaze of the 19th century. The palette, motifs and delicate touch are reminiscent of Bonnard, Vuillard and Vallotton.

The exhibit's catalog is a modest affair; Herbelin wrote part of it, with the rest by the curators and sometimes even the models. Some of the work on display is pretty big, and some tiny. The smallest pieces are sketches that the artist did for herself, though many of them are of very high quality. She examined subjects before switching to a large format.

What things interest you most in painting?

"Personal subjects that everybody can identify with, both domestic scenes and interpersonal relations. It's hard for me to paint about political or social subjects that I haven't experienced myself.

"For example, I was painting a bar manager named Augustin, a good friend of mine who fell asleep while I was painting. He was a pretty bad model, but in the end a painting emerged that depicted a French guy who could be any other young man around the world, dozing on a green couch with his spotted shirt and an ashtray."

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From the exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.Credit: Objets Pointus
Open gallery view
Jérémie au bain, 2023, by Nathanaëlle Herbelin.Credit: Thomas Merle
Exposed and natural

Regarding the juxtaposition with the Nabis, there's Herbelin's painting of a woman who seems to be examining the hairs of her bikini line with her chest exposed. Alongside it is a 1918 painting by Bonnard of a young woman washing her body in a basin. The use of color is somewhat similar, but the time and story are different. In this pairing, Herbelin and the curators illustrate the change in painting over 100 years.

There are also paintings in which Herbelin is the model; sometimes even in the nude. For her 2022 work "Être ici est une splendeur," she couldn't find a suitable model, so she gave it a go herself. She started with one of those small sketches and switched to the large format as seen in the exhibition.

In the catalog she explains that while working on the painting she read a book by German artist Paula Modersohn-Becker, who in 1906 was the first woman to do a nude self-portrait. Herbelin writes: The fact that Becker portrayed herself in the nude while pregnant piqued Herbelin's curiosity; Becker wasn't actually pregnant at the time.

About a year and a half later, Becker really did become pregnant – and continued to portray herself. When she gave birth in November 1907, she planned to retire and focus on her family, but she died suddenly about three weeks later – apparently a complication from the birth.

"I decided to portray myself as if I were pregnant, as a kind of tribute to Paula, a tribute that also expressed my desire to have a child," Herbelin says. "And then two months after the painting was created, I became pregnant too."

She's particularly interested in partnerships and family. The exhibition includes a painting of a couple, Madeleine and Clément, embracing on a bed and barely dressed. "To me they looked like an inspiring couple," Herbelin says. "When I painted them I also wanted to be in such a relationship; it was before I met Jérémie."

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Michel, Emmanuel, Berhe and Zina, Levanda 1, 2020, by Nathanaëlle Herbelin.Credit: Nicolas Degrave / Tajan / Nathanaëlle Herbelin
In one painting Werner is seen in a bathtub totally nude. "He's exposed and natural, just as for hundreds of years it seemed natural to us to see nude women in paintings," Herbelin says. "People who look at the painting are surprised that he agreed to be a nude model, but if he were a woman nobody would consider it unusual."

In another painting, her daughter Elisha is lying on her and nursing. Herbelin writes that when Elisha was born she knew things that her mother apparently has forgotten. She took her mother's breast in her tiny mouth and seemed to glue herself to her. Weaning is difficult and she's still nursing. Nursing is a primitive, crude phenomenon, so Herbelin is so happy to be able to do something so archaic.

To what extent is your Israeliness reflected in the paintings?

"Now I'm painting things related to the war. I'm also painting Israeli scenes; for example, I'm drawn to fruit-and-vegetable stands. I always have pictures of rabbis there in the background, behind the fruits and vegetables. It's a very Israeli landscape.

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Cecilia, 2021, Nathanaëlle Herbelin.Credit: Objets pointus / Nathanaëlle Herbelin / Galerie Jousse Entreprise
"During the coronavirus I was living in Tel Aviv's Neveh Sha'anan neighborhood and I painted a group of Eritreans [asylum seekers] on Levanda Street. They lived four to a small room. This painting is considered exotic in Europe, but I didn't want to show it in Paris. I donated it to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art."

Why not show Israeli things in Paris?

"I fight identity politics in the art world. I don't want to give the Europeans the gift they want so much. They expect political art from me, but I feel that that's a discussion that has to take place in Israel. When I painted children after October 7 – children from Israel and children from Gaza – I didn't want to show them here in Paris."

Herbelin says that in Israel too she sometimes feels like a prisoner when she's expected to touch on subjects she's not always keen to tackle. "There's a lot of death and suffering and complexity in Israel, and that sometimes enters the painting even if I'm not living in Israel. But I want people to let me breathe," she says.

Did you think about trying something from contemporary art such as installations, presentations or video art?

"It's good that there's contemporary art and new techniques. That means that the world is progressing. Painting is something much more ancient. It's from the era of caves. The art that you're referring to has no connection to painting. It's fine that there's contemporary art, and I like to go to art exhibitions like that, but it's the way I like to go to the movies."

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From the exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay. Left: Pierre Bonnard, Nu accroupi au tub, 1918. Right: Nathanaëlle Herbelin, 2023 ,Pince a'e'piler, version 2.Credit: Sophie Crepy
Do you feel that you're living in the wrong era?

"On the contrary, I feel as if I'm an emissary of painting in the current era. That's why I'm also so interested in the history of painting. And like every painter today, I'm carrying the torch of painting and feel that I'm contributing something to it."

There's the notion that when people wander around a museum somewhere around the world, they often feel that what's interesting is the artist's biographical background rather than the work itself. Are you familiar with that?

"Totally – the feeling that the story is more important than the work of art. It's good that they're including more unknown artists, but sometimes I wander around museums and feel that the audience has to tolerate inferior art only because the museum's directors have embraced affirmative action."

Do you feel that you have a defined style?

"I prefer to change. In general I prefer to paint from observation rather than from photos; the painting emerges much more alive that way. That's why I invite people to the studio and replace objects. The human and physical changes in the studio are always exciting.

"In a painting from a photo there's less adrenalin, it's less exciting and more technical. There were subjects I was forced to paint from a photo because that was the only way possible, but today in such cases I manage to distance myself enough from the photo to enter an imaginary world and play around so that it becomes interesting."

This question might be a bit annoying, but if people have been painting for thousands of years, what does your painting contribute to the world? In what way are you different from thousands of artists who showed people in situations quite similar to yours?

"It's like with poetry, for example. There have been many great poets, but people still write poems. I make art because I have a need to do so, because I can't do anything else.

"Look how many people go to painting classes at every age – the way people go to writing workshops. It's important to me to convey emotion in my paintings. At the exhibition I see people crying.

"It's important to me to create art that isn't condescending. It's important to bring people back to museums, to give them faith in a museum. Let them have a moment of beauty. The world is tough, after all."