Welcome to Talking Points Live, a look at what's happening in business that is updated throughout the day. Below that is our morning business newsletter, Talking Points AM. Don't forget to tell your friends and colleagues about it. They can sign up here.
2:30 p.m.: More Amazon, this time from Globe tech correspondent Scott Kirsner, who has been talking to a lot of people in commercial real estate about the pros and cons of landing Amazon's second headquarters. As you probably know by now, it looks like Amazon will be splitting H2Q between the suburbs of Virginia and New York City. One expert he talked to was venture capitalist Russ Wilcox, who observed that during the course of the HQ2 search, Amazon said it would lease an additional 400,000 square feet in the Seaport District; picked Boston for a new joint venture to provide more affordable health care to employees; and paid about $1 billion to acquire Pillpack, an online pharmacy based in Somerville.
All those developments — plus losing HQ2 — makes Boston a "double winner," in Wilcox's view. We get "a big slice of Amazon's innovation and development budget, and we do not have to absorb the thousands of lower-paying administrative jobs that would have clogged up our infrastructure and housing."
Read the whole column here.
1:05 p.m.: I first encountered her in the mid-1980s while covering the AT&T annual shareholders meeting at Radio City Music Hall. Or it might have been at another company's charade for shareholder democracy. I had no idea who she was until I got back to the Reuters newsroom in New York and asked. And that's when I learned about the force of nature named Eveyln Y. Davis. She was a corporate gadly -- a critic who showed up seemingly everywhere to hold CEOs to account for whatever they were screwing up. Business reporters long ago stopped attending most annual meetings, and I hadn't thought about Davis until today, when I read that she died Sunday at the age of 89. Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik has a wonderful appreciation here.
12:46 p.m.: Wall Street firms are sending out notes to clients on what to expect from midterms. CNBC has a round-up here.
12 p.m.: Midday market update: Dow +0.4 percent, S&P 500 +0.3 percent, Nasdaq +0.4 percent. Crude oil -2.6 percent. 10-year US Treasury up slightly to 3.211 percent.
11:35 a.m.: Some background on the Papa Gino's (parent company is PGHC Holdings) bankruptcy, via Dan Primack of Axios:
--The company, controlled by Boston-based Bunker Hill Capital, struck a prepackaged bankruptcy agreement, with another private firm, Wynnchurch, serving as "stalking horse" bidder. The means another prospective buyer could emerge during the bankruptcy auction. Wynnchurch holds some PGHC debt.
10:05 a.m.: CVS Health Corp. beat Wall Street estimates for its third-quarter profit, as it benefited from higher sales of prescription drugs as well as consumer health and beauty products. The Woonsocket-based company's pharmacy same-store sales rose 8.7 percent, while analysts were expecting a 7.7 percent rise, driven by higher demand for prescription drugs. (Reuters)
10 a.m.: General Electric, continuing its sell-off of $20 billion in assets, has agreed to unload its Current unit to a private equity firm. Terms were not disclosed. Current, which makes LED lighting, is based in Boston and has about 50 employees here. (Clarification: This item has been updated to make clear that Current has 50 employees in Boston, not overall.)(Bloomberg)
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Talking Points AM - Nov. 6, 2018
AM Headlines
AT&T to crackdown on content piracy: The company will notify more than a dozen customers that their service will be terminated due to copyright infringement over its networks. (Axios)
Facebook blocks accounts for possible foreign influence: The social media behemoth locked down 115 accounts after the feds warned of "coordinated inauthentic behavior" that could be linked to foreign entities. (NPR)
EU states fail to agree on digital tax: The governments abandoned hopes of agreeing on a European digital services tax on Internet giants by next month. (FT)
Off the Top
How business and politics mix: One thing to remember about big elections from a business perspective: Executives and investors hate uncertainty. It makes it hard to plan investments, acquisitions, and hiring.
At the Massachusetts level, it looks very likely we will retain our Republican governor and Democrat-controlled Legislature. So more or less business as usual. The big wild card, at least for the state's hospitals, is Question 1, which would set nurse-to-patient ratios department by department. The Massachusetts Nurses Association (which is backing a yes vote) says the change would improve the workplace and patient care. Hospitals (which want a no vote) say it will cost them almost a $1 billion a year.
Nationally, if the consensus is correct (and let's not forget how wrong it was in 2016) and the Democrats take the House and the GOP holds the Senate, then prospects for legislative gridlock are good. And, strangely, gridlock is good because the chances of major unexpected changes are low. Under a Republican president and divided Congress, the S&P 500 has averaged an annual return of 12 percent, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
But the House staying in Republican hands isn't necessarily bad. Because as unpopular as President Trump is, corporate America and Wall Street have mostly liked the changes the GOP has pushed through: a tax cut, less regulation, and a get- tough-stance on China's abusive trade tactics.
Whatever your views, the most important thing is to vote. Now back to our regular programming.
All over but the shouting?: This won't be our last update of the HQ2 Watch, where we track developments, no matter how insignificant, in Amazon's search for a second headquarters. But Boston's interest in the outcome has waned now that it looks like the Seattle Internet giant has decided to split HQ2 between two East Coast locations: Crystal City, Va., just across from D.C., and Long Island City in Queens, N.Y. Some of us in the Boston area relieved and others are disappointed. It kind of feels like when Mayor Marty Walsh pulled the city's bid for the Summer Olympics. (Boston Globe)
Executive Summary
Consolidating industry: One concern weighed when Massachusetts legalized medical marijuana and then recreational sales was that the market would eventually be dominated by big players. Well, consolidation is happening, and here's the latest deal: Boston-based Compassionate Organics, which has been trying to open a medical marijuana shop on Newbury Street, will be bought by Green Thumb Industries, an Illinois company that is publicly traded in Canada. Terms weren't disclosed. (BBJ)
No vacancy: How tight is Boston's market for office space? The Globe's Tim Logan reports that in May 2017, there were 21 blocks of 100,000 square feet or more -- enough to house 500 to 600 employees -- in downtown Boston. Today there are eight, according to figures from real estate firm Newmark Knight Frank. That's makes the timing right for John Hancock, which has put its headquarters in Seaport out for leasing and is consolidating workers at existing sites in the Back Bay. Newmark, its broker, says interest is high. Meanwhile, developers are increasingly doing something they've avoided: starting construction without an anchor tenant lined up. Such "on spec" projects are underway at 2 Drydock in the Seaport, Cambridge Crossing in East Cambridge, and Winthrop Center downtown. That could be a problem if the market cools. (Boston Globe)
Remembering Virgil Marson: Mr. Marson cofounded the Andover Shop in 1948 with his brother-in-law Charlie Davidson. Mr. Marson became a legendary, if discreet, figure in Greater Boston men's clothing. He ran the company's Andover location while Davidson handled the other shop in Cambridge. He died last month at 94. (Boston Globe)
Watch List
- -- Pre-marketing earnings: CVS, Entercom, Haemonetics, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals
- -- Post-market earnings: Rapid7