FirstFT: Democratic governors again Biden

Good morning.

Democratic state governors mentioned they backed Joe Biden after talks on the White Home yesterday regardless of a string of bleak polls for the president and calls from some lawmakers for him to exit the US presidential race.

Biden met greater than 20 influential governors in an effort to guarantee them that he was dedicated to his re-election marketing campaign amid experiences that a number of governors had privately expressed concern about his candidacy.

The president has earlier held a one-on-one assembly with vice-president Kamala Harris as hypothesis swirled that she may change him because the Democratic nominee.

Harris has gained help amongst Democrats in latest days and betting markets yesterday shifted sharply in her favour, giving her higher odds of profitable the election than Biden. Right here’s extra on a frenetic day in Washington that additionally noticed a second lawmaker name on Biden to step apart.

Right here’s what else is going on as we speak:

5 extra high tales

1. Saks Fifth Avenue’s dad or mum firm is nearing a $2.65bn deal to purchase its luxurious division retailer rival Neiman Marcus with the backing of tech giants Amazon and Salesforce. The deal, which follows months of advanced negotiations, is about to mix two of the main gamers in luxurious retail below one roof.

2. Federal Reserve officers thought that US inflation was cooling however nonetheless wanted “greater confidence” earlier than they agreed to chop rates of interest from their 23-year excessive, in response to minutes of their most up-to-date assembly. Nonetheless, the document exhibits some policymakers’ issues that unemployment may rise too rapidly if charges remained too excessive for too lengthy.

• Extra central financial institution information: The European Central Financial institution’s annual convention this week was dominated by discuss of the rise of far-right politics in Europe after Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement Nationwide received the primary spherical of France’s parliamentary election.

3. Goldman Sachs faces lengthy odds in getting the Federal Reserve to rethink its disappointing grade on this 12 months’s financial institution stress checks, in response to regulatory specialists. Final week, Goldman’s chief government David Solomon took the uncommon step of criticising this 12 months’s stress check. Right here’s what’s at stake.

4. SoftBank is decided to prioritise investments in synthetic intelligence and has no plans for a right away share buyback regardless of strain from activist investor Elliott for a $15bn capital return programme. Learn the total interview with Yoshimitsu Goto.

5. Amazon’s cloud providers division has received a A$2bn ($1.3bn) contract with the Australian authorities to construct three information centres for safe sharing of data with allies. The contract means Australia may have higher potential to share intelligence and navy data and use synthetic intelligence for information evaluation.

At the moment’s large learn

Nato’s 2018 summit marked the largest turning level within the historical past of the western navy alliance that has assured European safety since 1949. That is the within story of that fateful Brussels summit primarily based on conversations with greater than two dozen leaders, officers and advisers who have been current when Donald Trump instructed America’s allies that he would now not shield Europe “carte blanche”.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Iranian election: The presidential race between a reformist and a hardliner shall be determined tomorrow by the silent majority who boycotted the primary spherical of voting.

• Preqin deal: Founder Mark O’Hare has been catapulted into the ranks of Britain’s wealthiest folks after the sale of the UK information group for £2.5bn to BlackRock.

• AI market hype: The temper continues to be fragile as buyers battle to shake the sensation that issues are merely dusted in glitter, writes Katie Martin.

Chart of the day

Most buyers consider passive fairness methods, akin to index trackers, after they consider ETFs — akin to these made standard by SSGA, Vanguard and BlackRock, which comprise the majority of the market. However lively ETFs and bond ETFs, particularly, have been capturing a rising share of recent cash and have loved document inflows this 12 months.

Take a break from the information

From conventional styling in The Hamptons to a high-design compound in Montauk, listed below are 5 very costly houses on the market on Lengthy Island, New York.

Extra contributions from Tee Zhuo and Benjamin Wilhelm