Barclays plans $20B shareholder return

Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes.

On today's podcast:
1) The relentless surge in memory chip prices over the past few months has driven a vast divide between winners and losers in the stock market, and investors don’t see any end in sight. Companies from game console maker Nintendo Co. to big PC brands and Apple Inc. suppliers are seeing shares slump on profitability concerns. Memory producers, meanwhile, are soaring to unprecedented heights. Money managers and analysts are now assessing which firms can best navigate the squeeze by locking in supplies, raising product prices or redesigning to use less memory. A Bloomberg gauge of global consumer electronics makers is down 10% since the end of September while a basket of memory makers including Samsung Electronics Co. has surged roughly 160%. The question now is how much is priced in.
2) Alphabet Inc. is selling sterling and Swiss franc-denominated bonds for the first time, including an ultra-rare issue of a 100-year note, following a bumper $20 billion deal in the US. Google’s parent company is offering five tranches each of sterling and Swiss franc notes, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified. The 100-year sterling bond is the first sale of such long-dated debt by a technology firm since the dot-com era. The sterling issue includes tenors of three to 32 years as well as the 100 year bond. The Swiss franc deal includes maturities of three, six, 10, 15 and 25-year bonds. Both deals are expected to price later today, the people said.
3) President Trump said his pick to lead the Federal Reserve can stoke the economy to grow at a rate of 15%, an exceedingly rosy target that nonetheless underscores the pressure that Kevin Warsh will face if confirmed to the role. Trump, speaking in an interview with Fox Business, said Warsh was the “runner up” in his last search and that it was a big mistake to pick Fed chair Jerome Powell. It was not fully clear if Trump was referring to year-over-year growth or some other metric. The US economy, which is seen expanding 2.4% this year, has grown at an average annual rate of 2.8% over the past five decades. Gross domestic product has only risen at a 15%-plus pace a few times since the 1950s, including in the third quarter of 2020 as businesses reopened following pandemic-related closures.

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