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Weekend's Update: U.S. job growth, TikTok ban, Novo Nordisk, Epic Games approved on Apple's App Store in Europe, and Tripled Family Offices since 2019

  • Writer: Mathieu Desfosses
    Mathieu Desfosses
  • Mar 9, 2024
  • 2 min read

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U.S. job growth totaled 275,000 in February but unemployment rate rose to 3.9%


  • Nonfarm payrolls increased by 275,000 for the month while the jobless rate moved higher to 3.9%. Wall Street had been looking for 198,000 new jobs and unemployment at 3.7%.

  • Downward revisions to December and January reduced initial estimates by 167,000 jobs.

  • Wages rose just 0.1% on the month, one-tenth of a percentage point below the estimate, and were up 4.3% from a year ago.

  • Health care led with 67,000 new jobs. Government again was a big contributor, with 52,000, while restaurants and bars added 42,000.


Biden says he’ll ban TikTok if Congress passes bill, but he’s campaigning on it until then


  • President Joe Biden’s election campaign officially joined TikTok weeks before lawmakers introduced a bill calling on ByteDance to divest the video app.

  • Candidates recognize the importance of using TikTok to reach younger potential voters, but the company’s connection to China poses a persistent problem for campaigns.

  • “If you want to reach younger people who are very apathetic, they’re on TikTok,” said Maggie Macdonald, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky.


Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy wins FDA approval for cutting heart disease risks, in move that could expand insurance coverage


  • The Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy for use in slashing the risk of serious cardiovascular complications in people with obesity and heart disease, the company said.

  • That decision could widen insurance coverage for the drug and similar treatments for obesity, which has been a major barrier to access for patients.

  • Wegovy and its diabetes counterpart Ozempic sparked a weight loss industry gold rush over the past year for their ability to help patients shed pounds.


Apple reverses course, approves Epic Games for app store in Europe


  • Apple has approved Epic Games’ developer account in Sweden.

  • Earlier this week, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said Apple had retaliated against the company for lawsuits and social media criticism by blocking the Sweden account.

  • The episode was one of the first challenges to the European DMA from one of the technology giants it regulates, and raised questions about whether the law’s fines and penalties would be sufficient to curb some of the practices targeted by the law.


Family offices have tripled since 2019, creating a new gold rush on Wall Street


  • The number of family offices in the world has tripled since 2019, setting off a new race among private equity firms, hedge funds and venture capital firms to attract their investments.

  • According to a new report from Preqin, the number of family offices worldwide topped 4,500 last year, with a concentration in North America.

  • Experts say family offices now manage $6 trillion or more, and their ranks are growing.




 
 
 

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