Some sunlight from Wall Street

It wasn’t too long ago that Wall Street CEOs looked like they were trying to outdo each other when it came to economic gloom and doom. Now, two of the most voluble masters of the universe let loose a little sunlight, saying the US is more than prepared to withstand any economic downturn, should one come. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon and Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman both said Thursday that they aren’t steering their firms toward shelter even as they see global events denting the economy in the months ahead. “The consumer right now is in great shape,” Dimon said. “So even if we go into a recession, they’re entering that recession with less leverage and in far better shape than they did in ’08 and ’09.” —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

Stocks closed lower but well off session lows thanks to comments from Federal Reserve officials that may have assuaged investors worried about a more aggressive pace of rate hikes. Here’s your markets wrap.

Chinese authorities held emergency meetings with banks after growing alarmed that an increasing number of homebuyers across the country are refusing to pay mortgages on stalled projects.

After a rare two weeks out of the public eye raised some questions, President Xi Jinping visited China’s Xinjiang region, a vast western area where Beijing maintains huge internment camps. In them, more than 1 million ethnic Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been detained or imprisoned. The US has labeled it a “genocide.”

The Biden administration has put in place a federal rule that mandates abortions be provided in medical emergencies where a mother could die. But Texas, which has some of the most draconian abortion restrictions in America, is suing to block it.

More Covid-19 boosters are coming to the US, but who will take them?Vaccine uptake has waned, Lisa Jarvis writes in Bloomberg Opinion. She says public health officials should follow research-backed strategies to get Americans back on track. Right now, some 351 Americans are dying each day from Covid-19, close to the average for the past three months. But hospitalizations have been steadily rising, now at more than 5,800 a day.

There are no winners in Elon Musk’s Twitter mess, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. The company’s shareholders and employees, as well as people involved in future acquisitions on the billionaire’s behalf, are all worse off because of the drama.

Russia continued to add to the gruesome death toll of its war on Ukraine, where thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers have already perished. On Thursday, Kremlin forces attacked more civilian targets far from the front lines, all with little apparent military significance. Dozens of people, including children, were killed, authorities said. Meanwhile, a gas-hungry Europe is reviving coal plants in the face of Vladimir Putin’s retaliatory energy slowdown over sanctions. Europe is frying from devastating heat, yet it is being forced to burn more of the dirtiest fossil fuel. As climate ambitions are tossed aside, the blistering conditions fueled by a warming climate are showing what’s at stake.

While the world struggles to find the will to fight global warming and end its reliance on fossil fuels, dozens of startups are putting billions of dollars into the quest for unlimited clean power. They’re searching for a practical, scalable way to harness fusion—the energy that powers the sun. The decades-long, star-crossed hunt for a workable fusion reactor, however, is fast becoming a race against global catastrophe.

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