No pizza experience

MARKETS

• Bonds: China has $6 billion more to play with after executing its biggest international sovereign bond sale yesterday. Thanks to a global plunge in interest rates, debt is super cheap.
• Trade: The news this week has been mostly positive from both the U.S. and China. President Trump said yesterday they're close to a phase one trade deal.

2020

OK, Bloomberg

Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially declared his bid for the U.S. presidency on Sunday.

• Bloomberg is the richest person ever to run. And...he’s flexing his $54 billion fortune early on. He threw down at least $30 million for a single week of TV ads—that’s more than his non-billionaire Democratic rivals spent on TV ads this year combined.

That’s a problem for one biz-focused NYC newsroom

Not us—we’re all stocked up on jumbo soda jokes. The announcement puts employees at Bloomberg LP, the news, software, and financial info company Michael co-founded in 1981, in a tough spot.

• CNN reports that some Bloomberg muckrakers are frustrated about how the campaign could affect their raking.

Last Sunday, Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait issued a memo that outlined the political team’s strategy. Which is: They won’t investigate Bloomberg or any of his Democratic rivals to avoid favoritism.

• They’ll cover Bloomberg and the Democrats; they just won’t break out the money-following investigative big guns.
• As for President Trump, they’ll continue those deep investigations because he’s a sitting president, not just a candidate. But if Bloomberg wins the nomination (analysts say his chances are slim), they’ll have to revisit.

Taking a step back

News accounts for an undisclosed but probably minimal chunk of Bloomberg LP’s ~$11 billion in annual revenue, according to the FT. Out of nearly 20,000 total workers, the news division employs 2,700 reporters and editors.

Plus, the company’s faced this issue before. Bloomberg was mayor of NYC from 2002 to 2013.

• Of that time spent covering Bloomberg in Gracie Mansion, one reporter said it was a tall order even as most of the stories were only made available to high-paying Bloomberg Terminal subscribers.
• Now that Bloomberg reporting is accessible to more people, the newsroom’s choice not to cover the boss man in-depth carries more weight.

There is one NYC enclave cheering Bloomberg’s entry: Wall Street.

+ Did this story whet your election appetite? Subscribe to The Turnout, Morning Brew’s new weekly newsletter on the intersection of business and politics.

HOUSING

There's No Place Like Home Data

Like wise men and bean salads, all good housing data comes in threes.

1. New home sales rode a 12+ year high in September and October despite an unexpected dip in October, per Commerce Dept. data released yesterday. October new home sales were up almost 32% annually with a seasonally adjusted 733,000 units.
2. The S&P Case-Shiller Index reported a 3.2% increase in U.S. home prices in September. Commerce data pinned median October home sales at $316,700, just enough for a cupboard under the stairs in NYC.
3. About two-thirds of October sales were units under construction or still to be built, indicating a housing pipeline strong as a sistered floor joist. Home starts, or permits for new home construction, also hit a 12+ year high in October.

What it all means: In recent months, historically low mortgage rates and gains in jobs and wages have fortified the housing market, which has helped prop up a slowing economy. But tight inventory and high demand could push home prices to uncomfortable levels.

FOOD

Papa John Is Serving This Revenge Pizza Cold

Papa John’s founder John Schnatter recently spilled the whole teapot to Louisville TV station WDRB, announcing he’s so disillusioned with his former company that he’s reduced his stake as largest shareholder.

The highlight was Schnatter confessing to eating over 40 pizzas in the last 30 days.

• Schnatter said the pizza is "not the same product. It just doesn't taste as good.”
• But he still ate 40+ pizzas .

Schnatter criticized new CEO Rob Lynch, who he says “doesn't really know quality” or have pizza experience.

Lynch, the former Arby’s president, guided Papa John’s to beat sales expectations last quarter. Shares are up almost 41% since he joined in late August.

Perhaps it’s the aftertaste of resentment?

Schnatter resigned as chairman in 2018 following backlash to his use of a racial slur on a conference call...about diversity training.

Schnatter says he “didn’t say anything that was racist” and his words were intentionally taken out of context by company insiders who wanted him out.

Looking ahead...Schnatter said to “stay tuned” because “the day of reckoning will come.”

+ Lock it in: ESPN launches the pizza documentary series 40 for 30.

RETAIL

Clear Eyes, Full Carts

If yesterday’s retail earnings were football movies, Dick’s would be Remember the Titans. The company showed the triumph of the human spirit and reported its best comparable sales figures since 2013, with e-commerce sales leaping 13%.

• The retailer’s decision last February to stop selling assault-style rifles doesn’t seem to have hurt it.

Best Buy is We Are Marshall: It pays to get creative. The electronics retailer posted top and bottom line beats in part by expanding health services that seniors can access from their homes.

• Best Buy did almost $9.8 billion in sales last quarter. Comparable sales, retail’s favorite metric, rose 1.7%.

Dollar Tree is Friday Night Lights: Things don’t always go how you’d hope. It missed earnings expectations as the trade war and its Family Dollar brand squeezed margins. It just barely beat revenue projections.

• After Dollar Tree cut its Q4 forecast, its stock slid over 15%.

Looking ahead...retailers are betting convenience and “experiences” will win out this holiday season. And whatever the opposite of betting is, they’re doing it on a round of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods slated for Dec. 15.

WEALTH

Revenge of the Boomers?

Writer and radio host Kurt Andersen went deep on some Fed household wealth data to keep your Thanksgiving table conversation interesting.

+ Related: "OK Boomer, Who’s Going to Buy Your 21 Million Homes?" from the WSJ.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• A big winter storm in the Rockies forced hundreds of cancellations at Denver’s airport. Don’t worry, rest of the U.S.—you’re going to get hit with bad weather, too.
• U.S. federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into pharma companies over their roles in the opioid crisis, the WSJ reports.
• Audi is cutting its workforce by 7,500 as it preps for an electric future.
• Disney is starting to sell Baby Yoda merch. Don’t need it, we already have tattoos.

WEDNESDAY HEADLINES

Because it feels like the weekend, or at least the start of it, Saturday Headlines is taking a celeb shot on Wednesday. For those who don’t read the Brew on Saturdays (tsk tsk), here’s how it works: We’ll give you three bizarre headlines from the week’s news that are real, and one we made up. You have to spot the fake.

1. “Hotel room costs $1, but it's livestreamed at all times”
2. “Metal ball that broke Tesla window to go on display at MoMa in 2020”
3. “A self-declared space nation called Asgardia is planning a fully functioning space economy and wants help from Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos”
4. “9-year-old finishes college in just nine months”

WEDNESDAY HEADLINES ANSWER