(Bloomberg) — Boeing Co. climbed after U.S. aviation regulators said they’d approved a critical set of test flights on the 737 Max to begin as soon as Monday, having reviewed the company’s safety assessment of fixes for the plane.The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the start of the multiday program in an email to congressional staffers on Sunday.“Over the past several weeks the FAA has been reviewing the system safety assessment submitted by Boeing,” the agency said in the email. “The FAA’s Type Inspection Authorization Board has completed its review, clearing the way for flight certification testing to begin.”Boeing jumped 8.3% to $184.11 before the start of regular trading in New York. The stock had tumbled 48% this year through June 26, the sharpest decline on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.The agency’s action signals that the government is finally comfortable with the multiple fixes that the planemaker has devised for the plane, which has been grounded for more than 15 months after two fatal crashes.Two people briefed on the planning said earlier Sunday that the goal is to begin the tests Monday, but the start is still subject to last-minute delays. Such tests are one of the final stages by the government before it certifies an aircraft.The FAA will have one of its test pilots flying the plane alongside a Boeing pilot. They will be accompanied in the cockpit by an FAA flight-test engineer and a Boeing flight-test manager. Additional specialists will be in the cabin monitoring computerized instrumentation on the plane.“We continue to work diligently on safely returning the 737 Max to service,” Boeing said in a statement Sunday. “We defer to the FAA and global regulators on the process.”Bloomberg News reported Friday that the tests were expected as soon as Monday as the more than 15-month process of making fixes on Boeing’s best-selling plane nears completion.The FAA said in its letter that a number of steps remain before the plane can resume carrying passengers in the U.S., and by extension, elsewhere around the world.“It is important to note, getting to this step does not mean the FAA has completed its compliance evaluation or other work associated with return to service,” the agency said. “The FAA has not made a decision on return to service.”It will take months for the agency to complete new pilot-training standards and issue regulations governing multiple software and hardware changes to the plane. Airline customers have been told that it could come in September if all goes well, though they still have to retrain pilots and perform maintenance on the fleets of planes that have been in storage before they enter service.The FAA added that it will retain the authority of inspecting each new plane to ensure that it meets all federal requirements.In the past, the agency had largely delegated the responsibility to Boeing employees. Last November the agency said its own inspectors would take over that task. Inspections of undelivered planes after the accidents had found numerous instances in which debris from manufacturing had been left in areas such as fuel tanks.The Max was grounded by FAA on March 13, 2019, after most of the rest of the world had already sidelined the plane following the second fatal crash involving a flight-control feature. The crashes — in October 2018 off the coast of Indonesia and in March 2019 near Addis Ababa — killed a total of 346 people.An examination of the software that was driving down the plane’s nose repeatedly as a result of a malfunction prompted the discovery of other issues that required upgrades to improve safety on the plane. Adding redundancy to its flight-control computer took months and late last year Boeing discovered that the way it had installed wiring on the jet didn’t meet federal regulations.The crashes have also prompted a reassessment of how aircraft manufacturers and regulators around the world assume pilots will react to certain emergencies.The certification flights are scheduled to occur over three separate days. The agency, which worked closely with Boeing during the process of revising the plane, has a list of maneuvers that it will demonstrate on the plane to verify that alterations to its system function as designed.Certification flights rarely result in surprises. In this case, devising the revisions to the Max have been one of the most scrutinized processes in history as outside panels of experts advised FAA and regulators in other nations also undertook reviews of the plane.(Updates with details from FAA letter starting in ninth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Gunmen opened fire outside the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi on Monday. Though the high-profile attack ended without their getting into the building, WSJ’s Saeed Shah explains how it could set back Pakistan’s progress in showing the country is safe for foreign investors. Image: Fareed Khan/AP

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Burger King joins a list of restaurants starting to recover from the worst of the COVID-19 economic downturn.

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(Bloomberg) — Wirecard AG’s collapse has laid bare significant cracks in Germany’s financial oversight, increasing pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government after one of the country’s biggest corporate failures.Even with ample warning, German authorities failed to catch accounting issues at the digital-payments company. Slow decision-making, insufficient oversight and fragmented responsibilities created cracks that allowed Wirecard’s problems go undetected by officials.Germany is one of relatively few countries to split accounting enforcement between a private-sector watchdog and its markets regulator, while the investigation of money laundering at non-financial companies is handled by regional authorities. With the fallout risking the country’s reputation as a place to do business, the government is now pushing for reform.The financial regulator, known as BaFin, has come under fire for being slow to respond to allegations and temporarily banning short selling of Wirecard stock last year, an unprecedented step that appeared to back Wirecard. But the inefficient delegation of supervision duties helps explain why it failed to dig up problems at the company.The government will cancel its contract with the accounting watchdog, called FREP, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said on Monday. The contract is set to run another 18 months, according to Bild am Sonntag.The contract cancellation is the first step toward a new financial supervision concept, Kristina Wogatzki, a Finance Ministry spokeswoman, said Monday at a regulator press conference.To consolidate financial enforcement, BaFin will be given the power to start investigations into company accounts, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.“Self-regulation by the auditors doesn’t work properly,” Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Kukies told the FT. The ministry “will inevitably have to question whether the bodies that currently regulate the industry should continue to do so in their current form,” he said.No FeedbackBaFin received documents alleging irregularities at Wirecard in January 2019, yet it took more than a year to ask prosecutors to follow up on suspicions of market manipulation.The regulator asked FREP in February 2019 to investigate, and since made multiple follow-up requests but hadn’t received a report on Wirecard’s accounting, said a spokeswoman for the regulator.FREP assigned just one person to probe Wirecard, according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. The organization didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.In the meantime, KPMG’s special audit, published in April this year, couldn’t verify much of Wirecard’s historic revenue and profits.Once lauded as one of Germany’s fintech stars, Wirecard filed for insolvency last week after saying that 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) previously reported as cash on its balance sheet probably doesn’t exist.With traditional lenders Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG struggling with their own problems, the scandal has raised questions over how to rescue Germany’s role in modern finance after Wirecard’s demise.“It is very important to us that the business is saved and a German company can continue to run it,” said Andreas Laemmel, the lead lawmaker for economic affairs in Merkel’s Christian Democratic causcus, told Bloomberg. “But Wirecard’s name cannot persist, it’s burned.”(Updates with Finance Ministry comment in sixth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Traveling on trains and buses means potential exposure to the coronavirus, so cities are racing to make their public transit systems safe. WSJ explores how things like sanitizing robots, working from home and expanded bike lanes are changing our commutes. Video/Illustration: Jaden Urbi and Zoë Soriano

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The Financial Conduct Authority said on Monday Wirecard was addressing the British watchdog’s concerns but its restrictions on the collapsed German payments company’s services would remain for now. Several UK fintech firms have been forced to suspend services following the FCA’s restrictions on Wirecard. The FCA its teams have been working with Wirecard, and other international and UK authorities, over the weekend.

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Top news and what to watch in the markets on Monday, June 29, 2020.

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(Bloomberg) — Even in the innovative world of electric vehicles, it’s an unusual proposition: Plunk down as much as $5,000 now to reserve the right in a few years to buy a battery-powered truck, before seeing a prototype or manufacturing plan to assure it’ll ever be built.That’s what Nikola Corp., the Phoenix-based company whose sudden stock surge has captured the attention of investors, is asking customers to do starting Monday. The reservations, which are refundable, take a page from Tesla Inc.’s playbook, but they require would-be vehicle buyers to take an even bigger leap of faith than Elon Musk ever did.Nikola founder Trevor Milton has said he hopes the truck, called the Badger, will one day rival Ford Motor Co.’s F-150, which for 43 years has been America’s best-selling pickup. Nikola went public on June 4 through a reverse merger, and the stock more than doubled on June 8 after he tweeted that Nikola would start taking reservations on June 29 for what he called “the most bad a– zero emission truck.”The company told prospective investors before going public that its focus was on producing a different type of vehicle — big rig semi trucks starting with a model called the Nikola Tre. In a March filing, Nikola said it didn’t expect to draw up plans for the Badger pickup unless an established manufacturer agreed to make it.Nikola will have more details to share this summer about its Badger manufacturing partnership, and it’ll address other questions potential customers and investors may have in a press release Monday, Colleen Robar, a spokeswoman for the company, said in an email.Investors haven’t registered any concerns about Nikola’s unorthodox approach to vehicle sales. The shares closed Friday at $63.55, up 87% since their listing. The company’s $22.9 billion market capitalization is just short of the $23.5 billion valuation for Ford, which unveiled its next-generation F-150 pickup last week.Read more: Nikola Founder Has $7.4 Billion Fortune on Free Truck OrdersTesla has accepted reservations for models before the company started production, including for this year’s new Model Y SUV. But customers at least had a prototype to look at, and Musk has now marketed five different vehicles. Nikola doesn’t expect to start delivering its first semi truck model to customers until next year. It has a joint venture with CNH Industrial NV, whose Iveco unit has been building big rigs for decades, to manufacture the Nikola Tre in Germany.Nikola’s plan to work with manufacturing partners is a contrast with Tesla, which went through what Musk repeatedly referred to as “production hell” trying to mass-produce the Model 3 with its own factory. Cowen & Co. analyst Jeffery Osborne said in a June 17 report that Nikola’s outsourcing strategy could mitigate risk.So far, Nikola has shared only computer renderings of the Badger, and has said it will cost between $60,000 and $90,000. Milton predicts it’ll be a hit. “Most likely it’ll be sold out, so be ready and gets yours reserved,” he tweeted on June 15.Interested buyers have to pay close attention to Milton on social media, where details about the Badger come out in drips and drabs. Milton tweeted on June 8 that he expects deliveries of the Badger to begin in 2022, but exact details would be laid out in a partnership announcement before an event he called nikolaworld2020.Eleven days later, he announced that Nikola World would take place in December — about five months after Nikola starts taking reservations for the Badger.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Texas was one of the last states to shut down and the earliest to reopen. Now local health-care workers urge the community to be vigilant as Texas hospitalizations reach records. Photo: AP

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Consumer goods giant, Unilever (UL) and telecom company, Verizon (VZ) said June 26 that they would halt advertisements on Facebook (FB) and Instagram.Facebook’s stock dropped 8% by market close on Friday as more advertisers moved to boycott the popular social media site, citing its ongoing problems of hate speech and racism.“We’re pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable and is consistent with what we’ve done with YouTube and other partners,” Verizon’s chief media officer John Nitti told CNBC.Verizon plans to pull its ads for the month of July while Unilever plans to not advertise on Facebook and Instagram for 6 months.“Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society. We will be monitoring ongoing, and will revisit our current position if necessary,” Unilever told The Verge.Following this, Facebook announced a range of new policy changes on Friday that appeared to address concerns by saying that they will “prohibit claims that people from a specific race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity or immigration status are a threat to the physical safety, health or survival of others.”The new policy will impact only paid advertisements and will not effect posts without paid promotion.Speaking in a live video stream, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “Facebook stands for giving people a voice, and that especially means people who have previously not had as much voice, or as much power to share their own experiences.” He added, “It’s really important that we make sure our platforms live up to these principles.”Zuckerberg’s Friday announcement was not enough to reassure other advertisers. Late afternoon the same day, Coca-Cola (KO) and Honda joined 100 different brands announcing that they too were ceasing ads on Facebook for the month of July as part of a broader boycott of Facebook. Honda cited the boycott campaign on Twitter on June 26 with the hashtag, StopHateForProfit, saying, “We choose to stand with people united against hate and racism. This is in alignment with our company’s values, which are grounded in human respect.”The developments were noted on June 26 by Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post stating, “As of now, our checks have suggested that the impact of boycotts may not be material, but if key influencers in other large sectors join in, there is risk of a near-term ‘snowball’ effect.”Post maintains a price target of $265 with a 23% upside potential.Facebook stock is up 5% year-to-date with 30 analysts assigning a Buy rating, 3 Hold, and no Sell ratings which altogether results in a consensus of a Strong Buy on TipRanks. The average analyst price target stands at $247.93 implying 15% upside potential. (See Facebook's stock analysis on TipRanks)Related News: Microsoft’s Xbox Closes Mixer Live Streaming, Partners With Facebook Gaming Facebook Files Lawsuits In U.S., Europe Against Abuse On Its Platforms Facebook Unveils Tighter Political Ad Measures Ahead of US Elections More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Microsoft To Close All Of Its 83 Retail Stores * Debt-Laden Chesapeake Energy Files For Chapter 11 Proceedings * GM’s Defense Unit Wins $214.3 Million U.S. Army Contract For Troop Carrier * AstraZeneca Strikes $127 Million Deal With Brazil For Covid-19 Vaccine

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