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Good morning.
Today is a big day for Fortune, as we take another step on our journey to reinvent this storied brand for a new century.
Those of you who follow Fortune have seen the changes we’ve already put into place. With the support of our new owner, we have in the past year secured our independence from Time Inc. and Meredith, built an independent company, and invested in journalism and technology to better serve our audiences, digitally as well as in print. We now have more than a dozen in-depth newsletters, a new video portal filled with unique insights from the world’s greatest business leaders, monthly webinars, new mobile apps, new quarterly investment guides, and proprietary data analysis, all aimed at giving you the tools you need to succeed in today’s rapidly changing business world. Even the magazine has been reimagined as a premium print publication, worthy of a place on every executive coffee table.
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Other news below. And oh, yes, I should have mentioned—CEO Daily, like our other newsletters, will remain free. But you will need to subscribe to access all the great stories that underpin it.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Mixed markets
Asian markets were mixed today, with the Shanghai Composite (0.6% up) bucking a general downward trajectory. In Europe, the markets are happy, with the Stoxx Europe 600 up 1.2% at the time of writing. U.S. futures look positive after yesterday's drop of almost 3%, which showed investors to be unimpressed with the Fed's rate cut. CNN
Universal healthcare
The Trump administration is reportedly considering paying hospitals and doctors to treat uninsured Covid-19 patients, using funds from a national disaster program. Around 8% of the U.S. populace does not have health insurance. President Trump: "We are going to look at the uninsured because they have a big problem." Wall Street Journal
Indian cryptocurrency
India's Supreme Court has overturned the country's ban on cryptocurrency trading by financial services firms. The court said the ban, instituted two years ago by India's central bank, was disproportionate and unconstitutional. India's Bitcoin entrepreneurs are, naturally, very excited. Economic Times
Biden vs. Bernie
Yesterday was a great day for Joe Biden, who took Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia in the Democratic primaries' Super Tuesday. Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, took California, Utah and Colorado. The race is now clearly between the two of them. Michael Bloomberg, meanwhile, is reportedly considering dropping out after spending around $215 million of his fortune advertising in the Super Tuesday states alone, to no avail—though he can take comfort in having won American Samoa. Politico
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
H&M supply chain
H&M, the Swedish fashion giant, is launching a service called Treadler that will let smaller brands use it and its supply chain. The driver is sustainability, and it is not coincidentally H&M's first major move since former sustainability exec Helena Helmersson took over as CEO. Helmersson: "To future proof our industry, we have focused on transforming and improving our supply chain. We’ve realised that the output of our efforts can be valuable for others too." Financial Times
Olympics outlook
The Japanese government has made its first mini-admission that the Olympics might not go ahead as planned, due to the coronavirus outbreak. Despite having previously insisted there is "no plan B" for the Games, Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto said yesterday in parliament that "the contract calls for the Games to be held within 2020. That could be interpreted as allowing a postponement." The Olympics are currently scheduled to begin in late July. Fortune
Autonomous vehicles
Another self-driving-car startup is abandoning its plans to develop and run its own vehicles: Five, a U.K. outfit that will now instead license its tech to other players (and has secured $41 million in fresh funding to pivot thusly). CEO Stan Boland: "A year and a bit ago we thought we would probably build the entire thing and take it to market as a whole system. But we gradually realized just how deep and complex that would be." TechCrunch
Market gyrations
How historic is the current market volatility? As Ritholz Wealth Management's Ben Carlson explains for Fortune, there have been 53 double-digit corrections in the stock market in the last nine decades or so, but the current one "feels different because there is the prospect of a looming pandemic and potential economic slowdown…Just remember that the fact that stocks have fallen so hard so fast doesn't necessarily make it any easier to predict what comes next." Fortune
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
