Uber explored bid for journey web site Expedia | Invesloan.com

Good morning. In today’s news:

• New research shows Ozempic can help cut alcohol abuse

• What a day at America’s third-largest mall tells us about the election

• The spacesuit designed by Prada

But we begin with an exclusive story on Uber and its ambitions to turn itself into a “super app”.

The ride-hailing company, run by Dara Khosrowshahi, has explored a possible bid for Expedia, the US travel booking website, according to three people familiar with the process. 

Uber approached advisers in recent months after the idea of an Expedia acquisition was broached by a third party to examine whether such a deal would be possible and how it could be structured.

Khosrowshahi served as Expedia’s chief executive from 2005 to 2017 and remains a non-executive director on its board. He is a protégé of Barry Diller, the serial dealmaker who serves as Expedia’s executive chair. The Uber chief worked at Diller’s internet and media group IAC for seven years and has described him as a “great mentor of mine”.

In recent years, Uber has expanded from its ride-hailing roots into train and flight bookings, food delivery, corporate logistics and advertising as it seeks to transform itself into a “super app” akin to the multipurpose platforms built by Chinese tech groups such as WeChat.

Following the publication of the Financial Times report, Expedia shares jumped 7.6 per cent in after-hours trading, while Uber fell nearly 2.7 per cent. Read the full story.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: US retail sales are forecast to have ticked up 0.3 per cent month on month in September. Separately, new applications for unemployment aid for the week ended October 12 are published.

• Company results: Asset manager Blackstone as well as regional banks Truist Financial, KeyCorp, Western Alliance and M&T Bank will all announce third-quarter results today. Streaming platform Netflix will also publish earnings later.

• Election: Donald Trump will attend the Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York, which raises money for Catholic Charities. Traditionally both presidential candidates attend the event, but Democratic presidential nominee and vice-president Kamala Harris has opted to skip it. She will be campaigning in battleground state Wisconsin today.

• Nato: The military alliance’s defence ministers meet for the first time under new secretary-general Mark Rutte. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend the meeting.

Five more top stories

1. Kamala Harris repeatedly locked horns with interviewer Bret Baier in her first sit-down interview on Fox News. The vice-president argued she represented a “new generation of leadership” and a departure from Joe Biden’s presidency but declined to say when she first noticed the president’s cognitive decline. Here’s more on Harris’s pitch to independent and Republican voters.

2. China plans to almost double credit support for a selected group of housing projects to Rmb4tn ($562bn) as part of official efforts to reinvigorate its property sector and turn around the economy. China’s housing minister said the new funds should be deployed by the end of the year. Learn more about how the so-called whitelist of projects will work.

3. Meta has fired about two dozen staff in Los Angeles for using their $25 meal credits to buy household items including acne pads, wine glasses and laundry detergent. The terminations took place last week, just days before the social media company separately began restructuring certain teams across WhatsApp, Instagram and Reality Labs, its augmented and virtual reality arm. Learn more about the firings.

4. Ozempic and similar GLP-1 drugs cut opioid and alcohol abuse by up to half, according to new research. The study, published in the journal Addiction, is the latest effort to find medicinal ways to combat addiction. The results are based on the analysis of more than 500,000 people with a history of opioid-use disorder.

5. Nestlé’s new boss said the world’s largest food company was “not broken”, as he lowered its outlook to a more “realistic” sales target and announced sweeping organisational changes to boost performance. It was the first big announcement by Laurent Freixe since he took over as chief executive in August after the abrupt departure of his predecessor Mark Schneider. One analyst said the statement represented “a very painful reset”.

The Big Read

Robert Armstrong, the FT’s US financial commentator, spends a day at America’s third-largest shopping mall and discovers some economic truths that help explain the country’s bizarre election.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Monetary policy: The US Federal Reserve seems determined to cut interest rates, but this would only benefit struggling commercial property and debt-laden zombie companies, writes former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair Sheila Bair.

• Africa and AI: Machine learning could have transformative effects on developing economies and societies. But some fear the technological rush will deepen a digital divide.

• Trump and crypto: Industry executives worry a new venture, backed by the former president, will undermine painstaking efforts to rebuild trust after recent scandals.

Chart of the day

The biggest US investment banks generated $36bn in revenues from deals and trading in the last quarter, as volatile markets and corporate debt issuance fuelled a rebound on Wall Street. Morgan Stanley yesterday rounded out a positive earnings season for the big banks. Here’s more on what the results tell us about the industry.

Take a break from the news

Italian fashion group Prada and the US aerospace start-up Axiom Space yesterday unveiled the spacesuits that will take astronauts to the moon on Nasa’s upcoming Artemis III mission. Here’s more on the not-very-fashionable but highly engineered 200kg-plus gender-neutral white extravehicular mobility unit spacesuit.

Additional contributions from Irwin Cruz and Benjamin Wilhelm