If you feel like you’re not progressing in your career, spare a thought for Alibaba’s Daniel Zhang. Until recently, he had three jobs: group CEO, chairman, and head of the powerful cloud unit. First he gave up his CEO and chairman roles to members of the Alibaba old guard. Now he’s stepping down from leading the cloud business. It’s almost as if someone doesn’t want him around.

The lowdown

• ⛈️ Alibaba shares tumbled after ex-CEO Daniel Zhang unexpectedly quit as head of its cloud business.

• 🇯🇵 The yen surged following the Bank of Japan’s governor saying it could end its negative interest rate policy.

• 🔋 BMW is set to announce it will make its electric Mini in the UK, creating 4,000 jobs.

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PwC to give up consulting work for US audit clients

PwC is planning to give up tens of millions of dollars of consulting work for its US audit clients to reduce the risk of conflicts of interest, according to the Financial Times.

The company has also agreed a series of reforms that will also allow it to claw back executive pay and require it to make more detailed disclosures about how the firm manages conflicts of interest.

This comes amid an ongoing debate about how to make sure accounting firms are independent of the companies they audit. KPMG was the first of the Big Four to pledge to stop offering consulting services to large audit clients in 2018 after a string of scandals. EY has also attempted to spin off its consulting arm.

The content we're consuming today

• Leo Perry: A beginner’s guide to accounting fraud.

• Sunday Times: Inside the Glazer family’s faltering fight to sell Man Utd. ($)

• WSJ: Private jets and pop-up workspaces: Boeing eases return to office for top brass. ($)

Off-balance sheet items

• Does buying your own home feel like a distant dream? Meet the couple who built their own London pad using DIY tutorials and YouTube.

The bottom line