Weekend roundup

Here’s what you missed while you were living your best life:

• ✉️ Telegram said detained founder Pavel Durov has ’nothing to hide’. The billionaire was arrested in France on Saturday shortly after arriving in the country.

• 🪑 Ikea is launching a secondhand marketplace to compete with eBay. The furniture seller said Ikea Preowned will be tested in Madrid and Oslo until the end of the year with the aim of rolling out the platform globally.

• ☕️ The new Starbucks CEO drew criticism for his 1,000-mile commute. Brian Niccol will travel almost 1,000 miles by corporate jet from his family home in California to the firm’s headquarters in Seattle.

Featured weekend story

Australian workers win right to ignore calls and emails after hours

Australian employees can ignore their bosses’ calls and emails outside work hours thanks to a new ‘right to disconnect’ law that comes into force today. Employers can still contact employees outside of the working day, but in most cases they can’t be punished for refusing to reply.

The law aims to tackle the creep of work emails, texts, and calls into people’s personal lives, a trend which has has accelerated since the pandemic. Australians worked an average of 281 hours unpaid overtime in 2023, according to the Australia Institute, which estimated the value of the labor at $88 billion.

Australia joins a group of more than 20 countries with similar rules, mostly located in Europe and Latin America. France introduced its law in 2017 and fined pest control firm Rentokil more than $66,000 for requiring an employee to keep his phone on at all times.

What to watch this week

US stocks start the week following European stocks higher. The S&P approached record highs on Friday, after investors were reassured by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks at Jackson Hole.

Indices at 12:00 AM (ET)

Here are your upcoming market events:

• 🤖 Nvidia earnings. Wednesday’s numbers are the latest test of investor enthusiasm for AI. Nvidia stock is up about 150% this year, making up around a quarter of the S&P 500’s 17% gain.

• 🇺🇸 US PCE. A Fed rate cut in September is seemingly all but guaranteed. A reading of the central bank’s preferred inflation gauge drops on Friday.

• 🇪🇺 Eurozone inflation. Any upside surprises in Friday’s reading could prompt caution, especially after a small uptick in July, which signaled challenges in bringing inflation under control.

Off-balance sheet items

Here’s what we’re reading this week:

• 🍂 Why pumpkin spice season is here earlier than ever (NPR). Home Depot’s Halloween campaign began in April, others followed in June, and on Thursday Starbucks began serving its iconic pumpkin spice latte. So what’s causing the fall spell?

• 🧭 How the seasons screw with your moral compass (Vox). Many of us like to think our moral values are stable. But according to a new study, they fluctuate depending on whether it’s spring, summer, fall, or winter.

• 🍿 Why Deadpool & Wolverine is the year’s most depressing success story (Variety). Does the crossover superhero movie represent corporate brand synergy at its most ruthless?

Chart of the week

The bottom line

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