WSJ What’s News - Harris Widens Fundraising Lead Over Trump

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

A.M. Edition for Sep. 6. Vice President Kamala Harris reports raising more than $360 million in August–a haul that top officials say will free her up to campaign. Plus, investors brace for a key jobs report that could influence the size of Fed’s expected interest-rate cut. And WSJ correspondent Jenny Strasburg explains oil giant Chevron's behind-the-scenes efforts to keep pumping oil in Venezuela, even as the U.S. seeks to isolate the country's leader. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ecolab Water for Climate. Less water, more growth. Results will vary. Learn more at Ecolab.com slash EWC. Ecolab Water for Climate. Transforming the way the world thinks about water. Kamala Harris widens her fundraising lead over Donald Trump. Plus, investors brace for a key jobs report that could sway the Fed's interest rate plans and will look at oil giant Chevron's efforts to keep pumping oil in Venezuela, even as the U.S. seeks to isolate the country's leader. In closed-door meetings with U.S. officials, White House, State Department, our reporting shows that their stance has been, look, don't jeopardize our oil production

in Venezuela. It's Friday, September 6th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. Vice President Kamala Harris has built up a substantial fundraising advantage over former President Donald Trump, with her campaign saying today it raised a combined $361 million last month between it, the Democratic National Committee, and joint fundraising committees. That is nearly three times Trump's $130 million cash haul, which also included receipts

from the Republican National Committee and authorized committees. Top Harris backers say that her fundraising lead frees her up to campaign instead of raising more money, while those close to Trump have cited his 2016 fundraising deficit as evidence that more money doesn't always equal victory. In other election news, let the voting begin. Today, North Carolina, a potentially decisive swing state, is set to begin mailing out absentee ballots to voters who requested them.

Unlike in 2020, Donald Trump has encouraged supporters to take advantage of absentee and early voting, lending his support to a Republican Party effort to quote swamp the vote. Republicans must win and we must use every appropriate tool available to beat the Democrats. Journal politics reporter Natalie Andrews has been tracking the race in North Carolina and says that one curveball involving a former presidential candidate could make an already close presidential contest in the state, which Democrats haven't won since 2008, even harder to predict. denied the request from the candidate. Now, RFK dropped out and endorsed Donald Trump, and it was seen as maybe his supporters might go over to Donald Trump, but it's hard to know with

his name still on the ballot. Kennedy is expected to appeal yesterday's decision, and a judge has ordered officials not to mail out ballots before noon. We are reporting that authorities in Georgia have arrested the father of the 14-year-old who allegedly killed four people at a high school outside Atlanta earlier this week. The director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Chris Hosey, briefed reporters on the arrest of 54-year-old Colin Gray. He is charged with the following. Four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of

second degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children. Mr. Gray, these charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son Colt to possess a weapon. Colt Gray is set to appear in court this morning. Turning to markets now, all eyes today will be on the August jobs report due this morning, with this month's release playing a bigger than normal role in the Fed's calculations. While officials have been signaling that they're all but certain to lower rates at their next meeting, according to our reporting, the debate on September 17th and 18th will center on how

deep that first cut should be. A decent reading in today's report could lead them to start with a more traditional quarter point reduction. However, if the report shows weakness as it did last month, they could opt for a larger half point reduction. And 7-Eleven parent company 7&i Holdings has rejected a $39 billion takeover bid by Canadian peer Alimontacion Couchetard saying it's too low. The Japanese company said the offer also didn't go far enough in addressing regulatory hurdles, including possibly in the U.S US where both companies have large footprints.

Seven and I shares in Tokyo rose after the announcement, but later reversed course to end the session about 1% lower. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pledged $51 billion in government support to African countries over the next three years and says he aims to create at least one million jobs there. The announcement came at a summit with African leaders that wraps up today in Beijing, which Xi used to solidify his ties with the continent. And though many African leaders have signaled they want more Chinese engagement, journal reporter Sha Hua says Beijing is going about this somewhat

differently than in past years. When the Belt and Road was announced more than 10 years ago, China was all about the big energy and infrastructure projects. And they've also created a lot of debt that has been difficult to service. And in the last seven years or so, China's investment to Africa has actually decreased. And they've started to move away from the big ticket items and said that they would prefer to go for smaller, more strategic projects. That doesn't mean that they're going to stop investing in infrastructure and connectivity, but maybe there has also been a learning process in terms of what sort of projects are financially sensible and viable for both parties.

Coming up, behind closed doors, Chevron seeks to protect its interests in Venezuela. And Bank of America investigates allegations of insider trading. We've got those stories and more after the break. Let's turn to Venezuela now, where President Nicolas Maduro is digging in after claiming victory in an election that the US says his opponent won by a landslide. Since the July poll, Maduro has rounded up hundreds of dissidents, testing whether the Biden administration will respond with stricter sanctions that could hurt the country's oil sector.

Well, according to our exclusive reporting, that prospect has prompted energy giant Chevron to make sure the US administration knows where it stands on Venezuela. And Journal correspondent Jenny Strasburg told our Kate Bullivant what she and her colleagues learned. Well, Chevron executives in closed-door meetings with US officials, White House State Department, our reporting shows that their stance has been, look, don't jeopardize our oil production in Venezuela. Chevron, as expressed through its executives in these meetings, wants to stay put.

They want their roughly 250 employees and another 3000 employees in joint ventures in the country to continue doing what they're doing. It's about two years since the Biden administration really scaled back Trump-era sanctions on Venezuela. That was a real turning point for Chevron's fortunes in the country. And Chevron doesn't want to see that rolled back. Yeah, just remind us how important Venezuela is for Chevron. Chevron is the last US oil giant operating in a country that says it has the largest oil reserves in the world. So one thing to keep in mind is that Venezuelan oil production is not massive on the global stage, but it has the psychological effect on the market. It has symbolic value and Chevron accounts

for approximately 20% of the country's crude exports and around 30% of the government's oil income. So Chevron has a lot at stake and it's making that clear in its conversations with the government. And based on your reporting, Jenny, to what extent has Chevron been able to influence US policy? Well, all evidence points to Chevron having its arguments carrying weight with the administration

and that while stopping short of advocating specific policies, the CEO says Chevron is behaving in a commercial capacity, not in a political capacity. But if you take a step back, really, everything related to this and oil production in Venezuela now has political implications. So Chevron is making the argument that Chevron is serving U.S. interests by being in Venezuela, that it is helping keep U.S. adversaries from having a bigger footprint in the country. Now Chevron's sway with the government could have limitations. It is an election year.

The psychological effect of keeping the status quo in Venezuela might have limits because there's a lot of pressure on the Biden administration to do more in light of the chaos in Venezuela. So I think we're going to see this unfolding in the coming couple of months as the campaign season continues. So the Biden administration has a lot to consider there. What else could it do to pressure Maduro's regime short of ramping sanctions back up. So options, we know that by the administration officials have signaled that they're not planning to basically force oil companies, including Chevron, to pull out of the country. But there are steps that could be something short of blanket sector sanctions. Treasury could

come out with further lists of individual sanctions that wouldn't necessarily like poll licenses to operate for companies like Chevron, but could ratchet up the pain for individuals and try to place more pressure on them in a different way. This is reinvigorating a debate that never really went away over whether sanctions are effective. Who do they hurt? Do they hurt the economy? Do they hurt the people who are silencing democratic voices or do they hurt lower income and middle income people trying to live their daily lives in

a country where the regime did not allow a fair election? That was Journal correspondent Jenny Strasberg. Jenny, thanks so much for your time. Thank you very much. The European Union's aviation safety agency has called for inspections to be carried out on Airbus' A350-1000 jets after an engine caught fire in one of the planes during a Cathay Pacific flight a few days ago. Earlier this week, the Hong Kong airline said it inspected all 48 of the A350 jets in its

fleet and found that in about a third of them, the fuel hoses in their Rolls Royce manufactured engines needed to be replaced. According to the EU agency, there are 86 of the Airbus planes in service globally. Rolls Royce says it's cooperating with authorities. And Bank of America is investigating a whistleblower allegation that its bankers in Asia shared non-public information with investors earlier this year ahead of a stock sale worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to our reporting, bankers shared transaction details with investors in India via WhatsApp before the bank announced a roughly $200 million stock sale for a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Aditya Birla and financial firm Sun Life. The practice, known on Wall Street as front-running, is illegal in many countries as it can give those with non-public information an advantage over others, allowing them to profit off bets on how shares will perform if the market moves as predicted. A Bank of America spokesman said the bank takes complaints seriously, but that it hasn't

found anything to support the allegations. And that's it for What's News for Friday morning. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach and Kate Bulevant with supervising producer Christina Rocca and I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Otherwise, have a great weekend, and thanks for listening.