Opening Bell: 9.25.18
Instagram Founders Depart Facebook After Clashes With Zuckerberg [Bloomberg]
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who have been at the company since Instagram’s acquisition by Facebook in 2012, had been able to keep the brand and product independent while relying on Facebook’s infrastructure and resources to grow. Lately, they were frustrated with an uptick in day-to-day involvement by Zuckerberg, who has become more reliant on Instagram in planning for Facebook’s future, said the people, who asked not to be identified sharing internal details.
Without the founders around, Instagram is likely to become more tightly integrated with Facebook, making it more of a product division within the larger company than an independent operation, the people said.
Republicans Rally Around Kavanaugh Nomination [WSJ]
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) took to the Senate floor to call the allegations a “smear campaign” and promise a vote on the Senate floor to confirm the judge “in the near future.” President Trump, in New York for a United Nations meeting Monday, reiterated his support for his second Supreme Court pick, saying, “I am with him all the way.”
The judge and his wife, Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, also took part in a Fox News interview Monday evening, using the forum to combat depictions of him as a predatory high school and college student, telling the network that he was a virgin into his 20s.
“We’re talking about an allegation of sexual assault,” he said. “I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone. I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter.”
Rod Rosenstein’s Job Is Safe, for Now: Inside His Dramatic Day [NYT]
When Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, headed to the White House on Monday morning, he was ready to resign and convinced — wrongly, it turned out — that President Trump was about to fire him. Top Justice Department aides scrambled to draft a statement about who would succeed him.
By the afternoon, Mr. Rosenstein was back at his Pennsylvania Avenue office seven blocks away, still employed as the second-in-command at the Justice Department and, for the time being at least, still in charge of the Russia investigation.
What happened in between was a confusing drama in which buzzy news reports of Mr. Rosenstein’s imminent departure set in motion a dash to the White House, an offer to resign, Capitol Hill speculation about Mr. Rosenstein’s successor and, finally, a reprieve from an out-of-town president.
Dow set to climb 100 points as rising rates lift bank stocks [CNBC]
Shares of Bank of America rose 0.7 percent before the bell, while J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup both gained about half a percent.
Bank stocks gained as the 10-year Treasury note yield climbed to 3.11 percent, near its highest level of the year. The rise in yields comes as the Federal Reserve begins its two-day monetary policy gathering today, with analysts expecting the U.S. Federal Reserve to announce a quarter-point rate hike when it concludes its meeting tomorrow.
Iran top aide dismisses U.S. meeting offer as 'Trump's dream' [Reuters]
The top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader on Tuesday rejected a U.S. offer for top-level meetings, as both countries’ presidents were due to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards also kept up the anti-U.S. rhetoric in the build up to the U.N. session, calling President Donald Trump “evil and adventurous” and accusing him of waging economic war on Tehran.
Ernst & Young gets slapped with another sex-harassment suit [NYPost]
One executive at the Big Four accounting firm praised a female employee for her “great big round boobs” and “nice ass,” while another warned her she might be perceived as “bitchy” if she complained, according to a suit filed Monday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Council.
Former partner Karen Ward, who was fired last month after five years at EY, claims in the suit that there were “constant discussions” by male colleagues about their work-related trips to “nightclubs and titty bars.”
Dramatic video shows daring raccoon scaling building before leaping off [FoxNews]
A video captured the breathtaking moment a raccoon made a daring jump after scaling the side of a building in New Jersey on Friday before it miraculously scampered away.
Micah Rea of Greenville, S.C., captured the viral footage while on vacation with friends in Ocean City, FOX 6 Now reported. The raccoon was seen climbing up about 10 stories before making the daring leap off, landing on the sand and scurrying off.