Shares of exchange operators CME Group Inc. and Cboe Global Markets Inc. swung Wednesday following a media report that the two Chicago-based companies were discussing a merger.

CME immediately denied the report.

The Financial Times reported that CME had approached Cboe with a $16 billion acquisition offer. The report, citing three people familiar with the matter, said the proposed deal would value Cboe at about $150 a share.

Cboe’s stock price climbed as much as 12% to $139 a share on the news, marking a new all-time intraday high.

A Cboe spokeswoman said that the company doesn’t comment on market rumors or speculation.

Three months ago, chip-testing equipment maker FormFactor looked like a company in the wrong place at the wrong time. The truth is actually the opposite.

Semiconductor stocks were riding high earlier this year amid a chip production shortage that has crippled industries from automotive to consumer electronics. That shortage has driven chip manufacturers to boost expansion plans to keep up with demand, which in turn fueled stock prices in the sector. The PHLX Semiconductor Index hit a decade-high valuation of more than 27 times forward earnings by mid-February.

Naturally, that sparked worry among more seasoned investors long accustomed to the chip equipment industry’s cyclical nature. So when FormFactor posted its first-quarter results in late April, investors were looking hard for any signs of a peak. FormFactor’s disappointing gross margin projection for the second quarter triggered a hard selloff, costing the company nearly one-third of its market value over...

China’s top manager of distressed assets said it would post a massive loss and expects to receive a capital infusion from state-owned financial institutions, avoiding a messy default that would have had wide repercussions for Asia’s credit markets.

China Huarong Asset Management Co., which is majority owned by China’s Ministry of Finance and the largest of the country’s managers of nonperforming loans and other bad debt, also said it has no plans to restructure its debt, cementing beliefs among investors that many Chinese institutions are too big to fail.

Late Wednesday, the company said it expects to post a net loss equivalent to about $16 billion for 2020. Earlier this year, the firm’s delay in releasing its results spooked international investors and caused its bond prices to tumble.

The Beijing-based firm blamed its past overexpansion and other problems on former Chairman Lai Xiaomin, who was executed after a court found him guilty of bribery and...

The Cboe Volatility Index, a gauge of expected swings in the stock market, rose to 23.74. That marked its highest level since May. Shares of graphics-chip maker Nvidia rose 1.3% premarket after the company benefited from continued hot demand for devices from computer videogamers and cryptocurrency miners, pushing its sales and profit to records in its most recent quarter. Cruise line shares, which have been tied to expectations about the recovery from the pandemic, fell premarket. Carnival declined 2.8%, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings dropped 2.6% and Royal Caribbean shed 1.9%. Shares in Robinhood Markets fell about 10% premarket after the company posted a big loss due to an emergency funding deal earlier this year. Still, its revenue more than doubled in the recent quarter thanks to a torrent of customers trading cryptocurrency.

U.S. stock futures fell Thursday, while oil and copper prices retreated and the dollar strengthened as investors weighed the likely reduction in stimulus measures by the Federal Reserve and rising Covid-19 cases.

Futures for the S&P 500 lost 0.7%. The broad stocks gauge on Wednesday dropped 1.1%, its biggest retreat since mid-July. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average also pointed to fresh losses Thursday, falling almost 0.8%. Contracts for the technology-focused Nasdaq-100 declined 0.5%.

Stock markets have hit turbulence this week after eking out a series of record highs. Investors broadly remain upbeat about the outlook for share prices, given the rapid pace of earnings growth. But some have grown more cautious, concerned that rising coronavirus cases in the U.S. and elsewhere will dent the global economic recovery at the same time as the Fed is gearing up to rein in its huge bond-buying program.

“These things are going to cause market...

Coinbase Global Inc. in its first months as a public company has built a $4 billion cash stockpile as it benefits from a trading frenzy and prepares for closer regulatory scrutiny.

Coinbase has socked away cash in part to weather a host of business risks in the crypto industry, according to Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas. The company stress-tests its balance sheet to ensure it has adequate funds on hand to prepare for a stricter regulatory regime, possible cyberattacks or potential trading declines, according to Ms. Haas. It also maintains additional cash as insurance against risks it hasn’t yet identified, she said.

As BuzzFeed Inc. was exploring plans to go public earlier this year, it ran into a problem: Executives at the digital-media outlet’s biggest investor, NBCUniversal, thought they were getting a bad deal.

At issue was BuzzFeed’s plan to merge with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Executives at NBCUniversal were frustrated that the deal valued BuzzFeed at $1.5 billion, below the level where it had invested years earlier, people familiar with the situation said. The unit of Comcast Corp. was facing a substantial loss on the deal, while earlier investors would come out ahead.

NBCUniversal ultimately approved the deal after reaching an agreement in April with BuzzFeed Chief Executive Jonah Peretti that guaranteed it concessions while still leaving it facing a loss of roughly $100 million, the people said.

Tensions erupted during a BuzzFeed board call in the closing stages when Patrick Kerins, from early investor New Enterprise Associates and a...

Revenue at Robinhood Markets Inc. more than doubled in the second quarter thanks to a torrent of customers trading cryptocurrency, but the company posted a big loss due to an emergency funding deal earlier this year.

The trading app recorded a loss of $502 million, or $2.16 per share, on revenue of $565 million in its first earnings report since its July initial public offering. In the second quarter of 2020, Robinhood generated a profit of $58 million on revenue of $244 million.

More than 60% of the 22.5 million Robinhood customers that have funded accounts traded bitcoin, dogecoin or other digital assets in the second quarter. Robinhood earned $233 million in fees from routing customers’ cryptocurrency trades to high-speed trading firms, up from just $5 million a year earlier.

That helped offset slowdowns in other parts of Robinhood’s business due in part to waning interest in meme stocks. For instance, fees Robinhood earned executing customers’ stock...

No country has won more rugby world cups than New Zealand. No brand is bigger in the global game than its All Blacks.

Beneath that aura of success, however, lies a growing vulnerability for rugby in New Zealand: a patchwork of cash-strapped grass-roots clubs and unions, dwindling numbers of volunteers, and an aspiration to promote women’s rugby that lacks sufficient funds.

These challenges have led New Zealand Rugby, the governing body locally, to seek investment in a sport that lacks the profile of soccer and basketball in major markets such as the U.S. and China. But it has also unleashed a debate over whether the best way to accomplish that is by bringing in a deep-pocketed outside investor.

New Zealand Rugby in early 2021 agreed to sell U.S.private-equity firm Silver Lake a 12.5% stake in a company that would control and develop All Blacks commercial rights. In return, Silver Lake would invest about 387 million New Zealand dollars, equivalent to...

Mubadala Capital, the investment arm of Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth manager Mubadala Investment Co., is preparing to add private-equity professionals to its London office next month on the heels of closing its third fund for the strategy.

Antoun Ghanem, a director in the private-equity group who leads Mubadala Capital’s European investment practice, will move to London from Abu Dhabi, according to Adib Mattar, head of private equity.

The multistrategy firm also has one private-equity professional in New York. Mubadala Capital’s private-equity investments largely focus on North America and Europe, according to Kevin Kokko, leader of the firm’s New York office and its co-head of private equity and head of business development.

“These help us get closer to the markets we invest in and to our investor base,” Mr. Kokko said. The firm opened its New York office in 2019.

Mr. Kokko said Mubadala Capital’s private-equity investment professionals in...

U.S. stocks turned lower Wednesday, kept in check by some mixed earnings reports and the latest minutes from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 379 points, or 1.1%, to 34963. The S&P 500 also fell 1.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.9%.

Markets have been quiet for much of August. With trading volumes clocking in below the year-to-date average, many analysts have focused their attention on earnings, which have driven large swings among individual stocks even as the broader market has been in a lull.

Money managers have also been weighing the likely economic impact of increasing cases of Covid-19 and the Delta variant. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s late July meeting showed officials have debated their timeline for pulling back on asset purchases, with most arguing the economic recovery has advanced enough that the Fed could begin the tapering process sometime this year.

“As long as policy remains...

Federal Reserve officials last month indicated they were on track to begin reversing their easy-money policies later this year, despite lingering differences over when exactly to pull back support for an economy growing more rapidly than expected earlier this year.

Minutes of their July 27-28 Fed meeting, released Wednesday, shed light on an emerging consensus to begin scaling back their $120 billion in monthly purchases of Treasury and mortgage securities at any of their three remaining policy meetings this year.

“Most participants noted that, provided that the economy were to evolve broadly as they anticipated, they judged that it could be appropriate to start reducing the pace of asset purchases this year,” the minutes said.

The minutes said several officials favored reducing asset purchases in the coming months in order to better position the Fed to potentially raise rates if the economy strengthens further next year, while others thought the Fed...

The night before she was scheduled to serve jury duty, Kuromi Hendricks realized the clothes she planned to wear were dirty. She couldn’t find the 12 quarters required for a wash and dry at her Boston apartment building.

By 11 p.m., desperation took hold. She hopped in a $10 Uber to the only place she knew was open and might have spare change—a 24-hour cafe with a couple of arcade games. Not wanting to use the business just for their coins, she ordered a lemonade, asked for about $5 in quarters, played a few rounds of pinball, and headed home to wash.

“They’ve gotten me out of a pinch a couple times with quarters,” Ms. Hendricks said.

The scarcity of spare change—brought on as people leaned on digital transactions and fewer coins circulated—has pushed the quarter-dependent to extremes. Many have spent hours trekking across their cities in search of coins they used to easily procure from local bank branches. One couple hauled four loads of laundry...

If the Federal Reserve’s management of the economy were all that mattered, Chairman Jerome Powell would probably be cruising toward reappointment. His response to the pandemic and focus on full employment have drawn bipartisan praise.

But the Fed is also a financial regulator, an inherently more political role than monetary policy. Mr. Powell’s shot at another term when this one expires in February is now threatened by progressive Democrats whose priority is a more activist Fed on regulation and other nonmonetary matters.

Mr. Powell almost certainly has enough votes from both parties to be confirmed; the question is whether the holdouts can persuade President Biden to nominate someone else. Last week The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Biden’s economic team generally supports giving Mr. Powell a second term, but resistance from Democrats including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) could lead to his replacement. “Over and over and over he has weakened a...

Hotel investors have been snapping up resorts and other leisure-oriented properties, the biggest beneficiaries of the recent spike in vacation travel.

Now, a handful of city-center hotels are hitting the market, testing whether the rebound in hotel sales can extend to properties that cater to corporate travelers and that are still suffering from the sharp decline in that business.

The latest to gauge investor appetite is Chicago’s storied Drake Hotel. The owners are hoping to get more than $250 million for the 535-room property, say people familiar with the sellers’ thinking. But some analysts suggest that will be a challenge given the tough market conditions for urban hotels right now.

Nonetheless, a few other urban hotels are also testing the market. In Boston, Brookfield Asset Management is marketing the Kimpton Nine Zero Hotel in Boston, while in Chicago, the 178-room Talbott Hotel is on the block.

Most of the lodging industry’s recent...

Freddie Mac has named Jerry Mauricio as its senior vice president and chief compliance officer, an appointment coming as the mortgage giant looks to become free of government conservatorship after more than 12 years.

McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac, which backs mortgage loans, was effectively nationalized during the 2008 housing crisis and is facing the latest setback to its quest to exit government control after the Biden administration ousted Mark Calabria as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He had given priority to returning Freddie Mac to private hands. The Biden administration has signaled it isn’t in a hurry to privatize Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration last week canceled bulk shipments of dollars headed for Afghanistan as Taliban fighters were poised to take control of the capital city of Kabul, part of a continuing scramble to keep hundreds of millions of dollars out of the hands of the terrorist group, according to people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. is also blocking Taliban access to government accounts managed by the Federal Reserve and other U.S. banks and working to prevent the group’s access to nearly half-billion dollars-worth of reserves at the International Monetary Fund, according to those people.

The actions represent the last vestiges of diplomatic leverage Washington hopes will help prevent a deepening political and humanitarian crisis.

“Any central bank assets the Afghan government has in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban,” a Biden administration official said.

As the Taliban took over several provincial areas...

China’s Tencent has lost $411 billion in market value since January as regulatory concerns pummel the stock. Going abroad could be a way to keep growing without so much political risk—particularly for games, which haven’t shown up on foreign regulators’ radar the way social-media platforms like TikTok have.

The Chinese social-media and game company on Tuesday reported a 34% year-over-year gain in operating profit to $8.1 billion for the quarter ending in June, better than analysts’ consensus on S&P Global Market Intelligence. However, that was helped by a large one-off $3.2 billion investment gain from disposals and valuation adjustments to existing assets. Besides that, it is clear the pandemic boost to Tencent’s game business is fading: Its smartphone game revenue last quarter fell 2% from a quarter earlier.

Investors’ top concern on Tencent remains Beijing’s broadening crackdown on the internet industry. The stock sold off earlier this month after a...

Summer road trips and a pullback in crude prices have pumped up refineries’ profits, offering brighter prospects for one part of the global oil complex despite rising worries about Covid-19.

Oil prices have grown choppy in recent weeks since China, the world’s biggest commodities consumer, imposed restrictions to contain the Delta coronavirus variant. A decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and the cartel’s other partners to pump more oil is also weighing on crude markets.

Prices for West Texas Intermediate, the main grade of U.S. crude, are down more than 10% from their 2021 high, trading at about $66.59 a barrel.

The retreat is weighing on shares of energy companies including Exxon Mobil Corp., but is a potential boon for refiners such as Marathon Petroleum Corp. Refiners stand to gain when gasoline and other products they produce fetch higher prices than the crude they purchase.

Refiners had already...

Tens of thousands of downtown small businesses that have been scraping by were eagerly awaiting the week of Labor Day, when many companies expected that their employees would return to the office.

Now, the Covid-19 Delta variant is dashing hopes that workers will be back in large numbers, causing these business owners to scramble again to make rent payments and keep their operations alive.

Some are scaling back staff hours, postponing hiring or making additional cuts so they can hold on. Others say they are ready to shut their doors for good if return-to-work plans fizzle in the coming weeks.

“They were hanging on by their fingernails to get to September,” said Bob Luz, chief executive of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. “We’re greatly concerned they’re not going to make it.”

The survival of corner retail stores, coffee shops and restaurants is being watched closely by office-building owners, who are counting on traditional work patterns...