P2JW254000-5-A00100-17FFFF5178F ***** THURSDAY,SEPTEMBER 10,2020~VOL. CCLXXVI NO.60 WSJ.com HHHH $4.00 DJIA 27940.47 À 439.58 1.6% NASDAQ 11141.56 À 2.7% STOXX 600 369.65 À 1.6% 10-YR. TREAS. g 6/32 , yield 0.702% OIL $38.05 À $1.29 GOLD $1,944.70 À $11.70 EURO $1.1804 YEN 106.18 Midday, SaN Francisco: Wildfires Cast Eerie Hue Over West TikTok What’s News Parent Is In Talks Business&Finance To Avoid ikTok’sChinese parent, TByteDance, is discuss- ing with the U.S. government U.S. Sale possible arrangementsthat would allowthe video- sharing app to avoid afull ByteDance, Trump sale of itsU.S.operations. A1 administration discuss LVMH said it wasbacking options as deadline for out of its$16.2 billion take- over of Tiffany. TheU.S.jew- unloading assets looms eler said it filed alawsuit in Delaware ChanceryCourt to TikTok’sChinese parent, enforce the agreement. A1, A8 ByteDanceLtd., is discussing An EU privacyregulator with the U.S. government pos- sent Facebook apreliminary sible arrangementsthat would order to suspend datatrans- allow the popular video-shar- fers to the U.S. about itsEU S ing app to avoid a full sale of users in a potentially prec- PRES its U.S. operations, people fa- edent-setting challenge. A1 miliar with the matter said. TED U.S. stocks rebounded CIA SO By Miriam Gottfried, afterathree-session selloff AS in shares of big tech firms, G/ Georgia Wells with the Nasdaq,S&P 500 and Kate Davidson and Dowgaining 2.7%, 2% RISBER ERIC Discussions around such an and 1.6%, respectively. B1 DARK TURN: Smoke from wildfires raging across the West Coast coated SaN Francisco in haze so thick that many drivers option have risen in promi- Kansas City Southern used their headlights shortly before noon Wednesday. Fire evacuations were ordered in parts of California and Oregon. A3 nencesince the Chinese gov- rejected a roughly $20 bil- ernment took steps that make lion takeover offer from a a sale to a U.S. technology gi- group of investors, saying it ant like MicrosoftCorp. more undervalues the company. B1 difficult, the people said. They take placeagainst afast-ap- Mall owners Simon and TiffanySuesasLVMH Scraps proaching deadline that Presi- Brookfield agreed to ac- dent Trump imposed for Tik- quireJ.C.Penney out of Toktoagree to asale of its bankruptcy for$800 mil- U.S. operations or else be shut, lion, including debt. B1 $16.2Billion TakeoverDeal and as geopolitical wrangling Thenumber of available over the app intensifies. jobs in the U.S. leveled off Anumber of options remain latethis summer,the latest on the table,the situation is sign momentum in the la- BY MATTHEW DALTON draggedintotrade disputes on French goods. closing the transaction on the fluid and asale is still apossi- bor market is easing. A2 AND SUZANNE KAPNER between Franceand the Tiffany said LVMH was us- agreed terms,” Tiffany Chair- bility, the people said. Even if Trump administration. The ing the letterfromthe French man Roger Farahsaid. “But there isn’t a full sale, the out- NBCUniversal has over- PARIS—Luxury-goods giant conglomeratesaid it had re- government as apretext to the simple factsare that there come would likely involve hauled itsTV-production LVMH MoëtHennessy Louis ceived aletterfromthe French back out of adeal that had is no basis under French law some sort of restructuring of unitsunder Pearlena Igbokwe, VuittonSEsaid it wasbacking foreign ministryasking it to lost much of itsluster since for the Foreign Affairs Minis- TikTok,one of the people said. who wasnamed chairman, out of its$16.2 billion take- delay the acquisition until af- the pandemic changed the tertoorder acompanyto That could involveadeal in Universal Studio Group. B1 over of Tiffany&Co., in asign terJan. 6, 2021, morethan a economics of the luxuryindus- breach avalid and binding whichTikTok takesonaU.S. Ex-VWCEO Winterkorn of howtrade tensions and the month afterthe closing dead- try.The U.S. jeweler said it agreement.” technologypartner that helps wasordered to facetrial on coronavirus pandemic have line stipulated in the merger has filed alawsuit in Delaware PleaseturntopageA8 secureits dataand potentially chargesofdefrauding cus- takeN the air out of the high- agreement. ChanceryCourt to enforce the takes a minority stake. tomersinconnection with the flying luxury industry. LVMH said the French gov- agreement. Tiffany, left at the altar, The main concern for gov- firm’semissions scandal. B3 LVMH said Wednesdayitno ernment wasseeking the delay “Webelievethat LVMH will needs a digital plan............... A8 ernment officials involved in longer wanted to buy Tiffany in response to tariffs Washing- seek to use anyavailable Heard on the Street: LVMH the talks has been the security World-Wide because the deal wasbeing toN has threatened to impose means in an attempt to avoid shows weak hand................. B10 PleaseturntopageA2 Trump told journalist Bob Rebound Indexperformance, Wednesday WoodwardinMarch that Irish Move to Force he was deliberately playing Follows 4% down the severity of the coro- navirus to avoid inciting panic Tech S&P500 as he publicly dismissed the Technology sector Facebook to Keep virus’sthreat in away public- Retreat 3 health expertssay harmed the Nasdaq Composite ability to curb itsspread. A1 U.S. stocks EU Data in Europe recovered after a A DHS official filed a 2 S&P500 whistleblower complaint three-session selloff in big DowJones alleging that he was in- technology stocks. Industrial Average BY SAM SCHECHNER would likely have to re-engineer structed to stop disseminat- After driving the 1 AND EMILY GLAZER itsservicetosilo off most data ing intelligencememos on downturn, Apple, it collectsfromEuropean users, threatsposed by Russia to Microsoft and AEuropean Union privacy or stop serving them entirely, the presidential election. A5 Amazon.com led regulator has sent Facebook at leasttemporarily.Ifitfails to Biden called forhigher the bounceback as 0 Inc.apreliminaryorder to comply with an order,Ireland’s taxesonU.S.companies’ well, all climbing 9:30 a.m. noon 4p.m. suspend datatransferstothe datacommission has the power foreign income and special at least 3.7%. B1 Source:FactSet U.S. about itsEUusers, ac- to fine Facebook up to 4% of its taxbreaks fordomestic cording to people familiar with annual revenue,or$2.8billion. manufacturing,appealing the matter, an operational and Nick Clegg, Facebook’s top to blue-collar workersdur- legal challenge for the com- policyand communications ex- ing atrip to Michigan. A5 pany that could set a prece- ecutive, confirmed that Ire- TheTrump administra- Trump Says He Played Down dent forother tech giants. land’sprivacyregulator has tion will cut the number of Thepreliminaryorder,the suggested, as part of an in- U.S. troops in Iraq to about people said,was sent by Ire- quiry, that Facebook caNNo land’sDataProtection Commis- longer in practiceconduct EU- 3,000 this month, atop mil- Severity of Covid-19 in Public sion to Facebook latelast U.S. datatransfersusing a itarycommander said, from month, asking forthe com- widely used type of contract. about 5,200 therenow. A7 pany’sresponse.Itisthe first “A lack of safe, secureand le- TheU.K.placed newlimits BY REBECCA BALLHAUS Wednesday. “I still likeplaying Theinterviews were among significant step EU regulators galinternational datatransfers on social gatheringstostem it down, because Idon’t want 18 conducted with the presi- have takentoenforce aJuly would damagethe economyand the spread of coronavirus,be- WASHINGTON—President to createapanic.” dent forMr. Woodward’sbook ruling about datatransfers from prevent the emergenceofdata- coming the latest European Trump told journalist Bob Weeks earlier,onFeb.7,Mr. “Rage,” which is scheduled to the bloc’stop court. That ruling driven businesses from the EU, countrytoreimpose curbs. A8 WoodwardinMarch that he Trump told Mr.Woodwardthe be released next week.CNN restricted howcompanies like just as we seek arecoveryfrom AstraZeneca said an in- was deliberately playing down virus was“deadly stuff” and and the WashingtonPost pub- Facebook cansend personal in- Covid-19,” Mr.Cleggsaid. the severity of the coronavirus “moredeadly than even your lished audio excerptsofthose formation about Europeans to Ireland’sDataProtection dependent panel is review- to avoid inciting panic as he strenuous flus,” according to interviews,but the full tran- U.S. soil because it found that Commission declined to com- ing the potential safety con- cern that led to a pause of publicly dismissedthe virus’s the recordings. scriptsand recordingshaven’t Europeans have no effective ment. PleaseturntopageA4 itsclinical trials of an exper- threat in away public-health Yetinpublic over the weeks way to challengeU.S.govern- The preliminary order is a expertssay harmed the ability that followed, the president rou- ment surveillance. victoryfor European privacy imental Covid-19 vaccine. A6 to restrict itsspread. tinely compared the virus to the Official says intelligence To comply with Ireland’s activists, who have been argu- Abombing targeting “I wanted to always playit fluand predicted it would soon memos were curbed.............. A5 preliminaryorder,Facebook PleaseturntopageA6 the convoy of Afghani- down,” Mr.Trump told Mr. disappear.OnFeb.26, he said Trump unveils list of stan’s firstvice president WoodwardonMarch 19,ac- thenumber of cases in the U.S. potential court picks.............. A5 killed at least 10 people in cording to audio recordingsof “within acouple of days is go- Covid cases, death counts the country’s capital. A7 the interviewaired by CNN on ingtobedowntoclose to zero.” drop................................................. A6 INSIDE Fire destroyed much of Eu- rope’slargest camp forasy- lum seekers, located on the Desert Islanders: Hapless Hockey Team Gets Its Shot Greek island of Lesbos. A10 iii CONTENTS Opinion.............. A17-19 Arts in Review... A15 Personal Journal A11-14 ‘We’ve been beaten up,chewedupand spit out’ Business News...... B3 Sports........................ A16 Capital Account.... A2 Technology............... B4 BY VIPAL MONGA Afterknocking out the Phil- Though the Islandersare Crossword.............