华尔街日报-4-20-21.pdf

* * * * * * * *SATURDAY/SUNDAY, APRIL 20 - 21, 2019 ~ VOL. CCLXXIII NO. 92WSJ.comHHHH $5.00WASHINGTON—President Trump declared parts of spe- cial counsel Robert Mueller’ s report “total bullshit” Friday as House Democrats demanded an unredacted version of a document whose findings re-verberated through the capital. Mr. Trump in recent weeks had hailed the report as hav- ing exonerated him, after At- torney General William Barr in a letter to Congress said the special counsel hadn’ t estab- lished collusion with Russians or decided to charge the presi- dent with obstruction of jus- tice. On Friday, Mr. Trump questioned the authenticity of administrationaides’ notes that informed their accounts of the president’ s efforts to in- terfere in the investigation, calling parts of the report “fabricated Mr. Trump faces a looming re-election campaign; and South Koreans will hold a de facto referendum on Presi- dent Moon Jae-in’ s rapproche- ment with the North when voting for its national legisla- ture next year. “Kimdefinitelydoesn’ t want to stir the pot too much, PleaseturntopageA8TRANSFORMING A WORKFORCE FROM WITHINWSJ THEWALLSTREETJOURNALWEEKENDWhenJesus Celebrated PassoverREVIEWOFF DUTYThe Backyardof the FutureALAMYNorthKoreaSeeksto Nudge,NotPique,U.S.SEOUL—North Korea’ s mod- est provocations in recent days reveal a pivot in its strategy after the failed Hanoi nuclear talks: escalate tensions to con- vey its frustration but keep its actions measured enough to ensure the U.S. and South Ko- rea don’ t abandon diplomacy. It is a new riff on an old playbook for North Korea. The Kim regime has long turned to shows of military might, or outright aggression, when yearning for diplomatic attention from Washington or Seoul. But this time, ballistic- missile launches or nuclear tests would cause the hard- won detente with the coun- try’ s chief negotiating part- ners to crumble.BYTIMOTHYW.MARTIN ANDNA-YOUNGKIMEXCHANGEFire-Ravaged Notre Dame Shadows Good Friday in Paris? Shares of business-soft- ware firms have risen a me- dian 126% from their market debuts, topping high-profile consumer-tech companies such as Pinterest.A1? Several states are rolling out stricter standards for investment-broker conduct, bucking industry warnings about a patchwork of rules around the country.A1?Teslasaiditwouldshrink itsboardtosevenfrom11di- rectors,withthreeMuskal- liesplanningtostepdown.B1? Venmo executives have been meeting with banks to discuss issuing a credit card under the digital pay- ments company’ s brand.B1?ADM’stopgrain-trading executiveisdepartingasthe agriculturalgiantrestructures itsoperationsandconfrontsa challengingfarmeconomy.B3? A gauge of U.S. home building and approvals for new projects declined in March, continuing a re- cent weak stretch.A3?BPanditspartnerswill leada$6billiondevelopment ofagiantoil-fieldcomplex offshoreAzerbaijan.B3? The FDA gave approval to Teva to market generic naloxone nasal spray to treat opioid overdoses.B3What’s NewsCONTENTS Books..................... C7-12 Food......................... D7-8 Gear it’ s consistent over time; and it isn’ t confined to the U.S. Spring peaks in suicide have been documented across countries, continents and hemispheres. A review of 113 academic papers published between 1979 and 2009 examining the seasonality of suicide in countries located in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres found that a majority confirmed a spring peak, with some also finding a secondary peak in the fall. The study was published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandi- navica, a peer-reviewed med- ical journal, in 2012. Similar findings have appeared in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and the Jour- nal of Affective Disorders. There is a perception that suicides rise over the winter holidays, but in the U.S., De- cember typically has fewer suicides than any other month, according to datafrom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In December 2016, the latest year available, there was a daily average of about 110 suicides. In April of that year, the daily average was about 127. In part, the myth of a holi- day spike may be perpetuated by the media. According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center, two-thirds of 31 news accounts in 2018 repeated the myth, a pattern the center has observed for 19 years. “You would expect sui- cides to increase in winter over the holidays, but there is a trough of suicides in the winter,” said Teodor Pos- tolache, a psychiatrist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who has researched the phenomenon. The precise cause of the spring peak isn’ t clear. One hypothesis, Dr. Postolache said, is that the season’ s intense light and longer days may exacerbate mood disorders. Another pos- its that the immune system, activated by upper respira- tory or other infections, may affect areas of the brain that regulate behavior. Yet an- other theorizes, more specifi- cally, that allergic reactionsto pollen could play a role. While Dr. Postolache and others have linked allergy with depression and suicidal behavior, the findings of dif- ferent studies have varied. In 2005, Dr. Postolache and col- leagues found that the sui- cide rate among young women doubled during peak pollen season, even after ad- justing for light exposure. A 2012 study by his group failed to replicate the link. Subsequent studies by Dr. Postolache’ s group and oth- ers have since confirmed the initial observation. But the spring peak is un- ambiguous. In one large study, Dr. Pos- tolache and his research part- ners examined 21,169 suicides that occurred in Denmark from 1981 to 1997, encom- passing all suicides commit- ted by people who were re- siding in the country on Dec. 31 before the year of death. The data was supplied by four different Danish na- tional registers and included causes of death, socioeco- nomic factors, and admis- sions, discharges and diag- noses at all psychiatric inpatient facilities. The researchers docu- mented a spring peak in sui- cides for people who hadU.S. increased 33%. For young people ages 10 to 34, it’ s the second leading cause of death behind unin- tentional injury, according to Deborah Stone, a behavioral scientist with the CDC. And for people ages 35 to 54, it’ s the fourth leading cause be- hind cancer, unintentional injury and heart disease. According to the CDC, many things may contribute to suicide. A study of 2015 data from 27 states, which might not be applicable to the full population, found that several circumstances were significantly more likely in suicides committed by those with no known mental- health conditions than those with mental-health condi- tions: 45.1% had relationship problems or a loss, versus 39.6%; 50.5% had life stres- sors, versus 47.2%; and 32.9% had a recent or impending crises, versus 26.0%. The goal of the CDC and others is to reduce suicides 20% by 2025. “There are probably many ways to suicide,” Dr. Pos- tolache said. “We need to work toward each individual to see what is important.” —The contact number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.PeaksandValleys Thereisamis perceptionthats uicidesincreas eduringthewinter hol iday s . Thepeaktypical l yoccursinthes pring.Averagedailysuic idespermont hint heU. S.So u r c e : Ce n t e r sf o rDi s e as eCo n t r o l an d Pr e ve n t i o nvi a An n e n b e r gPu b l i cPo l i c y Ce n t e r att h eUn i ve r s i t y o fPe n n s yl van i a14060801001202000’10’05’15DecemberTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL(USPS 664-880) (Eastern Edition ISSN 0099-9660) (Central Edition ISSN 1092-0935) (Western Edition ISSN 0193-2241)Editorial and publication headquarters: 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10036Published daily except Sundays and general legal holidays. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and other mailing offices.Postmaster: Send address changes to The Wall Street Journal, 200 Burnett Rd., Chicopee, MA 01020.All Advertising published in The Wall Street Journal is subject to the applicable rate card, copies of which are available from the Advertising Services Department, Dow Jones email: wsj.ltrs@wsj.comNeed assistance with your subscription? By web: customercenter.wsj.com; By email: wsjsupport@wsj.com By phone: 1-800-JOURNAL (1-800-568- 7625); Or by live chat at wsj.com/livechatReprints By phone: 1-800-843-0008WSJ back issues and framed pages: wsjshop.comOur newspapers are 100% sourced from sustainably certified mills.GOT A TIP FOR US? SUBMIT IT AT WSJ.COM/TIPSEric Yuan, chief executive officer of Zoom Video Communications Inc., at its launch of trading on Nasdaq on Thursday.MICHAEL NAGLE/BLOOMBERG NEWSU.S.WATCHNow, which temporarily has sus- pended its service in Chicago. All the cars have been recov- ered, police said. —Erin AilworthCALIFORNIA Life Sentences Given In Starvation CaseA California couple who for years starved a dozen of their children and kept some shackled to beds were sentenced Friday to life in prison, ending a shock- ing case that revealed a house of horrors hidden behind a ve- neer of suburban normalcy. The conditions inside David and Louise Turpin’s home in sub- urban Los Angeles came to light only after one of their daughters fled and pleaded for help to a 911 operator. The parents pleaded guilty in February to neglect and abuse. The sentencing was preceded by the first public statements from some of the children, who alternately spoke of love for their parents and of what they had suffered, as the couple wiped away tears. “I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to hurt my children. I love my children so much,” Louise Turpin said. —Associated Pressa median 15% increase for the consumer-tech companies. Why the different recep- tion? For one thing, consumer technology—fromsmart- phones to social media—is dominated by giants that have proved effective at fending off upstart rivals. “It’ s hard to compete with Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google,” said Jeff Richards, managing partner at venture firm GGV Capital. Social-networking company Snap is exhibit A, robbed of momentumafterFacebook Inc.’ sInstagrammimicked Snap’ s core product. Since the company’ s2017IPO,Snap shares have fallen 31%. Theexistingplayersin business technology, including Microsoft Corp., International Business Machines Corp., and Oracle Corp., have less of a stranglehold on their markets. That is largely because the shift to cloud computing— where companies rent com- puting power, software and services on others’servers— has disrupted old markets and created vast new opportuni- ties. “Fund managers have made a ton of money on enter- prise companies the last few years,” said Mr. Richards. Shares in little-known Pag-ContinuedfromPageOneerDuty Inc., which helps com- panies manage their web oper- ations, jumped 63% since its IPO last week, giving it a mar- ket capitalization of roughly $3 billion. UiPath Inc., a closely held specialist in “software robots” that mimic humans to com- pletemundaneback-office tasks, is in talks to raise capi- tal at around a $7 billion valu- ation, said a person familiar withthecompany.That equates to a sevenfold jump in just 12 months. Concerns over huge losses are robbing some consumer- focused tech companies of mo- mentum. Ride-sharing com- pany Lyft Inc.’ s shares have slid 19% since its late March IPO, and rival Uber Technolo- gies Inc. recently cut its pro- posed IPO valuation. Overall, business-software firms tend to go public at lower market capitalizations, a median of $1.3 billion forthose that went public since 2016, according to Dealogic data, compared with $1.6 bil- lion for consumer-focused tech companies. Zoomwasvaluedmore highly relative to its size than Pinterest at its IPO price, with a market capitalization 32times last year’ s sales, com- pared with 17 times for Pinter- est. Zoom was slightly profit- able last year while Pinterest lost money. Before they went public, Snap and file-storage firm Dropbox, like Pinterest, were high-profile consumer-focusedcompanies well known to Sili- conValleyinvestors.They drew private capital at high valuations only to stagnate be- fore going public. Dropbox’ s valuation has flatlined—it cur- rently trades near its IPO price just over a year ago—in part becausethecompanyhas struggled to move beyond con- sumers and sell its software to companies. Zoom says it has grown be- cause it developed video-fo- cused conferencing software tailored to cloud computing, rather than having to adapt old products like some com- petitors did. Chief Executive and founder Eric Yuan came to the U.S. from his native China in 1997 and started as an engineer at videoconferencing service We- bExCommunicationsInc., which was acquired by Cisco Systems Inc. a decade later. He said in an interview that his expertise in videoconferencingenabled him to spot an oppor- tunity for an alternative ser- vice,leadinghimtostart Zoom in 2011. Santiago Subotovsky, a gen- eral partner at venture firm Emergence Capital, was the first institutional investor to plow money into Zoom in 2014. He said consumer-ori- ented tech companies such as Pinterest get more attention, and that leaves more opportu- nity for investors focused on technology for businesses. “You’ re not competing with everyone else and their dog” to invest, he said. Zoom went mostly unno- ticed for some time by venture investors who depended on products like WebEx, Micro- soft’ s Skype, and Google Hang- outs for videoconferencing, said Mr. Subotovsky. He said he used Zoom to do videoconferencing with people abroad—he hails from Argen- tina and his wife lived in Kenya—and found it worked better than the other prod- ucts. When he recommended thathisforeigncontacts download it, and saw them share Zoom on their own, he decided he wanted to invest, buying in at 87 cents a share. It wasn’ t until March, when the company filed to go public and revealed fast growth and a profitable bottom line, that the wider market took notice, said Mr. Subotovsky. The big spike in Zoom shares on their firsttradingdaysuggests bankers may have priced them too low for the IPO. But Mr. Yuan said that it is “better to leave money on the table” for investors to profit.Business Tech IPOs ShineHURRICANE MICHAEL Deadly 2018 Storm Reached Category 5Federal scientists have up- graded Hurricane Michael, which leveled much of Mexico Beach, Fla., in October, to a Category 5 storm—the first of that strength to hit the mainland U.S. since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The storm made landfall at 160 miles an hour, about 5 miles faster than initially esti- mated, scientists at the National Hurricane Center said Friday. That was enough to bump Michael from a Category 4—in which winds range from 130-156 miles an hour—to a Category 5. Michael was directly responsible for 16 deaths and about $25 bil- lion in damage in the U.S. —Erin AilworthCHICAGO Mercedes Rental Fraud Arrests MadeChicago police arrested 21 people in connection with the fraudulent rental of 200 Mer- cedes-Benz