The so-called Christmastime “flightmare” of Southwest Airlines could cost the embattled company $825 million. That’s the impact Southwest estimates so far in a new, government-required financial update. Because the company canceled “more than 16,700 flights” from Dec. 21-31, Southwest declared an “estimated fourth quarter 2022 pre-tax negative impact in the range of $725 million to…

New election rules imposed by U.S. regulators have many firms worried about shareholder activists becoming members of company boards. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently finalized revisions to corporate director election rules by mandating that companies must provide shareholders voting through proxy a “universal ballot.” According to outgoing rules, shareholders voting via proxy (like…

News Analysis U.S. investors have trillions of dollars invested in Chinese variable interest entities (VIEs) without knowing it. These are illegal contracts under Chinese law and could be shut down by Chinese regulators at any time. When U.S. investors buy shares of Chinese companies, particularly internet companies, on NYSE and NASDAQ, they generally do not…