Are Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin Talking?

The billionaire has reportedly been in regular contact with the Russian president, heaping more scrutiny on the power and influence the entrepreneur wields over the U.S. government.

A Musk-Putin bombshell

Elon Musk has ramped up his campaign to get Donald Trump elected in recent weeks, rallying hard in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, and controversially offering $1 million to registered voters who back one of his pet conservative political initiatives.

Now, a new report on his apparent ties to President Vladimir Putin of Russia has renewed questions about his relationships with the U.S. government and with Trump, and what role — if any — Musk should play in politics.

The Tesla C.E.O. has been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal. Their conversations have been wide-ranging, touching on personal issues, business and geopolitics. On one occasion, the Russian president asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite service over Taiwan to help China’s leader, Xi Jinping, The Journal reports.

That’s turned the spotlight back on Musk’s lucrative links with the U.S. government. Last year, his companies counted almost 100 contracts with 17 federal agencies, promising to pay out $3 billion, The Times has reported. SpaceX, his rocket company, essentially controls NASA’s rocket launch schedule — that was in full view again with another successful mission this on Friday — and the Defense Department uses it to get most of its satellites into space. Starlink services are used by U.S. embassies and government departments, like the U.S. Forest Service.

Trump has said Musk could play a role in his administration. Just this week, Musk said he would push to change regulations on self-driving cars — a big imperative for Tesla — if he is put in charge of a government efficiency agency.

The Journal reports that Musk’s contact with Putin, and those close to him is “a closely held secret in government.” (Trump’s own ties to Putin are under scrutiny after Bob Woodward reported that the former president had spoken to the Russian leader on multiple occasions since leaving office, citing an unnamed source.)

DealBook has questions:

• How much does the government know about Musk’s dealings with Putin?
• Have the calls been intercepted by U.S. intelligence, or others?
• Have U.S. officials discussed the matter with Musk?
• Did Musk share any information about national security? If so, would that open him to prosecution, or do his business ties with the government make any legal investigations especially difficult?

Musk hasn’t commented on the report, but he has said his companies “have done more to undermine Russia than anything.” He’s also rejected claims that he’s an apologist for Putin. When Ian Bremmer said Musk had been in contact with Putin in 2022, Musk denied it.

Dmitri Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, said Putin’s only communication with Musk was on a telephone call during which they discussed “space as well as current and future technologies.”

Trump’s campaign was more effusive about Musk. A spokeswoman told The Journal he is a “once-in-a-generation industry leader” and the government would benefit from his ideas.

HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING

Fast-food chains make big menu changes after an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s. Brands including Taco Bell, Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut stopped using raw onions at some locations. The decision comes after an outbreak that has killed one person and made 49 ill and that may be linked to onions used at McDonald’s locations. McDonald’s shares are down more than 4 percent this week.

China sets a date for a crucial meeting where investors hope more stimulus measures will be announced. The National People’s Congress, a gathering of the country’s top lawmakers, will meet from Nov. 4 to 8, the state news agency reported. The congress has the authority to greenlight a big fiscal stimulus package that many experts say is needed to bolster economic growth.

The top consumer regulator warns companies about surveilling workers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Thursday that employers could face legal problems from using “invasive” technologies to monitor staff. The warning comes as employers increasingly use artificial intelligence and other tools during hiring processes, and to identify and track inappropriate staff behavior.

Election economics

The U.S. presidential race is in the final stretch, and global markets are already bracing for the fallout. Worries about rising debt, a new trade war, growing geopolitical risks and the booming dollar are all front of mind.

The election took on an added importance for business leaders this week at the annual I.M.F. and World Bank summit in Washington. One of the biggest worries: another Trump presidency would upend global commerce and lead to growth-sapping tariffs.

Look no further than the dollar. The greenback has soared recently as polls show the candidates are still in a dead heat for the popular vote. Some surveys show Donald Trump pulling ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris on managing the economy, and the Republican has edged ahead in online betting markets.

It’s all added fuel to the so-called Trump trade. Investors are wagering that Trump’s vision of more and higher tariffs, as well as big tax cuts would result in higher inflation and a stronger dollar. Goldman Sachs sees the dollar soaring against the euro if Trump wins, potentially eating into the profits of U.S. exporters.

Alarm bells are ringing in the bond market, too. A sell-off in 10-year U.S. Treasury notes had sent the yield to a three-month high. Investors have grown antsy about a number of factors, including worries that the Fed will pull back on its pace of rate cuts, and that the next president will heap on more debt.

The deficit has barely been discussed on the campaign trail by either candidate, but market specialists are watching closely. Both candidates’ plans are expected to add trillions to the national debt: Trump’s policies could add $7.5 trillion in debt issuance over a decade, more than double the estimate for Harris’s proposals, according to a nonpartisan analysis.

“Whoever is president has to deal with the $36 trillion in debt that’s headed to 40 trillion,” David Bahnsen, the founder and chief investment officer of the Bahnsen Group, a wealth management firm, told DealBook. “I think that has downward pressure on growth expectations,” he added, a consideration that will influence broader investment decisions and the markets.

Slumping Treasuries could be bad news for an already weak housing market. Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds. When yields spike, that can push up home financing costs. On Thursday, the rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 6.54 percent, even as the Fed has begun to lower its benchmark lending rate.

The days of below-3-percent 30-year-fixed mortgage rates are probably over, Bahnsen said.

The race to raise and spend

The presidential campaigns are raising and spending huge sums on advertising and reaching out to voters, with the candidates splashing out more than a half-billion dollars in a recent 16-day stretch.

The latest Federal Election Commission filing is out. It shows that Vice President Kamala Harris continues to flex her money-raising clout, adding to her record haul and out-raising Donald Trump by $97 million to $16 million in the first half of October.

The campaigns are pouring huge sums into advertising. The Harris and Trump teams, and their allied super PACs, are saturating the airwaves and internet with ads, and are investing heavily in get-out-the-vote efforts. That could add up to a big surge in ad revenues for the tech and media industries.

Tech billionaires were among the biggest spenders. Elon Musk put an additional roughly $44 million into his pro-Trump super PAC in the first half of the month, bringing his total contributions this cycle to more than $118 million.

Dustin Moskovitz is among the notable Harris backers who increased his contribution this month. The Facebook co-founder gave $25 million, bringing his total this cycle to $38 million.

The Harris campaign is planning a big ad buy in key battleground states. The message will focus on the economy, as she tries to reach undecided voters and working-class families. The ad is expected to talk up her plans to lower taxes on some, and crack down on corporate price gouging, according to Bloomberg.

• In other political news: Harris will not appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast, her campaign says; Miriam Adelson is asking other billionaires to join her in backing Trump; two more editorial board members at The Los Angeles Times have resigned over the company’s decision not to endorse a candidate; Barack Obama shares the rally stage with Harris for the first time.

“Antitrust has come into fashion”

Lina Khan’s F.T.C. just scored another big win. A federal judge blocked Tapestry’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri Holdings, putting the brakes on a luxury deal that would have combined the owners of Coach, Kate Spade and a bevy of high-end brands.

A recap: In August 2023, Tapestry said it had agreed to acquire Capri, the parent group of Michael Kors. The deal was seen as a way to better compete with European luxury behemoths like LVMH and Kering, which owns Gucci and Saint Laurent.

But the F.T.C. sued, saying the combination would limit competition and create a dominant American player in “accessible luxury,” a more affordable class of products.

Tapestry and Capri pushed back against the idea that “accessible luxury” was a defined category. Instead, they argued that it was a “generalized concept.” But the judge, Jennifer Rochon, disagreed, saying on Thursday that the companies’ documents showed that they, too, had frequently used the term.

Combining the companies, she added, would create a company that controlled more than half of the accessible-luxury market. “Antitrust has come into fashion,” she said.

Investors have been watching closely. Hedge funds and others were betting heavily on the trial, sending Capri’s shares higher in recent weeks. But Capri’s stock plunged a whopping 45 percent in premarket trading after the ruling.

David Schwartz, a partner at the law firm BCLP, told DealBook that the ruling was persuasive, particularly the internal documents that showed that the companies used the “accessible luxury” term themselves. “I strongly suspect that it was those same compelling documents” that led the F.T.C. to challenge the deal, he said.

The decision also sent a shudder through other companies under F.T.C. scrutiny. The ruling means that the agency has won more cases that have been fully litigated under Khan than it has lost, according to Jennifer Rie, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Investors seem to have noticed: Shares in Albertsons fell after Rochon’s decision, as the grocery chain fights against the agency’s lawsuit to block Kroger from buying it.

Tapestry said it would appeal the decision.

THE SPEED READ

Deals

• TKO Group is expanding into other sports like bull riding with a $3.25 billion deal to acquire a trio of businesses from its parent company, Endeavor Group. (CNBC)
• In the biggest Silicon Valley fund-raising haul in two years, General Catalyst has raised $8 billion to broaden into private equity deals and expand overseas. (FT)

Elections, politics and policy

• “The White House Bet Big on Intel. Will It Backfire?” (NYT)
• BlackRock has emerged as a leading opponent to an F.D.I.C. proposal to limit fund managers’ influence on banks, arguing that it would disrupt capital flows. (FT)

Best of the rest

• Prosecutors in Los Angeles have recommended that Erik and Lyle Menendez be resentenced for the 1989 killing of their parents. (NYT)
• “Vicious Partner Feud Roils EF Hutton” (WSJ)

We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com.