Financial Daily Dose 5.21.2021 | Top Story: Markets Rebound and Bring Oatly With

Sweden-based and celeb-backed oat milk company Oatly hit it big on its first day of public trading, with shares soaring 30% “as investors jumped at the chance to take part in rapid changes in the food industry driven by consumer tastes shifting to plant-based products” – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

That banner debut coincided with a rebound in the markets across the board after three days of selloffs. Unemployment numbers that continue to fall likely helped boost markets – NYTimes

KC Southern is expected to end its deal with Canadian Pacific Railway in favor of a more generous offer from rival Canadian National Railway. CNR outbid CPR  by about $30/share, which meant a difference of a cool $5 billion that appears to be too much for KC Southern to pass up – WSJ

The Upshot offers this definitive “When to Panic about Inflation” list. It’s worth a read, especially given markets’ current inflation-induced panic – NYTimes

Streetwise weighs in on Bitcoin—the “apogee of rational speculation”—which bounced back on Thursday after a tumultuous previous day – WSJ

The Biden administration has proposed a global tax of at least 15% on multinational corporations as part of the most recent round of international tax  negotiations—an effort to strike a deal with 24 countries who share fears that “hiking their rates will deter investment” – NYTimes and Bloomberg

The EU has fined investment banks UniCredit, UBS, and Nomura a combined $452 million “for violating antitrust law by colluding with four other lenders to fix the prices of government bonds” during a stretch from 2007-2011 – Law360

CNA Financial—“among the largest insurance companies in the U.S.” and a purveyor of cyber insurance policies—revealed this week that it paid a $40 million ransom to hackers in March “to regain control of its network after a ransomware attack” – Bloomberg

Not content to let JPMorgan have all of the succession fun, Morgan Stanley this week elevated four senior execs to new top spots, putting each squarely in the discussion to assume the bank’s chief executive role when James Gorman calls it a day – WSJ and Businesswire and Bloomberg

Paul Romer, a Nobel prize-winning economist whose theory that “ideas are the turbocharged fuel of the modern economy” made him the darling of Silicon Valley for years now finds himself on the outs with Big Tech thanks to his recent shift to a more critical approach to the tech industry which he now sees as “not behaving according to free-market theory” – NYTimes

Mega-gallerist David Zwirner is betting on changes to the art world brought about by the past pandemic year, creating “Platform, a website . . . which each month will offer 100 works presented by about 12 independent galleries around the world with prices ranging from $2,500 to $50,000.” The site “represents a significant departure from the traditional in-person gallery model” for a “blue-chip behemoth like Zwirner,” and it’s not clear whether his apparent magnanimity for the participating galleries is real or part of the Platform PR campaign – NYTimes

That open road calling you after a year in lockdown? The Journal’s got you covered, with seven “epic road trips” to help you and the fam become championship road warriors – WSJ

Stay safe, get vaxxed, and have a great weekend.