Target and Walmart’s deep pain could be your gain

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a long national nightmare of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here.Today’s Agenda Target is fighting i [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a long national nightmare of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Target is fighting inflation](, whether it wants to or not. - Trump [is losing sway](. - Carbon capture is [becoming more realistic](. - Food crises are [becoming more likely](. Target’s Pain = Our Gain October 19, 1987, was such a nightmarish day for the stock market that we still refer to it in hushed tones as Black Monday, even though a whole lot of seriously grimmer Mondays have occurred in the 35-ish years since (see American History, 2000 to present). It is still far and away the worst single day in market history, worse than any trading session in the Depression, the Covid pandemic or the financial crisis. It’s hard to imagine such a day happening again, barring a flash crash, EMT attack or [UFO]( invasion. But Black Monday came again for Target and Walmart this week, except on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both suffered their worst trading days since 1987, as everything that had been going right for the big-box retailers in the past couple of years has slammed into reverse all at once. Consumers have abruptly stopped buying sofas and TVs for their pandemic dungeons and are now buying plane tickets and restaurant meals instead. The two companies smartly triumphed over supply-chain and labor headaches to stock their shelves with merch, [only to see demand fall into a ravine](, writes Andrea Felsted. Meanwhile, their costs are jumping, squeezing profit margins (though only from “robust” to “healthy”). But their misery is potentially great news for the rest of us. Target is already [discounting]( stuff to get it out the door. If and when others follow suit, that could be a big help with our long national inflation nightmare. Weaker spending on expensive goods is generally good news, under the circumstances. Stagflation fears turned the broader stock market into another [bloodbath]( today (though the ghosts of Black Monday scoff at a mere 4% drop in the S&P). But from this gore will grow the saplings of our eventual deliverance. Bonus Miserable-Consumer Reading: [British consumers are also inflation-weary]( and changing their pandemic habits. — Andrea Felsted Trump’s Gravity Loses Some Pull Just as our galaxy revolves around a supermassive [black hole](, the entirety of American politics for the past six depressing years has revolved around Donald Trump. Last night was yet another primary night, giving political scientists a chance to gauge just how much of our future is being sucked into Trump’s event horizon. The results were not great for Trump, notes Jonathan Bernstein. So far he has only managed to [convince about a third of GOP]( primary voters to vote for his favored candidates. This is hardly the stuff of stellar influence. Then again, even if Trump’s personal pull is waning, he has left the Republican Party permanently prone to domination by hucksters and conspiracy theorists. The deadliest such claptrap at the moment is the replacement theory espoused by such GOP thinkfluencers as Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor “Gazpacho Police” Greene. Ramesh Ponnuru [debunks the idea that Democrats are letting in immigrants]( to vote for them and replace the White majority. As it turns out, immigrants aren’t actually helping Dems win, and there is zero evidence of any secret society cutting holes in the border fence.   Bonus Smooth-Brain Reading: Our [obsession with Elon Musk’s Twitter drama]( exemplifies how we can’t focus on real problems. — Mark Gongloff Carbon Capture Comes Closer After decades of ignoring the effects of all the carbon we pumped into the sky, the only way humanity can avoid catastrophic global warming now is to start sucking that carbon back out. This is just as technologically challenging as it sounds, not to mention expensive. Fortunately, a new plan to offer hefty market incentives could [encourage reasonably priced carbon-capture technology to develop](, writes Bloomberg’s editorial board. Maybe we’ll end up with something like NFTs, but in ape-shaped carbon blocks instead of ape JPGs. Telltale Charts One big reason (of many) to hurry up with that carbon-capture tech: Climate change will make [global food crises far more likely](, David Fickling warns, by hitting multiple breadbaskets with destructive weather at once. Trying to [time market bottoms is fiendishly difficult]( and seldom pays off, warns John Authers. Further Reading [Boeing’s beatings continue](, but morale is not improving. It may soon be time for new management. — Brooke Sutherland The [WFH boom could shift to college towns](, which have a better economic foundation for remote workers. — Conor Sen [China is helping its industrial sector]( endure Covid lockdowns, but domestic demand is a different story. — Anjani Trivedi Could the SEC’s messaging probe be the [tip of a bigger insider-trading iceberg](? — Tim O’Brien [Covid testing foreign travelers is hurting tourism]( and business travel and not helping with Covid. — Tyler Cowen Why do so many [children seem to be getting hepatitis]( lately? — Therese Raphael and Sam Fazeli The best gift you can give a grad or young worker is [helping them save for retirement]( and avoid late-life regret. — Teresa Ghilarducci Listen to This Sarah Green Carmichael [talked to the Formula Mom]( on Instagram about the baby-formula crisis. ICYMI Coming [this summer: blackouts](. Tesla got [booted from the S&P’s ESG index](. Musk [whined]( about that, and also [Democrats](. Martin [Shkreli is a free man](. Kickers Oh nothing, just [continent-sized blobs]( deep inside the Earth. (h/t Liam Denning) Who owns the [rights to Einstein’s face](? (h/t Scott Kominers) Your next cheese wheel might have a [tiny tracker to fight cheese fraud](. [What rocks teach us]( about the human condition. Notes: Please send cheese trackers and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. 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