for a few months there after a decade of struggle it really looked like value stocks were about to shine the value stock story was really a reflation one that hardhit companies in the banking energy and materials sector would thrive thanks to rising interest rates and an accelerating us economy primed by us fiscal spending the reality hasn’t worked out that way and sen joe manchin’s oped in the wall street journal is just the latest dagger to that narrative the west virginia democrat called on his party colleagues to hit pause on their 35 trillion spending plan pending more clarity on the trajectory of the pandemic and whether redhot inflation will cool down in the 5050 tightwalk that is the us senate where democrats rely on vice president kamala harris to cast tiebreaking votes manchin’s resistance puts that spending plan in jeopardy but what about the 1 trillion infrastructure bill that manchin and a handful of republicans support well the progressive democrats in the house don’t want to pass that legislation without their own initiatives on child care and climate change seeing the light of day it’s a delicate and complicated dance the market seems to have got the message on may 12 the sp 500citigroup pure value index had climbed 27 in 2021 while the sp 500citigroup pure growth index had dropped 2 now four months on they’re both up 26 for the year the value stock rally also is on pause  join muddy waters capital founder carson block and financial news acting editor trista kelley tuesday at noon to discuss the rise of gamestop and tesla shorting china and the boom in spacs sign up here robinhood says it will go to court if sec crimps its business model robinhood markets fired back at the securities and exchange commission after the agency said that it was considering banning a revenue stream that subsidizes the brokerage’s zerocommission business model   “the idea of banning payment for order flow is pretty draconian” robinhood’s legal chief dan gallagher himself a former sec commissioner told barron’s “this is the revenue that provided us the ability to offer commissionfree trading with no minimum balance”   robinhood stock fell monday after sec chairman gary gensler told barron’s banning the payments most brokers get for sending their customers’ orders to offexchange market makers like citadel securities or susquehanna international group was “on the table” such payments amounted to roughly 80 of robinhood’s june quarter revenue   critics like gensler worry that payment for order flow tempts a broker to route trades to venues where customers will receive inferior prices gallagher said that the payments don’t drive robinhood’s choice of market makers or hurt its customers what’s next if the sec does rule against the payments gallagher said robinhood and other firms would challenge the move in court earlier this week market maker virtu financial defended the industry’s practices in comments to barron’s us gas prices were averaging 317 a gallon on thursday 94 cents higher than last year and are expected to inch higher heading into the labor day weekend after hurricane ida knocked out some key gulf coast production and refinery operations that could take weeks to restore   location data company arrivalist estimates 429 million americans will hit the road over the holiday despite recommendations from the centers for disease control and prevention that unvaccinated people should not travel and others should wear masks and take precautions   the spread of the delta variant of coronavirus has put a damper on some travel the number of people passing through us airport checkpoints was less than 135 million on tuesday the fewest since may 11 the transportation security administration said   expects to fly 2 million passengers from sept 2 to 7 three times last year’s total but less than the 26 million people it flew over labor day weekend in 2019   cruise line adjusted some sailing dates because of “supply chain realities” but said it would have 15 ships sailing from seven us ports by midnovember passengers must provide proof of vaccinations and negative covid tests to board except for children under 12 and a few others what’s next president joe biden directed the energy department to use tools including the strategic petroleum reserve to keep gas flowing to pumps the department of transportation is also letting truck drivers work longer delivering gasoline and other fuel to prevent gas shortages and price spikes japanese prime minister yoshihide suga said friday he would step down this month sending the tokyo nikkei index up 2 on hopes his successor might prove more efficient in battling the covid19 pandemic and implement a stronger fiscal stimulus to boost the battered economy   suga’s popularity had sunk to levels below 30 due to his perceived poor response to the coronavirus pandemic his decision not to run this month in his liberal democratic party’s ldp leadership contest is seen as improving the ruling coalition’s chances in general elections due later this year   the japanese yen barely moved on the news settling slightly below ¥100 to a dollar   suga was chosen as pm after the resignation a year ago for health reasons of shinzo abe who had served on the job for a record eight years six prime ministers in as many years had governed japan before abe what’s next the different factions of the ldp will now push their own candidates ahead of the party vote on sep 29 among the favorites are former foreign minister fumio kishida and vaccines minister taro kono whoever wins will then become prime minister and lead the party into the general elections faa puts richard branson’s space dreams on hold for now british billionaire richard branson soared to the edge of space this summer aboard his virgin galactic spaceship as one of the first customers of his fledgling space tourism business but now the federal aviation administration is grounding further space flights for now   apparently virgin’s spaceship deviated from its airtraffic control clearance as it returned to spaceport america in the new mexico desert an faa spokesperson explained early thursday   the flight in question was july 11 the one carrying branson and a handful of other space tourists to space galactic acknowledged that the flight deviated from its intended path   in an emailed statement virgin galactic explained that when the spacecraft encountered high altitude winds which changed the craft’s trajectory the ship’s pilots and systems responded appropriately   virgin on thursday just announced plans to conduct a crewed research mission to space with members of italy’s air force to study the human body’s transition from full gravity to microgravity planning a flight in late september or early october that is now on hold what’s next the hiccup might not hurt the stock which is up 57 in the last year galactic is expected to generate 14 million in 2022 sales but jefferies analyst greg konrad projects revenue could reach 17 billion by 2030 president joe biden travels to new orleans today to meet with gov john bel edwards mayors and the local officials from areas hit by hurricane ida one of the strongest storms to hit the us mainland he said he would make sure the response and recovery is appropriate and equitable   ida has killed at least seven people in the south and left a million homes without power in louisiana and mississippi since walloping the gulf coast on sunday with winds of up to 170 miles an hour “ida was so powerful that it caused the mississippi river literally to change direction” biden said   more than 6000 national guard members have been activated for search and rescue efforts in louisiana mississippi alabama and texas and more than 25000 linemen and clearance crews from 32 states and the district of columbia are working to restore power biden said   ida also drenched the east coast killing at least 41 people including those who drowned in flooded basement apartments new york received more rain on sept 1 than it usually receives the entire month of september including 315 inches in one hour in central park   biden warned insurance companies to pay policyholders for temporary housing and other emergency costs “do your job keep your commitments to your communities” he said referring people to disasterassistancegov or 1800621fema for help what’s next biden said that when congress resumes this month he will press for historic infrastructure investments including for power grids water systems and transmission upgrades “it’s a matter of life and death and we’re all in this together” do you remember this week’s news take our quiz below about this week’s news tell us how you did in an email to thebarronsdailybarronscom 1 the world health organization said that a covid variant designated with the greek letter mu is now a “variant of interest” how many countries has the variant been detected in a more than 5   b more than 15   c more than 25   d more than 35 2 an annual government report published tuesday said that the social security trust fund will run out of money one year sooner than expected last year when will the fund be depleted 3 emergency unemployment benefits will expire on sept 6 in states that haven’t already cut the pay roughly how many people will lose the extra 300 in weekly jobless pay 4 zoom video communications reported its first what this week 5 how much of robinhood’s june quarter revenue came from payment for order flow