The Fallout from Afghanistan

Dealmaking in the oil industry heats up. BHP, the world’s largest mining company, is considering a sale of its $15 billion oil and gas business, responding to investor pressure. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Aramco is close to buying a 20 percent stake in the oil refining and chemicals unit of India’s Reliance Industries, for up to $25 billion.

Tech giants expand their reach with undersea cable projects. To meet demand for internet services in fast-growing markets, Facebook and Google are investing in cables that will span over 7,000 miles and connect Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore by 2024. Facebook is also part of a consortium building new branches of cables to connect parts of Africa.

‘Nate’s killing it right now’

Hindenburg Research is having a moment. The five-person firm, founded in 2017, is making its name with searing reports about potential wrongdoing at public companies. Some of those reports have prompted government investigations. Hindenburg’s founder, Nate Anderson, told The Times’s Matthew Goldstein and Kate Kelly that he’s not in the business just to move share prices, but the short-selling firm profits when the stocks it targets fall after it issues its research.

Hindenburg Research blows things up. The firm, which has the backing of about 10 investors (which Anderson declined to identify), is named after the German airship that exploded in 1937. Anderson said his passion is to “find scams,” something he did as a hobby alongside previous jobs in due diligence for hedge funds and family offices. The Hindenburg team, comprised of analysts and former journalists, can take six months or more to produce its reports.

• In early August, the S.E.C. subpoenaed the sports betting firm DraftKings after Hindenburg reported in June that it had potentially enabled black-market betting.

• Federal authorities began investigating the electric truck maker Lordstown Motors after Hindenburg reported in March that the company was hyping commercial interest. The company’s stock has fallen nearly 70 percent since the research was published.

• Last month, the founder of Nikola, an electric vehicle manufacturer, was charged with defrauding investors. A Hindenburg report on the firm, published last September, accused the company of making exaggerated statements about its business. (Anderson said his bet against Nikola was his biggest win to date and remains the firm’s largest short position.)

“Nate’s killing it right now,” said Carson Block, who popularized activist short-selling as the head of the firm Muddy Waters.

The SPAC boom has been a boon. Blank-check companies (like the three mentioned above) have given Hindenburg a lot of fodder. Critics say there are misaligned incentives between sponsors of these takeover vehicles and later investors. The S.E.C. is looking more closely at SPAC deals, which take companies public with less scrutiny than traditional I.P.O.s. “There are just so many outrageous companies,” Anderson said.