What I Am Reading

November 30 (Friday) Markets Did Fed’s Powell ‘light the fuse’ for a year-end stock-market rally? (MW) Deutsche Bank Warns Powell’s Remarks Were ‘Misunderstood’ by Markets (B) Markets, the Fed is not your man (FT) This ‘elephant in the room’ could slam stocks, Wall Street bear David Rosenberg warns (C) Is Wall Street still too bullish on FAANG? Some say so (C) Why Lower Oil Prices Might Be Trouble For Trump (WP) Central banks Fed points to December rate hike but is worried about tariffs and debt (C) The Fed is still tweaking its balance sheet unwind (C) Cramer: Fed’s Powell made a ‘rookie mistake’ but is now doing the ‘sensible thing’ on rates (C) Bond Traders Everywhere Reprice Rate Outlook as Growth Sputters (B) US Consumers Step Up Spending to Start Fourth Quarter (W) Pending Home Sales in U.S. Declined to Four-Year Low in October (B) US politics President Trump Bashes the Fed. This Is How the Fed Chief Responds. (W) New Hampshire Democrats invite rising star Beto O’Rourke to the crucial presidential primary state (C) White House to Hold Roundtable With Tech Executives (W) Trump touts his tariffs for generating ‘billions’ in revenue, but that’s just a drop in the bucket (C) Geopolitics & trade U.S. and China Exploring Deal to Ease Trade Tensions (W) Trump Hints at China Trade Deal Ahead of G-20 (B) Industries & companies FAANGs: Amazon Makes Inroads Selling Medical Supplies (W) FAANGs: Amazon has a new way to record HD TV shows even if you don’t pay for cable — here’s how it works (C) FAANGs: Facebook Considered Charging for Access to User Data (W) FAANGs: Mark Zuckerberg Has Lost Control of Facebook Retail: More trouble for malls: A new wave of closures from Gap, Victoria’s Secret and others (C) Retail: Dollar Tree Sales Rise (W) Tech: HP Profit Surges as PC Business Remains Strong (W) Technology Robot Reality Check: They Create Wealth—and Jobs (W)

November 29 (Thursday) Markets Dow surges 600 points after Fed Chair Powell signals rates are near neutral (C) Why the Bull Market Is More Fragile Than It Looks (B) Did Powell Just Put a Floor Under Stocks? Wall Street Weighs In (B) Fed warns that a ‘particularly large’ plunge in market prices is possible if risks materialize (C) Central banks Fed Chairman Powell now sees current interest rate level ‘just below’ neutral (C) After Powell comments, traders see just one rate hike next year (C) Here’s the full text from Fed Chief Jerome Powell’s market-moving speech (C) US U.S. GDP Growth Unrevised at 3.5% in Third Quarter (W) New-Home Sales Fell 8.9% in October (W) Emerging Kim Jong Un’s Extreme Makeover Plays Well, for Now (W) US politics Mnuchin Asked About Fed Option That Could Avoid Rate Hikes (B) Pelosi claims Democrats’ nomination to be House speaker (R) Geopolitics & trade ‘Bring Me Tariffs’—How Trump and Xi Drove Their Countries to the Brink of a Trade War (W) The U.S. is botching trade deals and territorial disputes in China: former ambassador Christopher Hill (MW) U.S. Brands Squeeze Chinese Suppliers as Tariffs Start to Bite (W) Trump Raises Prospect of Import Car Tariff After GM Cutback Plan (B) Industries & companies Autos: Here’s the buyout GM offered before announcing 14,000 job cuts (C) FAANGs: Google’s cheap and super-simple cellphone service will now work with iPhones (C) FAANGs: Amazon will be off all Oracle databases by end of 2019, says AWS chief (C) Financials: The Fed Is Still Banks’ Best Friend (W) Industrials: The $15 Billion Money Pit Dragging GE Down (B) Retail: Tiffany Shares Fall as Sales Slow (W) Tech: Why Microsoft is a better bet than Apple (NN) Corporate finance Altria in Talks to Take Significant Minority Stake in Juul Labs (W) CVS Completes $70 Billion Acquisition of Aetna (W)

November 28 (Wednesday) Markets Wall Street bull sees 12%+ market surge over next 5 weeks (C) Stock selloff is only half-done and final leg will come in 2019, warns Morgan Stanley (MW) Why Oil Prices Took Such a Tumble, and What Comes Next (W) When Blue Chip Corps Pile on Debt, It’s Time to Worry (N) US Another Warning Sign That the U.S. Economy Will Slow Next Year (B) Nine Million Fewer Americans Shopped This Black Friday Weekend (B) Home-Price Gains Continue to Slow in September (W) U.S. Consumer Confidence Slips From 18-Year High (W) China Drugmakers Gain More Access to China, But at a Price (W) Central banks Fed Officials Acknowledge Economic Weaknesses Yet Remain Upbeat (B) Transcript: Q&A With Fed Chairman Jerome Powell in Dallas (W) Missing Word in Clarida Speech Creates Some Mystery on Fed Rates (B) Fed Enters a New, Less Predictable Policy-Making Phase (W) Here’s what to expect from Fed Chief Powell’s most important speech yet (C) Fed Balance Sheet in Focus: These Are the Market Clues to Watch (B) Fed talk is changing so quickly that markets may soon expect a ‘Powell put,’ El-Erian says (MW) 3 Words and $3 Trillion: The Inside Story of How Mario Draghi Saved the Euro (B) US Politics GM shares fall after Trump threatens to cut subsidies for company as retaliation for layoffs (C) Trump threatens to strip GM of a tax credit its about to lose anyway (C) Last-minute tax break bill likely won’t pass in Congress (C) Geopolitics & trade Trump and Xi to Meet for Dinner Saturday in Pivotal Moment for Trade War (B) Kudlow: White House and China are holding trade talks ‘at all levels’ ahead of Trump-Xi meeting (C) Trump Expects to Move Ahead With Boost on China Tariffs (W) Industries & companies FAANGs: Amazon says it had its biggest shopping day ever on Cyber Monday (C) FAANGs: Amazon Starts Selling Software to Mine Patient Health Records (W) FAANGs: Amazon launches cloud service to capture data from satellites (C) FAANGs: Here’s what top analysts think of Apple after the iPhone tariffs threat: ‘Trump piles on’ (C) Financials: Deutsche Bank Weighs New Shake-Up (W) Industrials: GM plan is good for GM — and it could shake up things at Tesla and Ford, too (MW) Media: Disney Consolidates Ad-Serving With Google, Ends Relationship With Comcast’s Freewheel (W)

November 27 (Tuesday) Markets Stocks Rise, Led by Retailers (W) Dow rebounds more than 200 points as Amazon and GM rally (C) Bulls are still clinging to hopes that the market will survive the latest correction (C) Apple — at the heart of battle for bulls and bears — rolls over again Monday (C) Where to put your money in 2019 — it’s not US stocks, according to Morgan Stanley (C) Credit GE Bonds Rebound as Bargain Hunters Swoop In (W) Last Bastion of Credit Under Fire as Guggenheim Sees ‘More Pain’ (B) Central banks Draghi Denies ‘Disastrous’ Effect of ECB Policy on Economy (B) US The U.S. Housing Boom Is Coming to an End, Starting in Dallas (W) Alan Greenspan Says Look to Sweden to Solve U.S. Entitlement Problem (B) US politics GM CEO Barra to meet with White House’s Kudlow following job cut announcement (C) ‘Corporate greed at its worst’: Ohio officials slam GM’s move out of an area Trump pledged to revive (C) Geopolitics & trade U.S.-China Trade Fight Risks Fragmenting Global Market, Says Beijing Ambassador (W) Industries & companies FAANGs: Apple’s App Store Under Fire in Supreme Court Case (W) FAANGs: Amazon, With Little Fanfare, Emerges as an Advertising Giant (W) FAANGs: Facebook’s YouTube competitor is pivoting to older audiences as teens tune out and publishers balk (C) Technology Chinese Scientist Claims World’s First Genetically Modified Babies (W)

November 26 (Monday) Markets Grim Stock Signals Piling Up as Wall Street Mulls Recession Odds (B) Goldman Models Impact of Rate-Shock Scenarios on Markets (B) Corporate America Is Ready to Pay Down Its Debt. That’s Bad News for Stocks. (BR) Asian shares tick up but oil rout dampens sentiment (R) The Xi-Trump Meeting May Be a Watershed for Emerging Markets (B) Global World’s Fiscal Policies Ease as Easy-Money Era Ends (B) Central banks Why the Fed Could Back Down on Rate Hikes (BR) US Borrowers Are Tapping Their Homes for Cash, Even as Rates Rise (W) Europe EU backs UK leader Theresa May’s Brexit deal at historic summit (C) Confused About Brexit? Here’s a Guide as the Endgame Begins (B) US politics Mississippi Senate contest becomes a new flashpoint of controversy, and a possible Democratic gain (C) Geopolitics & trade One African Nation Put the Brakes on Chinese Debt. But Not for Long. (N) Industries & companies Autos: Elon Musk: Tesla had ‘single-digit weeks’ as it teetered on brink of collapse (C) FAANGs: The Technology Tornado (BR) Pot: The collapse of this once-soaring cannabis stock offers a valuable lesson to investors (MW) Retail: Black Friday shopping pulled in a record $6.22 billion in online sales: Adobe (C) Technology As Immigrant Farmworkers Become More Scarce, Robots Replace Humans (N) Your Smart TV Is Only Going to Get Dumber (W) Offbeat Deadly California wildfire now 100% contained after scorching 154,000 acres (C)

November 24 (Saturday) Markets Dow falls more than 150 points, posts worst Thanksgiving week decline since 2011 (C) U.S. Stocks Slide as Oil Prices Tumble (W) Trump’s trade talks with China could snap markets out of their funk (C) How Fearful Should You Be of a Stock-Market Selloff? (W) Bank of America sees market decline next year: ‘There is now an alternative to stocks’ (C) US Steel Tariffs and Hot Economy Take Toll on Infrastructure Projects (W) US politics Trump is reportedly blaming Treasury Secretary Mnuchin for the appointment of Fed Chairman Powell (C) Trump Expresses Dissatisfaction With Mnuchin (W) Industries & companies Financials: Investment Banks’ Secret Cash Cow (W) Retail: Holiday shoppers used their phones to spend $1 billion this Thanksgiving (C) Retail: Black Friday deals lure U.S. shoppers, biggest sales gains online (R) Retail: Retail Stores Win Back Shoppers, Not Profits (W) Retail: Kohl’s hits record sales day online on Thanksgiving, selling 60 Instant Pots per minute (C) Retail: Black Friday for Sears a ‘ghost town’ as it tries to make it through to another holiday season (C) Corporate finance United Technologies Gets China’s Approval for Rockwell Collins Deal (W) Technology The Future of Lunch Delivery Looks Like a Giant Roomba (W) Offbeat The Amazon deal was actually great for New York (NYP)

November 23 (Friday) Markets Amidst Roaring Economy, Markets Sound Alarms (W) Global Selloff Tests Changed Credit Market (W) A $9 trillion corporate debt bomb is ‘bubbling’ in the US economy (C) Energy Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare (B) Natural High: Gas Sellers Spared From China’s Market Slump (W) Central banks ECB Mentions Inflation Less as Rate Holds Near Target: Chart (B) US Durable-Goods Orders Fall, Signaling Slowing Momentum (W) Home Sales Suffer Largest Annual Drop in Four Years (W) U.S. Consumer Sentiment Pressured by Volatile Stocks (W) Europe The U.K. and the European Union reach agreement on outline of post-Brexit relationship (MW) Theresa May’s Brexit deal is ‘worst of all worlds,’ opposition Labour leader says (C) Japan Want a free country house in Japan? They’re giving them away (C) US politics Trump warns of government shutdown next month over border security (C) Trump’s written answers to special counsel questions come after a long, tortured road (C) Trump Says He Closed Mexican Border and Authorized Lethal Force (B) Geopolitics & trade Global Tariffs Surge Ahead of Trump-Xi Talks at G-20, Study Says (B) US-China trade war could go on until 2020 presidential elections (C) Industries & companies Airlines: Thanksgiving travel is busy, but smooth, at airports. It’s everything investors want (C) Autos: Tesla cuts China car prices to absorb hit from trade war tariffs (C) FAANGs: Not So Big in Japan: Apple Cuts Price of iPhone XR to Boost Sales (W) FAANGs: Half of Jobs at Amazon’s Two New Headquarters Won’t Be Tech Positions (W) Financials: Rising Rates Are Roiling Nonbank Mortgage Lenders (W) Retail: The holiday season gives Macy’s the chance to prove its turnaround plan is working (C) Retail: Retail’s Survivors Get a Lift (W)

November 21 (Wednesday) Markets I Worst Day of an Awful Year Leaves No Corner of Market Unscathed (B) Dow plunges more than 500 points, erases gain for 2018 (C) Opinion: Santa Claus Rally is just another Christmas story (MW) Wells Fargo’s Scott Wren dismisses risks: ‘You need to be stepping in here and buying some stocks’ (C) Markets II Asian stocks fall on the back of overnight plunge on Wall Street (C) Goldman Sees Double-Digit Emerging-Market Stock Returns in 2019 (B) If GE Debt Gets Junked, Markets Have Reason to Shudder (W) Central banks Federal Reserve Not Likely Swayed by Market Declines (W) Trump says he would like to see the Federal Reserve lower interest rates (C) Powell now has 8 reasons to pause the Fed’s rate hikes after December (C) Mohamed El-Erian: US is ‘much more vulnerable’ to a policy mistake by the Fed (C) Jeremy Siegel: Expect the Fed to ‘substantially’ slow down rate hikes in 2019 (C) US JP Morgan sees a slowdown coming, with economy growing at less than 2 percent in 2019 (C) Geopolitics & trade U.S. Accuses China of Continuing IP Theft Amid Trade War (B) U.S. Manufacturers Push FTC to Crack Down on False ‘Made in America’ Labels (W) Industries & companies FANGs: Facebook’s ad platform is down at a horrible time for Black Friday retailers (C) Retail: Retail stocks slide as CEOs fail to persuade skeptical investors that outlook is rosy (C) Retail: Walmart, Target to grab more online sales this holiday, but it’s come at a cost (C) Tech: Samsung’s Galaxy S Phone Is a 5G Monster With Six Cameras (W) Corporate finance Walgreens, Humana Weigh Taking Stakes in Each Other (W) One of China’s Biggest Defaulters Has a $10 Billion Plan and It’s Scaring Investors (B)

November 20 (Tuesday) Markets Dow plunges about 400 points as Apple, Amazon and Facebook fall (C) Asia down as Wall Street knocked by tech sell-off, dollar sags (R) Once popular tech stocks like Facebook and Apple are now getting crushed: Here’s what happened (C) Cloud stocks get hammered, with Salesforce suffering worst day since early 2016 (C) The sell-off can’t end until these 10 problems are fixed (C) Central banks Fed doesn’t seem in as much of a rush to raise interest rates as stocks plunge (C) Markets think Fed chief Powell ‘blinked’ in Dallas (MW) A key Fed official stays the course on U.S. rate hikes amid growing doubts (R) US American Factories Are Burning Through Inventories (W) U.S. Home-Builder Sentiment Fell in November (W) Fed Study of Labor Participation Finds U.S. at Full Employment (B) China Why Xi Leads a Chorus Backing China’s Private Sector (B) US politics 16 Democrats say they will oppose Nancy Pelosi as the next House speaker (C) Geopolitics & trade China blames ‘excuses’ for protectionism for lack of APEC agreement (R) The odds that the US and China don’t reach a trade deal just got higher (C) US companies aren’t in a hurry to leave China despite the trade war, analysts say (C) China Is Paying for Most of Trump’s Trade War, Research Says (B) Mexico expects U.S. to begin lifting tariffs with trade deal signing: McClatchy (R) Industries & companies Autos: Tesla is turning to partners to help with a growing used-car business (C) FANGs: Apple Cuts iPhone Production, Creating Turmoil for Suppliers (W) Retail: Sears is just one of five retailers that have no room for error this holiday season (C) Tech: A Silicon Valley Tech Leader Walks a High Wire Between the U.S. and China (W) Technology Self-Driving Cars Encounter Political Roadblocks (W) Offbeat Amazon stores every conversation you have with Alexa — here’s how to delete them (C) Facial Recognition’s Growing Adoption Spurs Privacy Concerns (W)

November 19 (Monday) Markets Investors See Room for Market Gains Amid Tech Rout (W) The End of the Euro Is Closer Than You Think (BR) 40 Years of the 401(k)—the Good, the Bad, and the Future (BR) Central banks Will the Fed Decide Not to Raise Rates After All? (BR) China China’s Xi intends to visit North Korea next year, South Korea says (C) US politics Democrat Bill Nelson concedes to GOP’s Rick Scott in Florida Senate race after manual recount (C) Why Democrats, fresh from big midterm wins, will likely pursue incremental change in the House (C) Geopolitics & trade U.S.-China Rift: One Phrase ‘Torpedoed’ Pacific Accord (W) Pence’s China Attacks Fuel Fears of New Cold War (B) Nearly half of German firms expect growing trade strains with U.S.: survey (R) Path Grows Rockier for Trump’s Saudi Policy (W) Industries & companies Autos: Ford hits the road in Miami, in a big bet on autonomous vehicles, ride sharing and delivery services (C) Energy: Where to Find Bargains Among Oil and Natural-Gas Stocks (BR) Media: Here’s why Disney is deepening its footprint in mobile gaming in a team-up with Jam City (C) Retail: Black Friday Shoppers Beware: Online Shopping Gets More Complicated (W) Retail: These Retailers Have Learned How to Beat Amazon (BR) Corporate finance Buying Stakes in Private-Equity Firms, Not Just Their Funds, Pays Big (W) Technology What’s the Next Big Thing in Tech? It’s Up to Us (W) Offbeat The California Wildfires’ Financial Toll (BR) California Firefighters Battle Exhaustion From Perpetual Blazes (W) Power outages and bank runs: Here are the ‘cyber 9/11’ scenarios that really worry the experts (C) Why a new discovery in outer space means humans should keep an ‘open mind’ about extraterrestrial life (C)