Meet ZTE (well, meet them again.  We’ve discussed them before), the massive Chinese electronics maker banned last month by the White House from using US-made components that could well be the “first casualty of the high-tech cold war between the United States and China” – NYTimes and WSJ and CNN

Argentina and the IMF have been far from fast friends over the past 2 decades, as many in the country blame the Fund “for an economic implosion and debt default” in 2001. Yet the two are in talks about a line of credit as Argentina deals with a currency in borderline freefall – NYTimes

RBS and the DOJ are close to finalizing a $4.9 billion deal to resolve potential civil claims over “the bank’s structuring and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis” – Law360 and WSJ and MarketWatch

Bloomberg isn’t going so far as to suggest that volatility’s gone again. But it is suggesting that the VIX is looking at least a bit more like its formerly reliable self – Bloomberg [and MarketWatch]

FINRA has ordered Fifth Third Securities Inc. to pay $6 million to resolve claims about the way it’s run its retail variable annuities business, accusing the firm’s reps of recommending annuities exchanges without a reasonable basis to believe the transactions were suitable to customers and failing “to give customers an accurate picture of the costs and benefits of such exchanges” – Law360

Pension fund adviser CtW Investment Group is pushing Tesla shareholders to vote down the reelection of company board members Kimbal Musk (Elon’s brother), venture capitalist Antonio Gracias, and 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch. In a letter to shareholders, CtW decried Tesla’s failure to hit “critical production milestones” – WSJ

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg is doing some damage control (and his best) to downplay the impact on the company caused by the White House’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement – Bloomberg

The DOJ has arrested former Premium Point Investments CEO Neil Ahuja and two others at the hedge fund on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy as part of an alleged $200 million scheme to “overstate the value of his now-bankrupt fund’s residential mortgage-backed securities” – Law360

BlackRock is backing Acorns Grow Inc., a fintech startup that allows customers to invest small sums in “groups of funds based on their risk tolerance,” as a way of pushing into tech investing and gaining access to younger investors – WSJ

Remember SoftBank’s crazy ambitious plan to invest $100 billion in tech? Yeah, well, $30 billion later, it’s well on its way to its goal – WSJ

Businessweek takes up Nike’s recent spate of departures as a case study in the late-to-the-game realization by many companies that “a bullying boss isn’t the best way to manage a company” – Bloomberg

Can’t get enough of good design, and these 20 winners of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ 2018 Awards for International Excellence more than fit the bill – ArchDaily