The US and South Korea have announced a deal to renegotiate their trade pact, with “South agreeing to reduce its steel exports and open its market to American cares” in exchange for an exemption from the White House’s steel and aluminum tariffs – NYTimes and Law360

Yesterday’s news about a US/China trade-talk backchannel appears to have had the intended effects on US markets – WSJ

We’ve talked plenty already here about the potential impact that Amazon’s move into the grocery business will have on traditional brick-and-mortar grocery behemoths. But what of the small chains? Well, it’s not looking pretty, and union members are feeling the squeeze already – NYTimes

Pharma giant GSK is snapping up Novartis’ stake in the duo’s consumer health-care joint venture for $13 billion, the first blockbuster move for each company under their respective new CEOs  – Bloomberg and WSJ

Any blockbuster legislation passed with the relative speed of late-2017’s tax cuts is sure to have some rough patches. A few months in, plenty are emerging, including the unexpected hit to a US railroad company—among others—from the bill’s new tax aimed at overseas income earned by U.S. tech and pharma firms – WSJ

In something of a parting shot, outgoing NY Fed chief William Dudley told a crowd at a US Chamber of Commerce event yesterday that Wall Street should discourage bank bad behavior by docking executives’ pay so that they’re forced to share in banks’ costs for regulatory fines – Bloomberg and MarketWatch

A battle over proper showcasing and marketing of its products last year led to a battle between Sharpie owner Newell Brands Inc. and Office Depot Inc., with Newell bearing a 10% hit to its sales as a result of the dust up.  That drop, in turn, has attracted the interest of several activist investors who are lobbying for the ouster of Newell CEO Michael Polk – WSJ

Uber’s exiting active participation in the Southeast Asian market, agreeing over the weekend to sell its ride and food-delivery business to Grab—a Singapore-based rival—in exchange for a 27.5% stake in that company – NYTimes and WSJ

A group of former UK currency traders (aka, the “Cartel”) has moved to dismiss the DOJ’s charges accusing them of conspiring to fix the Forex market, asserting that they “can’t be guilty for violating U.S. antitrust laws because the banks for which they worked weren’t always in direct competition” – Bloomberg and Law360

Nor’easters and late-March snows be damned . . . the baseball is nearly upon us. The Journal gets us in the mood with this in depth feature on—wait for it—dirt – WSJ