With Davos 2018 in the rear view mirror, some analysts are pegging the “geopolitical momentum” as China’s to claim, thanks in no small part to its expansive and ongoing “Belt and Road” initiative – NYTimes

Need more proof of China’s rising status? Intel apparently warned Chinese companies like Alibaba and Lenovo of its chip flaws before telling the U.S. government – WSJ

Europe’s stringent new set of privacy rules—the General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR)—may formally apply only across the 28-member European Union, but they have plenty of American tech companies sweating bullets just the same – NYTimes

Canada and Mexico are pushing back against a White House proposal that would rework the Nafta corporate arbitration system (ISDS) – WSJ

We haven’t heard much about the Fed’s Open Markets Committee meeting this week, but at least some—Goldman, included—think it might be an unexpectedly lively affair – Bloomberg

The long-awaited Aramco IPO continues to stall out based on Saudi Arabia’s indecision about where to list the company – WSJ

SDNY Judge Kathleen Forrest has denied defendant Morgan Stanley summary judgment in Deutsche Bank’s put-back toxic RMBS suit – Law360

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc. is still reeling from a massive hack last Friday that saw the theft of over $400 million in digital tokens. The company is promising (as of yesterday) that it would reimburse customers who lost money in the hack, but the entire episode has drawn yet more focus on the [lack of] security of such exchanges – Bloomberg and WSJ

The US arm of France’s BNP Paribas will pay $90 million in fines as part of its guilty plea deal on Forex-rigging charges – Law360

We’re bidding a subdued and efficient farväl to Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad. We figure that’s the way he’d like it – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

Who knew that a quest for a monochromatic scheme would lead to such a literary dust-up. Welcome to the spine-in vs. spine-out debate of 2018 – WSJ