The Journal reported yesterday that the DOJ will allow Bayer to move forward with its plans to acquire Monsanto, a deal valued at more than $60 billion, after the companies “pledged to sell off additional assets to secure government antitrust approval” – WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Chinese President Xi took what can only be deemed the diplomatic high ground in his “landmark economic speech” today, declaring that there’s “no direct confrontation” with the US and buoying global markets in the process – Bloomberg and NYTimes and WSJ
Early releases of Zuck’s prepared remarks to Congress suggest that he’s going with a variation of the Gob Bluth “I’ve made a huge mistake” tack – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Yes, brick-and-mortar retailers are in a heck of a pickle these days, but new openings from Nordstrom [and Best Buy] show the old guard isn’t ceding the future to Amazon and Alibaba yet – NYTimes
PayPal is moving towards traditional banking operations, reaching out to groups of customers in recent months with offers to add “basic banking features to their PayPal digital wallet”—a move that it’s hoping could fill a gap created by big banks’ moves to discontinue free checking accounts with lower-income customers – WSJ
After a solid year of guessing by most across the financial sector, Bank of America is officially declaring the bitcoin bubble popped – Bloomberg
Uber’s getting into the electric bike biz with its acquisition of battery-powered bicycle company Jump Bikes. The terms of the deal are undisclosed, but a TechCrunch report has suggested a $100 million figure for the deal – NYTimes and Wired
The trial of 5 former Barclays and Deutsche Bank traders accused of rigging Euribor kicked off yesterday in London. All pleaded not guilty in February 2017 to allegations that they submitted “false or misleading “ rate into the Euribor setting process in order to benefit their trading positions – Law360
Streetwise asks some hard questions about why markets are going bonkers over tariffs that, in the grand scheme of things, don’t affect that much of the US economy. Well, as you might imagine, the concerns go way beyond the threatened tariffs and into bigger concerns about a global trade war and its impact on a “global economy already showing plenty of signs of strain” – WSJ
Marketplace offers us this intriguing approach (from former FDIC chair Sheila Bair) for an income sharing approach to addressing Americans’ $1.5 trillion student-debt load – Marketplace
Turning “video or it didn’t happen” on its head: welcome to the terrifying world of deepfakes, virtual reality, and manipulated video – TheAtlantic
