China’s once again halted trading after the CSI 300 dropped 7% in early trading. Worries about China led to a rough day throughout Asian markets, likely setting the stage for another big drop on Wall Street ahead – WSJ and NYTimes

Offshore bets against China’s currency, the yuan, are booming, even with the expectation that China will intervene to prop up the currency – WSJ

No real surprise here, but the Fed’s December minutes showed “concerns among policy makers about the strength of economic growth could slow the march toward higher rates” and a focus on the “persistence of sluggish inflation” – NYTimes and WSJ

Starboard Value, a squeaky wheel hedge fund with an attention-worthy stake in Yahoo, called yesterday for changes to Y!’s board and management. Starboard threatened to run its own slate of directors if it’s ignored – NYTimes and WSJ and Law360

Gregory Fleming, a top Morgan Stanley exec who was once a leading candidate to take the helm there, is out at MS—reportedly of his own volition after CEO James Gorman elevated Colm Kelleher to the #2 spot – NYTimes and WSJ

JPMorgan’s securities biz is in regulators’ crosshairs for alleged false statements on the client website of and in marketing materials for its private bank (reserved for clients with $5 million or more in assets) about how its advisers are paid.  It’ll cost JPM $4 million to the SEC to make it right – NYTimes and Bloomberg and Law360

SDNY Judge Paul Crotty has given preliminary approval to a deal in which Credit Suisse would pay $110 million to resolve an 8-year-old class action brought by investors alleging that the bank used misleading financial disclosure docs to induce them to buy $1.6 billion in toxic MBS – Law360

Kind of a fun little think piece from the Carpetbagger [version 3.0.  RIP, original Carpetbagger] asking whether the Academy should reward the power for social change that often accompanies the year’s top documentaries – NYTimes