If we’ve learned any lessons this year, it’s not to get excited about a 2-day rally. That said, we’ve not had much to cheer about in the 2016 markets, so let’s get crazy. With markets closed on Monday, the Friday-Tuesday gain of 3.7% was the best since last August – WSJ
TARP overseer, failed California gubernatorial candidate, and now new head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank Neel Kashkari waded right into the mix in his first public speech as president, declaring “the biggest banks are still too big to fail and continue to pose a significant ongoing risk to our economy”—an unexpectedly strong take from “a Goldman Sachs Republican” – NYTimes and WSJ and Law360
Major oil producing countries are working on a deal to cap production in an effort to boost flailing oil prices, but there are a lot of “ifs” still in the mix (and those “ifs” include Iraq and Iran) – WSJ and Marketplace
With talk of a debt deal swirling that would end the 15-year battle between Argentina and the hold out hedge funds, the Deal Professor considers the long dispute and wonders if, at this point, either side can keep from again running back to court – NYTimes
Michael Coscia—the Chicago-based high-frequency trader with the dubious distinction of being the “first-ever individual convicted of spoofing” in the US—is appealing that conviction and challenging the government’s “novel theory on fraud” in the HFT realm – Law360
With the Fed about to drop its January meeting minutes on us, the Journal delivers its obligatory 5 Things . . . – WSJ
Apple’s testing investors’ “appetite for debt” with its announcement of a $12 billion bond sale to pay for share buybacks and dividends [a routine move, despite its more-than $215 billion in cash on hand—in part because “93 percent of that cash is abroad and would incur taxes if it were returned home”] – NYTimes and WSJ
Every yin has its yang, so why not “The Big Long” (aka, making a killing by buying the complex securities everyone else was dumping and then waiting) – Bloomberg
Love this look at Ford’s partnership with design firm Ideo, as the iconic American carmaker peers into a future of multimodal transportation in which the car is no longer king – NYTimes