We were pretty sure that the Fed would keep interest rates steady as it wrapped its Open Market Committee meetings yesterday, and Fed Chair Powell delivered on that expectation. He also admitted that the same lack of inflation that bedeviled the Yellen-helmed Fed is still an issue for the central bank [all while assuring markets that it doesn’t take “political opinions” into account “when setting monetary policy”] – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

With Hauwei far too frequently in the news these days for reasons it would surely hate, it feels like the right time to take a closer look at the three-decade-old telecom giant—in particular, the core struggle facing Huawei and its founder Ren Zhengfei: just how independent from the Chinese government is it anyway – NYTimes

And with that background in mind, worth noting that PM May has dismissed her defense secretary, Gavin Williamson, after “blaming him for a lead that suggested she would give a role in designing a British telecommunications network” to Huawei – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

Speaking of rough times in London town, all is not well for Jes Staley and his tenure at Barclays, at least according to British-born activist investor Edward Bramson, who is pushing the UK-based bank to “scale back its Wall Street ambitions, to become a consumer and commercial lender with smaller investment-banking operations.” Staley, for his part, is having none of that talk – WSJ

Qualcomm estimates that payment from settlement of its patent battle with Apple will result in a $4.5 to 4.7 billion addition to its bottom line next quarter – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and Law360

Zuck, COO Sheryl Sandberg, and former Facebook director Jan Koum all have a bit of a share dumping problem on their hands, thanks to a shareholder derivative suit filed yesterday in Delaware Chancery Court focused on their sales of $1.5 billion in company stock just before the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke – Law360

Nordstrom is hitting the Big Apple on all scales. It will add two mini stores to the West Village and Upper East Side in NYC that won’t carry merchandise but will “be hubs for online pickups and returns, as well as services like tailoring and personal styling.” Those outposts, which follow a model the company’s used in LA, are part of a larger Manhattan expansion that includes a recently opened men’s store and a forthcoming 7-story flagship store – NYTimes

A bit of Brexit-related news that focuses on non-UK hardship for a change. The ECB announced this week that Britain’s impending EU departure will force lenders having to pay “21 percent higher fees to the European Central Bank in 2019” – Law360

3M is looking to buy its way into a stronger future with a $6.7 billion deal to acquire wound-care company Acelity Inc. – MarketWatch

While a strong economy and low unemployment mean there’s little cause for real worry, Bloomberg tells us that a red light—in the form of seriously delinquent credit-card debt at its highest level in a decade—is slowly starting to blink – Bloomberg

Nothing like the internet to help glorify the exercise (and slapstick) potential of a slippery floor. Treadmill challenge, anyone? – NYTimes

MDR