The Fed will wrap up its Open Markets Committee meeting today, and the recent dive on Wall Street has rather suddenly brought a bit of drama to what was a
long-promised rate hike. Here’s a bit of background on what it’s been chewing over –
WSJ and
Bloomberg and
NYTimes
Digging in further to the troubled Chinese tech giant Huawei reveals its “wolf culture”—the “hard-charging corporate spirit” that helped the company expand around the world (but also got it in the mess it finds itself) – NYTimes
After years of reticence, tech unicorns are taking to the public markets with great fervor. With “little fanfare,” 38 tech and internet companies with a billion-dollar (or more) valuation went public in 2018, the “most to do so since the height of the dot-com boom in 2000” – WSJ
Why such a big deal? Well, there’s Blue Apron, for example, as a cautionary tale – Bloomberg
Dealbook has been closely watching the stock market’s recent volatility, and while that’s made for some bad headlines, it’s the weakness in the bond market that’s really giving it pause – NYTimes
Brand-new Times reporting indicates that Facebook has been giving other tech giants backdoor access to their users’ personal data, “effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules” – NYTimes [and MarketWatch]
Oil prices have slid to their lowest levels in over a year, marking a “nearly 40% decline from the roughly four-year highs reached at the start of October” – WSJ and NYTimes
German automotive engineering company IAV GmbH has entered into a plea agreement with US authorities in which it will plead guilty and pay $35 million “for its alleged role in a long-running scheme by Volkswagen AG to sell diesel vehicles in the United States” that cheat on vehicle emissions tests – Law360
New York state’s banking regulator has ordered Barclays to pay $15 million in penalties over CEO Jes Staley’s attempt to unmask a whistle-blower at the company – NYTimes and Law360
Fresh off a $4.6 billion write-down earlier this month, Verizon has officially killed its “Oath” brand. The former holding company for AOL and Yahoo will now be part of Verizon Media Group – Bloomberg
The SEC is working through a busy week, both finalizing rules for company disclosures about employees or directors engaging in hedging transactions [Law360] and opening up the comment period on the White-House-proposed idea of relaxing quarterly reporting requirements for public companies – Law360
Former Walt Disney COO Tom Staggs, who “left Disney in 2016 when it became clear he wouldn’t succeed Robert Iger as Disney’s chief executive,” has risen to the top of a crop of potential candidates for the CEO’s chair at CBS – WSJ
[Many] troubles aside, Elon Musk’s SpaceX venture is poised to raise $500 million “to help get its internet-service business off the ground.” The sum would give the company a $30.5 billion valuation – WSJ
I mean, it’s no Great Minnesota Get Together, but I can hardly quibble with this piece on the pleasure of people-watching in the Big Apple – NYTimes