Markets around the world took a beating yesterday amidst concerns about steel tariffs and other rising commodity costs, an economic slowdown in China, and brewing trouble in the EU. US stocks rallied by the end of the day to ease the size of the losses – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
The European Commission has taken a drastic and unprecedented step of sending Italy’s draft budget back to the drawing board, calling it dangerous – CNBC and NYTimes and WSJ
Which makes this update on the economic mess there and why the entire world should care (including an awfully scary hypothetical that imagines what a worst case scenario looks like) well worth your time – NYTimes
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have fined Capital One Financial $100 million for the bank’s slow compliance with the terms of a 2015 agreement that ordered it to “take a broad look at its money laundering risk” – Law360
American Express has officially acknowledged that government agencies are “investigating how its foreign-exchange unit price currency conversions.” The probe, which includes both civil and criminal division subpoenas from the DOJ and inquiries from the Fed, FDIC, OCC and CFPB, centers on AmEx’s purported practice of luring business customers by offering low exchange rates but later raising rates without informing its customers – WSJ and Bloomberg
Yahoo is seeking court approval of a deal that would see it pay $50 million to resolve a proposed consumer class actions in California state and federal court “over a trio of data breaches that affected billions of U.S. and Israeli accounts.” Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo would also provide credit monitoring and identity theft protection services for class members – Law360
Here’s a pretty spectacular look at the “one stubborn banker”—a Brit working in one of Danske Bank’s Estonian outposts—whose curiosity and resolve helped expose a massive $230 billion money-laundering scheme – WSJ
Sears’ demise has prompted some to consider its heyday as the “everything store” and make inevitable comparisons to Amazon. The Times reminds us of a key difference (that’s seen across corporate America today): the “willingness of corporate America to share the rewards of success” – NYTimes
We’re not quite battened down for the winter here in the North yet, but we’re also not holding wanderlust against anyone here. With that in mind, here are the Journal’s 10 “most intriguing” travel locales for the coming year – WSJ