The US’s biggest banks had a good day yesterday on news that they “breezed through” the first phase of the Federal Reserve’s annual stress tests—a good sign that they “have enough capital to withstand the type of financial shock that nearly ruined the industry and the world economy in 2008” – NYTimes and Bloomberg and Law360
Indeed, the banks’ strong showing is providing further ammo for those in the new administration clamoring for scaling back post-crisis rules and regs – WSJ
Pharma bro Martin Shkreli is prepping for trial with his normal humility and lack of bluster. We’ll see how that works out for him – NYTimes
Years of nasty scandal means US financial firms are saying out with Libor and in with, well, we’ll see—either “a rate derived from a broad set of borrowing transactions secured by U.S. Treasurys,” or the “Overnight Bank Funding Rate” – WSJ
The counter story to Travis Kalanick’s departure from Uber goes something like this: at least some Uber employees would rather that Kalanick—bad boy culture and all—stuck around – NYTimes
Deutsche Bank offered up a stiff defense of its sampling methods to identify defective loans from the more than 4000 it oversaw as trustee, while a Morgan Stanley subsidiary has claimed that anything short of a loan-by-loan analysis was unacceptable – Law360
A quick check-in with Altice USA after a very solid first day of trading – WSJ
Qatar Airways has made an unsolicited (and largely unwanted) bid to take a 10% stake in rival American Airlines, touching off industry buzzing that the Persian Gulf airlines have an unfair advantage, as well as questions over what Qatar’s play is given its very public criticism of AA’s business model – NYTimes and WSJ
Looking to hit the high seas but desperately seeking to avoid the standard cruise scene? Fear not, Ritz-Carlton has a fleet for you – Bloomberg
Have a great weekend.