- Gold Roars to One-Year High as Turmoil Drives Safe Haven Demand (BBG)
- Banking Stocks Pummeled in Europe (WSJ)
- Dollar, stocks plunge sparks scramble for safety (Reuters)
- Nymex Crude Slips Below $27 a Barrel (WSJ)
- No Respite for S&P 500 as U.S. Stock Futures Join Global Selloff (BBG)
- Walgreens Threatens to End Theranos Agreement (WSJ)
- Next Task for Clinton, Sanders: Securing the Minority Vote (WSJ)
- Yen Advances to 15-Month High as Korean Tensions Stoke Haven Bid (BBG)
- Meet the Man Who Helps Trump Be Trump (WSJ)
- FBI tightens grip on final occupiers at Oregon wildlife refuge (Reuters)
- SocGen Slumps as Quarterly Profit Hurt by Securities Drop (BBG)
- HSBC CEO Gulliver Said to End Pay Freeze After Staff Revolt (BBG)
- Donors urge Clinton to sharpen message ahead of debate with Sanders (Reuters)
- Dark Pools’ Market Share Drops for First Time in Europe: Chart (BBG)
- Russia says U.S. planes bombed Syria’s Aleppo on Wednesday (Reuters)
- Benghazi Panel Nears Final Report Examining Clinton’s Response (BBG)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– Theranos’ main retail partner Walgreens threatened to terminate its relationship with the blood-testing company unless it quickly fixes the problems found by federal inspectors at a laboratory in California, people familiar with the matter said. (http://on.wsj.com/1QsIXxI)
– Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen hinted to Congress Wednesday that the central bank had increased trepidation over the path of interest-rate increases, pointing to accumulating risks to the economy in recent weeks.(http://on.wsj.com/1QsJ1NK)
– Twitter for the first time failed to show any user growth in an earnings report, pushing its shares to new lows and fueling investor anxiety that the company doesn’t have a turnaround plan.(http://on.wsj.com/1QsJ6kF)
– Bernie Sanders’ resounding New Hampshire victory over Hillary Clinton, facing the twin questions of whether his appeal is broad enough to replicate his performance elsewhere, and whether her support is strong enough to reverse the tide.(http://on.wsj.com/1Si1XEY)
– A top North Korean general was executed this month after being charged with corruption, the latest in a series of purges by leader Kim Jong Un, according to South Korean intelligence officials. (http://on.wsj.com/1Si8LCs)
FT
* Worldpay Group Plc is launching into Canada partnering with Peoples Trust Company, which gives Worldpay a domestic licence for its customers to accept card payments in Canada. It looks to replicate this deal with other customers that it has previously been unable to serve in Canada.
* Four cases of Zika have been reported in the UK since January and the number is likely to rise as travellers return from endemic areas of Latin America. Public health officials said seven UK cases had been diagnosed in the past three years and most had occurred since the start of 2016 as the virus.
* BP Plc said oil producers in the United States will recover from the collapse in crude oil prices and pump millions of barrels a day more over the next two decades even though there is resilient growth in energy demand.
* According to official data, productivity in NHS hospitals has fallen for the third year now. This will now intensify the debate over whether the service can survive without more funding.
NYT
– The U.S. Supreme Court’s surprise decision Tuesday to halt the carrying out of President Obama’s climate change regulation could weaken or even imperil the international global warming accord reached with great ceremony in Paris less than two months ago, climate diplomats say. (http://nyti.ms/20WMGea)
– On Wednesday, after many quarters of slowing user growth, Twitter said its monthly visitors in the fourth quarter totaled 320 million – exactly the same as the company reported in the previous quarter. While the number was up 9 percent from a year ago, when monthly active users stood at 288 million, the figures showed that Jack Dorsey’s recent moves have made little impact in attracting users. (http://nyti.ms/20WCX7I)
– The Fed chairwoman, Janet Yellen, testifying before Congress, reiterated the central bank’s gradual approach to interest-rate increases. (http://nyti.ms/1ott9UW)
– The federal judge overseeing hundreds of claims against General Motors related to a defective ignition switch has rejected an effort to replace Robert C. Hilliard, one of the lead plaintiffs’ lawyers on the case. (http://nyti.ms/1mtVbhu)
– HBO’s stand-alone video streaming service has attracted about 800,000 paying subscribers since starting last April, the premium cable network said Wednesday, the first time it has disclosed numbers for the service. (http://nyti.ms/1PEfJvP)
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Canada has competitive advantages when it comes to car manufacturing, but falls short in marketing itself and needs to change a key element of the incentive package offered to global auto makers, says Ray Tanguay, the special auto adviser to the federal and Ontario governments. (http://bit.ly/23YCCnw)
** Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd CEO Hunter Harrison has signalled he will abandon his four-month push to form North America’s biggest railway if Norfolk Southern Corp shareholders reject his latest move. (http://bit.ly/1XkRl7C)
** Pacific NorthWest LNG’s project in British Columbia would likely harm harbour porpoises and contribute to climate change, but the export terminal could be built and operated without causing major ecological damage, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has ruled. (http://bit.ly/1V5TD9i)
NATIONAL POST
** Hudson’s Bay Co could be bulking up even further. The Toronto-based owner of Saks Fifth Ave. and Lord & Taylor is in the running to buy bankrupt department store chain V&D of the Netherlands, according to multiple Dutch media reports. (http://bit.ly/1SJXco5)
** Canada’s second-largest dairy producer, the farmer-owned Agropur Cooperative, says it sees the company’s growth not here in the country, where it has defended the protectionist supply-management system when threatened with free-trade deals, but in the U.S. where it can import to international markets including north of the border. (http://bit.ly/1PnEMoZ)
** Canada’s Superintendent of Financial Institutions has taken temporary control of the assets of the Canadian branch of Maple Bank GmbH, which is headquartered in Germany. (http://bit.ly/1Ta1rYD)
Britain
The Times
The Bank of England and Paul Tucker have been drawn back into the Libor scandal amid claims that Barclays Plc used what it believed was a confidential instruction from a former deputy governor to lower rates to buy billions of pounds of debt in rival British lenders at the height of the financial crisis. (http://thetim.es/1QsvC8A)
HSBC Holdings Plc’s directors will meet on Sunday to decide whether to continue to base the bank’s headquarters in London or move abroad, with an announcement on the eagerly awaited question likely to be made that day. (http://thetim.es/1QsvE00)
The Guardian
BP Plc has predicted a bright future for the oil and gas industry with crude prices spiking at $100 a barrel again, huge increases in shale output and new production from Canadian tar sands. (http://bit.ly/1QsvLsC)
Mark Price, managing director of Waitrose, is to be made a Foreign Office trade minister as David Cameron continues to try and bring more businesspeople into his government. (http://bit.ly/1Qsw8Ds)
The Telegraph
Johnston Press is in advanced talks with the Lebedev family to buy the i newspaper in a deal that will raise questions over the future of its stable mate, The Independent. It is understood both sides are brokering the sale of the tabloid, with talks expected to run into the night. (http://bit.ly/1Qswqu5)
The Telegraph understands the Competition and Markets Authority, the consumer regulator, is finalising plans to take action against Britain’s biggest supermarkets, which stand accused of using unlawful pricing and promotional practices, designed to encourage customers to spend more. (http://bit.ly/1QswxWG)
Sky News
Sky News understands that Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc is working with bankers at Lazard to examine options for its 3 billion pounds ($4.37 billion) shipping finance operation, which could be run off, sold or hived off in chunks to potential buyers (http://bit.ly/1QrWMMP)
The UK is blocking a European rule change that could help combat the flood of cheap Chinese imports that is crippling the steel industry, Business Secretary Sajid Javid has admitted. (http://bit.ly/1QswASe)
The Independent
The fashion giant Gap Inc is the latest U.S. household name to face major questions over its use of complex financial engineering that minimises its tax bill in Britain. The multinational retailer has paid almost no corporation tax – once rebates are taken into account – since 2011 despite sales of more than 1 billion pounds, according to a new analysis of its “opaque” accounts. (http://ind.pn/1QswSIK)
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1Lj2yPk Tyler Durden