- Stocks Gain With Commodities Amid China Optimism (BBG); Dollar, global stocks firm as 2017 trading starts in earnest (Reuters)
- Oil hits 18-month highs as markets eye output cuts (Reuters)
- Earnings Recovery Set to Propel Stocks Higher in 2017 (WSJ)
- Republican-led Congress lays groundwork for Trump (Reuters)
- Battles Await Ambitious GOP Agenda, Including Repeal of ACA (WSJ)
- 2017 Will Be the Riskiest Year for Geopolitics Since WWII, Eurasia Group Says (BBG)
- Trump team seeks agency records on border barriers, surveillance (Reuters)
- Paris Wants to Lure 20,000 Bankers From London (BBG)
- Champions of 401(k) Lament the Revolution They Started (WSJ)
- Oil business seen in strong position as Trump tackles tax reform (Reuters)
- Shipping Alliances Shore Up Industry, Worry Customers (WSJ)
- China navy confirms carrier conducted drills in South China Sea (Reuters)
- China Gets Strict on Forex Transactions to Stop Money Exiting Abroad (BBG)
- Trump aware of ‘urgency’ of North Korea nuclear threat: South Korea (Reuters)
- Trump Taps China Critic Lighthizer for U.S. Trade Representative (BBG)
- Gunman in Istanbul nightclub attack may have trained in Syria (Reuters)
- What We Could Learn From the Fed Minutes (BBG)
- Solar Could Beat Coal to Become the Cheapest Power on Earth (BBG)
- Luxury Apartment Boom Looks Set to Fizzle in 2017 (WSJ)
- The Fallout From Madoff’s Fraud Includes an Ironic Twist for Investors (BBG)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp said it plans to resume rocket launches on Jan. 8, using revised operational practices developed in response to a fiery accident that occurred during routine ground preparations last fall. http://on.wsj.com/2hLP5Mb
– Hyundai Motor Co and affiliate Kia Motors Corp are bracing for another challenging year after missing their sales targets for a second straight year on lackluster performances in China, the U.S. and other key markets. http://on.wsj.com/2hM344u
– Twitter Inc’s controversial China chief has departed after only eight months, the latest executive to leave amid a global reorganization. http://on.wsj.com/2hLW9bL
– Landlords of upscale properties across the U.S. are bracing for rough conditions in 2017 that will likely force them to slash rents and offer deep concessions as a glut of supply brings a seven-year luxury-apartment boom to an end. http://on.wsj.com/2hLXCPb
– The Obama administration is finalizing a study that could lead to restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S. semiconductor sector. http://on.wsj.com/2hM1Sye
– The “Star Wars” spinoff “Rogue One” led the box office for the third straight week, taking in an estimated $64.3 million during the New Year’s weekend, according to studio estimates. http://on.wsj.com/2hLYp2C
FT
Financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald LP has appointed Anshu Jain, the former co-chief executive of Deutsche Bank AG, as its president, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Britain’s opposition Labour Party is on track to win fewer than 200 seats at the next general election for the first time since 1935, according to research by the Fabian Society.
British private equity firm 3i Group Plc is considering selling lingerie retailer Agent Provocateur and has attracted the interest of sovereign wealth funds and high net-worth individuals, a person familiar with the potential sale has said.
NYT
– Anshu Jain, who was forced to step down from the top job at Deutsche Bank after a series of regulatory mishaps, will join the private trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald this month as group president. nyti.ms/2ixkuis
– After the explosion in September of one of its rockets, SpaceX is now ready to get back into the business of sending payloads to space, the company announced on Monday, with its next rocket headed to orbit as soon as Sunday. In a statement, SpaceX said that an investigation had determined the likely cause: an unexpected interplay of supercold helium and oxygen with carbon fibers and aluminum. nyti.ms/2iske6h
– F. Ross Johnson, who as chief executive of RJR Nabisco instigated an era-defining takeover struggle that was chronicled in film and a best-selling book and made him a symbol of corporate greed, died on Thursday at his home in Jupiter, Florida. He was 85. nyti.ms/2iCQrsh
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** The new independent Senate won’t be afraid to make changes to Liberal legislation but that doesn’t mean it will derail Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s agenda, according to the government’s point man in the Red Chamber. https://tgam.ca/2hKRzFv
** As part of the local overdose response, the Mobile Medical Unit is offering treatment options to anyone who needs it, free of charge. https://tgam.ca/2hKTNot
** A Toronto-area mother of two, Alaa Al-Muhandis, has been identified as one of the 39 people killed in the early morning terrorist attack in Istanbul on New Year’s Day. https://tgam.ca/2hKKNQ5
NATIONAL POST
** Rose Wolfe, a former chancellor of the University of Toronto and a lifelong champion of humanitarian and Jewish causes, died Friday. She was 100 years old. http://bit.ly/2hKXkTO
** The iconic Canadian ball hockey rink at Kandahar Airfield, its boards adorned with faded Maple Leaf flags, has been dismantled. A dozen Canadian embassy staff, including Ambassador Ken Neufeld and a few soldiers, played a final game of shinny last week on the concrete slab in the infield of the airfield’s boardwalk before U.S. army engineers helped take down the boards. http://bit.ly/2hKZlPU
Britain
The Times
Shopper numbers plunged dramatically at the weekend in a sign that experts said augured badly for the new year. Visits to shopping centres were down by a half on New Year’s Day compared with the same day in 2016, according to Springboard retail intelligence. http://bit.ly/2iwJgiK
KPMG has emerged as the government’s favourite accountant, earning more than half the money spent on accounting advisers from the Big Four firms in the past year. http://bit.ly/2hLwSws
The Guardian
The liquidators of BHS are conducting a detailed investigation into property transactions that took place during the regimes of Philip Green and Dominic Chappell, including whether the directors of the retailer breached their duties. FRP Advisory is undertaking a “massive exercise in data collation”, according to one source close to the winding up of BHS. http://bit.ly/2iwKEBS
Harrods has been accused of shortchanging its restaurant staff in the latest row over how service charges added to diners’ bills are shared among workers. The union representing Harrods waiters and kitchen staff believes the Qatari owner of the upmarket London department store retains up to 75 percent of the service charge. http://bit.ly/2iwNqas
The Telegraph
Scottish islanders are exploring ways of loosening ties with Scotland and the U.K. following the Brexit vote including full independence, it has emerged. More than half of Orkney’s councillors have forced through a motion demanding an investigation into “greater autonomy or self-determination” amid the vote to leave the European Union and a possible second independence referendum. http://bit.ly/2hLFdR2
Thousands of new homes to help first-time buyers on to the property ladder will be built on brownfield land, Prime Minister Theresa May will announce on Tuesday, her second big housing pledge in as many days. http://bit.ly/2hLz876
Sky News
Len McCluskey has insisted he still backs Jeremy Corbyn, despite appearing to distance himself from the Labour leader in a newspaper interview. The Unite leader suggested in a Daily Mirror interview that if opinion polls are “still awful” by 2019 Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell may quit. http://bit.ly/2hLwA95
The Independent
Theresa May’s New Year’s message pledging to be mindful of both Leave and Remain voters during Brexit negotiations has been dismissed as “utterly meaningless” by leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron. http://ind.pn/2hLHAU1
Labour is on course to retain as few as 150 MPs at the next general election as it sheds voters to all other parties, a stark new report warns. Support for Jeremy Corbyn’s party could plunge as low as 20 percent at the election in 2020 based on its current poll ratings, the Fabian Society has calculated. http://ind.pn/2hLFW4x
via http://ift.tt/2iZVorw Tyler Durden