- Stocks Jump as Investors Eye March Rate Increase, Trump Speech (WSJ)
- A softer side of Trump (Reuters)
- Trump’s Softer Tone Masks Hard Road Ahead for Agenda in Congress (BBG)
- President Asks Lawmakers to Unite Behind His Agenda (WSJ)
- Left Out of Trump’s Big Speech, Russia Wonders What It Means (BBG)
- EU to Reject Trump’s Protectionism at Summit, Draft Shows (BBG)
- France’s Fillon stays in presidential race despite deepening legal probe (Reuters)
- Oil inches up as OPEC sticks to output pledges (Reuters)
- Investors Clamor for U.S. Corporate Bonds as Issuers Back Away (BBG)
- Snap, on Cusp of IPO, Looks Set for Strong Debut (WSJ)
- A Delivery Man Just Became One of the Richest People in China (BBG)
- Foxconn Is Bidding for Toshiba’s Chip Business (WSJ)
- UK PM May faces House of Lords defeat over post-Brexit rights of EU nationals (Reuters)
- Ex-CIA spy held in Portugal over kidnap avoids extradition, will be freed (Reuters)
- In Mosul, Residents Rebuild as Iraqi Forces Fight Islamic State (WSJ)
- Euro-Area Manufacturing Picks Up as Inflation Pressures Build (BBG)
- Old School Trading Pits to Remain After High-Tech Exchange Deal (BBG)
- South Korea, U.S. begin large-scale annual drills amid North Korea tension (Reuters)
- China’s Richest Win, Mexican Billionaires Lose With Trump Effect (BBG)
- Saudi Arabia Bulks Up in Asia to Boost Appeal Before Oil IPO (BBG)
- U.S. general wants Russia to open up major exercise to observers (Reuters)
- Trump’s Golf Courses Would Benefit From His Water-Rule Rollback (BBG)
- S&P 500 Could Top 4,000 in Eight Years and It’s Not Because of Trump (BBG)
- Best Buy posts unexpected drop in same-store sales, shares slide (Reuters)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– President Donald Trump on Tuesday turned from the ominous language that characterized his major campaign speeches as he delivered an impassioned plea for Congress to capitalize on a political uprising and unite behind major overhauls of health care and tax laws. He referred to the surge of nationalism that lifted him into the White House as a “renewal of the American spirit,” http://on.wsj.com/2lnGM67
– Google’s YouTube on Tuesday unveiled a web-TV service that will offer a package of over 40 broadcast and cable channels for $35 a month, making the tech giant the latest entrant in a race to win over millions of consumers who are shifting away from traditional TV. http://on.wsj.com/2lnN5Xa
– An outage at Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud-computing service disrupted internet traffic across the U.S. on Tuesday, showing the increasing power cloud companies have over large portions of the web. The outage, which began around 1 p.m. EST, stemmed from a failure at Amazon’s S3 cloud-storage service at its North Virginia data centers. http://on.wsj.com/2lnD3FE
– Target Corp.’s chief vowed to invest billions of dollars to lower prices and remodel hundreds of stores, an admission that the retailer’s focus on trendy merchandise wasn’t enough to attract shoppers. Chief Executive Brian Cornell defended his strategy of focusing on physical stores amid an industrywide shift to online sales. Target reported sales and profit declines for the holiday quarter, and gave an even gloomier outlook. The company said its 2017 profit would fall as much as 25 percent below what Wall Street had forecast. http://on.wsj.com/2lnNsBn
– President Donald Trump on Wednesday will sign a revised executive order banning certain travelers from entering the U.S., but unlike the original version, it is likely to apply only to future visa applicants from targeted countries. http://on.wsj.com/2lnQwNF
FT
Billionaire British retailer Philip Green has paid 363 million pounds ($449.10 million) to pension schemes of the now-collapsed department store chain BHS which he sold for one pound to a serial bankrupt with no retail experience.
“Vodafone-Liberty Global is still an attractive combination, especially if the EU wants the creation of a real Pan-European player,” Vodafone Group Plc Chief Executive Vittorio Colao told reporters in Barcelona on Tuesday.
The Bank of England’s newest deputy governor, Charlotte Hogg, said that Brexit poses the “most significant challenge” to monetary policymakers, and warned that UK consumer spending could fall much more sharply than the BoE currently expects.
Prime Minster Theresa May’s flagship industrial strategy lacks “clear actions and milestones”, the head of the Confederation of British Industry will say on Wednesday, challenging ministers to set out what exactly they plan to do
NYT
– Penguin Random House will publish coming books by former President Barack Obama and the former first lady Michelle Obama, the publishing company announced Tuesday night, concluding a heated auction among multiple publishers. http://nyti.ms/2mIQ5yK
– Snap Inc, the company which is preparing to go public this week, is trying to bolster its camera ambitions and is said to have worked on a drone. http://nyti.ms/2mJ1gHr
– Lee Jae-yong, the head of Samsung, was indicted on bribery and embezzlement charges on Tuesday, becoming one of the most prominent business tycoons ever to face trial in South Korea. http://nyti.ms/2mISZnc
– Time Inc, the publisher of Time, People and Sports Illustrated magazines, has requested formal bids from potential acquirers by next week. http://nyti.ms/2mIPOeU
– YouTube said it plans to introduce a new subscription service called YouTube TV in the next “few months”, offering more than 40 channels including all four major networks, Disney Channel, FX and ESPN, for $35 a month. http://nyti.ms/2mJ4kDv
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** U.S. President Donald Trump is calling for sweeping immigration reform with a “merit-based” method for allowing people into the U.S., citing Canada’s points system as a model. https://tgam.ca/2mJT7mr
** Amaya Inc founder David Baazov will face trial this November as lawyers from Quebec’s securities regulator prepare to lay out their case in the largest insider trading investigation in Canadian history. https://tgam.ca/2mcPh8G
** The Trump condo-hotel tower in Vancouver has opened to praise from Donald Trump’s family and scorn from protesters opposed to the U.S. President, while the Malaysian developers look to capitalize on a tourism boom. https://tgam.ca/2m7jsh5
NATIONAL POST
** TransCanada Corp has suspended a lawsuit against the U.S. government over its contentious Keystone XL pipeline after the proposal was revived last month. http://bit.ly/2mJUam2
** Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp has a new how-to guidebook on buying a home and one of the more intriguing bits of advice is not to take on as large a loan as you might qualify for from your financial institution. http://bit.ly/2mIcgVO
Britain
The Times
– Philip Hammond held an emergency meeting with the heads of Britain’s biggest insurers yesterday in an attempt to stop what they described as a “crazy” decision to raise personal injury payouts. http://bit.ly/2m4ZB1O
– Regulatory filings suggest that the Belgian billionaire Albert Frère and the former chief executive of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert , along with the Desmarais Family Residuary Trust, of Canada, now hold a 3 per cent stake in the Burberry Group Plc. http://bit.ly/2m55gFr
The Guardian
– Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox is expected to formally notify the European competition regulator of its 11.7 billion pounds ($14.48 billion) takeover offer for Sky Plc later this week, after which the UK culture secretary will have to decide whether to launch an investigation into the extent of Murdoch’s control of UK media. http://bit.ly/2m55zjf
– An overhaul of the EU’s flagship trading scheme for cutting carbon emissions by European industries has been approved by the member states. http://bit.ly/2m583OM
The Telegraph
– UK Independent Party’s sole MP Douglas Carswell has held secret talks about rejoining the Conservatives to fight the 2020 general election. http://bit.ly/2m52O1v
Sky News
– Philip Green has paid 363 million pounds to settle the pension schemes of collapsed retailer BHS Ltd, eight months after he pledged to “sort” the issue. http://bit.ly/2m58Z5M
– Boris Johnson has admitted a free trade deal with the EU could take longer than two years, urging businesses: “Let’s just wait and see.” http://bit.ly/2m564tT
The Independent
– Dyson has announced that it is massively increasing its UK workforce and opening a new site, shrugging off fears cited by some that a hard Brexit might hamper companies’ ability to trade, generate profit and hire. http://ind.pn/2m4Yhw5
– Nissan said it may “adjust” its business in the UK, depending on how Brexit turns out, potentially jeopardising 7,000 jobs at its Sunderland plant. http://ind.pn/2m53OCC
via http://ift.tt/2mExpAV Tyler Durden