- Fed Unlikely to Make Its Next Rate Move Wednesday (WSJ)
- Conservative Gorsuch nominated to top court (Reuters)
- Gorsuch Is Critic of Legal Doctrine That Bolsters Executive Authority (WSJ)
- The 4 Rules That Will Explain Neil Gorsuch’s Confirmation Fight (Politico)
- Trump’s Yen Comments ‘Wide of the Mark,’ Says Japan FX Chief (Reuters)
- A barb at Germany puts Trump administration on collision course with EU (Reuters)
- Investors Pulled $4.4 Billion From Brevan Howard (WSJ)
- Specter of Global Trade War Rises as Trump Puts ‘America First’ (BBG)
- Trump’s Backers Want Action on Jobs, Taxes, Immigration (WSJ)
- Tesla’s Model S Falls Short of Top Safety Rating Awarded to 42 Other Cars (BBG)
- Apple Breaks Losing Streak, as Sales of iPhone 7 Shine (WSJ)
- The Short Seller Who Crushed Valeant Has Picked His Next Target (BBG)
- Trump’s go-to man Bannon takes hardline view on immigration (Reuters)
- Pentagon Probe of ISIS Intelligence Finds Reports Weren’t Skewed (WSJ)
- Army Corps Given Go-Ahead for Final Permit on Dakota Pipeline, Senator Says (WSJ)
- Britain’s Brexit bill set to clear first legislative hurdle (Reuters)
- It’s Getting Harder to Keep the Barbarians at the Gate—and It’s This Guy’s Job (BBG)
- EU extends emergency border controls to tackle migration (Reuters)
- Ex-JPMorgan analyst largely cleared in U.S. of insider trading (Reuters)
- Endowment Gains Aren’t Enough for Schools Facing Rising Expenses (BBG)
- Russia says Trump should be more specific on Syria safe zones plan (Reuters)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– U.S. President Donald Trump picked Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday .http://on.wsj.com/2kfayuV
– Facebook Inc is developing a video-centric app for television set-top boxes, including Apple Inc’s Apple TV, people familiar with the matter said, giving it a home for video content-as well as a new vehicle for video advertising. http://on.wsj.com/2kf9ur2
– Sales of the new smartphone model, which Apple Inc unveiled in September, propelled total iPhone shipments 5 percent higher to a record during the three months through December. iPhones, which account for two-thirds of Apple’s sales, helped boost total revenue 3 percent to a record $78.4 billion. http://on.wsj.com/2kf9bMZ
– Exxon Mobil Corp said on Tuesday it wrote down the value of more than $2 billion in U.S. assets, departing from decades-long practice amid an investigation by securities regulators. http://on.wsj.com/2keQjO8
– The athletic-gear maker Under Armour Inc reported that sales increased just 12 percent in the holiday quarter and revenue would increase about half as much as anticipated this year. http://on.wsj.com/2kf9W8N
– Caterpillar Inc is moving its headquarters to the Chicago area, the latest U.S. company to say they are gravitating toward the Windy City in search of talent and better travel connections. http://on.wsj.com/2kf2KJq
– The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been given the green light to proceed with the final permit necessary to finish the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to North Dakota Senator John Hoeven. http://on.wsj.com/2kf8zH3
FT
* Donald Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, accused Germany on Tuesday of using a “grossly undervalued” euro to gain a competitive advantage, drawing a rebuff from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and sending the euro to an eight-week high against the dollar.
* Apple Inc reported its first quarterly increase in iPhone sales in a year, powered by strong demand for the latest version of its flagship smartphone, sending the company’s shares up more than 3 percent in after-hours trading.
* European Council President Donald Tusk said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump has joined Russia, China and radical Islam among threats to Europe and called on Europeans to stick together to avoid domination by three other continental powers.
NYT
– Anthony Scaramucci, who has been named the White House liaison to the business community, is selling his firm to a company with deep ties to China’s Communist Party. http://nyti.ms/2jBgxIu
– Xiao Jianhua, a Chinese-born billionaire who has forged financial ties with some of the country’s most powerful families was taken by the Chinese police from his apartment at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong late last week and spirited across the border. http://nyti.ms/2jBhSz5
– Apple CEO Timothy D. Cook said the iPhone maker hoped to double its services business in the next four years, but it will be harder to predict how to deal with the Trump administration. http://nyti.ms/2jBeRio
– Sequoia Capital has changed up several leadership roles, including naming Roelof Botha to replace Jim Goetz as one of the “stewards” of the firm, a spokesman said Tuesday. http://nyti.ms/2jBi7dt
– The U.S. President said he would make it easier for the industry to manufacture in the United States and would further discuss lowering costs behind closed doors. http://nyti.ms/2jBpe5z
– Uber on Tuesday announced a partnership with Daimler, under which the German automaker plans to build autonomous vehicles that will operate on Uber’s transportation network. http://nyti.ms/2jBo8H9
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** TransCanada Corp has long-term contracts from shippers backing its $15.7-billion Energy East project and is determined to proceed despite forecasts of a surplus in pipeline capacity in the next decade, company officials told a Senate hearing Tuesday. https://tgam.ca/2kg3K0d
** The Bank of Canada has launched a multiyear effort to overhaul the sophisticated computer models it uses to forecast the economy after they failed to foreshadow the deep and persistent aftershocks of the global financial crisis. https://tgam.ca/2kg3K0d
NATIONAL POST
** Even as the Trump administration vows to toughen the procedures the United States uses to screen refugees, it has expressed “great confidence” in Canada’s largely similar refugee-vetting procedures and believes them to be “very good”, more than one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s senior advisers has told the National Post. http://bit.ly/2kUa7Fk
** The Canada Media Fund (CMF) is partnering with Google Canada to create a YouTube channel dedicated to showcasing original Canadian films as part of Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation celebrations. http://bit.ly/2kfZU7l
Britain
The Times
– Investors fear that the Co-operative Bank may be forced to wind down, leaving bondholders with heavy losses. The price of its most risky bonds has fallen as much as 30 per cent this week, with some trading as low as 57 pence in the pound, after the bank’s admission that its capital strength would be weaker than expected. http://bit.ly/2jT9H4J
– The UK economy will grow at a faster rate than that of the Eurozone and will be beaten only by the United States out of the G7 nations this year, 18 months after the vote to leave the European Union, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research has predicted. http://bit.ly/2jTd5fH
The Guardian
– Shell has sold a large part of its North Sea oil fields for $3.8 billion to a company headed by Linda Cook, who left the Anglo-Dutch group more than seven years ago. The assets sold by Shell accounted for more than half of the company’s North Sea oil production last year. http://bit.ly/2jTaH8B
– Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, the former judge brought in to shake up Volkswagen’s compliance and culture after it was struck by a diesel emissions scandal, is to receive a payoff of more than 10 million euros ($10.79 million), despite working for the German carmaker for just 13 months. http://bit.ly/2jTqrbJ
The Telegraph
– Discovery, the U.S. media giant behind Eurosport and TLC, has reached a truce with Sky after threatening to pull its 12 channels from Sky in a bitter row over fees. With little more than four hours before the deadline, Discovery announced that an agreement had been reached. http://bit.ly/2jTgxXM
– Arqiva’s owners, a consortium including the Australian investment bank Macquarie and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, are understood to be putting it up for sale with a price tag of between 5 billion and 6 billion pounds ($7.55 billion). http://bit.ly/2jTgDOU
Sky News
– Brendan Barber, the former head of the TUC, is to join the board of BT’s infrastructure division amid ongoing pressure from rivals and the industry regulator to formally separate it from the FTSE-100 telecoms group. http://bit.ly/2jTbpTk
– Two of the ‘big six’ energy companies in the UK could be set to start rewarding customers who stick with them rather than switching providers for better deals. In a hearing of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on Tuesday, both Npower and EDF Energy said they were looking into beginning reward schemes for those customers on higher tariffs. http://bit.ly/2jTeB1C
The Independent
– Apple has missed the deadline to pay 13 billion euros it owes to the Irish government in tax benefits, the European Union’s competition commissioner said on Tuesday. European authorities have accused Ireland of helping Apple to avoid paying to pay high taxes by means of a so-called “sweetheart deal” that is in breach of EU rules. http://ind.pn/2jTchr4
via http://ift.tt/2jCKYOF Tyler Durden