Weekend Papers Summary
* NYT (Saturday): Another deadline for the Brexit is looming, with no clear way forward, raising fears that the UK is moving closer to an economically damaging, potentially disastrous departure from the European Union without a deal; - BA: Black box data from a doomed Ethiopian Airlines flight suggests the crash was caused by a faulty sensor that erroneously activated an automated system on the Boeing 737 Max, similar to what led to the crash of a Lion Air plane last year; The Red Cross received permission from Venezuela’s government and opposition to launch one of the organization’s biggest global relief campaigns, signaling a possible easing in the dire humanitarian emergency gripping the country; Attorney general William Barr said special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the investigation into Russia’s election interference will be made public by mid-April, and that the White House would not see the document before he sent it to Congress; +/- WFC: As the bank hunts for a new chief executive, it faces a daunting list of problems: litigation, with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, more than a dozen federal regulatory restrictions, and a largely demoralized work force chafing under the bank’s leadership; (Sunday): The race for cash in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary is reaching a frenetic peak as candidates hold fund-raisers on both coasts, but amid talk about attracting low-dollar donors to boost grass-roots appeal, some are also appealing to large donors—and trying to keep it under the radar; +/- AMZN: Gavin de Becker, security consultant to chief executive Jeff Bezos, accused the Saudi government of gaining unauthorized access to Bezos’ phone in an attempt to harm him, possibly because the Washington Post—which Bezos owns—has been critical of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman; In a major legal blow to Donald Trump’s push to expand offshore oil and gas development, a federal judge ruled that an executive order by Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean and parts of the North Atlantic coast was unlawful; California’s clean-energy goals are colliding with Texas billionaire Andrew Beal, who is arguing before federal regulators that the state’s policies discriminate against generators powered by fossil fuels like natural gas and coal while it promotes sources like solar and wind power.
* WSJ (Weekend): U.S. stocks saw their biggest quarterly gains in nearly a decade, lifted by bets that central banks would hold interest rates at low levels as global growth slows; In what amounts to its biggest transformation since the 2001 terror attacks, the FBI will retrain and refocus special agents to combat cyber criminals, whose threats to lives, property and critical infrastructure has outstripped U.S. efforts to thwart them; Donald Trump wants the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to guard against a slowdown in global economic growth, a top White House official said, revealing concern about the durability of the U.S. expansion; American consumers only slightly increased their spending in January after a sharp pullback in December, adding to recent evidence the economy may have slowed after strong growth in 2018; U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators haggled over how to get Beijing to ease China’s tough cybersecurity law as both sides push to resolve deep-seated disputes that are holding up a final trade deal; Story says LYFT’s $24B debut marks the arrival of Japanese billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani—who leads Rakuten—to the list of Silicon Valley’s venture-capital heavyweights, with a 13 percent stake in the ride-hailing company; The middle-class wage squeeze is affecting an unlikely group: Hollywood movie and television writers, who are threatening to fire their agents en masse over what their union calls unfair business practices; The Federal Communications Commission has imposed hefty financial penalties against illegal robo-callers and demanded that bad actors repay millions to their victims, but years later, little money has been collected; Delivery drones face a number of problems in cities, leaving developers to focus on the suburbs, where other forms of delivery are unprofitable—but success depends on how many deliveries they can make in a small radius without crashing; H.O.T.S.: SCI and CSV, the two leading U.S. providers of funeral and cemetery services, made a total return of nearly 1,300% during the past decade—but competition, price transparency and even market performance threaten those gains; The Renault–Nissan alliance has survived 20 years without a clear-cut idea of what goals it hopes to achieve; The fact WFC chief Tim Sloan is stepping down doesn’t change the fact the bank has a long way to go to solve its problems.
* FT (Weekend): Front page story reports that British prime minister Theresa May warned of “grave implications” for the UK as her Brexit plan suffered its third defeat in the House of Commons, paving the way for “cliff edge” exit on April 12; In Venezuela, president Nicolas Maduro is tightening his grip on the media, with government forces arresting and intimidating journalists, some of whom have been physically and verbally attacked, as well as threatened with legal action; Turkey is moving ahead with discussions about the delivery of Russia’s S-400 defense system, despite tensions with the U.S. over the purchase; “Donald Trump is celebrating the end of the Mueller investigation, which did not recommend charges against him, but the bigger factor in his re-election bid could be the signal from falling bond yields”; Lex Column: The ability of LYFT, a lossmaking taxi company, to list at $72 a share and a $24B valuation only makes sense if ride-sharing is seen as completely new sort of business; With its stake in a promising new cancer drug from Daiichi Sankyo, adding to several other likely cancer blockbusters, expect AZN to outpace most peers; In the fashion industry, taking control of pre-owned platforms can help brands protect their sustainability reputation; Comment: Despite the hopes among Remainers that a long Brexit extension will morph into a second referendum, all the signs are still that that UK will be leaving the EU, says Merryn Sommerset Webb
* NY POST (Saturday): +/- WFC: Story says federal regulators had lost faith in chief Tim Sloan, whose replacement must please the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, all of which had expressed “no confidence” in Sloan; (Sunday): Restaurants in New York City are eliminating jobs, reducing employee hours and raising prices in response to the higher costs of the $15/hour minimum wage; Experts say New York City will lose a growing number of multimillionaires this year as Wall Street bankers and other high earners head to Florida and other state to escape New York’s high taxes. Related ( RAGSX )