* NYT (Saturday): A highly anticipated report by the Justice Department’s inspector general is expected to sharply criticize lower-level FBI officials and bureau leaders involved in the early stages of the Trump-Russia investigation, but to absolve the top ranks of abusing their powers out of bias against the president; Moscow has run a yearslong operation to blame Ukraine for its own 2016 election interference, and Republicans have used similar talking points to defend Trump in impeachment proceedings; Michael Bloomberg spent at least $30M on Friday for a single week of television ads, a show of financial force that signals his willingness to use his vast personal fortune to reshape the Democratic presidential race; Around the world, from Australia to California, fire seasons are running longer, stronger, hotter, stretching capacity for the companies that provide most of the globe’s largest firefighting aircraft, and increasing anxiety for fire officials worldwide; Under intense pressure from the U.S., South Korea reversed itself Friday and extended an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, a sign Seoul may seek to mend fraying relations with Tokyo; Two months after announcing that he planned to ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes, Trump once again raised concerns about such restrictions, saying a ban might end up spawning counterfeit vaping products; China has joined the U.S. and other governments in putting new pressure on vaping—regulators have banned online sales of vaping products, and China’s major propaganda outlets have heaped on scrutiny, citing the potential health effects; Open enrollment on HealthCare.gov, the federal online exchange for people who don’t have health coverage through their job, began November 1 and runs through December 15 in most states, for coverage beginning in 2020; (Sunday): Front page story reports that Juul hooked a younger generation on nicotine and planted the seeds of a public health crisis by marketing to millennials, who had low smoking rates, while ignoring evidence that teenagers were using its products; A focus on problems with the BA Max jet after its involvement in a fatal Lion Air crash has given cover to the Indonesian carrier with global ambitions, which has neither fully admitted to nor swiftly addressed numerous safety issues; Newly revealed documents and e-mails released by the State Department indicate secretary of state Mike Pompeo enabled the Ukrainian pressure campaign at the center of the impeachment proceedings; General Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of American forces in the Middle East, said the deployment of 14,000 additional American troops to the Persian Gulf since the spring has probably not dissuaded Iran from planning a major attack in the region; Vice president Mike Pence made an unexpected visit to Iraq on Saturday, arriving as protests aimed at toppling the Iraqi leadership and changing the political system continued to roil the country; Sunday Business: To combat the arrival of streaming services and mammoth flat-screen televisions, Hollywood has swung sharply toward event movies like the Marvel blockbusters, elbowing out mid- and low-budget films, to the consternation of older audiences; Republicans now support a form of paid family leave, but the party continues a debate over which workers would qualify and whether to pay for it by borrowing from their future benefits.
* WSJ (Weekend): Donald Trump called antigovernment protests in Hong Kong a “complicating factor” in his bid for an elusive trade deal with China and wouldn’t say whether he would sign a bill passed by Congress supporting the protesters; The Justice Department’s inspector general is expected to conclude there was a proper legal basis for the government’s application to monitor former Trump campaign foreign-policy adviser Carter Page, but that errors and lapses in judgment were made during the process; Business activity in the U.S. is showing signs of a pickup late in the year, contrasting with more sluggish economic performances in some of the world’s other largest economies; California’s decision to move up its 2020 primary to early March will make the state one of the most important in deciding the Democratic presidential candidate, but the winner may not be known for weeks because of changes to the states election procedures; The federal Indian Health Service, which provides healthcare to 2.6M Native Americans, has given second chances to dozens of doctors with trails of medical mistakes and regulatory sanctions—sometimes to disastrous effect—according to a WJS investigation; Millions of shoppers are expected to take advantage of online bargains over the Thanksgiving holiday, but many e-commerce purchases are pushed by misleading tactics designed to get consumers to buy goods they otherwise wouldn’t; +/- FB, GOOGL, TWTR: Among tech giants that have benefited from enabling users to easily share pictures or videos, and which are working to stem the spread of maliciously doctored content ahead of next year’s presidential election; Baby boomers are getting ready to sell one quarter of America’s homes over the next two decades, but many of these properties are in places where younger people no longer want to live; Intelligent Investor: New research suggests that commodities may deserve a small place in the portfolios of iconoclastic investors who have plenty of patience, since the best time to invest in something is when its performance is at its worst; + HAS, JAKK: The toymakers are among those releasing a host of new merchandise based on DIS’ “Frozen 2,” hoping to avoid repeating the dearth of merchandise that plagued the launch of the original film; A new batch of projects around the country promise to add so-called renewable natural gas to the supply of methane that is used to produce much of the country’s electricity, heat homes and fuel buses; H.O.T.S.: “How consumers pay in the online checkout line is becoming a hot topic for investors”; Investors betting on TSLA dominating the truck market have far more to worry about than the fact a shatterproof window was easily broken during the unveiling; Repeated guidance cuts and inconsistent comments on the outlook for its pet-food brands are giving SJM a credibility problem.
* FT (Weekend): Front page story reports European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde has stepped up the bank’s call for Eurozone governments to boost the bloc’s sluggish economy by increasing public spending; Warehouses in Canada are piled high with unsold marijuana after cannabis producers overestimated demand for the drug following its legalization a year ago; The U.S. sent Heino Klinck, the most senior Pentagon official in East Asia, to Taipei for the first time in more than a decade amid growing concern about the Chinese military threat to Taiwan; Big Read piece says that even though two weeks of impeachment hearings about Donald Trump’s Ukraine pressure campaign have damaged the president, there is no sign that Republicans will abandon him; Lex Column: TSLA’s Cybertruck promises all sorts of cool features, but it may be too outré to make a dent in the pick-up market; Chinese household wealth increasingly lies in real estate; Any attempt by World Chess to turn online chess tournaments into a major e-sport will take a major investment—and marketing flair; Comment: Institutional checks during 151 years of largely prosperous British administration in Hong Kong made it an attractive destination for entrepreneurs, says Tom Mitchell, and Beijing, which has ruled the territory for 22 increasingly dysfunction years, should think twice about gutting them
* NY POST (Saturday): Though hedge fund mogul Ray Dalio denies that Bridgewater made a $1.5B bet against the stock market, he has made a series of negative comments about the economy that predict a market dip; +/- GOOGL: Google employees demonstrated outside the company’s San Francisco office Friday to protest the Internet giant’s decision to put two staff members on extended leave because of their internal activism; (Sunday): + AAPL: A resident of Queens who woke up in the night with an alert from her Apple Watch about an irregular heartbeat went to the hospital, and saved herself from a potential stroke or heart attack; Bloomberg News will “suspend” its editorial board while founder Michael Bloomberg runs for president—and key members of the organization are joining his campaign