Weekend Papers Summary
NYT TIMES (Saturday): The Trump administration announced the suspension of one of the last major nuclear arms control treaties with Russia, following U.S. accusations that Moscow is violating the Reagan-era agreement, a decision that has the potential to incite a new arms race not only with Russia, but with China; Virginia governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, acknowledged that a yearbook photo in which he appeared was racist, but is resisting a flood of calls from national and state Democrats that he resign; The bitter cold lifted in the Midwest on Friday, ending days of dangerous weather, but the fast-rising temperatures are causing a new set of risks to contend with, including the potential for flooding, abundant potholes and clogged storm water drainage systems; Donald Trump plans to use his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to outline a bipartisan and optimistic vision of the country, a senior administration official said on Friday, though after recent battles with House Democrats it could be a difficult sell; Litigation over pelvic mesh, also called transvaginal mesh, ranks as one of the biggest mass tort cases in U.S. history in terms of claims filed, number of corporate defendants, and settlement dollars, but the amounts paid out have been lower than expected—and the legal fees much higher; Fed chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank was pausing rate hikes “not because it embraced Trump’s argument that the economy was in ruddy health, but because the expansion faced growing threats, including from the impact of Trump’s own policies”; + AAPL: Tech giant fixed a security flaw in iPhones that allowed people to call another iPhone via FaceTime and listen in on conversations even if the recipient didn’t answer, a vulnerability that undermined the company’s public commitment to security; (Sunday): Medicare for all is emerging as an early policy platform for Democrats running for president in 2020, but while many influential liberals are calling for a single-payer system, some voters are concerned about losing private insurance; +/- BA: Company’s launch of the 737 Max, an upgrade to its basic 737 model that came in response to growing competition from Airbus, set off a “cascading series of engineering, business and regulatory decisions that years later would leave the company facing difficult questions” about the crash of a Lion Air plane off Indonesia; + DB: During his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump turned to the bank, one of the few major lenders willing to do business with him, to borrow millions of dollars for his Scottish golf course, but the bank refused, saying his divisive candidacy made the loan too risky; Sunday Business: Locast, a streaming service that makes television network programming available to subscribers without using a home antenna, works on almost every device and is free—and has so far avoided legal problems because it’s structured as a noncommercial entity.
WSJ (Weekend): The economy saw its 100th straight month of increased employment, despite challenges in January such as the government shutdown, market volatility, and uncertainty about global growth; The Energy department says it will ban its scientists and other employees from participating in talent-recruitment programs sponsored by China and other countries suspected of using the programs to obtain sensitive technology; New York representative Nita Lowey, who has led Democrats on the Appropriations Committee since 2013, has two weeks to convince 16 other lawmakers from both parties and congressional chambers to agree to a spending deal that will prevent another shutdown; +/- VALE: The German company that certified the safety of a Brazilian dam that collapsed last week, killing at least 110 people, has worked as both a consultant and an independent safety evaluator for Vale, the dam’s owner, raising concerns over potential conflicts of interest; Venezuela owes China $20 billion from an oil-for-loans agreement that has supported the two countries’ alliance, but the political crisis in Caracas is threatening the investment and drawing Beijing into a standoff with the U.S., which supports an opposition leader in the country; Officials in India’s government are refuting accusations of tampering with indicators to make the economy look healthier and boost the performance of prime minister Narendra Modi ahead of upcoming elections; Weekend Investor: Seniors who took out loans to help pay for their children’s college tuition or to return to school to improve employment prospects after the recession are still paying them off, and in some cases are having funds garnished from Social Security checks; +/- AAPL: Company’s move to temporarily shut off all developer iPhone apps at FB and GOOGL over privacy issues was akin to bringing “a gun to a knife fight,” and a reminder of the power it wields over users of its family of gadgets; H.O.T.S.: NFLX may be the dominant streaming-media player, with 60M domestic and 84M international subscribers, but rivals such as AAPL, AMZN, DIS, and Comcast are racing to catch up, giving investors much to consider; XOM’s “transformation into an industrial giant extracting profit from the U.S. shale boom hasn’t been reflected in its share price”; Friday’s strong jobs report could complicate the Fed’s recent case for pausing interest rate hikes.
FT (Weekend): Front page story says DB “has stepped up its cost-cutting ambitions after reporting a bigger-than-expected fall in quarterly revenue at its investment bank,” and is struggling to convince investors it can reverse its persistent decline in revenues; Big Read piece looks at the political turmoil in Venezuela, where Juan Guaido has declared himself interim president, galvanizing the opposition and raising hopes he can help end the country’s implosion—but his “parallel government” could also lead to a violent confrontation; Investors “are piling into European governments’ debt as the outlook for the global economy clouds over and the likelihood of rate raises fades”; Lex Column: AMZN’s pivot into bricks-and-mortar stores such as Whole Food and Amazon Go hasn’t generated the same kind of high-margin business as its advertising and cloud arms; DB shares, worth 50 percent less than a year ago, are a bet on better global markets this year; WorldFirst has good reason to shutter U.S. operations and reverse plans to enter China; Comment: “An accidental no-deal Brexit is frighteningly likely,” says Kevin O’Rourke. “It is made more likely by miscommunication and miscalculation—now is the time for clarity about what will happen next.”
NY POST: (Saturday): + CBS: Company has pared down its list of potential candidates for chief executive to fewer than 10, and is widening a search for possible merger deals under Sherri Redstone, controlling shareholder in the network and VIA; +/- GS: Chief executive David Solomon could lose $15.4M of a $23M compensation package pending the outcome of civil and criminal probes into the firm’s role in the 1DMB scandal; Fashion-focused Web company Bluefly abruptly closed its doors Friday, surprising not just customers but the staff, who were locked out of its building; (Sunday): Office absentee rates tend to spike on the Monday after the Super Bowl, and more than half the office may not show up, according to new research tracking office absences the day after major sporting events; Almost one of every two Millennials living in New York state owes student loan debt, and many are working as bartenders and wait staff while fighting Albany’s plan to eliminate “tip credits,” which could reduce their salaries.