FT : Chinese scientist claims to have created genetically edited babies

Chinese scientist claims to have created genetically edited babies
Alleged use of Crispr technology to edit out HIV gene raises ethical concerns

Regulators and medical experts have expressed outrage at a Chinese scientist’s claims that he used Crispr technology to create the world’s first genetically edited babies, a pair of twin girls.

Crispr works by snipping strands of DNA to disable or change faulty genes.

In a YouTube video posted on Sunday, He Jiankui, of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, said the girls — referred to as Lulu and Nana “to protect their privacy” — were born a few weeks ago “as healthy as any other babies”. 

Mr He — who is involved in multiple genetics-related businesses, including Direct Genomics, which raised Rmb218m ($31.4m) in April — said the girls were conceived by IVF, but “a little bit of protein and instructions for a gene surgery” had been added to their mother’s eggs, along with their father’s sperm.

The girls’ father is reportedly HIV positive, and the gene editing was undertaken to remove the CCR5 gene, which allows HIV to infect cells.

“When Lulu and Nana were just a single cell, this surgery removed the doorway through which HIV enters to infect people,” Mr He said.

But on Monday, Shenzhen’s state-run medical ethics expert committee launched an investigation into the “ethical issues” surrounding the case.

According to documents filed ahead of Mr He’s clinical trial, HarMoniCare Shenzhen Women’s and Children Hospital approved the experimentation. But local media have reported that the hospital has denied involvement in the case.

Mr He did not reply to a request for comment.

The scientist’s claims, which will be presented this week in Hong Kong at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, have not been published in a journal, where they would have been subject to rigorous peer reviews.

Some scientists warned that this left many questions unanswered, while others warned about the ethical implications of Mr He’s reported work, which is legal in China but banned in the US, UK and many other countries.

More than 100 Chinese scientists and academics signed a joint statement on Monday describing the trial as “insane”.

Joyce Harper, professor of human embryology at University College London, called Mr He’s claims “premature, dangerous and irresponsible”.

Dianne Nicol, director of the Centre for Law and Genetics at the University of Tasmania, said that reprogramming genes that would be passed on to future generations “is always deeply problematic for society”.

“Future generations don’t have the capacity to consent [as they are not born yet],” she said. “So you are relying on consent of the parents.”

Prof Nicol also warned that the risks of gene editing were “largely unforeseeable”.

“Although Crispr is touted as being more reliable when you put it in a cell, [you are counting on] it going to the right place in the genome and doing the right thing. But there is always a risk when you are putting something into a cell that it could go to the wrong part of the genome or have an effect that we don’t know about.”

Dusko Ilic, a stem cell scientist at King’s College London, also pointed out that there were many other ways to prevent HIV infection.

“Although He Jianhui claims that the couples fully understood the risk and they were offered a choice between non-manipulated or manipulated embryos, it does not make sense that they really have comprehended the risks to which they were exposing their babies and themselves,” Dr Ilic added. “If this can be called ethical, then their perception of ethics is very different to the rest of the world.”

FT : WPP to merge J Walter Thompson and Wunderman agencies

WPP to merge J Walter Thompson and Wunderman agencies


WPP is to merge its J Walter Thompson and Wunderman agencies to streamline the services the marketing and communications group offers clients as the advertising industry grapples with technological disruption and a new generation of competitors.

The deal could be announced as early as this week, according to people briefed on the plans. The merged entity, which will be known as Wunderman Thompson, is the latest attempt by WPP to simplify in response to client demands about its overly complex structure.

WPP was built by its former chief executive Martin Sorrell through acquisition and consists of dozens of companies specialising in media buying and planning, data analytics and creative advertising work for clients.

However, the group and its peers, such as Publicis, are simplifying their operations to better appeal to the biggest brands that buy advertising. WPP has already announced plans to merge its Young & Rubicam and VML agencies as part of a streamlining push by Mark Read, its new chief executive. The combination of JWT and Wunderman, which already share common clients such as Bayer and Unilever, is the latest step in that direction, according to people briefed on the plans.

It is unclear how many jobs will be cut as part of the merger but the combination means the end of JWT as a stand alone name and advertising brand.

The agency is one of the industry’s oldest. It started in the US and was the first to expand internationally, opening its London office in 1899. It created the first “test kitchen” for its clients, where, in the 1920s, it is credited with popularising the grilled cheese sandwich for Kraft, which continues to be a client, as is Unilever, which has been with JWT for more than 115 years.

The merger comes as WPP grapples with a share price that has yet to recover after tumbling more than 10 per cent last month. The fall coincided with Mr Read’s first quarterly results as chief executive, when he called for “radical thinking” to reverse a year-long slide in earnings.

The group said last month that it continued to be buffeted by a slowdown in client spending and “structural change” in the industry.

The advertising landscape has been upended by Facebook and Google, which suck up most new digital spending, as well as the emergence of new competition in the form of consultancies such as Accenture, which have moved into space the big ad holding companies such as WPP used to have to themselves.

FT : Carlos Ghosn’s arrest sparks conspiracy theories in Lebanon

Carlos Ghosn’s arrest sparks conspiracy theories in Lebanon
Talk abounds in grandparents’ homeland on the real reason behind car chief’s downfall

At the “Ghosn” breakfast café in the coastal town of Jounieh, Lebanon, one name is on everybody’s lips: Carlos Ghosn, a distant relative of the café’s owner, whose rescue of Nissan and vast wealth had won him legendary status in his grandparents’ homeland.

Lebanon, where Mr Ghosn spent four days before his arrest in Tokyo, is bubbling with conspiracy theories about its celebrated son’s downfall. Mr Ghosn is so famous here that he became the first business figure to be commemorated on a Lebanese postage stamp last year.

Some cite reports that Nissan disapproved of his planned merger with Renault. A Beirut banker, who has known Mr Ghosn for years, called it “the Sudoku going on in Japan”.

Others speculate that Renault’s continued operations in Iran have made Mr Ghosn the victim of an American plot.

“These charges against him have their political and economic reasons,” fumed a local construction boss.

In Lebanon, where tax evasion costs the Treasury an estimated $4bn a year, many feel that the punishment Mr Ghosn faces for allegedly misstating his income is draconian.

Gebran Bassil, Lebanon’s foreign minister, threw his support behind the detained executive, instructing the country’s Tokyo ambassador to ensure Mr Ghosn had “a real opportunity to defend himself”.

Mr Ghosn, born in Brazil to Lebanese parents and educated in Lebanon from the age of six, also has French and Brazilian citizenship. 

Many worry about the reputational fallout. “This is a big hit on the image of Lebanese businessmen,” said Ayman Jomaa, a Lebanese tech entrepreneur who was an investor in the music app Shazam, bought by Apple in 2017. 

“In Lebanon, he was a superstar,” said a Lebanese business editor. “People were even considering him for president.”

Although he has denied political ambitions, Mr Ghosn has personal business interests in Lebanon. He is a non-executive board member of Saradar bank in the country, whose quarterly meeting he attended on Thursday, arriving in Beirut on Nissan’s jet. He is also a partner in Lebanese winemaker Ixsir and the Cedrar luxury real estate venture, in the famous Lebanese cedar tree forests.

Mr Ghosn’s east Beirut property, a freshly renovated traditional building with marshmallow pink walls, has been dragged into the controversy. A person with knowledge of the investigation said a Nissan affiliate was implicated in allegedly buying houses for Mr Ghosn in Beirut and Rio de Janeiro. Beirut real estate sources estimate the house was originally bought at $5m-$6m, but could now be worth $11m.

In Sarba, Mr Ghosn’s ancestral village below Mount Lebanon, some residents acknowledged limits to any conspiracy. “I am with him,” said a Sarba hardware store proprietor, but qualified that the case was far from clear.

“We support him because he’s Lebanese,” said Elie Ghosn, whose family has run the Ghosn café since 1902 and whose grandfather was the cousin of Carlos Ghosn’s grandfather. “But,” he said, as he prepared garlicky beans, “there are a lot of secrets in his life”.

FT : Capitulation is the wrong word for the bitcoin market

Capitulation is the wrong word for the bitcoin market

The word capitulation has been used a lot in the context of the bitcoin market in recent days -- understandably, as the price collapsed by more than a third in the space of a week, briefly to below $3,600 on Sunday.

It is of course impossible to know what everyone in a market is up to (particularly in one where manipulation appears to be rife) but we suspect there is a nuance to what's going which some are missing. Capitulation tends to be thought of as investor surrender. It's the point when a holder, or hodler, decides they'll never make back their losses and abandons the market.

There'll be some of that, sure. A look at the charts of the falling cryptocurrencies points to another, slightly different aspect of the market, however: a scarcity of buyers.

Obviously we're going to amble in the direction of technical analysis here, which we have mocked almost as ruthlessly as bitcoin and its imitators. Reading chart scribbles like they are tea leaves is going too far, but there can be some useful information in price movements. Take for instance this so-called candlestick chart of each day's bitcoin price over the last two months

The vertical line -- or wick -- of each candlestick shows the full range of prices at which bitcoin traded each day. The thick part -- the wax -- shows the move from opening price to closing price. A green candle is an up-day, a red one a down-day.

What we're looking at above is the Bitstamp exchange price (other exchanges are available). Focus on the big red candles -- they are large, much more so than the green ones which sometimes follow. To some, this suggests a market struggling to find a steady price level, and an absence of buyers coming in.

The psychology starts to become fascinating here, because the question is what price is low enough to tempt people back. Consider stories about how bitcoin suffered bigger percentage point declines in the past, only to recover -- those might not be that relevant, or helpful, in the short term.

If you were told that bitcoin previously crashed from almost $1,200 in late 2013, to $150 just over a year later, do you hear that it makes sense to buy in after the price has crashed 85 per cent -- which from the most recent peak would be about $3,000 -- or when it gets towards $150?

Another aspect is the pool of potential buyers. One of the best ways to understand the crypto phenomenon is as a giant pyramid scheme. The scheme makes (some) people rich so long as it is expanding, pulling in new recruits. Once the recruits dry up, the pyramid collapses as losses drive people away. In the old days they might have been left with cupboards full of soap powder they can't sell; in the 21st century it's an encrypted USB stick filled with 1s and 0s arranged in pretty (and once valuable) patterns.

Because bitcoin went mainstream last year -- as a means of speculation rather than a currency for transactions -- the risk is that it has tapped out an enourmous pool of now disillusioned recruits.

The indoctrination which was part of that process makes it hard to let go, however. Consider one of the most notorious examples of financial pyramid schemes: those which crashed the economy of Albania in 1997.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country experienced a mix of pure pyramid schemes, and also smuggling businesses which became pyramids. Here's Christopher Jarvis, in a piece for the IMF:

Some of the largest of the companies—in particular VEFA, Gjallica, and Kamberi—had substantial real investments. They were also widely believed to be engaged in criminal activities—including violating United Nations sanctions by smuggling goods into the former Yugoslavia—that were thought to be the source of the high returns they paid.
There is perhaps a parallel with the value bitcoin is/was said to derive from its use in criminal transactions on the darker parts of the internet.

An end to UN sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, at the end of 1995, ruined the smuggling trade. Yet monthly interest rates paid by the schemes started to go up, as competition for capital intensified and most of the population was drawn in. Here's Jarvis:

Albanians sold their houses to invest in the schemes; farmers sold their livestock. The mood is vividly captured by a resident who said that, in the fall of 1996, Tirana smelled and sounded like a slaughterhouse, as farmers drove their animals to market to invest the proceeds in the pyramid schemes.
The fallout was vicious. By March 1997 the government had lost control of large parts of the country, 2,000 people had been killed in unconstrained rioting, and parts of the economy had come to a halt.

Note, however, the mentality of some, and difficulties faced by the incoming government, according to Jarvis. It made quick progress in restoring order and shoring up the economy, but:

Winding up the pyramid schemes proved to be more difficult. The government encountered resistance from both the operators and the outgoing parliamentarians, many of whom were reported to have invested in the schemes.
What makes the downward path of the crypto universe hard to predict is the large number of true believers and stakehodlers. For instance:
The real question doesn't so much concern fundamentals as it does fundamentalists. Are there enough of them to recruit a new population of buyers?

TechCrunch : Quantum computing, not AI, will define our future

I have been pushing CRAY US computers fro month and still believe that Quantum is the main area of development in tech for the next 10y...would change and influence all sectors of the industry...not so many ways of playing that call in the market...have a look


Quantum computing, not AI, will define our future
It's the 21st Century space race

The word “quantum” gained currency in the late 20th century as a descriptor signifying something so significant, it defied the use of common adjectives. For example, a “quantum leap” is a dramatic advancement (also an early ’90’s television series starring Scott Bakula).

At best, that is an imprecise (though entertaining) definition. When “quantum” is applied to “computing,” however, we are indeed entering an era of dramatic advancement.

Quantum computing is technology based on the principles of quantum theory, which explains the nature of energy and matter on the atomic and subatomic level. It relies on the existence of mind-bending quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement.

Erwin Schrödinger’s famous 1930’s thought experiment involving a cat that was both dead and alive at the same time was intended to highlight the apparent absurdity of superposition, the principle that quantum systems can exist in multiple states simultaneously until observed or measured. Today quantum computers contain dozens of qubits (quantum bits), which take advantage of that very principle. Each qubit exists in a superposition of zero and one (i.e., has non-zero probabilities to be a zero or a one) until measured. The development of qubits has implications for dealing with massive amounts of data and achieving previously unattainable level of computing efficiency that are the tantalizing potential of quantum computing.

While Schrödinger was thinking about zombie cats, Albert Einstein was observing what he described as “spooky action at a distance,” particles that seemed to be communicating faster than the speed of light. What he was seeing were entangled electrons in action. Entanglement refers to the observation that the state of particles from the same quantum system cannot be described independently of each other. Even when they are separated by great distances, they are still part of the same system. If you measure one particle, the rest seem to know instantly. The current record distance for measuring entangled particles is 1,200 kilometers or about 745.6 miles. Entanglement means that the whole quantum system is greater than the sum of its parts.

If these phenomena make you vaguely uncomfortable so far, perhaps I can assuage that feeling simply by quoting Schrödinger, who purportedly said after his development of quantum theory, “I don’t like it, and I’m sorry I ever had anything to do with it.”

Various parties are taking different approaches to quantum computing, so a single explanation of how it works would be subjective. But one principle may help readers get their arms around the difference between classical computing and quantum computing. Classical computers are binary. That is, they depend on the fact that every bit can exist only in one of two states, either 0 or 1. Schrödinger’s cat merely illustrated that subatomic particles could exhibit innumerable states at the same time. If you envision a sphere, a binary state would be if the “north pole,” say, was 0, and the south pole was 1. In a qubit, the entire sphere can hold innumerable other states and relating those states between qubits enables certain correlations that make quantum computing well-suited for a variety of specific tasks that classical computing cannot accomplish. Creating qubits and maintaining their existence long enough to accomplish quantum computing tasks is an ongoing challenge.

Humanizing Quantum Computing

These are just the beginnings of the strange world of quantum mechanics. Personally, I’m enthralled by quantum computing. It fascinates me on many levels, from its technical arcana to its potential applications that could benefit humanity. But a qubit’s worth of witty obfuscation on how quantum computing works will have to suffice for now. Let’s move on to how it will help us create a better world.

Quantum computing’s purpose is to aid and extend the abilities of classical computing. Quantum computers will perform certain tasks much more efficiently than classical computers, providing us with a new tool for specific applications. Quantum computers will not replace their classical counterparts. In fact, quantum computers require classical computer to support their specialized abilities, such as systems optimization.

Quantum computers will be useful in advancing solutions to challenges in diverse fields such as energy, finance, healthcare, aerospace, among others. Their capabilities will help us cure diseases, improve global financial markets, detangle traffic, combat climate change, and more. For instance, quantum computing has the potential to speed up pharmaceutical discovery and development, and to improve the accuracy of the atmospheric models used to track and explain climate change and its adverse effects.

I call this “humanizing” quantum computing, because such a powerful new technology should be used to benefit humanity, or we’re missing the boat.

An Uptick in Investments, Patents, Startups, and more

That’s my inner evangelist speaking. In factual terms, the latest verifiable, global figures for investment and patent applications reflect an uptick in both areas, a trend that’s likely to continue. Going into 2015, non-classified national investments in quantum computing reflected an aggregate global spend of about $1.75 billion USD,according to The Economist. The European Union led with $643 million. The U.S. was the top individual nation with $421 million invested, followed by China ($257 million), Germany ($140 million), Britain ($123 million) and Canada ($117 million). Twenty countries have invested at least $10 million in quantum computing research.

At the same time, according to a patent search enabled by Thomson Innovation, the U.S. led in quantum computing-related patent applications with 295, followed by Canada (79), Japan (78), Great Britain (36), and China (29). The number of patent families related to quantum computing was projected to increase 430 percent by the end of 2017

The upshot is that nations, giant tech firms, universities, and start-ups are exploring quantum computing and its range of potential applications. Some parties (e.g., nation states) are pursuing quantum computing for security and competitive reasons. It’s been said that quantum computers will break current encryption schemes, kill blockchain, and serve other dark purposes.

I reject that proprietary, cutthroat approach. It’s clear to me that quantum computing can serve the greater good through an open-source, collaborative research and development approach that I believe will prevail once wider access to this technology is available. I’m confident crowd-sourcing quantum computing applications for the greater good will win.

If you want to get involved, check out the free tools that the household-name computing giants such as IBM and Google have made available, as well as the open-source offerings out there from giants and start-ups alike. Actual time on a quantum computer is available today, and access opportunities will only expand.

In keeping with my view that proprietary solutions will succumb to open-source, collaborative R&D and universal quantum computing value propositions, allow me to point out that several dozen start-ups in North America alone have jumped into the QC ecosystem along with governments and academia. Names such as Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Systems, 1Qbit Information Technologies, Inc., Quantum Circuits, Inc., QC Ware, Zapata Computing, Inc. may become well-known or they may become subsumed by bigger players, their burn rate – anything is possible in this nascent field.

Developing Quantum Computing Standards

Another way to get involved is to join the effort to develop quantum computing-related standards. Technical standards ultimately speed the development of a technology, introduce economies of scale, and grow markets. Quantum computer hardware and software development will benefit from a common nomenclature, for instance, and agreed-upon metrics to measure results.

Currently, the IEEE Standards Association Quantum Computing Working Group is developing two standards. One is for quantum computing definitions and nomenclature so we can all speak the same language. The other addresses performance metrics and performance benchmarking to enable measurement of quantum computers’ performance against classical computers and, ultimately, each other.

The need for additional standards will become clear over time.

FT : Is the UK’s new industrial strategy starting to work?

Is the UK’s new industrial strategy starting to work?
Brexit has increased the challenge but business is welcoming attempts to boost productivity

A nondescript warehouse down a quiet side street in Oxford is not the place where you would expect to see Britain’s industrial strategy in action. But parked inside are four cars equipped with cutting-edge self-driving systems.

Oxbotica, a British start-up spun out of Oxford university four years ago, builds the brains inside the self-driving vehicles. The company has just secured a share of a £25m government-funded grant to trial driverless vehicles on UK roads by 2021.

For business secretary Greg Clark, the funding is a good example of how the government’s industrial strategy is being put into action. Autonomous vehicles and their technologies are a key area where the UK can play to its strengths, he said, after a brief test drive last week in a self-driving car that uses Oxbotica’s software.

Launched one year ago in a 255-page policy document, the government’s industrial strategy set out what ministers hoped would be the definitive road map towards building a productive, wealth-creating economy. Fixing Britain’s weak productivity performance was one of the key goals.

The white paper identified five foundations of productivity: ideas, people, infrastructure, places and the business environment, and it promised several sector deals between government and industry that would attract investment and improve workers’ skills. There was also a promise to raise total research and development investment to 2.4 per cent of gross domestic product by 2027.

Business welcomed the strategy but some critics said the funding pledges would not be up to the task and that the myriad old and new initiatives could be confusing. The strategy covers more than 200 policies across government — not all of them will end up moving the dial.


Business anxiety over Brexit has only added to the challenge. For example, some areas of manufacturing, such as car production, are under visible strain.

Questions have also been raised about the pace of the industrial strategy’s implementation given the government’s time devoted to the UK leaving the EU. An industrial strategy council charged with overseeing the strategy’s roll out only met for the first time this month.

Mr Clark said the strategy “established a diagnosis of what we need to do to improve productivity and where we need to do better”. “We have been competitive even despite the uncertainty that Brexit brings with it,” he added.


One year on, he said he believed the strategy has come a fair way since its launch. Six sector deals have been published, from automotive and construction to artificial intelligence and nuclear, and more are imminent.

A big step forward, said Mr Clark, has been a boost in R&D spending, which the government put at the heart of the strategy. Some £7bn has now been committed and more than 600 projects have received funding this year. One early success has been the establishment of the Faraday challenge to develop batteries for electric vehicles.

Juergen Maier, chief executive of the UK operations of Siemens, the German conglomerate, expressed broad optimism about the industrial strategy. A member of the industrial strategy council, he conceded “the question of Brexit is taking up too much of our bandwidth” but that despite this “the narrative about the industrial strategy . . . is strong”.


The government was not just investing more in R&D but “that spend is more focused”, said Mr Maier, with some core themes such as artificial intelligence emerging.

The broad consensus among business lobby groups and industry executives is that progress has been made with the industrial strategy. But more work needs to be done, notably to develop workers’ skills and to boost the productivity of small and medium-sized businesses.

Mike Cherry, chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “We need to see small business impact assessments . . . so we can measure the impact on small firms”.

Mandy Ridyard, finance director of Produmax, a small engineering company that makes flight control components, said many peers have yet to recognise that the industrial strategy is aimed at them.

While there was government support and investment in Stem subjects — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — that should help in the long term, the overall “engagement” with small businesses needed to be higher up the agenda, she added.

Ms Ridyard would like to see more investment in “people”. “As an SME I can generally get finance for kit but not finance for the transformation of people skills,” she said.

Her views were echoed by Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, the professional body for human resources and people development. The CIPD recently ran a trial providing free support for human resources functions to small companies in three cities.

Although the support offered was “very basic it was also transformational for the businesses — labour productivity went up”, said Mr Willmott.

Ultimately, for the industrial strategy to have any chance of success, it must survive beyond the current government.

Mr Clark said what should stand the strategy in good stead was that it was formed in collaboration with industry and was a “whole government” initiative spanning multiple Whitehall departments.

He also has high hopes for the industrial strategy council that will be chaired by Andy Haldane, chief economist at the Bank of England.

The council will develop ways to judge the success of the strategy but how to keep score will not be straightforward. It can tick off whether government promises have been fulfilled and ultimately judge performance on improvements to Britain’s productivity.

But it will also need to develop intermediate metrics to show that the industrial strategy is beginning to pay off in other ways. Measuring basic levels of numeracy and literacy among young people might be one such measure.

“My hope for the council is that it can achieve a similar role to the Office for Budget Responsibility [the UK fiscal watchdog] — an arm’s length arbiter and monitor on whether the government is following through on its industrial strategy,” said Mr Haldane.

“For this to have any hope of success, it needs to be stuck to. Execution and sticking to is key.”

>>> Panalpina wants to stay independent

Panalpina wants to stay independent
26 NOV 2018
Panalpina (PWTN.S), the Swiss transport and logistic company that has attracted the interest of rival Kühne + Nagel [SWX:KNIN], would prefer to remain an independent entity, a newswire reported citing a statement on Sunday.
A Panalpina spokesman said that the CHF 3.34bn-market-cap company’s management board intends to maintain the business as an independent concern, Reuters said. The spokesman did not confirm whether Kühne + Nagel had made an approach.
Detlef Trefzger, CEO of Kuehne & Nagel, said in an interview with Swiss paper Finanz & Wirtschaft that the company was willing to discuss a deal with Panalpina, the item noted.
Panalpina is facing shareholder discontent over its stock value, the report noted. Its second-largest investor, the Swiss entity Cevian, called for Chairman Peter Ulber to stand down after accusing him of hampering talks about a potential merger.

>>> Weekend Reading Summary AAPL AMZN BAC FB GOOGL,....

Weekend Reading Summary

Macro Related
  • President Trump is dissatisfied with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over advice to select Jerome Powell as Fed Chair. WSJ Report
  • Congressional Democrats want protection of Robert Mueller's investigation to be included in spending bill (Govt funding for several departments expires December 7th). WSJ Report
  • E.U. has agreed to terms of U.K. withdrawal from the European Union, but is still must be approved by UK Parliament. (VGK, EWU). NY Times Report
  • U.S. and Mexico in talks to allow migrants to stay in Mexico as they await Court hearings for asylum (EWW, EWC). NY Times Report
  • Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini might change deficit goal (EWI). Adnkronas Report
  • Protesters have called for the resignation of French President Macron over increasing diesel prices (EWQ). Sky News Report

Stock Specific

  • Positive views on BBY, WMT, TGT, XRT. Barron's Report
  • Positive views on SSP, PZZA. Barron's Report
  • Positive view on Materion (MTRN). Barron's Report
  • Positive view on FB profiled while cautious on AAPL, NFLX, AMZN. Barron's Report
  • Positive views on BAC, WFC, AXP, USB, PNC, BK, JPM, GS. Barron's Report
  • NBC investigation found Integra LifeSciences (IART) medical devices sold oversees have issues. NBC News Report
  • Key Senators will get briefing on Khashoggi murder as they consider sanctions (USO, XLE). The Hill Report
  • Adobe data shows online spending grew 23.6% on Black Friday, a new record (XRT, EBAY, AMZN). CNBC Report
  • Former Nissan (NSANY) exec Charles Ghosn has denied accusations against him. NHK Report
  • Domino's Pizza (DPZ) shareholders want Board shakeup. Sunday Times UK Report
  • Private equity interested in Nestle (NSRGY) skin care unit. Sunday Times UK Report
  • Ohio will start accepting Bitcoin for tax bills (BTC, NVDA). WSJ Report
  • Foxconn (FXCNY) Chairman sees strong business through January (AAPL). Bloomberg Report
  • Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB) advertising platforms had glitches on Black Friday weekend. WSJ Report
  • Physical store retail traffic fell 5-9% YoY for Thanksgiving and Black Friday, according to data from RetailNet (XRT). WSJ Report
  • Campbell Soup (CPB) and Third Point near agreement to settle ongoing proxy fight. WSJ Report
  • UK could publish confidential Facebook (FB) related documents seized by the UK parliament this week. FT Report
  • Goldman Sachs (GS) strengthened oversight of risk following 1MDB deal. FT Report
  • Tencent Music (TCEHY) plans to conduct IPO in December. FT Report

>>> Kühne + Nagel looking for large buys, open to talks with Panalpina (translat

Kühne + Nagel looking for large buys, open to talks with Panalpina (translated)
25 NOV 2018
Kühne + Nagel [SWX:KNIN], the Swiss logistics group, is open to talks with Panalpina [SWX:PWTN] should the Swiss transport and logistics group indicate interest, Finanz und Wirtschaft reported.
Asked if he would react if Panalpina indicated it is ready for takeover talks, KNIN Chief Executive Detlef Trefzger told the Swiss bi-weekly he is always open to talks.
Asked if he would allow Danish potential suitor DSV to snap up Panalpina without a fight, Trefzger said first we should see if there is actually a fight, but noted that once he decides to go for a target he makes every effort.
Trefzger said the main question is whether Panalpina's main shareholder, the Ernst Göhner Stiftung, would consider a deal with a competitor, and noted he would not start a hostile takeover bid.
Trefzger said he is open to large buys and has sufficient funds for a deal.
The interview was published in the weekend edition on pages 5&6.