- Oil extends rally towards $35 after Iran welcomes output freeze (Reuters)
- Overproduction Swamps Smaller Chinese Cities, Revealing Depth of Crisis (WSJ)
- House Flipping Is Making a Comeback in Las Vegas (BBG)
- Trump leads Republican field nationally by more than 20 points (Reuters)
- Turkey blames Kurdish militants for Ankara bomb, vows response in Syria and Iraq (Reuters)
- Brexit nerves knock FTSE as oil rally cools (Reuters)
- Fed’s Kashkari: 25% Capital Requirement May Be Right for Banks (WSJ)
- Russia Sues Ukraine in London Court Over $3 Billion Default (BBG)
- China's Banks May Be Getting Creative About Hiding Their Losses (BBG)
- Chinese Money Keeps Coal Mines Humming (WSJ)
- Anglo Cut to Junk for Third Time This Week as S&P Downgrades (BBG)
- The People's Bank of China Moves to Daily Open-Market Operations (BBG)
- Hungary Central Bank Stockpiles Guns, Bullets Citing Terror Risk (BBG)
- Obama Said to Plan Historic Trip to Cuba Next Month (BBG)
- Iraq Follows Iran by Avoiding Commitment to Oil Freeze (WSJ)
- Hedge Funds Will Pay for You to Own Small-Cap ETFs (BBG)
- China's Subprime Crisis Is Here (BBG)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
- President Barack Obama will travel to Cuba next month, according to a U.S. official, in the first such visit by a sitting American president in 88 years. (http://on.wsj.com/1VoVc2h)
- The legal fight around the locked iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters highlights the growing role of encryption in digital life. (http://on.wsj.com/1VoV6rs)
- China had hoped small cities like Suizhou would help drive the expansion of the middle class and sustain economic growth. But overproduction is clouding the country's path to prosperity and jolting the global economy. (http://on.wsj.com/1VoVbeK)
- Iran dented the efforts of other big oil exporters to limit production Wednesday by refusing to curb its own output, demonstrating the limits of OPEC's power to boost prices amid rising tensions among its members. (http://on.wsj.com/1VoVeqP)
- China's deployment of missiles on a disputed South China Sea island exacerbated tensions between China and the U.S., prompting Secretary of State John Kerry to suggest President Xi Jinping had abandoned a pledge not to militarize the strategically important region. (http://on.wsj.com/1VoVfv6)
FT
Most managers at HSBC's UK retail and wealth unit will not be getting a pay rise this year, the lender told the affected employees at the end of last week, even though the bank struck an agreement with employees last year.
Britain's National Health Service(NHS) could end up with a 2.3 billion pounds ($3.29 billion) deficit by the end of the financial year and is at risk of breaching parliamentary protocol by overspending its budget, according to a report by think-tank King's Fund.
Arla Foods, one of Europe's biggest dairy companies, said on Wednesday the global milk market was in crisis due to oversupply, but it expected demand, particularly from China, to pick up at the end of the year.
NYT
- Tim Cook, Apple Inc's chief, said the government's request to bypass security on the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook had "chilling" implications. This is not the first time a technology company has been ordered to effectively decrypt its own product. (http://nyti.ms/1R7PKzy)
- Yahoo Inc told dozens of employees at 15 digital publications that they were losing their jobs, part of a larger plan to cut the work force by 15 percent. (http://nyti.ms/1QlInaI)
- Delta Air lines Inc is seeking an edge in the battle for premium-class passengers by serving food intended to be as good as what is served in Meyer's restaurants. The company has struck an alliance with Union Square Hospitality Group, the food service empire behind Shake Shack and restaurants like Union Square Cafe, Blue Smoke and Gramercy Tavern. (http://nyti.ms/219RPQi)
- A long-running internal battle among ABC Corp executives over creative control and future strategy led to the ouster on Wednesday of the network's entertainment president and the elevation of a pair of his lieutenants. Channing Dungey, previously ABC's drama chief, will take over the prime-time part of his job. (http://nyti.ms/1TrLBtI)
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** The Liberal government plans to launch a full-scale review of the controversial temporary foreign workers program, which limits foreign workers to 10 percent of a company's work force in low-paying jobs, and prohibits employers from hiring them in regions of high unemployment. (bit.ly/1R9u71K)
** Air Canada, the country's largest airline, has signed a letter of intent to buy as many as 75 of Bombardier's new C Series planes, giving the troubled Montreal-based transportation giant the first order it has landed since September, 2014. (bit.ly/1mJpDUJ)
** Jean-Pierre Blais, chairman of Canada's telecom and broadcast regulator, is calling on the federal government to take quick action to resolve an outstanding appeal over small competitors' access to the highest-speed Internet services.(bit.ly/1PHK277)
NATIONAL POST
** Canada Jetlines Inc said on Wednesday that it plans to list on the TSX Venture Exchange in a reverse takeover of Jet Metal Corp, a junior uranium explorer, with the IPO expected sometime in May. (bit.ly/1Qmt3uv)
** Barrick Gold Corp has set aggressive new targets for debt and cost reduction as it looks to continue momentum after a largely successful 2015. (bit.ly/1Q33lJH)
** In the latest caustic outbreak in an ongoing cultural war, the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) accused the York University's faculty association of endorsing "a campaign of censorship against Israel and the Jewish People". (bit.ly/20FXBXV)
Britain
The Times
- Nearly 1,400 UK engineering jobs are to go after Bombardier Inc announced it was cutting its global workforce by 10 percent. The Canadian group is to shed 1,080 jobs from its Belfast aircraft plant and three other locations over the next two years, representing more than a fifth of its workforce. (http://thetim.es/219sExi)
- Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc has entered into talks with an American activist investor seeking a seat on the struggling engineer's board. The group said it had not yet decided whether to give ValueAct, a San Francisco hedge fund, a place on its board. (http://thetim.es/219tgTE)
The Guardian
- British workers' rights to paid holiday, maternity leave and fair treatment at work would be at risk if the UK voted to leave the European Union, the head of the Trades Union Congress has warned. Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the body representing British trade unions, said the EU debate had been too dominated by business interests, with not enough focus on the potential costs for ordinary workers. (http://bit.ly/219tyKg)
- The number of properties in Britain worth 1 million pounds ($1.43 million) or more is set to more than triple by 2030, widening the gap between the housing haves and have-nots, according to a report. Less than half a million homes in the UK are currently valued at over 1 million pounds, but a study by high street lender Santander claims this number will rise to more than 1.6 million in the next 15 years.
The Telegraph
- Britain's job rich recovery pushed employment to a record high at the end of 2015, though a "marked" decline in wage growth since last summer suggests the Bank of England remains a long way from raising interest rates. The number of people in work rose by 205,000 to 31.42 million in the final quarter of last year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). (http://bit.ly/219u0Z1)
- BT Group Plc is facing fresh calls to split with Openreach, its broadband infrastructure division, ahead of a landmark review into the telecoms industry. Ofcom is set to unveil next week a widely anticipated set of proposals for the next decade of the telecoms sector, including BT's arm's length control of Openreach, after almost a year of fierce debate in the industry. (http://bit.ly/219u234)
Sky News
- Trinity Mirror Plc, publisher of the Daily Mirror, will unveil a weekday newspaper called New Day. New Day is expected to launch on 29 February, according to people close to the plans, and will initially be priced at 25p - compared to the 40p cover price of the I newspaper, with which it is expected to compete. (http://bit.ly/219uWfI)
The Independent
- UK households have kicked fears of an interest rate rise this year into the long grass, despite official figures showing unemployment at its lowest for a decade. The number of households expecting the Bank of England to raise its record-low interest rates over the next 12 months has fallen to its lowest in more than two years amid near-zero inflation and growth fears, according to Markit, the financial data firm. (http://ind.pn/219v8M5)