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Frontrunning: January 23

  • Dollar slips, shares wobbly as Trump reality sets in (Reuters)
  • Some Republicans Wary of Repealing ACA Without Replacement Plan (WSJ)
  • First days of Trump era signal America's deepening political divide (Reuters)
  • Donald Trump Embarks on His First Week With a Heavy Slate (WSJ)
  • Equatorial Guinea has applied to join OPEC: OPEC source (Reuters)
  • White House Backs ‘Alternative Facts’ (WSJ)
  • Samsung says batteries caused Note 7 fires, may delay new phone launch (Reuters)
  • Trump Makes Revised Trade Deals an Early Priority (WSJ)
  • When Their Shifts End, Uber Drivers Set Up Camp in Parking Lots Across the U.S. (BBG)
  • SEC probing Yahoo over previously disclosed cyber breach (Reuters)
  • New Delay for Japan’s First Jet Raises Concerns Over Sales (BBG)
  • Most German companies expect little to no impact from Brexit: poll (Reuters)
  • OPEC Shrugs Off Threat of U.S. Cutting Oil Imports (BBG)
  • Apple’s Legal Assault on Qualcomm Is Part of Phone Margin Grab (BBG)
  • Saudis Wrangle Over How to Have Fun (WSJ)
  • China Slams Western Democracy as Flawed (BBG)
  • Apollo’s New Guy Is a Legend in Banking But a Novice in Buyouts (BBG)
  • German police arrest man on suspicion of planning militant attack (Reuters)
  • Retail Malaise Puts Pressure on Chains to Shutter More Stores (BBG)
  • Fingerprint’s Former CEO and Board Member Taken Into Custody (BBG)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

- President Trump starts his first week with a packed schedule - from pushing through his slate of cabinet nominees to a raft of executive orders and setting the direction on foreign trade. http://on.wsj.com/2kihKcr

- U.S. authorities are investigating whether Yahoo's two massive data breaches should have been reported sooner to investors. http://on.wsj.com/2kivCU5

- Counter-intelligence agents have investigated communications that President Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn had with Russian officials. http://on.wsj.com/2kirkMx

- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russian officials said they were making good progress on their pledges to cut back crude-oil production and raise global prices. http://on.wsj.com/2kitjAk

- United Continental Holdings Inc. had a computer issue on Sunday evening that caused it to ask the Federal Aviation Administration to put into effect a "ground stop" for its arriving and departing flights. http://on.wsj.com/2kimzCK

- A re-trial is slated to begin on Monday in a financial-fraud case brought against the firm Dewey & LeBoeuf's former executives, more than a year after an earlier attempt to place criminal blame on the one-time leaders ended in a mistrial. http://on.wsj.com/2kiuJe8

- Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro on Sunday named a long-time ruling Socialist Party lawmaker as the new head of the central bank as the oil-rich nation tries to turn around a devastating economic crisis. http://on.wsj.com/2kivvrO

 

FT

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday will outline a new, interventionist approach to balancing the nation's heavily service-based economy for the post-Brexit era, seeking to reinvigorate industrial production and stimulate investment in technology and R&D.

Toshiba Corp is angling for UK government investment in a multibillion-pound British nuclear power project. The Japanese conglomerate faces pressure to keep the Cumbrian project afloat as struggles with mounting financial difficulties.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp says it has signed an agreement to acquire the 50 percent of its petrochemical venture with Shell Arabia, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, that it does not already own for $820 million.

 

NYT

- Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the South Korean conglomerate, blamed battery manufacturing problems and design flaws for the embarrassing and costly failure of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. http://nyti.ms/2jHjIjG

- After President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have vowed to repeal and replace the health law, about 27 percent of people under 65 are thought to have some sort of pre-existing condition that will most likely leave them without individual insurance if the law is repealed, according to a recent study. http://nyti.ms/2jHe5C0

- Jeh Johnson, who has stepped down as secretary of Homeland Security, is rejoining the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he formerly worked. http://nyti.ms/2jH8trk

- Long Island Power Authority has reached an agreement with Deepwater Wind to drop a much larger farm - 15 turbines capable of running 50,000 average homes - into the ocean about 35 miles from Montauk. If approved by the utility board on Wednesday, the $1 billion installation could become the first of several in a 256-square-mile parcel, with room for as many as 200 turbines. http://nyti.ms/2jHaovX

- At least 14 activists and workers have been detained since labor unrest began last month in Bangladesh, source of much of the world's clothing. Protests over low wages had erupted at dozens of garment factories in Bangladesh, one of the top suppliers of clothing for global brands like H&M AB and Gap Inc. http://nyti.ms/2jHhkJN

- The news media world found itself in a state of shock on Sunday, a day after President Donald Trump declared himself in "a running war with the media" and the president's press secretary, Sean Spicer, used his first appearance on the White House podium to deliver a fiery jeremiad against the press. http://nyti.ms/2jHiogL

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** Winning new automotive investment requires financial incentives from taxpayers, strong marketing by governments and enthusiastic local champions who can sell an automaker's head office on Canada as a good place to build vehicles, says a new study that examines why Toyota Motor Corp chose Canada for a new assembly plant. https://tgam.ca/2iUB13C

** Sentry Investments, one of Bay Street's best-known asset managers, replaced its chief executive officer, following an investigation into its mutual fund sales practices, the company has admitted. https://tgam.ca/2iUGs2c

** The acquisition of ITF Technologies of Montreal by Hong Kong-based O-Net Communications Ltd is the focus of a growing controversy after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government reversed a Harper cabinet order that sought to unwind this foreign purchase. https://tgam.ca/2iUCdUA

** Sources familiar with the Trudeau government's plans say Canadian officials are worried that mass protests would disrupt President Trump's visit to Canada, and that view has been shared with his team. https://tgam.ca/2iUHMlU

** British Columbia Premier Christy Clark is being accused of trying to distract from concerns about the lack of political-fundraising limits in the province with her decision to forgo a party stipend and a commitment to enact real-time donation reporting through legislation. https://tgam.ca/2iUGIhX

NATIONAL POST

** Mogo Finance Technology Inc has taken a step into the world of mortgages, registering as a broker in three provinces and launching an online and mobile interface where users can compare rates, apply for a mortgage and track their payment progress. http://bit.ly/2iUE9wj

** The proposal to build a major transmission line that would be buried beneath the floor of Lake Erie in order to transmit electricity between Canada and the United States reached a major regulatory milestone Friday. http://bit.ly/2iUMmR8

 

Britain

The Times

Financiers are losing confidence in the economy and one of the country's most closely watched forecasting panels has predicted a three-year grind of slow growth. http://bit.ly/2jGpzFM

Schroder Investment Management's Andy Brough, One of the City's most influential fund managers, is trying to put Bovis Homes Group Plc in play after calling for Berkeley Group Holdings Plc to consider an all-paper merger with its troubled rival. http://bit.ly/2jGFFiR

The Guardian

Deloitte, the accountancy firm behind the leaked memo that claimed the government had no Brexit strategy, had been working in Whitehall helping to set up David Davis's Brexit department. http://bit.ly/2jGBRy6

British Prime Minister Theresa May is under pressure to come clean in the House of Commons about the failure of a Trident missile test after MPs accused her of covering up the truth before a crucial parliamentary vote on renewing the nuclear deterrent. http://bit.ly/2jGA23W

The Telegraph

Stamp duty is making UK's housing crisis worse by distorting the market and harming long-term development, Christian Ulbrich, global chief executive of Jones Lang LaSalle, has warned. http://bit.ly/2jQFuUt

One of the bidders for the Government-owned Green Investment Bank, Sustainable Development Capital, has backed fresh plans to float the lender rather than complete a controversial sale to the Australian investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd.

Sky News

Agent Provocateur Chief Executive Fabrizio Malverdi is in talks about his future with the lingerie retailer as it progresses an urgent plan to inject new funds into the struggling business. http://bit.ly/2jQzRG0

The Independent

The UK government has been accused of trying to bury a major report about the potential dangers of global warming to Britain - including the doubling of the deaths during heatwaves, a "significant risk" to supplies of food and the prospect of infrastructure damage from flooding. http://ind.pn/2jQCWpf