- World shares heat up as Bank of Japan goes sub-zero (Reuters)
- Stocks Rally With Bonds as BOJ Ends Grim January on High Note (BBG)
- Japan Follows Europe Into Negative Interest Rate Territory (WSJ)
- Decision On Oil Cut Only Possible If All Exporters Agree, Russian Energy Minister Says (BBG)
- Trump overshadows Republican debate even as he sits it out (Reuters)
- Trump skips debate, wins on social media (Reuters)
- January Is Turning Out to Be the Kindest Month for Treasuries (BBG)
- For Mining Chiefs, Doomsday Scenarios Could Become Reality (WSJ)
- PBOC Cash Injection Hits Weekly Record (WSJ)
- Margin calls a fresh threat for China's battered stock markets (Reuters)
- HSBC says internet banking services down after cyber attack (Reuters)
- Silicon Valley North Fuels Canada Condo Boom as Google Moves In (BBG)
- Xerox to split into two, Icahn to get board seats in one (Reuters)
- The Shipping News Says the World Economy Is Toast (BBG)
- Norway to Buy Record Amount of Kroner as Oil Crash Stings (BBG)
- China Steel Production Has First Annual Drop Since 1981: Chart (BBG)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
- Officials in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and other U.S. cities are taking steps to examine more closely potential risks to their water systems. Some cities are raising the costly prospect- put off for decades - of digging up and removing miles of lead service lines that run from main water lines to millions of homes and businesses across the country. Utilities will have to pay some of the costs and property owners will have to pick up the rest. (http://on.wsj.com/1NELe6U)
- Takata Corp's chief executive has said he intends to resign, in hopes that auto makers would offer aid to the maker of tens of millions of recalled air bags. Shigehisa Takada, the CEO of Takata and grandson of the air-bag maker's founder, is expected to meet auto makers on Friday, when the company will discuss its financial conditions and business plans. (http://on.wsj.com/23x97Jn)
- Xerox Corp will split itself in two and give several board seats to activist investor Carl Icahn, reversing an effort by the century-old company to marry business services with its copiers and printers. Xerox will divide into two publicly traded companies: one containing its office machines and another housing its services operations. (http://on.wsj.com/23x9eVa)
- The Army general in line to take over as the new U.S. and allied commander in Afghanistan John Nicholson said that as the security in Afghanistan worsens, the number of American forces should only be reduced if conditions allowed. (http://on.wsj.com/23x9fZp)
- Retailers report a surge in sales of gun silencers since the start of the year, a trend attributed to a forthcoming Obama administration regulation expected to create roadblocks for the most popular way of buying the devices. (http://on.wsj.com/1NEJwCp)
FT
Amanda Staveley's PCP Capital Partners has sued Barclays PLC for about 1 billion pounds ($1.44 billion) over the bank's emergency fund raising 5.8 billion pounds in 2008.
Xerox Corp, best known for its photocopiers, has bowed to pressures from activist investor Carl Icahn, and decided to split itself into hardware and services business.
Latin America's biggest bank BTG Pactual, in a regulatory filing on Thursday, said that it is eliminating 305 of the 1,653 staff it employs in Brazil to reduce costs by about 25 percent.
Russia's energy minister Alexander Novak said he is ready to sit and discuss a cut in oil production with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries next month.
NYT
- A Volkswagen AG lawyer said the company might have to buy back some of the tainted cars because it would take too long to bring them into line with emissions standards. (http://nyti.ms/1JKow2q)
- A peek under the hood of three new cars from Volvo, Buick and Cadillac will not reveal a Made in China label. But those cars are breaking new ground in the auto industry, becoming the first to be manufactured in the People's Republic of China and exported to the United States. (http://nyti.ms/1JKoAPP)
- The Bank of Japan said on Friday it would lower its benchmark interest rate to minus 0.1 percent beginning Feb. 16, surprising investors and giving the country's markets a midday bounce. (http://nyti.ms/1P19UZl)
- Xerox Corp, whose name has long been synonymous with office copiers, is said to have agreed to spin off its services business to its shareholders by the end of the year, separating it from the legacy hardware side. (http://nyti.ms/1KenV93)
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL** The average weekly pay in Alberta fell 2.4 percent to C$1,130 in the year ended November, according to Statistics Canada's survey of employment, payrolls and hours released on Thursday. (http://bit.ly/1RQzhCE)
** Potash Corp of Saskatchewan has slashed its dividend for the first time in the company's history, highlighting the tension between generous shareholder payouts and dismal commodity prices across the resource sector. (http://bit.ly/1RQzmX5)
** Chinese authorities have accused Kevin Garratt of "accepting tasks" to gather intelligence on China for Canadian spy services, China's central state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a two paragraph update late on Thursday. (http://bit.ly/1RQzvK8)
NATIONAL POST
** The spike in financial market volatility around the world will not leave Canada unscathed, said CIBC World Markets, as it downgraded its outlook for the country's economic growth this year. (http://bit.ly/1m01Jnz)
** Canadian adoption rates of financial services products developed by non-bank online firms, which operate under the umbrella of fintech, could triple in a year, according to a report on Thursday from Ernst and Young. (http://bit.ly/1m01ZmI)
** TransCanada Corp and Kinder Morgan Inc, the two companies proposing the Energy East and Trans Mountain pipelines, were diplomatic in their responses to the new approval rules announced on Wednesday, saying they had "concerns" about the delays. (http://bit.ly/1m02BbU)
Britain
The Times
To previous warnings in recent months about the effects of lost rail franchises and the vagaries of the US school year, FirstGroup has added the British weather, terrorism in Paris and a shortage of American bus drivers.(http://thetim.es/1P0PHTn)
TalkTalk is preparing for the launch of a mobile phone network after hiring the head of a Dutch telecoms start-up. (http://thetim.es/1PDXjdL)
The Guardian
Google's 2,300 staff in the UK earned an average wage of £160,000 each last year, despite the group's insistence that its British operation is a modest outpost of the company's global empire. (http://bit.ly/1QvRWR3)
City regulators are to investigate the role of HBOS's senior management in the near-collapse of the bank during the financial crisis more than seven years ago. (http://bit.ly/1Vu2IZn)
The Telegraph
TSB's profits dived in 2015 as it offered customers attractive deals to switch banks in its campaign to grow into a serious challenger to the biggest lenders in the country. (http://bit.ly/1SeHqkW)
Darrell Read, an ex-ICAP broker accused of helping the convicted trader Tom Hayes rig Libor, has been found not guilty by a London jury, a day after the panel acquitted five other men in a major setback to the Serious Fraud Office. (http://bit.ly/1ZXqjmC)
Sky News
The private equity group which owns Dr Martens is turning its attention to another fashion brand with an offer to buy a stake in Reiss, the high street retailer. (http://bit.ly/1WQhgE7)
The Chancellor has delayed the sale of a final chunk of Lloyds shares this spring, blaming the move on "market turbulence". (http://bit.ly/23wQTrb)
The Independent
Apple is recalling some of its wall plug chargers, after rare cases when the chargers break and can cause electric shock. (http://ind.pn/1ZXr2nH)
A company behind ground-breaking image recognition software dubbed "the Shazam for clothes" has signed up John Lewis as its first big British high-street customer. (http://ind.pn/1SlFMfy)