The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 602 points lower on Monday, according to Yahoo Finance. The S&P 500 fell over 2%, putting it negative for the year, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.8%.
Between the lines: Volatility is back with a vengeance. There's no single reason stocks are selling off — despite President Trump's unfounded claim to the contrary — although one driver today was Apple shares dropping after one of its key suppliers reported a decrease in order volume.
America's soybean farmers are hanging onto their crops in an attempt to wait out President Trump's trade war with China, more than doubling U.S. soybean inventories, reports Bloomberg.
The big picture: Retaliatory tariffs have drastically pushed down demand for American soybeans in China, easily the crop's largest market, with imports down by nearly 90%. And prices have fallen, too, as a bushel of soybeans now trades for less than $9 compared to more than $11 earlier in the year.
Regulators have approved SoftBank's planned IPO for its domestic telecom unit. The IPO will tentatively be worth 2.4 trillion yen ($21.04 billion), according to Reuters, with SoftBank Group retaining a 66.5% stake. The IPO is set for Dec. 19 with pricing to be determined on Dec. 10.
Why it matters: The move is seen as SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son's attempt to focus the company on its newer tech investment ambitions — namely its $100-billion fund.
Trump is as jazzed as ever about hitting foreign-made cars with steep tariffs. Just about every member of his senior economic team besides Peter Navarro believes this is a terrible idea. But they haven’t swayed him.
What's happening: With each passing month, his zest for car tariffs only swells.
Alibaba's "Singles Day," an online sales event larger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, brought in $30.7 billion in 24 hours, reports Reuters.
Yes, but: Despite smashing Amazon's Prime Day sales in less than 10 minutes, the day's annual sales growth rate fell from 39% to 27%. Alibaba's stock has dropped 16% on the year after the company revised its annual sales projection by 4–6%.
Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon has acquired Fortune magazine for $150 million, in just the latest example of a U.S. business publication ending up in the hands of an East Asian buyer.
Be smart: The day might not be that far off when there are no major American-owned business publications at all. Even Business Insider is German.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has two top priorities. As he said on Disney's quarterly earnings call this week, the first is the integration of 21st Century Fox, which he recently acquired for $52 billion, in a deal he's hopeful will close "meaningfully earlier" than June. The second is developing online services that reach consumers directly, especially now that he'll have a majority stake in Hulu once the 21CF deal closes.
Iger made all the necessary noises about protecting minority shareholders in Hulu: NBCUniversal still owns 30%, while WarnerMedia owns 10%. But control of Hulu was one of the strategic drivers behind the 21CF acquisition, and Iger was clear that as soon as the deal closes, he's going to push Hulu toward "both global growth and investing more in content."
In a speech commemorating 100 years since the armistice that ended World War I, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the fleeting peace between the world wars and the current, fractured state of global relations share a number of disturbing parallels, AP reports.
The big picture: Guterres cited trade tensions, rising nationalism and economic inequality stemming from the 2008 financial crisis as causes of concern. He said that institutions like the UN and the European Union are "too meaningful to fail," echoing sentiments from earlier speeches by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, who both emphasized the importance of multilateralism and active cooperation to maintaining global peace.
The industry got a big win with Colorado's election of congressman and blockchain tech advocate Jared Polis as its new governor, but that's not all the news this week.
Catch up quick: A Securities and Exchange Commission official says "plain English" guidance on initial coin offerings is coming; Bitfury raised $80 million in new funding; and the SEC could target more token exchanges after EtherDelta.
S&P 500 executives are dropping blockchain buzzwords less on earnings calls and during presentations to analysts and investors. Analysts are also asking about it less.
Data: Analysis of FactSet corrected transcripts; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios
Why it matters: The hype was just that. The odds of a company turning blockchain “headlines into reality” are slim, as Forrester Research predicts.
House Democrats plan to investigate whether President Trump abused White House power by targeting — and trying to punish with "instruments of state power" — the Washington Post and CNN, incoming House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff said in an interview for "Axios on HBO."
Why it matters: Until now, all Trump critics could do is complain about his escalating attacks on the media. With subpoena power and public hearings, the incoming House Democratic majority can demand emails and testimony to see if Trump used “the instruments of state power to punish the press,” Schiff said.
