The market is betting that the Federal Reserve won't be able to raise rates at all next year, while the Fed's projections show policymakers think they'll raise rates twice by next December.
The bottom line: Investors who play in the futures contracts market are putting their money where their mouths are in expectation that central bankers are either bluffing or deluding themselves.
German magazine Der Spiegel said it is filing a criminal complaint against former writer Claas Relotius, who admitted to falsifying reports, over his requests for donations to Syrian children, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The big picture: Der Spiegel was already facing blowback after the award-winning journalist fabricated details about Minnesota residents, painting them as bigoted and racist. The magazine launched an investigation one it found out that Relotius asked readers through email to donate money to a fake charity for children he described in his fake reports.
One oddness about the current market is that the meltdown in secondary markets seems to have had very little adverse effect on primary markets.
My thought bubble: Normally a market swoon of this magnitude would slam the window shut on primary deals. But all those buybacks and dividends need to get reinvested somewhere, ideally in an asset class that isn't plunging in value on a daily basis.
We seem to have come to the endof one of the most astonishing bull runs in stock-market history, and there's very little indication that Fed chair Jay Powell particularly cares.
The bottom line: Powell will continue to make pro-forma noises about paying attention to financial markets. But he's not going to let Dow vigilantes dictate U.S. monetary policy.
Nike's quarterly earnings and revenue beat analyst expectations, despite many believing the company's bottom line would suffer from its decision to feature former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in its signature "Just Do It" campaign, CNBC reports.
The big picture: The company posted earnings of $0.52 per share against an expected mark of $0.46, while hauling in $9.37 billion in 4th quarter against an expectation of $9.18 billion. The company's shares were up 7.1% at market close on Friday.
Super Saturday, the final Saturday before Christmas, is expected to bring in $26 billion in retail sales this year — $2 billion more than Black Friday — according to retail advisory group Customer Growth Partners.
The big picture: The money flowing in from last-minute shoppers is expected to be a win for retail stores — not just online behemoths like Amazon. Mild winter weather and low gas prices across the country are pulling shoppers out of their homes and to the cash registers, CNBC reports.
What I'm hearing: China's top economic policymaker Liu He may be coming to D.C. for the January discussions. So far the Chinese side has not offered any detailed concessions that come close to meeting the expectations out of the Trump-Xi meeting in Argentina but that may change now that the Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC) has set the economic priorities for 2019.
