The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced on Monday that it is considering tariffs as high as 100% on up to $2.4 billion worth of French products, following an investigation that concluded France's digital tax "discriminates against U.S. digital companies, such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon."
Why it matters: The proposal underscores the administration's willingness to expand the scope of President Trump's trade war beyond just China and use tariffs as a weapon to retaliate against other countries. It was announced around the same time that Trump landed in London for a NATO summit, where he will come face to face with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The story of WeWork and its co-founder and former CEO Adam Neumann will be brought to the big screen by Blumhouse Productions and Universal Studios, per the Hollywood Reporter.
What we know: Charles Randolph, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind "The Big Short" and "Bombshell," the upcoming film about Fox News, is set to write the screenplay, which will adapt the reporting and upcoming book from Fast Company's Katrina Brooker on the company.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Monday on Fox Business that time is running out for the U.S. and China to agree on a trade deal before Dec. 15, when the U.S. is set to impose an additional 15% tariff on around $156 billion worth of Chinese goods.
Why it matters: Future tariff hikes would likely further squeeze the U.S. and Chinese economies, dragging down already declining business investment in the U.S. and possibly pushing the manufacturing industry into a deeper recession.
Astralis, a Denmark-based esports group that includes the world's top-ranked Counter-Strike team, is planning to go public next week in Copenhagen.
Why it matters: This would be the first-ever public listing of an esports group, possibly priming investors for future floats from larger organizations.
The ISM's November manufacturing report released Monday contracted for the fourth straight month.
Why it matters: It's an unexpected decline as most industry watchers expected the reading to rise. Surveys have shown manufacturing output declining for more than a year.
Cyber Monday — with a predicted $9 billion in U.S. sales online — has become a self-sustaining phenomenon in the world of e-retail, with email blasts and ad blitzes pushing pre-holiday season discounts.
The big picture: This event did not emerge organically. It's a marketing construct built around a discredited prefix that was originally coined for an invented science.
The financially focused arm of China's Global Times newspaper this weekend posted a number of new details on Twitter about how Chinese negotiators are positioned in trade discussions.
What they're saying, per The Business Source's Twitter feed:A former Chinese vice minister of commerce says he expects the "phase one" trade deal will be signed before Chinese New Year, which begins Jan. 25, but that "[r]olling back tariffs levied by the U.S. is a must."
More Americans say they are worried about a recession next year and are getting more cautious about their spending habits and debt, but that didn't slow down their holiday shopping.
Driving the news: Data from Adobe Analytics shows Black Friday spending increased by nearly 20% over last year, rising to $7.4 billion, even as fewer retailers offered big in-store discounts. Brick-and-mortar stores saw an overall 6% decline in sales, according to preliminary data from ShopperTrak.
President Trump tweeted Monday that he will restore steel and aluminum tariffs against Brazil and Argentina due to their currency devaluations.
"Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies. which is not good for our farmers. Therefore, effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel & Aluminum that is shipped into the U.S. from those countries."
The big picture: Trump's tweets show that he is not afraid to open a potential new front in his ongoing global trade war even as the 2020 presidential election approaches — and also touched on his antagonism with the Federal Reserve, which he said should lower rates to prevent similar actions from other countries.
Efforts to fill local newsrooms are ramping up as the industry continues to face rapid cuts, consolidation and closures.
Why it matters: The death of local news in America is routinely cited as one of the country's biggest threats to democracy. With fewer opportunities in local journalism and less job security at the local level, finding talent to fill local newsrooms has become a center of focus.
Google and YouTube have removed 300 Trump campaign ads, mostly over last summer, for violating the services' policies, "60 Minutes" reported Sunday evening.
Details: "60 Minutes" reviewed the companies' transparency reports detailing incidents in which ads have been taken down, but found that the records offered no explanations for the removals, and no record of the original content of the ads.
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