Tuesday Morning Reads

Economy

Amid higher wages and more disposable income, AAA expects 54.3M Americans to travel 50 miles or more from their homes this Thanksgiving, the highest number recorded in more than a dozen years. The lion's share of those travelers, around 48M, will be driving to their holiday destinations by car, while another 4.7M will travel by airplane, marking a 5% increase from last year.

Germany and France have privately warned the European Union to do more to prevent the U.K. from being able to claim victory in Brexit talks, according to EU diplomats. Leaders want one last opportunity to show that leaving the bloc can’t be as advantageous as staying in, and some have called for stringent conditions - like labor laws, state aid and taxation - to restrict the British economy.

Fed Governor Randal Quarles is reportedly set to become the new head of the Financial Stability Board, succeeding Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor whose term ends this year. The FSB was established in April 2009 with the goal of reforming global financial regulations. It doesn't have the power to order around member countries, but helps establish baseline international standards and protect global stability.

European nations are finding it difficult to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle to allow trade with Iran, as "some countries who have been suggested as hosts have not accepted this task," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif declared. The SPV would act as a clearing house that could be used to help match Iranian oil and gas exports to purchases of EU goods, circumventing U.S. sanctions which are based on use of the dollar.

The Trump administration is reportedly getting ready to add Venezuela to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. The list currently consists of Iran, North Korea, Syria and Sudan. Adding Venezuela could limit U.S. economic assistance and impose financial restrictions on a nation already suffering from hyperinflation, mass migration and shortages of food and medicine.

Stocks

Tumbling as much as 20% overnight, Bitcoin (BTC-USD) hit the $4,200 level, continuing a week of major losses in the cryptocurrency world. The plunge comes amid a broad selloff in the equity markets, persistent concerns about regulatory scrutiny and disagreements within the coin developer community - known as a "hard fork." Other cryptos down sharply include Ripple (XRP-USD), Bitcoin Cash (BCH-USD), Ether (ETH-USD) and Litecoin (LTC-USD).

Carlos Ghosn is no longer fit to be CEO of Renault (OTCPK:RNLSY) following his arrest in Japan, according to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. An internal investigation on Monday revealed that Ghosn underreported compensation and misused company assets, leading to his arrest and upcoming ouster from Nissan's (OTCPK:NSANY) board. The French state owns 15% of Renault, which in turn holds a 43.4% stake in Nissan.

The grocery wars continue to heat up as Kroger (NYSE:KR) chose its hometown of Cincinnati for the first of 20 high-tech warehouses it plans to build with the Ocado Group (OTC:OCDDY). Technology from the U.K.-based company houses hives of robots that pick and pack groceries. Its newest machines can pull together a 50-item grocery order in as little as five minutes.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos has tapped Wei Gao as his technical adviser - a shadow role that accompanies the CEO to all his meetings. Gao was most recently a VP of forecasting, but has held various positions in 13 years at the company. Past holders of shadow adviser have generally gone on to key posts at Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), including AWS CEO Andy Jassy, Prime Video VP Greg Hart, Amazon Go VP Dilip Kumar and delivery experience VP Maria Renz.

According to Bloomberg, SpaceX (SPACE) has cut its leveraged loan deal to $250M from a planned $750M. That's a trimback of what was originally a $500M loan via Goldman Sachs, which was then upsized to a bigger financing via Bank of America. Goldman helped take Tesla public in 2010, led its $1.8B bond sale last year and advised Musk on his short-lived attempt to take the carmaker private for $420 a share.

Boeing will hold a conference call with airlines this morning to discuss systems on the 737 MAX model that crashed in Indonesia last month, Reuters reports. Conflicting accounts since the accident have centered on whether Boeing (NYSE:BA) properly informed carriers about its flight control sensor failures through training or the flight crew operations manual. Amid all the turmoil, the 737 Max got a boost overnight as South Korea's Jeju Air purchased 40 of the jet models for $4.4B.

Doubling down on its digital voice assistant, Samsung Electronics (OTC:SSNLF) plans to install Bixby on all of its electronics products by 2020 and intends to open the AI platform to outside developers. Bixby has only been featured on Samsung's premium smartphones so far, but it will now be extended to other mobile devices, as well as home appliances like televisions, refrigerators and air conditioners.

Google is investing 4.5B Danish crowns ($690M) to build a fresh data center in Fredericia, Denmark. Besides the new location, Google (GOOG, GOOGL) last year bought another plot in Aabenraa, Denmark, next to a planned data center by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Denmark this year has yet again been ranked by the European Commission as the most digital economy and society of all 28 EU member states.

Looking to provide a strong return for investors, Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) has agreed to a £3.3B cash deal to buy Britain's BTG (OTCPK:BTGGF). BTG, which has long produced drugs to treat overdoses and rattlesnake bites, has in recent years focused on interventional medicine - using devices to deliver drugs to affected organs.

Opioid makers and distributors are fighting New York's Opioid Stewardship Act, which aims to collect $600M from the industry over six years to help defray costs of the opioid crisis. Companies and trade groups have argued in three legal challenges that taxing businesses for legal drug distribution isn’t the solution, and some have even re-engineered their supply chain to avoid the new tax. Related: CVS, ENDP, TEVA, ABC, MCK, CAH, MNK