The Dow’s serious dive on Friday helped put all three major indices into correction territory (aka, all are now at least 10% below their peak from earlier this year) – WSJ and MarketWatch
Which means that investors are desperate for a Santa Claus rally, even as coal for everyone in every sector seems more likely. Or, to put a finer point on it, “stocks around the world are getting pummeled, while commodities and bonds are tumbling—all of which have left investors with few places to put their money” – NYTimes and Bloomberg
All of which makes Chair Powell and the Fed the target of yet more scrutiny than ever about their plans for rate hikes in 2019. The Fed meets this week and is likely to hike rates for the fourth time this year. But its comments about the economy will be the star of the show – WSJ and Bloomberg
The Malaysian government has filed the first criminal charges against Goldman Sachs for its alleged role in misleading investors in the 1MDB scandal. The government “is seeking fines well in excess of both the $2.7 billion of allegedly misused funds and the $600 million in fees received by Goldman on the deals” – Bloomberg and NYTimes and WSJ
A look at some of the memos at the heart of mammoth litigation efforts to hold Johnson & Johnson accountable for alleged asbestos contamination of its baby powder – NYTimes and Bloomberg
Facebook is admitting that a recent software bug “gave outside developers broader access to the photos of millions of users,” the latest in a string of recent privacy breaches and failures at the company – Bloomberg and Law360
PayPal has managed to avoid a proposed shareholder class action “accusing the company of concealing a data breach, which allegedly led to a stock drop when the hack was revealed.” ND Cal. Judge Edward Chen dismissed the action without prejudice, ruling that none of the targeted company execs knew enough about the scale of the intrusions to be able to “intentionally mislead investors at the time of the announcement” – Law360
Consulting powerhouse McKinsey is facing yet more criticism from a bankruptcy judge over its failures in properly disclosing potential conflicts of interest—this time in its wok for Westmoreland Coal Co. – WSJ and Bloomberg
The Journal helps us understand how General Electric—a company that “powered the American Century”—has found itself nearly fizzled out, struggling for both survival and continued relevance – WSJ
We have more details for you about the national security investigation behind Huawei’s activities that helped set off the chain of recent events that led to the arrest (and eventual bail) in Canada of the company’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou – NYTimes
Not a classic holiday tale (yet), but it’s hard to deny the spirit of giving alive and well in this story of the unexpected but very real friendship between suburban dad (and PhD) Lin Wang and, wait for it, NBA superstar Charles Barkley – WBUR