Japan’s Sharp Corp.—a 103-year-old company that’s progressed from mechanical pencils (“Ever-SHARP”) to calculators to LCD TVs—has surprised many by agreeing to a $6.24 billion takeover offer from Taiwan’s Foxconn (best known as Apple’s assembler), the “rare case of Japan Inc. relinquishing a venerated brand to a foreign buyer” – WSJ

Now, in a twist, the question is whether Foxconn will agree to its own proposal – NYTimes

The CFTC has dropped plans to limit the number of futures contracts a trader can hold on certain commodities. The “position-limits” rule was aimed at curbing speculation in the commodities markets, but it was met with fierce opposition on Wall Street – NYTimes

The DOJ is investigating Wells Fargo for its mortgage practices, even after Wells reached a $1.2 billion agreement to “resolve civil claims related to loans it submitted to the FHA that didn’t meet the agency’s standards” – Law360

EU regulators are going a bit new agey on us with their new round of stress tests—it’s out with an up or down pass/fail and in with a more constructive approach meant “to determine whether banks need to take additional action, such as raising capital” – NYTimes

6 investment banks, including UBS, Societe Generale, and Natixis Funding Corp—have agreed to pay over $100 million to settle “private class action claims they fixed prices and rigged bids for municipal derivatives.” If approved by SDNY Judge Victor Marrero, the settlement would end a 7-year-old suit that’s netted plaintiffs more than $226 million – Law360 (h/t to Kellie Lerner)

US stocks continue to track in near lockstep with commodities prices – WSJ

A random Wednesday in late February: the unofficial day for major Federal officials (former EDNY Judge John Gleeson & former OMB Director Peter Orszag) to jump to prominent private gigs—Debevoise for Judge Gleeson & Lazard for Orszag (who actually made his first jump to Citi a few years ago) – NYTimes

And now, courtesy of Mother Nature (and a confluence of pretty special conditions), Yosemite’s El Capitan firefall.  Please enjoy – NYTimes