Members of the U.S. army play guitars during Christmas Eve celebrations at a U.S. airfield in Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan.Reuters/Mohammad Ismail
Here is what you need to know.
Oil hits $60 for the first time since mid-2015. West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed above the $60 per barrel mark for the first time since June 2015 on Tuesday following a report of a pipeline explosion in Libya. It’s currently down 0.25% at $59.61 a barrel.
Bitcoin takes a breather. The cryptocurrency holds unchanged at $15,738 a coin, according to Markets Insider data.
Barclay’s to take a write-down because of US tax reform. The bank said it will take a $1.3 billion writedown and see its tier 1 capital fall by about 20 basis points because of President Donald Trump’s tax reform, Reuters reports, citing a statement from the bank.
General Electric is upping its stake in Sweden’s Arcam. GE will buy the outstanding shares of Swedish 3D printer Arcam that are owned by Elliott Management and Polygon Investment Group for 345 Swedish crowns ($41.44) per share, raising its stake to 90% from 77%, Reuters says.
Apple slides on report of weak iPhone X demand. Shares fell 2.54% on Wednesday to $170.57 apiece after Taiwan’s Economic Daily News reported, citing unidentified sources, that Apple will cut its sales forecast for the iPhone X this quarter from 50 million units to 30 million units.
Elon Musk hints at a Tesla pick-up truck. Musk said Tuesday that Tesla will start on its first electric pick-up truck after it begins building the Model Y SUV, which is expected to go into production in late 2019 or early 2020.
Uber finds a buyer for its auto-leasing business. Uber is selling its money-losing auto-leasing business to the startup Fair.com, unnamed sources told The Wall Street Journal. As part of the deal, Uber will take a stake in Fair which will become an exclusive partner, offering drivers the ability to lease cars.
HNA reiterates its commitment to Deutsche Bank. “Deutsche Bank is a core, high-prestige investment for HNA,” Alexander Schuetz, the Chinese conglomerate’s representative on the bank’s board, said in an interview published in Wednesday’s Handelsblatt. HNA owns just less 10% of the German bank, with its stake valued at around 3.3 billion euros ($3.9 billion), Reuters says.
Stock markets around the world are higher. China’s Shanghai Composite (+0.78%) led the gains in Asia and Britain’s FTSE (+0.2%) is out front in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open up 0.10% near 2,683.
US economic data keeps coming. Consumer confidence and pending home sales are both due out at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is little changed near 2.47%.
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