Today's Headlines

Bloomberg: 

• Extremist Tide Poses Growing Threat to Europe, Katainen Says. Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen urged voters to embrace more moderate policies as he cautioned against the threat to Europe posed by a surge in extremists bent on splitting the euro area. Katainen asked voters to leave “anti-euro thinking aside,” in a Nov. 21 interview in Helsinki. “Times have been tough for quite a while and that’s showing for the political groups who have been there to clean up the mess.” 

• RBS Appoints Clifford Chance to Conduct Lending Probe. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc appointed Clifford Chance LLP to investigate whether it pushed companies that owed it money into difficulties to boost profit. RBS said in an e-mailed statement today it appointed the law firm after a report by Lawrence Tomlinson, chairman and founder of LNT Group Ltd., said that once companies were in default, the bank could charge them advisory fees and buy their assets at reduced prices. Business Secretary Vince Cable has referred RBS to the Financial Conduct Authority. 

• European Stocks Rise on Iran Accord as Air France Climbs. European stocks advanced, after posting their first weekly loss since October, as Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program. International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) and Air France-KLM (AF) Group rose with a gauge of travel stocks as oil prices fell after Iran’s accord. PSA Peugeot Citroen gained 5.1 percent after people familiar with the matter said it will appoint a new chief executive officer. Fresenius Medical Care AG surged the most in five years after U.S. regulators scrapped a plan to cut Medicare payments next year. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.4 percent to 324.18 at the close in London, 0.5 points away from its May 2008 high reached Nov. 18.

• Oil Slump Seen as ‘Knee-Jerk’ Reaction to Iran Deal. Brent crude, a benchmark for more than half the world’s oil, lost as much as $3 a barrel to $108.05, the biggest intraday loss since June 20, before recovering about one-third of the decline. WTI fell as much as $1.55, to $93.29 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Wall Street Journal:

• Wal-Mart(WMT) Taps Veteran Doug McMillon as New CEO. Success, and All of Its Ripple Effects, Come as Retailer Struggles With Slow Growth.

• China Government-Bond Yields Soar. Yields on Chinese government debt have soared to their highest levels in nearly nine years amid Beijing’s relentless drive to tighten the monetary spigots in the world’s second-largest economy. The higher yields on government debt have pushed up borrowing costs broadly, creating obstacles for companies and government agencies looking to tap bond markets. Several Chinese development banks, which have mandates to encourage growth through targeted investments, have had to either scale back borrowing plans or postpone bond sales. The slowing pace of bond sales from earlier in the year is reviving worries of reduced credit and soaring funding costs that were sparked in June, when China’s debt markets were rattled by a cash crunch.

Fox News:

• Administration launches program to let users circumvent HealthCare.gov. Trouble with the HealthCare.gov site appears to be so widespread that the Obama administration has opened the door for Americans to circumvent the site altogether.

• Hero doc who helped get Bin Laden facing more charges in Pakistan. More charges are being leveled against the hero doctor who helped the CIA pinpoint Usama bin Laden in what appears to be a strategy to ensure he remains behind bars even if the sham case accusing him of colluding with terrorists is overturned.

MarketWatch:

• Facebook(FB), Yelp(YELP) drop as momentum stocks lose favor.

Zero Hedge: 

• Walmart's(WMT) Now Ex-CEO To Pocket $113 Million Pension, 6182 Times Greater Than Average WMT Worker's 401(k) Balance.

• What Bubble? NASDAQ Rises Above 4,000, Back To Year 2000, Dot-Com Bubble Levels. (graph)

• Pending Home Sales Collapse At Fastest Pace Since April 2011, Drop To December 2012 Levels. (graph)

• In China 1.2 Million Candidates Apply For 19,000 Government Jobs.

• BATS Breaks (Yet Again).

• The 2013 Holiday Shopping Must-Have: A Discount. (graph)

• Chart Of The Day: How China's Stunning $15 Trillion In New Liquidity Blew Bernanke's QE Out Of The Water.

Business Insider:

• GOLDMAN(GS): Here Are 25 Stocks That Hedge Funds Are Shorting Like Crazy. 

• 9 Hot Toys That Every Kid Wants This Year.

• People Are Broadcasting Their Own Sex Shows With The PlayStation 4.

• Iran May Be Getting More Out Of The Nuclear Deal Than The White House Would Like To Admit.

Reuters:

• EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil stocks extend slide, airline Gol rises.

Xinhua:

• China inks regulation to ban official extravagance. In the latest move in China's anti-waste campaign, central authorities on Monday issued a written regulation to standardize fund management and ban Party and government extravagance. The regulation, which contains 65 items and 12 chapters, outlined the proper management of funds for various uses, including official travel, receptions, meetings, official vehicles and buildings. It is meant to guide the Party and government organs in practicing frugality and rejecting extravagance, and is an important move in the spirit of the recently-concluded Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, according to a statement issued by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet.