Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Putin Sets Turkish Travel Ban, Hiring Limits After Jet Crash. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced measures against Turkey, including the suspension of visa-free travel, halting tours to Turkey and a ban on the hiring of Turkish nationals, in retaliation for the downing of one of its military jets. Russia will also block some goods from Turkey, the list of which the government will determine at a later time, Putin’s administration said late Saturday in an e-mailed statement. Visa-free travel to Russia is suspended from Jan. 1, and Russia is also banning charter flights to Turkey, which has been the top destination for Russian tourists, with 3.3 million making the trip in the first nine months of this year. Russia earlier said it had been “backstabbed” by Turkey, whose F-16 fighter plane shot down a Russian Su-24 jet over the Turkish-Syrian border that had been conducting a bombing raid on targets in Syria. The downing of the warplane soured optimism that ties between Russia and the West would improve in the wake of the terrorist attacks Nov. 13 in Paris and the downing of a Russian passenger jet over the Sinai peninsula on Oct. 31. 
• It's Open Season on China's Securities Firms as Probes Intensify. (video) China’s biggest clampdown on malpractices in its securities industry kicked into higher gear this week with news that three of the nation’s largest brokerages are being investigated for alleged rule violations. Citic Securities Co. and Guosen Securities Co. late Thursday announced probes by the securities regulator and Haitong Securities Co. confirmed Friday it was under investigation. Brokerage shares slumped and the Shanghai Composite Index fell 5.5 percent, the most since the depths of a summer stock rout. The crackdown since the sell-off has ensnared executives and regulators, with restrictions imposed on short selling and the regulator on Friday confirming a ban on brokerages offering derivatives financing for stock trading. Adding to signs of upheaval, a Hong Kong-listed unit of a Chinese brokerage said this week that it had lost contact with its chief executive officer.
• Brazil Real Drops Most Among Major Tenders on Congress Paralysis. Brazil’s real dropped the most among major currencies as the arrest of a ruling-party senator this week threatened to sidetrack President Dilma Rousseff’s economic agenda. The arrest of the government’s leader in the Senate, Delcidio Amaral, has delayed voting on a new fiscal target that would allow the government to end 2015 with a deficit of 119 billion reais ($31.7 billion) before interest payments. If Congress doesn’t pass the measure, the government risks breaching budget rules. That could spark a new round of requests to impeach Rousseff. The real declined 2.7 percent to 3.8466 per dollar in Sao Paulo, extending its weekly drop to 3.7 percent, the biggest for a week since Oct. 16. 
• Canadian Energy Companies Seen Disappearing in Oil's `New World'. Canada is poised to lose energy companies as the industry faces the “new normal” of lower and more volatile oil prices along with tougher climate and regulatory policies, billionaire investor Murray Edwards warned Friday. The chairman of the nation’s largest heavy-oil producer, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., likened the oil industry to a horse race in which western Canadian producers are struggling to compete with developers of light crude from U.S. shale. While cost cuts and innovation are allowing some oil-sands developers to stay in the game, parts of the Canadian industry will go by the wayside, Edwards said at a conference hosted by Bennett Jones LLP in the mountain community of Lake Louise, Alberta. 
• Holiday Weekend Shoppers Skip the Store and Buy Online. (video) Sales at retailers’ brick-and-mortar locations suffered during the weekend after Thanksgiving as more shoppers skipped the malls and bought online. About $1.73 billion was spent online on Thanksgiving Day, a 25 percent increase from last year, according to Adobe Systems Inc. On Black Friday, about $822 million was spent by 11 a.m., 15 percent more than in 2014, the company said. Brick-and-mortar sales fell from last year to $12.1 billion during the two days, according to retail analytics company ShopperTrak, which didn’t provide specific figures for 2014. Retail observers say many of those online purchases are coming at the expense of trips to physical stores, costing merchants more in shipping and depriving them of the impulse sales they often make to shoppers wandering their aisles. Smaller-than-expected crowds turned out at shopping centers in North Carolina, where Jeff Simpson, a director at Deloitte Consulting LLP’s retail practice, was monitoring the action on Black Friday. “Across the board, much less traffic than was anticipated,” Simpson said, without giving specific figures. “Much, much slower.”
• Toys ‘R’ Us CEO sees signs of slower sales growth for toys. Toys “R” Us Chief Executive Officer Dave Brandon said the toy industry isn’t putting up the kind of growth numbers that some predicted this holiday season.

Wall Street Journal:

• Closed Minds on Campus. Today’s student protesters start with valuable observations, writes John H. McWhorter, but then they drift into a mistaken idea of what a university—and even a society—should be.
• Motive Unclear in Shooting at Colorado Planned Parenthood Clinic. Suspect Robert Lewis Dear in jail after three people were killed in bloody standoff in Colorado Springs.

Barron's:

• Had bullish commentary on (HOLX), (JNPR), (INFN), (ARRS) and (CLC).
• Had bearish commentary on (CSCO).

Fox News:

• Obama to Paris for climate summit amid global terror concerns, GOP vow to pull deal money. President Obama arrives Sunday in Paris to finalize a global climate-change pact that if completed would be a legacy-defining part of his presidency. But he awaits challenges at home and abroad, including questions about who will pay for the changes and whether terrorism is a more imminent concern. On Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans suggested last week that the GOP-led chamber must approve the Paris deal, or it will withhold billions that the U.S. has pledged, as part of the pact, to help poor countries reduces their carbon output. “Congress will not be forthcoming with these funds in the future without a vote in the Senate on any final agreement as required in the U.S. Constitution,” Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and 36 other GOP senators said in a letter to Obama. They also made clear that any deal including taxpayer money and a binding timetable on emissions must have Senate approval. And they argue that Obama has already pledged $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund “without the consent of Congress.” The United Nations talks will take place on the outskirts of Paris, where 130 people were killed roughly two weeks ago in terror attacks, which has also sparked concerns about whether world leaders should now be more focused on stopping terror groups.
• Officer killed in Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting was devoted to his job, family and faith. (video) The hero officer killed in the shooting Friday at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic had lived a life devoted to his job, his family and his Christian faith, according to his friends. The body of the fallen University of Colorado at Colorado Springs officer Garrett Swasey was transported from the crime scene to the El Paso County Coroner’s office early Saturday, accompanied on the snowy 10-mile trip by a long line of police vehicles.

CNBC:

• Black Friday sales slip from year prior: ShopperTrak. ShopperTrak's preliminary figures estimated combined retail sales of $12.1 billion over Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a projected decrease from the comparable year-ago period. The firm added that Thanksgiving Day grossed just shy of $2 billion, while Black Friday pulled in more than $10 billion. The firm expects brick and mortar sales to rise by 2.4 percent during this year's holiday, it added.
• France bows to Obama and backs down on climate ‘treaty’. France has offered a key concession to the US on the eve of historic climate talks in Paris, saying a new global climate accord will not be called a "treaty" and might not contain legally binding emissions reduction targets. In a significant climbdown, Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister, said signatories to the planned deal would still be legally required to meet many of its terms but most likely not the carbon-cutting goals underpinning the agreement.

Zero Hedge:

• Violence Erupts In Turkey After Prominent Lawyer Is Assassinated On Live TV. (video)
• Can The Oil Industry Really Handle This Much Debt? (graph)
• Europe's Black Weekend.
• Submerging Markets. (graph)
• How Green Energy Really Works.
• The Unintended Consequences Of 'Lift-Off' In A World Of Excess Reserves. (graph)
• Which Assets Have Priced In A Chinese Economic Collapse? Barclays Explains.
• Shanghai Futures Exchange Appeals To Sellers: "Please Be Rational". (graph)
• "On The Cusp Of A Staggering Default Wave": Energy Intelligence Issues Apocalyptic Warning For The Energy Sector.
• The Videos Are In: US Shoppers Go Wild, Beat Each Other Up To Celebrate Black Friday Sales. (video)
• Diversification Is For Dummies - The Nifty Nine Never Mattered More. (graph)
• Chief Of Russian Air Force Accuses Turkey Of Coordinated Ambush On Downed Jet.
• China's Plunge Protection Team Now Owns 6% Of The Entire Chinese Stock Market.
• Why China Hit The Panic Button On Metals Traders (In 1 Simple Copper Chart). (graph) 
• Why The Obamacare Exchanges Are Failing.
• Anti-Gun Police Chief Urges Public To "Take Out" Active Gunmen If Possible.
• Another Data Point To Ignore - There Are The Most Distressed Bonds In 6 Years. (graph)
• Black Friday Stock Sale Dip-Buyers Ignore China, Credit, Commodity Carnage. (graph)

Business Insider:

• 'It's similar to North Korea': Inside ISIS's sophisticated strategy to brainwash people in the 'caliphate'.
• 15 astounding technologies that DARPA is working on right now.
• Democrats have finally run out of other people's money.
• Wall Street is not going to like the 'Big Short' movie.
• These economic 'swans' could rock the global markets.
• POLL: Donald Trump's support just took a big hit in less than a week.
• The Fed just tweeted a brutal chart showing the sorry state of US department stores. (graph)
• Oil countries are dragging their feet.

Reuters:

• Iran says revival of OPEC export quotas 'very difficult': IRNA. Iran said on Friday that the removal of OPEC's quotas system was a historic mistake and its revival will be very difficult, state news agency IRNA quoted Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh as saying on Friday. "Removing OPEC's quotas system was a historic mistake ... which was accepted by Iran's then government ... Its revival in the upcoming Vienna meeting is very difficult," he said.