Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• China Urged to Stop ‘Disappearing’ Officials in Graft Crackdown. A global rights advocacy group is calling on China to stop detaining Communist Party members indefinitely without charge, releasing a report criticizing the system on the unofficial anniversary of Xi Jinping’s four-year-old corruption crackdown. The practice, known as shuanggui, which the Communist Party uses to secure confessions from corruption suspects, lacks legal basis and perpetuates rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Tuesday in Hong Kong. Such extrajudicial detentions are a key feature of Xi’s anti-graft campaign, which began on Dec. 6, 2012, with the investigation of Li Chuncheng, then a deputy party chief in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
• Asia’s New Tiger Economy Fears Currency Slide. Myanmar’s central bank is braced for a deeper slide in the nation’s currency and has little scope to tackle the decline after the kyat fell the most in Asia, according to one of the monetary authority’s top officials. The kyat has weakened about 10 percent against the dollar in the past six months, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The drop could deepen if the U.S. Federal Reserve increases interest rates this month as expected, said U Win Thaw, the director general of the foreign-exchange management department in the Central Bank of Myanmar.
• South Korean President ‘Ready’ to Face Friday Impeachment Vote. 
• SocGen's "Most Worrying Chart" Shows Markets Still Shrugging Off Political Risk. Credit spreads should be twice as wide.
• Goldman Sachs(GS) Slashes Indian Growth Estimates Amid Currency Crackdown. The impact of India's high-value cash ban is now showing up in the data.
• Rally in Banks Spurs More Gains in European Stocks Ahead of ECB. (video) European stocks capped their biggest back-to-back gains since the U.S. election as banks jumped ahead of this week’s European Central Bank meeting and utilities climbed on a German court ruling. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 1 percent at the close, with banks surging the most since June on optimism of more stimulus from the ECB. Italian lenders UniCredit SpA and Mediobanca SpA climbed 9.9 percent or more.
• Oil Falls From 16-Month High as OPEC Production Keeps on Rising. (video) Futures slid as much as 2.9 percent in New York after rising 15 percent over the previous four sessions. OPEC boosted production to 34.16 million barrels a day last month, according to a Bloomberg News survey, with Angola, Libya and Nigeria leading the gains. Attention is shifting to which non-OPEC producers will join Russia in reducing output when they meet in Vienna on Saturday. OPEC is hoping they will cut 300,000 barrels a day further than the 300,000 already promised by Russia. 
• Saks’ Owner HBC Tumbles as Department-Store Slump Crimps Sales. Hudson’s Bay Co. tumbled as much as 6.8 percent after third-quarter results missed estimates, a sign the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor is struggling to cope with a moribund department-store industry. Excluding nonrecurring items, the company posted a third-quarter loss of 56 cents a share in the period, which ended Oct. 29. Analysts had projected a deficit of 22 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales and adjusted earnings also fell short of predictions.
• U.S. CEOs Become More Optimistic on Outlook for Sales, Jobs. Chief executive officers of some of the largest U.S. companies became more optimistic about their sales and hiring prospects in the weeks before and after last month’s presidential election, even as they pared plans for capital spending. The Business Roundtable’s CEO Economic Outlook Index -- a measure of expectations for revenue, capital spending and employment -- increased by 4.6 points to 74.2 in the fourth quarter, the highest since the second quarter of 2015, according to a survey released Tuesday. The gauge remains below its long-run average of 79.6. Readings above 50 indicate economic expansion.

Wall Street Journal:

• Fed May Struggle to Signal What Comes After December. Officials are likely to indicate they are sticking with their plan to raise rates gradually until the new government’s policies become clearer.

Fox News:

• Merkel calls for burqa ban in Germany. (video)
• Anti-Trumpers trying to sow chaos in Electoral College. (video)

CNBC:

• Trump says SoftBank will invest $50 billion in the US, aiming to create 50,000 jobs.
• These stocks could surge if Trump cuts corporate taxes. (graph)
• One really important group is not buying during the Trump rally: Corporate insiders.

Zero Hedge:

• Time Urges 65 Million Americans Who Voted For Hillary Not To Pay Taxes.
• Bill Gross Reveals The "Global Establishment's Overall Plan" In Eight Simple Steps.
• Oil’s Most Popular Trading Products May Soon Be Shut Down.
• "China Has Run Off The Cliff So Fast, People Seem To Think They’ll Make It To The Other Side".
• Trump Sold All His Stocks In June.
• The Dramatic Impact Of Surging Rates On Housing And Refis In One Chart.
• Supreme Court Rules On Insider Trading For First Time In 20 Years: Why It Matters.
• Boeing Responds To Trump.
• Fitch Cuts Outlook For Italian Banks To Negative Due To High Bad Debt, Referendum Vote Risks.
• Core Durable Goods Orders Contract For 22nd Straight Month - Longest Non-Recessionary Streak In US History. (graph)
• Factory Orders Surged Most In 16 Months (Before The Election). (graph)
• Trade Deficit Grows More Than Expected As Stronger Dollar Pressures Exports. (graph)
• US Productivity Suffers First Two-Quarter Annual Decline Since 1993. (graph)

Business Insider: 

• Turkey is hosting a new round of peace talks between Russia and Syrian rebels — and it looks like the US wasn't invited.
• A $3.5 billion firm backed by investing legend Julian Robertson is shutting down one of its hedge funds.

The Telegraph:

• There's nothing the UK can do to save the eurozone from its own folly.
• The 'Trump bump' in the markets is powered by a welcome cut in corporate taxes.
• Mark Carney warns Britain is suffering first lost decade since 1860 as people across Europe lose trust in globalisation. (video)

Xinhua:

• Researcher Says China Property, Financial Risks Increase. Monetary policy should better support the real economy and prevent risks, citing Wang Yiming, vice president of Sate Council Development Research Center.