Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• China Credit Growth Exceeds Estimates as Funding Remains Buoyant. China’s broadest gauge of new credit and an index of loan growth both exceeded projections, signaling that a government push against leverage hasn’t crimped lending.
• How China's Debt Crackdown Could Start Weighing on the Economy. (video) China’s sweeping deleveraging push is poised to inflict more pain next year. Authorities tightening funding in financial markets and reining in excessive borrowing will likely deal a blow to investment in infrastructure and property, while soaring corporate funding costs may damp business expansion. That could add to headwinds facing an economy expected to grow at the slowest pace in more than a quarter century next year, complicating the balancing act for policy makers who want to defuse the country’s debt bomb without derailing the expansion. Six charts show how the purge will pressure the economy:
• Chinese Regulator Cracks Down on Booming Hedge-Fund Industry.
• Trump to Direct NASA to Send Astronauts Back to Moon and to Mars. President Donald Trump on Monday will direct the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to send American astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars, shifting the agency’s mission from the study of Earth and a longer-range plan to explore Mars.

Wall Street Journal:

• The Future Is Bumpy: High-Tech Hedge Fund Hits Limits of Robot Stock Picking. Voleon is among investors deploying machine learning, a technology in which computers develop trading strategies. It’s harder than it sounds.
• FDA Plans New Medical-Device Approval Processes. Move would speed products’ entry to the U.S. market, mirroring the desires of industry, President Trump.

MarketWatch.com:

• 18 small-cap stocks that analysts expect to rise at least 50% in 2018.
• Analysts expect these large-cap U.S. stocks to rise at least 25% in 2018.

Fox News:

• Port Authority explosion suspect: What we know about Akayed Ullah. (video)
• Trump accusers band together, seek congressional probe of 'sexual misconduct'. (video)

CNBC:

• UBS: Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are ‘the bubble to end all bubbles’. (video)
• Celgene(CELG) CEO: New therapies for a certain type of cancer boost survival rates 10-fold.
• The charts are pointing to a Santa Claus rally for small caps. (video)
• A top VC explains which technologies will change society the most in 10 years.
• Manufacturing CEO survey shows record high optimism on prospect of tax reform.
• Bitcoin smells like a bubble to CNBC advisor council.
• Bluebird(BLUE) could be on the way to a cure for sickle cell disease. (video)

Zero Hedge:

• Times Square Terrorist Planned Attack For Years, Told Police "Motive Was Revenge".
• Moment Of Port Authority Explosion Caught On Tape. (video)
• Interactive Brokers Allows Long-Only Bitcoin Futures Trading (At 50% Margin).
• Treasury Forecasts Tax Reform Will Lead To Longest Period Without Recession In History.
• Greenwald: The U.S. Media Just Suffered Its Most Humiliating Debacle in Ages.
• Pentagon Disses Trump, Will Allow Transgender People To Enlist In Military.
• WTI-Brent Crude Spread Snaps After Forties Pipeline Closure For "Weeks, Not Days". (graph)
• Near Record 5.6 Million Americans Were Hired In October, Most In Over 16 Years. (graph)