Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Euro-Area Economic Growth Slows as Exports, Consumption Cool. The euro area’s nascent recovery from a record-long recession nearly stalled in the third quarter as exports and household consumption cooled. Gross domestic product rose 0.1 percent after a 0.3 percent gain in the previous three months, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That’s in line with Eurostat’s initial estimate. From a year earlier, the economy contracted 0.4 percent. “There’s no sign in the incoming data that growth is accelerating in the fourth quarter,” said Elga Bartsch, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley & Co. in London. “We are concerned Europe will lack an engine of growth; we are worried about the core -- France, the Netherlands and Germany.” 

• European Stocks Decline. European stocks declined for a fourth day, their longest losing streak in more than five months, as better-than-expected U.S. jobs data fueled concern the Federal Reserve will pare stimulus measures sooner than forecast. Elekta AB dropped 5.4 percent after posting quarterly profit that missed forecasts. Standard Chartered (STAN) Plc slid 6.5 percent, leading European banks lower. PSA Peugeot Citroen advanced 5.3 percent as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. added the shares to its conviction-buy list. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid 0.6 percent to 317.24 at the close of trading, after earlier losing as much as 1.1 percent. The benchmark fell 1.5 percent yesterday as investors weighed valuations before U.S. jobs data this week.

• Treasury Yields Climb to Highest Since September on Job Growth. Treasuries fell, pushing 10-year yields (USGG10YR) to the highest in more than two months, as an industry report showed job growth quickened more than forecast, adding to bets the Federal Reserve may advocate slowing bond purchases at this month’s policy meeting. 

• Dollar Index Rises to Almost 11-Week High on Fed Tapering View. The Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against 10 major counterparts, gained 0.2 percent to 1,023.11 at 11:48 a.m. in New York after rising to 1,025.36 yesterday, the highest level since Sept. 13. 

• Iran Plans to Meet Foreign Oil Companies to Seek Investment. Iran plans to meet with international oil companies as soon as March to try to entice investors to its energy industry once world powers lift sanctions, the Persian Gulf state’s oil minister said. Iran, once OPEC’s second-largest producer, is talking with European companies about future projects, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters today in Vienna. The minister said he hopes Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) Plc, BP (BP/) Plc, Eni SpA and Statoil ASA (STL) will invest in the country. Iranian officials will meet with international companies in London in March, he said, declining to identify them. 

• Gold Rebounds From Five-Month Low as Commodity Prices Advance. Gold futures for February delivery rose 0.5 percent to $1,227.10 an ounce at 11:53 a.m. on the Comex in New York. Prices earlier reached $1,210.80, the lowest since July 5. Gold’s 14-day relative-strength index fell to near 32 today. A reading below 30 signals to some analysts who study historical patterns that the price may be set to rebound.

• WTI Crude Gains as Supplies Tumble First Time in 11 Weeks. WTI crude for January delivery increased 82 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $96.86 a barrel at 11:42 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract traded at $96.95 before the release of the report at 10:30 a.m. in Washington. Futures touched $97.53, the highest level since Oct. 30. The volume of all futures traded was 65 percent more than the 100-day average.

• Youth Break With President on Obamacare Support in Poll. The nation’s youth, a group that twice rallied behind President Barack Obama at the ballot box, is failing to support his signature domestic achievement. More than half of those 18 to 29 years old say they disapprove of Obamacare and expect it will increase their health-care costs, and 4 in 10 say they anticipate the quality of their coverage will get worse because of it, a survey by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics shows. In a finding perhaps more troubling for the White House, almost half in that age group, the so-called millennials, say they’re unlikely to enroll in insurance through a government exchange, even if eligible. That could put at risk the economics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which needs young, healthy people to enroll in large numbers to offset the costs of caring for older, sicker Americans. “The reasons for the current lack of support among millennials for the Affordable Care Act are many,” the survey’s findings said.

Fox News:

• Iran enrichment capacity expanded dramatically on Obama's watch. Before he paused to allow reporters to ask questions about the nuclear deal with Iran that he had just announced in Geneva, Secretary of State John Kerry seemed to anticipate one line of criticism about the accord -- that it effectively cedes to the Islamic regime the right to enrich uranium, despite half a dozen U.N. Security Council resolutions declaring the activity illegal. And he moved, preemptively, to address it.

MarketWatch:

• Germany’s economy isn’t as strong as Europe believes. Commentary: Euro zone shouldn’t expect Germany to lead recovery.

CNBC:

• Detroit's next bankruptcy battle: Who foots the bill? (video)

Zero Hedge:

• Europe Fines 8 Banks €1.7 Billion For Rate Rigging In Largest Ever Cartel Penalty In History.

• ADP Soars To 215K Smashing Expectations, Prior Months Revised Higher Reviving Tapering Fears. (graph)

• US Retailer Hell In One Chart.

• Is Bob Shiller Right? Mortgage Applications Collapse Back To 5 Year Lows. (graph)

• ISM Services Miss (Lowest Since June) As Employment Plunges To 6-Month Lows. (graph)

• October New Home Sales Surge By Most Since 1980 As Median Price Drops To One Year Low. (graph)

• Stocks Displeased As Obama's Anti-Inequality Rant Brings Up End Of QE Concerns. (graph)

Business Insider:

• A Period Of Bitterly Cold Temperatures Not Seen In A Decade Is About To Hit Parts Of The US.

• HUGH HENDRY: Bitcoin Could Go To $1 Million And I Wish I Could Own It.

• Jim Chanos Is Shorting The Company Behind The Healthcare.gov Debacle.

• Obama's Approval Rating Dipped Into Dangerously Low Territory Yesterday.

• US Oil Imports Are Down 11% From Last Year.

CNN: 

• Average student loan debt: $29,400. Student loan debt continues to pile up on America's college graduates, topping an average $29,000 per student last year. The average debt load for the class of 2012 was $29,400 -- up more than 10% from the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday by the Institute for College Access & Success' Project on Student Debt.

Chicago Tribune:

• Deere(DE) expands share buyback plan by $8 billion.

Reuters:

• S&P Sees More Sovereign Downgrades Than Upgrades in '14. Sovereign rating downgrades may outnumber upgrades in 2014, citing S&P head of sovereign ratings for EMEA, Moritz Kraemer. 

• Libyan assembly votes to follow Islamic law. Libya's national assembly voted on Wednesday to make sharia, Islamic law, the basis of all legislation and for state institutions in a decision that may impact banking, criminal and financial laws. 

• Russia faces budget shortfalls, risks erasing oil savings - document. Russia will face huge fiscal shortfalls in the next two decades unless it cuts spending, and it could wipe out its oil savings in as little as three years, according to sources and a strategy document obtained by Reuters. Russia's funding gap could reach $300 billion between 2017-20, the Finance Ministry's budget strategy to 2030 shows. That is three times the current value of the Reserve Fund, a rainy-day fund of windfall energy revenues.

• California unions brace for showdown over pension reform. For California's public-sector unions, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's proposed statewide ballot measure for pension reform is a call to arms - and they're bringing out the big guns. 

• U.S. car buyers borrow more as rates fall and standards loosen. U.S. consumers buyers are taking out bigger car loans with longer pay-back periods as lenders offer lower interest rates and accept borrowers with weaker credit ratings, a report released on Wednesday showed. 

• Exclusive: U.S. plans new bank fraud cases in early 2014 - attorney general. The U.S. Justice Department plans to bring civil mortgage fraud cases against several financial institutions early in 2014, using as a template the case that ended last month in JPMorgan Chase & Co's (JPM.N) $13 billion settlement, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday. In an interview with Reuters, Holder would not say which companies or how many could face lawsuits but said the Justice Department was in contact with them and it was hard to say whether the talks would lead to settlements.

UPI:

• Markit warns France may slide back into recession. France, with Europe's second largest economy, is in danger of sliding back into recession, Markit Economics chief economist said Wednesday. While the composite index for businesses in the eurozone showed growth for the fifth consecutive month in November, the indexes for France and Italy showed continued contraction, the research firm reported. In France, the business index came to 48, putting the contraction there at a faster pace than Italy, where the index that uses 50 as a break-even point, came in at 48.8 for the month.

Financial Times:

• Visits to porn sites tracked by hundreds of companies.

BBC:

• Stolen Facebook(FB) and Yahoo(YHOO) passwords dumped online. More than two million stolen passwords used for sites such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo and other web services have been posted online.

Xinhua:

• Xi stresses adherence to Marxist philosophy. General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping has urged all Party members to learn Marxist philosophy to better understand the country's situation and help push forward all types work. Xi made the remarks on Tuesday at a group study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, China's top leadership, on the basic theory and methodology of Karl Marx's historical materialism, according to a statement released on Wednesday. Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics and history. When presiding over the group study, Xi said Marxist philosophy, which has revealed the general rule of human society development, still has strong vitality and serves as powerful arms of thought for guiding communists to make progress.