President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate lawyer Robert Lighthizer as U.S. Trade Representative. Trump is also considering picks for yet-to-be-filled departments, including Agriculture. (AP & Reuters)
Trump tweeted this morning: "General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!"
Trump tweeted he would not tolerate fresh signs of North Korean nuclear aggression. Trump also criticized China, a traditional ally of Pyongyang, for its lack of assistance on the matter. (CNBC)
The Obama administration is finalizing a study that could lead to restrictions on Chinese access to the U.S. semiconductor sector. Meanwhile, President Obama plans to deliver a farewell address a week from today in Chicago. (WSJ & AP )
On the first day of the 115th Congress today, the House is expected to adopt rules to rein in the Office of Congressional Ethics. Meanwhile, lawmakers return to Washington with a conservative agenda, including the repeal of Obamacare. (NBC News)
A four-hour outage for U.S. Customs and Border Protection left angry passengers dealing with significant delays from South Florida to Boston to Los Angeles for several hours Monday afternoon and evening. (NBC News)
Suspicious activity detected on a Vermont-based utilities company laptop last week may not have been linked to Russian hackers, according to the Washington Post, which reversed a report last week.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for a New Year's Day mass shooting in a packed Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people. Authorities are still searching for a lone gunman who carried out the attack. (Reuters)
At least five people were killed as severe storms swept across the South, spinning off several tornadoes and flooding areas already drenched by heavy rain. (NBC News)
SpaceX is aiming to return to flight this coming Sunday, as the company led by billionaire Elon Musk has officially determined the cause of the September explosion of one of its Falcon 9 rockets on a Florida launch pad. (The Verge)
Musk's Tesla (TSLA) gave a New Year's gift to 1,000 customers by activating a suite of new Autopilot features on the company's electric sedans, in a limited release meant to identifying any glitches before a broader rollout. (USA Today)
Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) is expected to unveil at CES in Las Vegas today a new, semi-autonomous electric vehicle designed for millennials with families, providing a window into the automaker's vision for a future. (Detroit Free Press)
Anshu Jain, who was forced to step down from the top job at Deutsche Bank (DB) after a series of regulatory mishaps, is set to join the private trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald this month as group president. (NY Times)
Airbnb would miss out on more than $400 million worth of bookings in London this year, as the city enforces its new 90-night limit, according to an analysis by the Financial Times.
Twitter (TWTR) lost yet another top executive, with the departure of its managing director in China. Kathy Chen, who was only there eight months, fired off a 12-part tweetstorm about her exit. (Recode)
Facebook (FB) has apologized for taking down a photo of a statue of the sea god Neptune that originally violated its policy on nudity. The Neptune statue is located in Piazza del Nettuno, a square in Bologna, Italy. (CNBC)
BY THE NUMBERS
Investors last year pumped a record $375-billion into ETFs, exchange-traded funds, according to preliminary numbers from BlackRock (BLK). Meanwhile, Lipper said U.S. actively managed stock funds recorded $288 billion in withdrawals in 2016, the largest on record.
A busy week on the economic calendar, culminating with the government's December jobs reports on Friday, gets off to a slow start, with the December manufacturing purchasing managers index at 9:45 a.m. ET and November construction spending at 10 a.m. ET.
The China Caixin manufacturing PMI climbed in December, marking its fastest rate of improvement in three years. Meanwhile, a Chinese central bank advisor said the government there should set a more flexible target for economic growth this year.
Many sufferers of type 1 or type 2 diabetes are bracing for changes in insurance coverage of their insulin as prices soar. CVS Caremark will no longer cover the insulin brand Lantus in favor of a new biosimilar version, Basaglar, according to the USA Today.
WATERCOOLER
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" dominated the domestic box office for the third week in a row, with a four-day New Year's weekend haul of $64.3 million. Earning $775 million worldwide, the movie has not even opened in China yet. (USA Today)