Good morning. Russia and Ukraine clinched a transit agreement for gas deliveries to Europe, warding off massive disruptions in the new year and securing steady supplies, even as U.S. sanctions temporarily halted work on a new gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

Officials from Ukraine and Russia’s state-run energy giant PAO Gazprom unveiled details of their five-year contract on Saturday, after crunch talks and last-minute compromises by Moscow and Kyiv led to a protocol late Friday. The new contract, to take effect Jan. 1, will replace a decade-old deal expiring Dec. 31.

President Trump, meanwhile, approved on Friday sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as it nears completion, potentially bedeviling the Russian push to double its direct gas sales to Germany, Europe’s biggest buyer. The U.S. measure highlights Western efforts to support Ukraine against Russian aggression and stymie the Kremlin’s attempts to isolate and economically hurt Kyiv.

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Following Mr. Trump’s sanctions, Swiss pipe-laying firm Allseas said Saturday it suspended all activity on Nord Stream 2. Gazprom’s wholly owned pipeline company, which is also based in Switzerland, has repeatedly said it would complete the project, without providing details.

The Allseas announcement came after Sens. Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson, who helped lead the move toward sanctions, sent a letter to the company’s chief executive, Edward Heerema, demanding the company cease work on the pipeline as soon as President Trump signed the deal.

• Russian Markets Rally as Investors Look Past U.S. Sanctions
• North Korean Workers Flock Home as Sanctions Deadline Hits
   

The founder and two former employees of a U.K. seismic device company have been acquitted of charges they conspired to bribe a South Korean official, Risk & Compliance Journal’s Dylan Tokar reports.

The company, Güralp Systems Ltd., settled related corruption charges with the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office in October. The acquittals are the latest instance of the SFO failing to secure individual prosecutions following such a settlement, known as a deferred prosecution agreement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the listings of Slack Technologies and other major companies on the New York Stock Exchange, in a probe looking at how trading was handled on the first day, people familiar with the situation said.

SEC enforcement staff have recently sent letters including one seeking information from electronic-trading firm Citadel Securities related to how it opened Slack’s stock for trading on June 20 in the workplace-messaging app’s so-called direct listing, the people said. It also seeks information on other initial public offerings.

• Telecom giant Orange and three former top executives were found guilty by a French court of “moral harassment” related to a corporate restructuring linked to a spate of employee suicides about a decade ago. The case breaks new ground because it expands the definition of workplace harassment to include companywide policies aimed at demoralizing workers, legal experts said.
   
• France’s competition authority fined Alphabet’s Google $167 million for unfairly suspending advertisers that placed allegedly deceptive ads, the latest in a series of antitrust probes and decisions against big tech firms in both Europe and the U.S. 
   
• China’s control over online content is likely to tighten further with a comprehensive set of rules that defines what is bad or illegal content, and what content is encouraged, and highlights the role that algorithms play in recommending content to users. The new rules, released by the Cyberspace Administration of China on its website Friday, target producers of online content, including individuals and operators of apps and other platforms.
   
• A California law set to take effect Jan. 1 that threatens the business model of ride-hailing firms is sparking fresh legal and political battles as Uber Technologies and Lyft pursue a campaign to revamp the legislation.
   
• Nasdaq Prevails in Lawsuit Over Alleged ETF Theft
• DOJ, FCC File Papers Supporting T-Mobile-Sprint Merger
• Trump Administration Backs Bayer in Weedkiller Court Fight

Some of the banks that helped fuel the fracking boom are beginning to question the industry’s fundamentals, as many shale wells produce less than companies forecast.

Banks have begun to tighten requirements on revolving lines of credit, an essential lifeline for smaller companies, as these institutions revise estimates on the value of some shale reserves held as collateral for loans to producers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s chief executive, relied on data and legal advice to make decisions as he sought to get the manufacturer’s grounded 737 MAX flying again. His choices failed to resolve—and sometimes exacerbated—friction with regulators and airlines, indicating that until recently he may not have fully grasped the severity of the challenges confronting him, The Wall Street Journal reports.

• GE Venture to Build More Airbus Engines to Help Offset MAX Shutdown
• United Airlines Removes MAX From Schedules Until June

• Amazon attaches the “Amazon’s Choice” badge to countless legitimate listings, but also to products regulators have raised safety concerns about, that make false claims or whose listings appear to have been manipulated by sellers to get the endorsement, The Wall Street Journal reports. Amazon sometimes gives the badge to items that violate its own policies.
   
• Drugmakers are trying to win drug approvals by parsing vast data sets of electronic medical records, shifting away from lengthy, and costly, clinical trials in patients.

The number of available jobs in the U.S. exceeded the number of unemployed Americans—those without jobs but actively seeking work—by 1.4 million in October, according to Labor Department data, continuing a trend that started in early 2018. That has prompted employers to be creative in filling their workforces.

• Employers Move to Attract Tech Talent Before Graduation

• After years of internal debate about how to compete with Amazon, Walmart boss Doug McMillon took the stage at a recent strategy meeting and revealed the centerpiece of his plan to thrive in an e-commerce era: giant stores. Walmart, he told executives at the meeting, wasn’t going to win by building an unprofitable e-commerce operation or other stand-alone ventures. Instead, its supercenters could be the heart of a web of businesses all working together to attract shoppers and drive profits.

Facebook and Twitter have taken down a global network of fake accounts used in a coordinated campaign to push pro-Trump political messages, including some that used artificial intelligence tools to try to mask the behavior, the companies and outside research firms they worked with said on Friday.

The move targeted a U.S.-based media company that also operates out of Vietnam called The BL, which, Facebook alleges, used computer-generated profile pictures to cover up the orchestrated nature of its activities. Facebook linked the company to the Epoch Media Group, which has had ties to the Falun Gong movement, a spiritual movement based in China which has clashed with the Chinese government and supported President Trump’s reelection. Epoch Media Group Publisher Stephen Gregory denied any connection between BL and his company.

Travis Kalanick’s ride at Uber is nearing an end. The co-founder of the ride-hailing giant has sold more than $2.5 billion of stock in the past seven weeks, more than 90% of his stake—a pace that if continued could see him sold out entirely in the coming days. Mr. Kalanick, the former chief executive, was pushed out of that role by investors in 2017.