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The Morning Risk Report: Western Allies Aim to Agree on Russian Oil Price Cap Wednesday
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Good morning. Russia has long used its oil as both a weapon of leverage against Europe and as a way to fund the war in Ukraine. Western nations seeking to sanction Russia in have struggled to agree how to slow the cash flow—but a long-sought oil price cap may soon be in hand.
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The U.S. and its allies are seeking to agree as soon as today on a level for a price cap on Russian oil, with officials discussing setting it at around $60 a barrel as the group rushes to complete the plan, according to people familiar with the talks.
The price cap, which the people said could still be set as high as $70, is at the center of the West’s efforts to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The Group of Seven advanced democracies and Australia plan to begin enforcing the price cap on Dec. 5 after struggling to craft its details this fall.
Ambassadors from the 27 European Union member states are scheduled to meet Wednesday, when they will try to come to an agreement on a price. The bloc must agree on the price cap unanimously, and diplomats warned that may prove difficult. The G-7 is aiming to approve the cap in sync with the EU.
These efforts, along with those of a bipartisan group of U.S. senators that urged the Biden administration yesterday to reconsider its decision not to give Ukraine advanced drones, are the latest indications of continued Western support for Ukraine.
“In addition to providing economic support, the Treasury Department and U.S. government will continue to use all of our tools, including our historic sanctions coalition, to weaken Putin’s war machine,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday on the disbursal of $4.5 billion in direct U.S. budget support for Ukraine.
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Content from our Sponsor: DELOITTE
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Data Privacy, Ethics Gaps an ‘Existential Threat,’ Says OneTrust CSO
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Organizations that want to survive will need to balance increased data usage with privacy and ethics best practices, says Blake Brannon, chief product and strategy officer at OneTrust. Read More ›
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The Morning Risk Report will not be published Thursday or Friday in observance of Thanksgiving. We will resume publication on Monday.
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James Bromley, attorney for FTX, left, and John J. Ray III, FTX’s new CEO, arrive at bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday. PHOTO: ERIC LEE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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A substantial amount of FTX’s assets are either missing or stolen, a lawyer for the failed crypto exchange said in court, vowing to cast a wide net to secure potentially billions of dollars in funds that passed through the firm he called the “personal fiefdom” of co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
“FTX was in the control of inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals, and some or all of them were compromised individuals,” said James Bromley, counsel to FTX’s new management, at its debut appearance at the Delaware bankruptcy court after the failed exchange filed for the largest-ever crypto bankruptcy case earlier this month.
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s asset-management arm agreed Tuesday to pay $4 million to settle a regulatory investigation into how it managed mutual funds and other products that pick stocks based on environmental, social and governance criteria.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Goldman marketed the ESG funds and a similar investment strategy without always following a consistent framework spelled out in its compliance plans. That meant Goldman violated an SEC compliance rule that requires investment advisers to implement plans designed to prevent potential regulatory violations. Goldman neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations.
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A federal appeals court on Tuesday asked whether Donald Trump was improperly accorded special deference as a former president after the federal government’s search of his Florida home in August.
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A nonpartisan group that monitors government ethics filed a series of legal complaints alleging the federal government is failing to adequately enforce conflict-of-interest rules.
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The U.K.’s competition regulator is deepening its investigation into the market power it says Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google exert over some mobile-device software, ramping up global scrutiny of big U.S.-based technology companies.
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Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has suggested OPEC+ could set further production cuts at its meeting next month. PHOTO: KAMRAN JEBREILI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The specter of an oil-supply shock this winter has created a dilemma for OPEC and its wider circle of crude producers about whether to reverse course on the production cuts it set last month.
Beginning in early December, the oil market will face a series of looming problems that some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries see as a potential opportunity to pump more oil and others view as a reason to stay the course with their production cuts.
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Disney said Robert Iger would remain chief executive for two years before another CEO took over. PHOTO: TOLGA AKMEN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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To many members of Disney's ardent fan base, Robert Iger's return to the company’s helm is a storybook ending to a drawn-out corporate saga.
Fans of the company’s theme parks and film franchises flocked to social media to celebrate the news when the Walt Disney Co. announced Sunday that Mr. Iger would return to the chief executive role he held for roughly 15 years. Disney fans scrutinize not only changes to its entertainment offerings, but also its boardroom moves and quarterly earnings.
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Chinese e-commerce major JD.com Inc. told staff that it will cut executive salaries to improve employee benefits and ease financial pressure, as tech companies grapple with a weaker economy.
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California Public Employees’ Retirement System, stung by staff turnover in recent years, has tapped a newly hired executive to expand its private-markets program.
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Beijing-based Baidu has stockpiled enough high-end chips for its businesses that need them, a company executive said. PHOTO: JADE GAO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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An executive of Baidu Inc., the Chinese search-engine giant and major artificial-intelligence company, shrugged off new U.S. export restrictions on advanced semiconductors designed to slow China’s military advance.
Baidu’s Executive Vice President Dou Shen said in an earnings call with analysts Tuesday that U.S. export controls would have a limited short-term impact on the company, and that he believes its AI businesses would benefit from the new rules in the long run.
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Medtronic PLC shares dropped 6% after the medical-device maker reported a decline in quarterly sales and earnings, citing supply-chain challenges and a slower-than-expected recovery in the volume of medical procedures that were deferred earlier during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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HP Inc. said it would slash up to nearly 10% of its workforce with a sharp slump in demand for personal computers expected to stretch into next year.
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FTX last year agreed on a deal to have its logo displayed on the basketball arena where the Miami Heat plays. PHOTO: MARTA LAVANDIER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Sequoia Capital apologized to its fund investors for the $150 million it lost on crypto exchange FTX, said people familiar with the matter, a rare moment of contrition for the storied venture-capital firm.
On the call, Sequoia’s partners told the fund investors that the firm would improve its due-diligence process on future investments and that it believed it was misled by FTX based on its recent bankruptcy filing, the people said.
Sequoia Capital, an early backer of Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Airbnb Inc., has long been seen as the gold standard in the venture industry for its high investment bar. The firm earlier this month wrote off its entire investment in FTX—one of the largest written by a venture firm in the company—after the crypto exchange struggled to meet a wave of withdrawals. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11.
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