6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:22PM EDT · Published Dec 7, 4:54AM EST

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © Photo by Sally W. via Yelp

The chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies will be in a Canadian court today. According to Reuters:

A top executive of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd who is under arrest in Canada is set to appear in a Vancouver court on Friday for a bail hearing as she awaits possible extradition to the United States.

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, 46, who is also the daughter of the company founder, was arrested on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States. The arrest, revealed by Canadian authorities late on Wednesday, was part of a U.S. investigation into an alleged scheme to use the global banking system to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran, people familiar with the probe told Reuters.

OPEC continues to balance the extent to which it will cut production. According to Reuters:

Iran appeared on Friday to be the main obstacle for an OPEC deal to cut oil production as the group’s leader Saudi Arabia had yet to agree exemptions for sanctions-hit Tehran, two OPEC sources said.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries resumed discussions in Vienna at around 0900 GMT, before a meeting later in the day with non-OPEC oil producers led by Russia.

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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) will open a factory in Detroit. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV plans to open a new vehicle factory in Detroit, according to people briefed on the plan, the first new U.S. assembly plant to be built by a major domestic car maker in at least a decade.

The Italian-American auto maker plans to make a sport-utility vehicle at the new factory as part of its efforts to expand its iconic Jeep brand, the people said

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) has a new top lawyer. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Tesla Inc. is replacing its general counsel with a seasoned trial lawyer who has decades of experience defending corporate interests.

Todd Maron, Tesla’s top lawyer and a confidant of Chief Executive Elon Musk, is departing the company after more than five years, the company said in response to questions from The Wall Street Journal. He will stay on to help with the transition until January.

The Silicon Valley electric-car maker plans to replace Mr. Maron with Washington, D.C., trial lawyer Dane Butswinkas, who is chairman of Williams & Connolly. He will report directly to Mr. Musk.

Trump will make it easier for companies to drill for oil and mine government land. According to The New York Times:

The Trump administration on Thursday detailed its plan to open nine million acres to drilling and mining by stripping away protections for the sage grouse, an imperiled ground-nesting bird that oil companies have long considered an obstacle to some of the richest deposits in the American West.

In one stroke, the action would open more land to drilling than any other step the administration has taken, environmental policy experts said. It drew immediate criticism from environmentalists while energy-industry representatives praised the move, saying that the earlier policy represented an overreach of federal authority.

Bitcoin sold off again. According to CNBC:

Bitcoin fell more than 11 percent against the U.S. dollar in 24 hours by Friday afternoon during Asian hours, marking fresh declines for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

It’s been a rough December for the digital token: Its price dropped 8 percent on the first day of the month.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.