Media

5 Most Important Things In Business Today

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: December 24, 2018 4:50 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 1:19 pm

A member of the Trump Administration said the shutdown of the government could last beyond this week. According to The Wall Street Journal:

The Trump administration warned Sunday that the partial government shutdown could stretch into January, squeezing furloughed workers and shifting a high-stakes spending fight into a new Congress where Democrats control the House.

The third shutdown of the year started early Saturday after President Trump and House Republicans upended a bipartisan Senate agreement to fund the government until February. The primary sticking point is whether to allocate money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. No agreement was in sight late Sunday.

“Aquaman” ruled the box office. According to Box Office Mojo:

Performing almost exactly as expected, WB’s release of Aquaman easily took the #1 spot at the weekend box office with an estimated $67.4 million over the course of the three-day weekend and a cume that now stands at $72.1 million once you include the $4.7 million in grosses from pre-weekend Amazon Prime showings. The film is now expected to deliver around $105 million over the course of its first five days, which ends on Christmas Day, routinely the busiest day at the box office all year. The film received an “A-” CinemaScore from opening day audiences and played to an opening weekend crowd that was 55% male and 58% aged 25 years or older.

Former auto executive Carlos Ghosn will spend more time in prison. According to The New York Times:

Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan Motor chairman whose legal problems have put the fate of a global automotive empire in doubt, will stay in jail for at least the rest of the year, a Tokyo court ruled Sunday.

Under the ruling, Mr. Ghosn will remain in custody until Jan. 1, giving the Japanese authorities more time to question him on suspicion of further wrongdoing while running Nissan. Under Japanese law, prosecutors can ask that Mr. Ghosn be held for another 10 days after that, raising the possibility that he could be in jail until at least Jan. 11.

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin spoke with bank heads to calm them about the stock market sell-off. According to CNBC:

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held calls on Sunday with the heads of the six largest U.S. banks to shore up confidence in the U.S. financial system amid the recent market turmoil.

“The banks all confirmed ample liquidity is available for lending to consumer and business markets,” a statement from the Treasury said.

Mnuchin spoke with J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman, Tim Sloan of Wells Fargo and Michael Corbat of Citigroup.

Production cuts could boost oil prices next year. According to CNBC:

An oversupply of oil will continue to pressure prices into the first quarter of 2019, but producer cuts will eventually boost crude price as the year progresses, according to Argus Media, an energy information provider.

That is, supply and demand should rebalance by the second quarter of next year, said Azlin Ahmad, editor for crude oil at Argus.

Since climbing to four-year highs in early October, the price of crude futures have crashed by more than a third. The latest wave of heavy selling comes at a time when the energy market as well as the global economy is gripped by a flurry of bearish factors.