What you need to know on Wall Street right now
Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours.
President-elect Donald Trump has made his picks.
After much back-and-forth over who would be nominated for the role of Treasury Secretary, Trump has settled on former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin. Billionaire financier Wilbur Ross has been named nominee for Commerce Secretary, meanwhile. Here are the headlines:
- MNUCHIN: "There were a lot of people in California and New York who wanted to stop being friends"
- There's a long list of reasons people might not like Trump's pick for Treasury secretary
- ELIZABETH WARREN: Trump's Treasury secretary was the "Forrest Gump of the financial crisis"
- Meet Wilbur Ross - Trump's pick for commerce secretary
- Trump once accused the family of his just-announced deputy commerce secretary of having "a lot to hide"
- Trump's 2 big picks for his economic team both say Janet Yellen has done a "good job"
- Trump is reportedly considering Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn to be his budget chief
- TRUMP: "I will be leaving my great business in total"'
- Trump's massive economic plan is like "taking a well-done steak and putting it on broil"
- What it's like to eat at the $138-a-person restaurant where Trump dined with Mitt Romney
In other news, Goldman Sachs is trading at its highest level since the financial crisis. And here is the unofficial Goldman Sachs gift guide for 2016.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, it looks like a key Valeant deal might be falling apart, and now the stock is tanking. Whitney Tilson has a new short. And a new player in Silicon Valley dealmaking is snapping up tech bankers
In commodities news, OPEC has finally agreed to a production cut - and oil is rocketing. Oil stocks are going nuts too. But the OPEC deal might not be a game-changer for the Saudis.
China's about to unleash its roller-coaster tech market on the world. And a couple of strange and terrible things are happening to the Chinese economy all at once.
In other news, 6 million Americans have stopped paying their car loans, and it's becoming a "significant concern." Here's how baby boomers became the most selfish generation, according to Business Insider's Linette Lopez.
And lastly, here are the 43 hot cars that stole the show at the 2016 LA Auto Show.
Here are the top Wall Street headlines at midday
"Apple can't afford failures": Steve Milunovich on the future of Apple and the post-Jony Ive era - Back in October, on Apple's earnings call, CEO Tim Cook gave a terse, unhappy answer to this question from UBS analyst Steven Milunovich: "Does Apple today have a grand strategy for what you want to do?"
GoPro is laying off 15% of its workforce and shutting down its entertainment division - GoPro said on Wednesday it would cut about 15% of its workforce as the company restructures its once fast-growing action camera business.
One restaurant group stands to be the big winner if Trump cuts everyone's taxes - Credit Suisse analysts turned bullish on Del Frisco's restaurants after they analyzed the potential effect of tax cuts on the chain.
The slow asphyxiation of Western democracy in 4 charts - Faith in democracy is dying.
The number of people signing up for Obamacare is soaring - Though the future of the law is in doubt, the number of people signing up for health-insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is crushing the pace of enrollments in previous years.
Brazil plunges deeper into recession - Brazil's economy plunged deeper into recession in the third quarter, dashing government hopes that a lift in consumer and business confidence would jumpstart a recovery after the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff.
This AI personal assistant took 3 years and millions to build - it completely fooled me - A few weeks ago I was emailing Tom Blomfield, the CEO of startup bank Monzo, to arrange lunch. He passed me over to his assistant, Amy Ingram, by CCing her into an email.