Bloomberg

Even in an era when just about every company says it won’t tolerate harassment or inequality, there’s one sector still silencing aggrieved employees: Wall Street. Forced arbitration, captive human resources departments, high-priced lawyers and a culture of fear are used to keep financial workers running scared. While this grim strategy isn’t unique, the industry’s mastery of it has prevented the #MeToo movement from making much of a dent among masters of the universe. —Josh Petri

Here are today’s top stories

Donald Trump is the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. But now the Senate trial is at issue: Speaker Nancy Pelosi opened the door to stalling proceedings to guarantee trial rules will be fair.

Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon vowed to hold a referendum on independence.

Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, really needs money.

Opaque property purchases and millions of dollars in tax exemptions: This is how China’s Communist Party quietly builds a real estate empire.

Amazon has assembled a fleet of 30,000 last-mile delivery trucks and vans since creating its own delivery network in 2018. It’s been great for manufacturers of the gray vans with a blue swoosh.

The relentless decline of brokerage research jobs is accelerating as a perfect storm of technology, regulation and market demand allow machines to do more of the work financial analysts do.

What’s Joe Weisenthal thinking about?The Bloomberg news director says the Swiss watch industry is always an interesting bellwether, and 2019 is shaping up to be the worst year since 1984. The country has shipped just 18.9 million units through November, down 13% from the year before. There is one notable bright spot: Sales of the most expensive timepieces are still on the rise.  

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

  • The S&P 500 index pushed past 3,200 for the first time.
  • A funny thing happened on the way to the stock market record.
  • A gunmaker got $39 million from taxpayers for 300 small-town jobs.
  • Turkey isn’t leaving NATO, but it may be breaking up with the West.
  • The NHL says it will make changes after bullying and racism claims.
  • Bloomberg Opinion writers share their favorite books of the year.
  • A lone gunman attacked Russia’s security service headquarters.

What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Hyperdrive

Boeing Faces Huge Test With Starliner Launch

NASA’s effort to resume flying American astronauts on American spacecraft—something that hasn’t happened since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011—faces a major test. Boeing on Friday hopes to fly its new Starliner spacecraft on an initial voyage to the ISS—a mission that could set the stage for human flight in 2020. 

The CST-100 Starliner sits atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Dec. 4.

Photographer: NurPhoto/NurPhoto

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