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Good Morning. In today’s edition, border-security talks stall in Washington, market indicators turn bullish, the Trump administration weighs banning Chinese telecom gear from U.S. networks, and more. |
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Negotiations over a bipartisan deal for border-security funding have stalled, raising the specter of another government shutdown by the end of the week. The snag in talks heightened prospects that President Trump will declare a national emergency and seek to divert funds into constructing a wall along the Mexican border. Such a declaration, to which lawmakers from both parties have expressed opposition, would likely face an immediate court battle. Mr. Trump has repeatedly expressed support for legal immigration this month, suggesting a change of course for his administration. The president and a growing field of Democratic contenders are entering a more confrontational phase at the start of the 2020 presidential campaign. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar launched her campaign yesterday. In Virginia, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax dug in, defying widespread calls for him to step down over sexual-assault allegations and setting up a tense showdown. |
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From reporter Kristina Peterson: Most of what we’ve seen in the negotiations over border security is a fight over a GOP demand: building physical barriers along the border. This weekend’s fight was one of the first times we’ve seen Republicans balking at a Democratic demand, limiting the number of detention beds that can be used for people detained in the U.S. interior. Although we don’t yet know if lawmakers will be able to reach a deal, the weekend impasse does highlight what each side is struggling with—and what each side stands to gain from an agreement. |
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Market indicators are turning bullish after flashing red last year. It’s a shift that is buttressing some investors’ faith in the 2019 rebound despite recent volatility. Major U.S. indexes have crossed or are nearing their 200-day moving averages and the number of stocks setting 52-week highs is on the rise, among other indicators favored by portfolio managers and investment gurus trying to divine the market’s next move. |
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Shares of airlines, railroads and shipping companies are climbing. Transportation stocks are viewed as a barometer of economic activity because those companies carry the raw materials and goods that power manufacturing. The Dow Jones Transportation Average has jumped 18% from its Christmas Eve low, outpacing the advance by the Dow industrials. |
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From reporter Jessica Menton: The recent breakout in transportation stocks is an optimistic sign for the U.S. economy and financial markets following a bruising fourth-quarter selloff. One thing that could help propel stocks even higher: a U.S.-China trade resolution. Hopes of progress in trade relations between Washington and Beijing have helped fuel this year’s stock-market rebound. Investors had feared that U.S. companies would begin to feel the pinch from tariffs, though the fourth-quarter earnings season has largely been better than expected thus far. Still, renewed global-trade fears, which have rattled financial markets in recent months, have pressured stocks again lately. Investors remain cautious and expect increased volatility heading into the March 1 trade deadline. |
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President Trump is weighing an executive order that could ban Chinese telecommunications gear from U.S. networks. The plan is facing resistance from carriers in rural areas whose networks run on Huawei Technologies equipment. While the executive order would likely not identify companies by name, Huawei is considered the prime target. The U.S. says that Huawei has close ties to the Chinese government and could use its systems to monitor and disrupt telecommunications. In Israel, U.S. and local security officials are raising security fears after years of Chinese investment in Israel’s booming tech sector. But in Eastern Europe, the U.S. campaign against Huawei faces challenges. Countries there are debating whether to side with Washington against a Chinese government that has courted the region’s leaders. |
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From reporter John McKinnon: Trump administration officials are mounting a new push for an executive order that could limit use of gear made by Huawei and other Chinese firms in U.S. telecommunications networks. But the executive order has been delayed repeatedly over the past few months. Some domestic telecom companies—mostly smaller rural carriers—are worried about the potential cost, particularly if a full rip-and-replace solution is ordered for Chinese-made gear that’s already installed. |
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Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has gone from private family man to tabloid sensation. | | Jeff Bezos in 1997 and 2017. PAUL SOUDERS/GETTY IMAGES; ROB LATOUR/REX SHUTTERSTOCK/ZUMA PRESS |
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For more than two decades, Mr. Bezos built a public persona of a low-key billionaire. More recently, as Amazon has expanded into the world of entertainment, the e-commerce entrepreneur began to take on the trappings of a different kind of public figure. Mr. Bezos in January announced his pending divorce from his wife of 25 years, when the National Enquirer reported on his affair with the wife of the chairman of a top Hollywood talent agency. Last week, Mr. Bezos hit back with an extraordinary public essay that accused Enquirer parent American Media of extortion. News of Mr. Bezos’ marriage breakup left employees and shareholders asking how it will affect Amazon and his other holdings. The impact has reverberated through the company, where some senior leaders feel blindsided, while other employees said his revelations of personal details humanized the executive. Yesterday, an attorney for the chief executive of American Media said that the company hadn’t engaged in extortion and blackmail of Mr. Bezos, in an appearance on ABC News’ “This Week.” |
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Tesla is cranking out its Model 3s—now it has to service them. The upstart car company has created a coveted luxury brand but is still learning some of the basics of the auto business. It’s causing some long waits for repairs. As U.S. sales rise, Tesla has encountered new logistical problems, from delivery and servicing a growing fleet to balancing supply and demand. Getting the logistics right is especially crucial this year given that CEO Elon Musk has said Tesla will bring down the price of the Model 3 from its current $42,900 base sticker price to the long-promised $35,000 threshold. |
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Prepare to pay more for household staples. Makers of products from diapers to toilet paper are set to raise prices again this year after already doing so last year, hoping to offset higher commodity costs and boost profits. Sales volumes of household and personal products in the U.S. declined 1.4% in January, but dollar sales of those products rose 0.7% in the period, indicating that the price increases, on balance, are padding the bottom lines at consumer-goods companies. |
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Forget the 401(k): If we could reinvent retirement-saving plans, how would they differ from the 401(k)s workers have today? For starters, your savings would follow you wherever you go or however you work, retirement-industry leaders and academic researchers say. Push Against Islamic State: U.S.-backed forces aided by coalition airstrikes have captured more than three dozen positions and destroyed fortifications as they moved to retake the last territory in Syria under Islamic State control. No Miracle Drug: New evidence has emerged about mutant viral strains that prevent Xofluza—a pill that can kill the flu virus in 24 hours with a single dose—from working well in some patients. |
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Trending Stories at WSJ.com It’s the world, with Google Maps layered on top: Augmented-reality navigation apps use smartphone cameras to find your location and put signs and arrows on top of the real world. (Read) Free college programs are taking off across the U.S., proliferating amid a crisis in college affordability and a tight labor market. (Read) Kacey Musgraves won album of the year at the Grammy Awards, the music industry’s most prestigious prize, for her critically acclaimed “Golden Hour.” (Read) Thieves are mining catalytic converters—the exhaust-control devices common in most cars—for palladium, which is now more expensive than gold. (Read) |
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What Else We’re Reading Nearly two dozen airports in the U.S. use private contractors for security screening instead of the TSA. Is it the way of the future? (Washington Post) A global scientific review says the world’s insects are headed down the path of extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems.” (Guardian) |
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Today’s Question and Answer In response to our question about the Supreme Court’s recent action on abortion: H.P. Boyle, Connecticut: As a man, I don’t know how men can presume to dictate to a woman what she can do with her own body. Let women decide. Rick Provencher, Massachusetts: I unequivocally believe in the sanctity of human life, which starts in the womb. A conviction of first degree, premeditated murder carries a harsher sentence, 25 years to life without parole in many states, than second degree, unintentional murder, 10-15 years. Yet when we consider birthing a child versus aborting a human being we use a completely different value system. When mankind condones abortion, at any term, we condone first degree, premeditated murder. “Legal” abortion swings votes. It’s palpable hypocrisy. Bridget Barry, Kansas: On an intellectual level, restrictions on reproductive health care that are propagated completely by men scream arrogance. Women governing communities who choose to restrict reproductive rights have legitimacy not colored by historical oppression. On an emotional level, as a young woman who feels conflicted (personally find procedures abhorrent, but have friends who have undergone them and understand economic realities that necessitate decision), I just have such a weariness of all the self-righteousness on both sides. Question for tomorrow’s 10-Point: Going back to our article above, what are your thoughts on the proliferation of free college programs around the U.S.? Email us your comments, which we may edit before publication, to 10point@wsj.com, and make sure to include your name and location. |
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| The 10-Point was the name given to the news column that runs on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Today’s newsletter was curated and edited by Eleanor Miller (eleanor.miller@wsj.com) in collaboration with Editor in Chief Matt Murray. Let us know what you think by replying to this email. Editor’s note: The 10-Point is now a WSJ member benefit. If you receive our flagship newsletter and are not yet a member, we’ll continue sending it to you for now. To ensure you don’t miss out, we invite you to join us and enjoy the full breadth of scoops, analysis and great storytelling from our journalists around the globe. |
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