Stocks climbed to a new high amid hopes that a proposed partial trade deal between America and China will ease a key risk for investors heading into the end of December. Treasuries and the dollar fell. —Josh Petri

Here are today’s top stories

The potential deal, even if signed, won’t mean the end to trade hostilities. It would be a temporary respite at best, doing nothing to address a wide range of industrial policies that have driven Beijing and Washington apart.

While America’s economy has grown for more than a decade, that growth is increasingly concentrated. Just 31 counties made up 32.3% of U.S. gross domestic product in 2018.

Boeing shares tumbled on reports that the company will temporarily halt production of its grounded 737 Max (two of which crashed, killing 346 passengers). Chinese airlines have already largely stopped hiring foreign pilots to fly the embattled jet, jobs that once paid $300,000.

American carriers who buy from Airbus want the jet manufacturer to make their planes at its sole U.S. plant, in Mobile, Alabama. It’s the only facility owned by the European company where the Trump administration’s 10% tariffs don’t apply.

Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudolph Giuliani, personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, said a $1 million transfer into his wife’s bank account from Russia wasn’t an attempt to conceal his assets.

Amazon contends that FedEx’s delivery performance is slipping. So the Internet giant will no longer let third-party merchants use FedEx’s ground delivery network for quick Prime shipments through the holidays.

What’s Cecile Gutscher thinking about?The Bloomberg cross-asset editor says 2019’s stampede into environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investments is paying off since the investments are outperforming the market. You can see the divergence at play in two JPMorgan indexes that track bonds of emerging market nations. The issuers that fit a criteria of being socially responsible delivered a 5 percentage point-higher return than a wider-based equivalent this year. The news may not be all good, though. Cecile warns that forcing fund managers to account for their green investments through the lens of market returns may end up doing little more than driving up valuations, according to a recent column in the Financial Times by Jonathan Ford.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Checkout

Retailers Allowed Free Returns and We Ruined It

Jaime Webb loves buying clothes online. And returning clothes she buys online. She’ll order the same item in several sizes, just in case, spending, briefly, as much as $600. Keeping what fits best, she sends the rest in for refunds. “They make the returns process so easy,” said Webb, 31, an American Airlines flight service manager who lives in Brooklyn. “It’s almost like, why not?” That’s the core of the problem. Now some in the industry that created the monster are trying to put it back in its cage, including threatening to cut off serial returners.

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