Opening Bell: 11.14.17

Wall Street Fines Fall During First Year of Trump Administration, Research Shows (WSJ)
Fines against companies have particularly fallen off under Mr. Clayton, with the median fine down 35% compared to the same period one year earlier. Mr. Clayton “has nearly wholesale stopped enforcement against large financial firms” without explaining his strategy or preferences, she writes.

AT&T Ready to Probe the White House’s Role in Time Warner Deal (BBG)
AT&T Inc. will try to dig into whether the White House influenced the Justice Department’s review of the company’s planned takeover of Time Warner Inc. if the government sues to block the deal, according to people familiar with the matter. In the event of a trial over the $85.4 billion deal, AT&T intends to seek court permission for access to communications between the White House and the Justice Department about the takeover.

Wall Street's Invasion of the Legal Weed Market (II)
Robert Hunt, an attorney and former partner of Tuatara Capital who is now president of cannabis biopharmaceuticals company Teewinot Life Sciences, sees change coming to the California cannabis market, and it will presage what happens nationally. He predicts massive M&A opportunity as organizations try, and fail, to go legit. Over the next two to three years, one cannabis retailer, for example, may buy up several smaller companies and build a 60-store chain. “This will obliterate the cannabis market that exists today and create a brand new one run by adults,” says Hunt.

DEUTSCHE BANK: Something 'very unusual' is happening in markets (BI)
The S&P 500 has not fallen by 3% to 5% for 12 months. The historical average is every 2 to 3 months on average, Deutsche Bank observed. If the current streak without a pullback that large continues for two more weeks, it would become the longest-such rally ever.

Goldman Sachs marks stake in Weinstein Co down to zero (Reuters)
Last month, Goldman Sachs said it was trying to find a buyer for its stake in the Weinstein Company. A Goldman Sachs spokesman had said at the time that the bank valued the stake at less than $1 million.

Kremlin tells companies to deliver good news (Reuters)
“Life for the majority of people has become calmer, more comfortable, more attractive. But many such examples often escape the media’s attention,” said the first document. “Our task, through a creative and painstaking approach, is to select such topics and subjects and offer them to the media.” That document said the news items to be supplied were to feed a “positive news wire” and should correspond to two themes: “Life is getting better” and “How things were; how they are now.”

You Probably Tend Not to Read Articles With Headlines That Are This Long, But Maybe You Should (WSJ)
Reporters know that stories with short punchy headlines are the ones that get read. Tarik Umar is an economist so he isn’t allowed to just follow the received wisdom, but a randomized analysis he did of posts on crowd-sourced investment research site Seeking Alpha showed what reporters have always known in their guts is right: Short headlines, especially short negative headlines, draw more readers.

The Low Volatility Puzzle: Are Investors Complacent? (Liberty Street Economics)
On one hand, we present a view suggesting that historical volatility may have been abnormally high, rather than current volatility being abnormally low. On the other hand, we find that estimates of the volatility risk premium are somewhat low, which is consistent with the view that investor risk tolerance has increased.

LeBron James, Cavaliers ride the subway before Knicks game, fan doesn't recognize LeBron because he doesn't watch 'football' (NYDN)
The team, which was almost too big for the subway car, was squishing together for the ride after getting on at the 34th Street-Penn Station stop. LeBron panned the camera next to a random man sitting next to him who did not want any part of the NBA All-Star's video. "Can you not," the passenger said before moving his seat.