Opening Bell: 11.21.17

Yellen, denied second term as Fed chair, announces resignation (Politico)
Trump indicated that his decision not to keep Yellen — making her the first Fed chief not to receive a second term since the 1970s — stemmed from his desire to make his own mark on the central bank. Her resignation letter underscored the importance of the Fed's independence, which is viewed as crucial to separating key monetary policy decisions from short-term politics.

AT&T Lawsuit Over Time Warner Shows Tough U.S. Turn on Antitrust (BBG)
The U.S. lawsuit to stop AT&T's takeover of Time Warner has sparked accusations that the Justice Department, driven by political meddling from the Trump White House, is pursuing a risky case that it’s bound to lose. Yet the move actually follows a mainstream approach to antitrust policy that sees risks to competition even from mergers that don’t combine direct competitors. The difference this time is the hard line drawn by the government on how to fix the resulting harm.

This Robot Said to Sell Facebook. Next Time It May Be Right (Businessweek)
On Oct. 6 a note from Wells Fargo & Co.’s equity research department downgraded Facebook Inc. to sell, making it one of only three brokerages with such a dour rating. The analyst making the call was unusual, too. Its name is Aiera, or artificially intelligent equity research analyst...It’s worth mentioning that the Facebook call proved a dud. The stock rose, and some investors dismissed the technology. “That was a disappointment,” says Sena.

Michel Barnier warns City of London to scale down Brexit hopes (FT)
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, suggested that after Brexit the UK would have no preferential access for financial services other than patchy “equivalence” arrangements, such as those with the US or Singapore. “On financial services, UK voices suggest that Brexit does not mean Brexit,” he said. “Brexit means Brexit, everywhere.”

Here's the early proposal for Anthony Scaramucci's book, which is now dead in the water (BI)
"If Scaramucci has at times been so frustrated by Washington that he was driven to colorful language, it's really because he's a 'facts' guy, not a 'spin' guy," the proposal said. "As this book explains, he came to Washington, DC from the world of finance in New York City — a world of hard numbers that can't always be sugarcoated or wished away in some pretty speech. Washington could benefit from the wisdom of a few more hardheaded numbers guys, as this book will explain."

Don’t Sell Your Company’s Private Jet Fleet Just Yet (WSJ)
The findings were strongest for firms that had the most widely spread business operations and would seem to benefit from being able to have executives hopscotch from location to location. Also benefiting from jet travel: firms in industries with high research and development costs, for whom complicated information sharing requires face-to-face explanations.

Bitcoin Falls on $31 Million Hack of Cryptocurrency Peer Tether (BBG)
The company behind tether, a cryptocurrency used by bitcoin exchanges to facilitate trades with fiat currencies, announced the theft on Tuesday. It said in a statement that a “malicious” attacker removed tokens from the Tether Treasury wallet on Nov. 19 and sent them to an unauthorized bitcoin address. The company said it’s trying to prevent the stolen coins from being used. Bitcoin dropped as much as 5.4 percent to $7,798.72, before paring declines to 0.7 percent.

C.E.O. Deficit Fears Dissolve With the Prospect of Corporate Tax Cuts (NYT)
Only a handful of public company executives have raised questions about the viability of the tax plan and its impact on the long-term fiscal health of the economy. One of them is Howard Schultz, executive chairman of Starbucks, who told me two weeks ago: “If you talk about tax reform, which is in the news every minute of every day, this is not tax reform. This is fool’s gold.” When I asked him about Mr. Dimon’s support for the tax plan, he said: “He’s a lot smarter than me, but I don’t agree with him.”

Quant Strategies In The Cryptocurrency Space (Factor Research)
Given that the returns for Mean-Reversion were consistently negative, the opposite strategy might be attractive. We define Short-term Momentum as buying last week’s winners and shorting last week’s losers. We can observe that this strategy would have generated strong returns over the last few years.

Cocky Navy Pilots Make ‘Sky Penises’ Over Washington State (HuffPo)
The drawings appeared Thursday evening, quickly attracting attention from locals like Ramone Duran. Duran told the Spokesman-Review newspaper he was running errands when he saw a jet start to make designs in the sky with contrails. “After it made the circles at the bottom, I knew what it was and started laughing,” Duran said. “It was pretty funny to see that. You don’t expect to see something like that.”