Venezuela Misses Another Debt Payment, Raising Stakes for Bondholders (WSJ)
The ratings firm said Tuesday that Venezuela failed to make $35 million in coupon payments for its bonds due in 2018 within a 30-day grace period. The government and the state-owned oil company are now behind on $1.28 billion in payments, according to investment firm Caracas Capital. S&P classifies these missed payments as defaults. The firm also said there is a one-in-two chance that Venezuela will default on payments due within the next three months.

Mifid II launch overshadowed by futures delay (FT)
Underlining the complexity of the Mifid II reforms that touch on everything from the cost of analysts’ research to the trading of equities, Ice Futures Europe and the London Metal Exchange were given an extra 30 months to comply with rules related to trading and clearing on the very day they were due to come into force. Eurex, the Frankfurt-based futures exchange owned by Deutsche Börse, was given a similar delay late on Tuesday by BaFin, Germany’s national regulator.

Stock Fund That Beats 95% of Peers Ignores CEO Talk, Research (BBG)
“General Motors is still very undervalued and the antithesis of Tesla,” he said. “And they have a female CEO, which is quite rare. If you can make it as a CEO, i.e. as a woman, when Caucasian males are over represented as CEO’s and in boardrooms etc..., it’s probably because you are doing a very good job."

Hotshot broker served with SEC subpoena on Christmas Eve (NYP)
“This should raise some eyebrows in the Trump administration, since he keeps talking about deregulation and stopping the harassment,” Gentile griped to The Post on Tuesday. “Trump you need to fire some people!”

Meet The Crypto Billionaires Getting Rich From Ripple's XRP (Forbes)
Cofounder and former CEO Chris Larsen, who stepped down in November 2016 and now serves as executive chairman of Ripple, has 5.19 billion XRP in his personal holdings and a 17% stake in the company, according to sources at Ripple. That gives him a net worth of $37.3 billion, using Monday’s exchange rate.

Buyer Beware: Bart Does Crypto (Streetwise Prof)
OilCoin is a venture that allows the managers to use the issue of cryptocurrency to fund totally unconstrained speculations in oil subject to virtually none of the investor protections extended to the purchasers of securities in corporations, investors of closed end funds, or buyers of ETFs. All sickeningly ironic given the very public participation of a guy who inveighed against speculation in oil and the need for strict regulation of those investing other people’s money. My suggestion is that if you are really hot for an ICO backed by a blonde, buy whatever Paris Hilton is touting these days, and avoid BartCoin like the plague.

All Intel Processors Made in the Last Decade Might Have a Massive Security Flaw (Gizmodo)
There’s small screwups and big screwups. Here is tremendously huge screwup: Virtually all Intel processors produced in the last decade have a major security hole that could allow “normal user programs—from database applications to JavaScript in web browsers—to discern to some extent the layout or contents of protected kernel memory areas,” the Register reported on Tuesday.

Byron Wien Announces Ten Surprises for 2018 (Blackstone)
3. The dollar finally comes to life. Real growth exceeds 3% in the United States, which, coupled with the implementation of some components of the Trump pro-business agenda, renews investor interest in owning dollar-denominated assets, and the euro drops to 1.10 and the yen to 120 against the dollar. Repatriation of foreign profits held abroad by U.S. companies helps.
4. The U.S. economy has a better year than 2017, but speculation reaches an extreme and ultimately the S&P 500 has a 10% correction. The index drops toward 2300, partly because of higher interest rates, but ends the year above 3000 since earnings continue to expand and economic growth heads toward 4%.

“Oh My God, This Is So Fucked Up”: Inside Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side (Vanity Fair)
“It’s awesome,” says Founder X. At work, he explains, “you’re well funded. You have relative traction.” Outside work, “why do I have to compromise? Why do I have to get married? Why do I have to be exclusive? If you’ve got a couple girls interested in you, you can set the terms and say, ‘This is what I want.’ You can say, ‘I’m happy to date you, but I’m not exclusive.’ These are becoming table stakes for guys who couldn’t get a girl in high school.”