Quartz Daily Brief—Switzerland raids HSBC, UK employment drops, Ukraine retreats, Boston snow madness
Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
A third time lucky for Greece? Greece is expected to present euro zone partners with a new proposal for extending its bailout agreement beyond the end of the month, after rejecting two earlier attempts. Whether the proposal will pass muster with Germany and other big creditors could come down to semantics.
The UN Security Council meets on Libya. It will consider Egypt’s plea for a coalition to intervene in the country. Egyptian planes bombed targets in Libya yesterday after ISIL beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians, and an Islamist Libyan faction carried out its first airstrike against opponents in the town of Zintan.
Barack Obama speaks on extremism. The White House is hosting a three-day summit to discuss non-military strategies for fighting terrorist groups. Republicans are criticizing the president for refusing to directly link terrorism to Islam.
Russia reports retail sales and unemployment for January. The US will also release its industrial production figures, and the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve release minutes of their last policy meetings.
While you were sleeping
Switzerland raided HSBC. Police are searching the bank’s Geneva offices for evidence of money laundering, in the wake of leaks that document HSBC’s attempts to help clients evade taxes through the use of private Swiss accounts.
Britain’s unemployment rate fell. The jobless rate for December was a lower-than-expected 5.7%, a six-year low, and the growth in take-home pay outpaced inflation for the fourth month in a row.
Ukraine retreated from pro-Russian rebels. Kyiv’s forces pulled out of Debaltseve after separatists overran the contested eastern town, despite a purported ceasefire that is looking increasingly untenable. Russian president Vladimir Putin urged Ukrainian soldiers in the town to surrender.
A British journalist accused his employer of going easy on HSBC. The Daily Telegraph’s chief political commentator, Peter Oborne, resigned after accusing the paper of pulling its punches when covering HSBC, a major advertiser. The Telegraph allegedly deleted an article that questioned the bank’s finances, and downplayed recent revelations about how it used Swiss accounts to dodge taxes.
A change at the top for Carlsberg. The brewer named Dutchman Cees ‘t Hart as the first non-Danish CEO in its 168-year history. He faces a tricky turnaround: the company is Russia’s biggest beer company, and troubles there have been taking the fizz out of Carlsberg’s profits.
Warren Buffett dumped Exxon Mobil. The billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company disclosed that it sold a $3.7 billion stake in the energy giant as oil prices have plunged. The company also purchased a 5% stake in agriculture equipment maker John Deere, plus shares of Twenty-First Century Fox and Restaurant Brands International, the owner of Burger King and Tim Hortons.
Snapchat is seeking a valuation of $19 billion. The mobile messaging start-up is raising $500 million in new funding, according to Bloomberg, which implies a valuation that would put it behind only Uber and Xiaomi among venture-backed companies. Snapchat raised funds at a $10 billion valuation last year.
Quartz obsession interlude
Steve LeVine asks whether the oil price plunge is really just a blip. “No one predicted that many of the presumptions underlying our understanding of basic geopolitics and economics were about to be shaken fundamentally. So, should we now believe some of the oil industry’s main luminaries when they say, as they did at Davos last month, that the price turbulence we are currently witnessing is merely another of history’s usual cyclical busts, and that nothing fundamental is different?” Read more here.
Matters of debate
New leaks show the NSA is doing its job. Americans should applaud when spies out-hack the Chinese and Russians.
Don’t be so shocked about the Denmark shootings. The country is not as tolerant as it seems (paywall).
Get ready for $10 oil. Prices have a long way to fall before most major producers stop pumping.
Musical influence isn’t copyright infringement. If it’s not in the sheet music, it’s not admissible in court.
Surprising discoveries
Finnish reindeer have glow-in-the-dark antlers. Eat your heart out, Rudolph.
Midnight snacks are bad for your brain. Eating late made it harder for mice to learn and remember.
Cuba has an aggressive HIV strain. It develops into AIDS in less than three years, versus 10 years for other strains.
Walk like a penguin to avoid slipping on ice. Keep your body weight over your front leg.
Record snow has driven Bostonians crazy. But at least it breaks their falls when they jump out the window.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, penguin walking techniques, and snow plunges to [email protected]. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.