Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Nepal meets India to discuss demonetization. The nations share an open border and Indian currency is widely accepted in Nepal. The Himalayan kingdom still has plenty of the now-defunct Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes and will ask its neighbor to allow them to be exchanged through banking channels.
Britain, Greece, and Turkey weigh in to solve the Cyprus problem. Foreign ministers from the three counties join talks in Geneva to figure out a security deal for a reunited Cyprus. The talks, between Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders trying to strike a reunification deal, have been going on all week.
JPMorgan Chase enjoys the Trump effect. Analysts predict strong fourth-quarter earnings for the bank. Expectations that Trump will remove a lot of regulations put in place after the 2008 financial crisis have already been good for its stock.
While you were sleeping
US troops began arriving in Poland. US tanks and armored vehicles and more than 3,000 soldiers started showing up on Thursday morning in the largest American show of strength in the region in decades. It’s the Obama administration’s last gesture of support to NATO in the face of Russia’s aggression in Eastern Europe; the incoming Trump administration is expected to be less NATO-friendly.
The US Senate pulled an all-nighter to kill Obamacare. Republicans worked into Thursday morning on a plan to repeal the health-care law, narrowly winning approval for a budget to replace it. The House is expected to vote on the resolution as early as Friday. Trump has said a replacement plan will be implemented “almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter,” so as not to leave millions of people uninsured.
Germany’s GDP hit a five-year high. The euro zone’s strongest economy powered ahead (paywall) with 1.9% growth in 2016, up from 1.7% in 2015. The weaker euro has been good for the country’s exporters. Low unemployment and robust consumer spending is expected to keep the economy chugging along in 2017.
Richemont clocked a successful quarter. The company that owns Cartier and Piaget had an unexpectedly good holiday season, with retail sales up 12% and revenue jumping 5% in the third quarter ending December. It’s a positive surprise in what was a rough year for luxury watchmakers.
Pharma firms got the Trump jitters. Shares in European drug firms took a nosedive on Thursday, as American ones had the day before, after the press conference in which the president-elect said pharmaceutical companies were “getting away with murder” with their drug prices. Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, and Novartis were among the European stock-market losers.
Ban Ki-moon went home. The ex UN head arrived back in South Korea today and is expected to declare his candidacy (paywall) for president soon. Ban’s ratings have weakened recently thanks to his support of a deal to mend ties with Japan and a perception that his policies wouldn’t be that different to those of impeached president Park Geun-hye. It won’t help his image that his brother and nephew are embroiled in a foreign bribery case.
Quartz obsession interlude
Zoë Schlanger on the plight of the bumblebee: “Neonicotinoids, the class of widely used agricultural pesticides many experts believe is helping decimate the bee population, are unlikely to be banned while Donald Trump and his cabinet are in office… Myron Ebell, Trump’s pick to lead the EPA’s transition, directly opposes the regulation of neonicotinoids through the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy group.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
The City of London shouldn’t worry about Brexit. There is effectively no EU single market when it comes to financial services (paywall).
Global elites are worried about environmental catastrophes. The World Economic Forum says the fear of climate change disasters outpaces concerns about financial markets.
Mark Zuckerberg’s presidential to-do list is nearly complete. The Facebook CEO is ticking all the boxes for a 2020 run.
Surprising discoveries
A baroque hacking scandal in Italy is worthy of a Dan Brown novel. An Italian brother and sister used malware to target 18,000 political and business leaders.
The FTSE 100 has set a new record high every day since Christmas. The dramatic run-up is mostly due to the pound’s sharp decline.
Apple has already cornered over 40% of the wireless headphone market. AirPods are a much-needed hit right out of the gate.
Half a million Dutch cows are facing death. Their prodigious generation of manure threatens to violate EU environmental regulations.
Poland is the China of Europe when it comes to air pollution. Unlike most of the continent, Poles still rely on coal for most of their electricity.
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