Insider Trading

• Battered oil wins respite, lifts stocks (Reuters)
• Oil Halts Decline as Emerging Market Stocks Climb on China (BBG)
• Bonds Set to Beat Stocks Globally in 2015 After China Falters (BBG)
• SpaceX Falcon rocket nails safe landing in pivotal space feat (Reuters)
• China Leaders Flag More Stimulus After Top Economic Meeting (BBG)
• SEC to Retrench Case Against SAC’s Steven A. Cohen (WSJ)

“Communist Party graft busters have been taking officials, one by one, to a hotel close to the [CSRC’s] headquarters to press them to come clean or report on others."

Less than two weeks after Guotai chief Yim Fung went "missing" amid Beijing's reinvigorated crackdown on market "manipulators," Citic Securities - China's largest broker - says it cannot find two of its most prominent investment bankers. Considering recent events, you don't have to be a detective to make an educated guess as to what might have happened to Jianlin Yan and Jun Chen.

"You can't 'comply' because there is no rule of law. The best thing you can do is establish processes for who is likely to be taken away, and how to make sure they aren't disappeared forever."

Researchers at Duke University and the University of California at Berkeley point to quantitative evidence that The Fed consistently leaks non-public information about its meetings, driving an investment pattern that has led to market gains.

• Mario Draghi Is About to Become the World's Market Risk Manager (BBG)
• Five Things to Ask Mario Draghi From Negative Rates to QE (BBG)
• Leaving behind baby and bombs, couple sows panic in California (Reuters)
• Couple's motive in California rampage a mystery for police, family (Reuters)
• In Grim Ritual, Barack Obama Again Calls for Stricter Gun Control After Mass Shooting (WSJ)
• Islamic State Defeat Impossible Without Ground Force, Kerry Says (BBG)
• OPEC States Push for Output Cuts in Face of Saudi Opposition (BBG)

From witch hunts to corporate defaults to abysmal data, Friday marked a rather unceremonious end to the week for China, as a veritable perfect storm of bad news sent the SHCOMP reeling. Unfortunately for China's day trading masses the plunge protection team was, like Guotai Junan International Holdings’ CEO Yim Fung, "missing" in action.

The China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association has submitted a request to Chinese regulators to probe "malicious" short-selling in domestic metal contracts amid recent price declines. Becase it is always the "malicious" sellers who are the cause of all the world's problems, never the "malicious" buyers, especially when said buyers are the central banks themselves.

A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. employee "hired to help it monitor computer systems for illicit activity" used the company’s own inside information to invest in mergers and acquisitions involving the bank’s clients, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

• European stocks up, oil slides as concerns ease over Russia-Turkey tension (Reuters)
• ECB discusses two-tiered bank charges, broader bond buys (Reuters)
• New agonies, alliances as Fed debates post-liftoff plan (Reuters)
• A New Military Power Rises in the Mideast, Courtesy of One Man (BBG)
• Russia's Gazprom says halts gas supplies to Ukraine over payment (Reuters)
• Other central banks set to act, but Swiss policy cupboard bare (Reuters)

Following yesterday's dramatic geopolitical shock, U.S. equity index futures rise as Russia has not escalated the confrontation with Turkey as some had feared, while Asian shares fall, reversing earlier gains. European stocks are rallying and the euro is falling on the back of a Reuters report that the ECB is mulling new measures to prop up lending, although it’s not clear at this point what the real impact from these measures would be.

On November 18, the Chairman and CEO of Guotai Junan went missing, and given what we know about China's crackdown on anyone suspected of engaging in activities that might send stocks lower, you know what that means...

The arrests or investigations targeting the finance industry in the aftermath of China’s summer market crash have intensified in recent weeks according to Bloomberg, creating a climate of fear among China’s finance firms and chilling their investment strategies. As one professor of Chinese economy noted, "some in the political leadership sought to find scapegoats to blame" for the market crash which along with massive intervention "created uncertainty and anxiety that can only undermine the effort to make these markets work better."

“The authorities have arrested a lot of people, but we still don’t have a clear picture regarding the real reasons behind it. Sometimes we just tell ourselves that we don’t really need to know the truth, as long as the market goes up.”

In his rejection of an SEC settlement with Citigroup, Judge Jed Rakoff vowed to "see that the truth emerges." After presiding over the most high-profile insider trading cases since the crisis -- including Raj Rajaratnam and Rajit Gupta -- Judge Rakoff has come to symbolize the mantra that "nobody is above the law." In determining that Valeant and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman must face insider trading charges for their failed takeover of Allergan, U.S. District Judge David Carter may be the "new Rakoff."