Reuters

• Oil up after U.S. crude stocks drop, still close to 11-year lows (Reuters)
• Global Stocks Rally; Mining, Metals Shares Lead Gains (WSJ)
• OPEC Sees Demand for Its Crude Oil Falling for Rest of Decade (BBG)
• The Trouble With Sovereign-Wealth Funds (WSJ)
• U.S. Calls for 256% Tariff on Imports of Steel From China (BBG)
• Iraqi troops expected to drive ISIS from Ramadi in days (Reuters)

• 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)

At least 91 people were missing after a giant mound of mud and construction waste spewed out of an overfull dump site in a southern China boomtown and buried 33 buildings in the country's latest industrial disaster.

Because the Novo Banco auction process went so smoothly, Portugal has decided to throw billions more in taxpayer dollars at a failed lender. This time it's Banif, which will be split into a "good" and "bad" bank just weeks ahead of new EU rules that would have seen uninsured depositors take a haircut as part of the wind down process.

Puerto Rico may be teetering on the verge of default but that doesn't mean public sector employees won't be going home with some extra cash for the holidays. Ten days before $1 billion in interest payments come due and two weeks after resorting to an absurd revenue clawback end-around to make a $354 million payment, the commonwealth just paid out $120 million in bonuses.

As you may recall, it hasn’t been a good year for Sepp Blatter despite being the recipient of some helicopter money back in July. On Monday, things got immeasurably worse for the 79-year-old, whose 17 year reign at the top of FIFA was suspended in October after Swiss prosecutors opened an investigation into an illicit payment made to European soccer boss Michel Platini in 2011.

• Splintered Spanish vote points to fraught coalition talks (Reuters)
• Brent Oil Falls to 11-Year Low in London as Global Glut Persists (BBG)
• Oil prices hit lowest since 2004 as supply balloons (Reuters)
• U.S. Probes Theranos Complaints (WSJ)
• Driver plows onto Las Vegas Strip sidewalk 'like bowling ball', one dead (Reuters)
• Yellen, Bull Markets and Extinction in a Seven-Year Stock Rally (BBG)

The Fed is now - for the first time in adult memory for half the world’s traders and money managers - tightening rather than loosening monetary conditions. A quick look at financial history is all it takes to lead anyone with leveraged money at risk to lighten up. Equally important - and vastly more strange when you think about it - this tightening comes at a time when major parts of the global economy are either grinding to a halt or imploding.

"I am not confirming or denying anything to do with this matter, but it is good that people like Samir Qantar will not be part of our world.

"Such acts of the Zionist regime, which have become a consistent method, are the most dangerous forms of state terrorism."

On Wednesday, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations said the agency has no evidence the married couple accused of killing 14 people in San Bernardino, California earlier this month had any connection to an active terror cell. This admission from the FBI directly contradicts media reports that immediately claimed the San Bernardino shooters were linked to Daesh (ISIS) via social media.

"Turkey and Qatar face common problems and we are both very concerned about developments in the region and uncertain policies of other countries. We confront common enemies. At this critical time for the Middle East cooperation between us is vital."

"In a worst case scenario, the real economy effects of the oil sector and the earnings slowdown hit the frothy commercial real estate and REIT sector, which in turn begin the widening of the contagion begun by energy high yield. Combine this with the sudden stop to lower quality energy credits I believe is inevitable and you likely have stall speed – or even recession. And that’s where subprime auto ABS, student loan securitization and US munis come into the picture for the US domestic economy. Those markets get hit in recession."

Commodities managers searched in despair; for solace, in cupboards, but cupboards were bare; BRIC managers looked at each other in shock, with a new acronym for EM markets – COCK.