Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Off to a bad start

Traders hoping that a wide-ranging yearend rally would pick up where it left off got a rude surprise Tuesday. Instead, they witnessed a market session that featured one of the worst-ever concerted drops in stocks and bonds to start a year. While the first-day performance says little about what markets will do for the rest of 2024, the synchronized retreat signaled at least some hesitation among investors to chase a fourth-quarter rally that lifted both US shares and long-dated Treasuries by more than 10%. “The most common concern or belief we have heard from investors is that overbought conditions and euphoric sentiment will set up for a reversal to start 2024 in both bond yields” and stocks, said Dennis DeBusschere, founder of 22V Research. “The overbought conditions and sentiment readings are tough to argue with.” —David E. Rovella 

D.E. Shaw’s biggest hedge fund returned just under 10% in 2023, a year that proved less charitable for many of its peers. The $60 billion firm is said to have gained 9.6% in its flagship Composite fund, which makes bets across various asset classes and geographies. The Oculus fund, which mostly makes macro wagers and is the firm’s second biggest, is said to have risen 7.8%.

A Zillow Group investor appears to have cashed in about $39 million in profits on a bullish options bet from late October, rolling some of it into a wager that last year’s real estate rally is set to continue. Call options bought back on Oct. 25 enabling the holder to buy some 3.4 million shares at $45 jumped in value as Zillow surged 60% in the last two months of the year. On Tuesday, the buyer appears to have sold them out after a 525% gain and picked up calls expiring in May that would allow them to purchase 5.1 million shares at $65.

China has front-loaded its oil import quotas for 2024, with an allocation to private refiners and traders that nearly matches all of the allowances granted for the whole of last year. Industry consultancy JLC said it’s the first time that almost a whole year’s quota has been issued in one go, and the injection of certainty should help smaller private operators map out their year. 

An oil tanker unloads imported crude oil at Qingdao port in China's eastern Shandong province. Source: STR/AFP

HSBC is set to debut an international payments app to directly challenge the dominance of fintechs with tens of millions of retail customers. Zing will initially be offered in the UK, but the bank is planning to roll out the service in other places in the coming months. The move shows how some global financial giants are seeking to compete against a slew of startups that have rapidly expanded by offering services ranging from cross-border payments to savings accounts and investing products on mobile devices.

Claudine Gay is stepping down from her role at Harvard University, a dramatic about-face from her acclaimed start in July as Harvard’s first Black president. As recently as Dec. 12, she enjoyed the unanimous backing of Harvard Corp., the university’s governing council. Since then, however, new questions have surfaced about her academic work, and a donor revolt over the school’s handling of antisemitism has only worsened.

Claudine Gay Photographer: Steven Senne/AP

US Senator Bob Menendez took bribes to help Qatar and a New Jersey developer seeking millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund, prosecutors said in a revised indictment of the New Jersey Democrat. The indictment alleges Menendez accepted bribes of cash and gold bars from developer Fred Daibes, who was seeking the Qatari fund investment. In exchange, Menendez allegedly took action favorable to Qatar. 

A Nobel Prize-winning labor market economist has cautioned younger generations against piling into studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects, or STEM, since “empathetic” and creative skills may be the ones that thrive in a world dominated by artificial intelligence. Christopher Pissarides, professor of economics at the London School of Economics, said workers in certain IT jobs risk sowing their “own seeds of self-destruction” by advancing AI that will eventually take the same jobs.

Christopher Pissarides Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

• Here’s almost everything Wall Street expects to happen this year.
• Hamas says Israel killed one of its senior officials in a Beirut strike.
• Japan airlines flight was cleared to land before fiery Tokyo collision.
• At least 30 dead in aftermath of Japan quake that toppled buildings.
• A minor earthquake struck New York City. No injuries were reported.
• Bloomberg Opinion: The Trump comet and other 2024 predictions.
• As renewables grow, here are creative ways to reuse wind turbine blades.

  This Is Where You Should Go in 2024

  This is going to be a record-setting year for travel. The International Air Transport Association predicted 4.7 billion people will jump on planes in the coming year, generating some $964 billion on airfare alone. Wellness tourism is seeing a boom, too, set to reach $1 trillion this year. Even business travel is projected to exceed pre-pandemic levels. Travelers will find new hotels that dazzle and impress, whether intimate, Indigenous-owned getaways or reimagined all-inclusive resorts. A new generation of chefs are likewise eager to create radically new dining traditions in their hometowns. And the seemingly endless thirst for cultural discovery and well-preserved landscapes is creating opportunities for less-heralded destinations to emerge. With that in mind, we’ve assembled the 24 most exciting places to travel in 2024. 

  

  Where to go in 2024. Source: Elxeneize/Alamy

  Get the Bloomberg Evening Briefing: If you were forwarded this newsletter, sign up here to receive Bloomberg’s flagship briefing in your mailbox daily—along with our Weekend Reading edition on Saturdays.

  Bloomberg House at Davos: Meaningful change happens when the right people come together in the right place. Bloomberg House in Davos is where leaders in business, media and policymaking connect, exploring solutions to the world’s most critical challenges. Make our house your home base at the World Economic Forum, Jan. 15-18. Find us at Promenade 115, a five minute walk from the Congress Centre. Register to join.