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Theresa May has agreed a draft Brexit withdrawal agreement with Brussels. Her cabinet backed it on Wednesday - but there have since been resignations.
Two cabinet ministers, and two junior ministers, have resigned over the deal - while some Conservative MPs have attempted to force a leadership contest by writing letters of no confidence in the prime minister. What happens now?
The basics: A reminder
The UK is due to leave the European Union at 23:00 GMT on Friday 29 March, 2019, after people voted by 51.9% to 48.1% for Leave in the 2016 referendum.
The UK and the EU have spent more than a year trying to agree on how the divorce - as it's often called - will work in practice.
Mrs May announced that a deal had been reached, and approved by cabinet, on Wednesday evening. But two cabinet ministers have since resigned.
The deal would also need to get the stamp of approval from MPs and, finally, the 27 other EU member states.
What has been agreed between the UK and EU?
A draft agreement on Britain's withdrawal from the European Union - including how much money will be paid to the EU, a 21-month transition period after Brexit day next March and commitments on the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens living in the EU.
It is not a trade deal - that will be hammered out during the transition period, if all goes as planned. They have also agreed to the text of a separate, shorter statement on the UK's future relationship with the EU, including the kind of trade deal the two sides want.
So what about a trade deal?
Alongside the 585-page withdrawal agreement is a five-page "political declaration" setting out what future UK and EU relations will look like.
This is a broad outline and is not binding - the details of a trade deal will be worked out during the transition period with both the EU and UK hoping to have an agreement in place by December 2020.
The political declaration envisages "a free trade area and deep co-operation on goods, with zero tariffs and quotas".
There would be "ambitious customs arrangements" that "build on" the arrangements in the withdrawal agreement.
The two sides say they want this new arrangement to solve the Irish border problem, removing the need for that troublesome backstop.
Have they solved the Irish border issue?
This was the major sticking point in talks with Brussels. Both sides are committed to avoiding a return to a visible Northern Ireland border with guard posts and checks. They believe that bringing them back would put the peace process at risk.
So they agreed to put in place a "backstop" - a kind of safety net to ensure there is no hard border whatever the outcome of future trade talks between the UK and the EU.
The backstop will mean that Northern Ireland would stay aligned to some EU rules on things like food products and goods standards.
That will prevent the needs for checks on goods at the Irish border, but would require some products being brought to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK to be subject to new checks and controls.
The backstop would also involve a temporary single custom territory, effectively keeping the whole of the UK in the EU customs union.
But this bit is controversial - Brexiteers do not like the prospect of being tied to EU customs rules, and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party has said it will not tolerate anything that creates a new border down the Irish Sea.
The role of the European Court of Justice - which will still have jurisdiction in the UK on customs and single market rules - could also spark protests.
Mrs May says she does not want to have to use the backstop at all - and the withdrawal agreement says the UK and the EU will resolve to ensure it is not necessary by coming up with alternative arrangements.
They could also extend the transition if there is no long-term solution in place by July 2020 - but only once.
What else is in the agreement?
Who has resigned?
Dominic Raab resigned as Brexit secretary on Thursday morning, telling BBC News he quit the cabinet over "fatal flaws" in the draft agreement. He added the UK should be ready to risk a no-deal Brexit in the face of EU "blackmail".
Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey and junior Brexit minister Suella Braverman have also quit, as have Anne-Marie Trevelyan, a ministerial aide at the education department, and Ranil Jayawardena, a ministerial aide at the justice department.
Northern Ireland minister Shailesh Vara was the first to resign over Mrs May's agreement on Thursday morning, saying, it "leaves the UK in a halfway house with no time limit on when we will finally be a sovereign nation".
On Thursday afternoon, Rehman Chishti, the MP for Gillingham and Rainham, announced his resignation as vice-chairman of the Conservative Party and also as the prime minister's trade envoy to Pakistan.
Is there going to be a leadership challenge?
A number of Conservatives have said publicly that they have written letters to Sir Graham Brady - the chair of the 1922 Committee, made up of backbench MPs - saying they have no confidence in Mrs May's leadership.
These include the head of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and former minister John Whittingdale.
Party rules say that if Sir Graham receives 48 letters - the equivalent of 15% of MPs - it will trigger a vote of confidence.
If Mrs May wins that a secret ballot, she would be immune from another challenge for a year. But if she lost, there would be a leadership contest, and she would not be able to stand.
Sir Graham will not reveal the number of letters he receives until he gets to that magic number.
And it is not yet clear how any of this will affect Brexit and the outcome of talks.
So what happens next?
An emergency EU summit is due to be held on 25 November, where EU leaders are expected to sign off on the withdrawal agreement and future relationship declaration.
If Mrs May survives as PM she faces the fight of her life to get MPs to vote for it.
Any vote is expected to take place around 7 December.
Mrs May does not have a Commons majority and many MPs on her own side - as well as Labour and the other opposition parties - are sceptical about her Brexit plans, or openly hostile to them. The DUP, which Mrs May relies on in key votes, has already said it is likely to vote against it, claiming it will lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom.
A number of Conservative MPs on both the Remain and Leave wings of the party have also said they will vote against it.
If Mrs May loses the vote, we enter uncharted territory. She may seek to renegotiate with the EU but most expect her time in No10 to end. There could be a general election and/or a new prime minister.
Some Tory and Labour MPs hope Mrs May will head that off by postponing Brexit day and calling another referendum, something she has consistently ruled out.
On Thursday EU leaders played down talk of renegotiating the deal, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying there was "no question" of reopening talks.
Mrs May herself said that if MPs did not unite behind the agreement, "nobody can know for sure the consequences that will follow" and it would mean taking "a path of deep and grave uncertainty".
2. Bitcoin plummets under $6,000 to a new low for the year after months of stability, CNBC
Nov 15, 2018
Bitcoin's moment of relative stability ended abruptly Wednesday.
The world's largest cryptocurrency hit its lowest level of the year, falling as much as 9 percent to a low of $5,640.36, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin had been trading comfortably around the $6,400 range for the majority of the fall, a stark contrast from its volatile trading year.
Other cryptocurrencies fared even worse on Wednesday. Ether fell as much as 13 percent while XRP, the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, dropped 15 percent, according to CoinMarketCap.com.
The rout is likely being spurred by uncertainty around bitcoin cash, according to founder and CEO of BKCM, Brian Kelly.
That cryptocurrency was down 18 percent ahead of a "hard fork" scheduled for November 15. The two digital currencies will split into "Bitcoin ABC," or core Bitcoin Cash, and "Bitcoin SV," short for "Satoshi's Vision." Bitcoin Cash itself is a result of a fork from bitcoin, after a disagreement on the best way to scale a digital currency.
The entire cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped by $15 billion over 24 hours Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap.com. The total market cap $85 billion, down more than 70 percent since the start of this year.
From a technical analysis standpoint, as bitcoin falls below $6,000 it's possible that stop loss orders are automatically going into effect and investors are "trying to play the breakout," eToro Senior Market Analyst Mati Greenspan said.
Spillover from U.S. stock markets, led lower by Apple on Wednesday, could also be weighing on crypto prices.
"Another contributing factor is the selloff in tech stocks, which could be having a spillover effect into crypto markets," Greenspan said.
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GE was once America's most valuable company. Today it is fighting junk-bond status, CNBC.
Nov 17, 2018
Once-mighty General Electric is fighting to stay off the junk heap.
GE's stock has become a sliver of its former self, and its bonds are now trading as if they are already junk-rated. That puts pressure on new CEO Larry Culp to quickly raise cash and cut debt to keep its debt rating from falling further to sub-investment grade junk status, otherwise known as high-yield.
"When the market begins to price you to junk status, you have a very limited time to clear that up before you become junk," said Thomas Tzitzouris, director and head of fixed income research at Strategas. "Whether their plan is viable or not, they're running out of time."
Tzitzouris said GE is not even close to becoming high-yield rated yet, but it will have to prove it deserves to stay investment grade. The company's goal is to regain its A rating after S&P cut it to BBB-plus last month. But should GE become a 'fallen angel,' its debt service costs would rise and it would face a new round of selling pressure on both its stock and bonds.
Six weeks ago, Culp replaced John Flannery, who was viewed as too slow at fixing what ailed the conglomerate after he took over from long time CEO Jeff Immelt. Culp was once CEO of Danaher Corp., a science and technology conglomerate
This week GE moved to sell $3.7 billion of its stake in oil field services company Baker Hughes. On Friday, GE took another step toward its previous announced planned $25 billion reduction in GE Capital assets with the sale of its $1.5 billion healthcare equipment finance portfolio to TIAA Bank.
But GE needs to continue to show results and too many questions remain, strategists say.
Goldman Sachs equity analysts Friday cut their target on GE shares to $9 from $12, and said they do not "see GE as inexpensive given its leverage profile... and tail risk associated with GE Capital."
GE stock fell more than 2 percent and was trading below $8 Friday. Goldman analysts said it is still unclear how much of a capital infusion GE Capital will need. They said the funding gap could be as much as $20 billion through 2020, which could be filled by asset sales and an equity infusion from its parent.
The Goldman analysts also said GE's power business sales continue to decline, and they expect 2019 to be another down year. These are the type of doubts swirling around both GE's stock and debt.
"What investors generally don't like is uncertainty and lack of direction. We're transitioning through that period right now," Jonathan Duensing, director investment grade corporate debt at Amundi Pioneer. "The more clarity and the more action the management team can deliver on, that will start to really repair the situation, not only for the business itself but from a confidence standpoint. A lot of this is because investors' confidence has been shaken."
Culp said, in an interview this week, that he feels the "urgency" to reduce the company's leverage and will do so through asset sales. He said there could be a possible IPO of the company's health care business.
"We have no higher priority right now than bringing those leverage levels down," Culp said Monday in an interview on "Squawk on the Street" with CNBC's David Faber.
GE has about $115 billion in debt, which it easily built up when it was one of just a few blue chips with a coveted triple-A standing. But GE lost that crown in 2009. The company has a mix of debt, and has access to $40 billion in revolving credit lines.
Once beloved for its healthy dividend and earnings consistency, GE found it no longer could afford the quarterly payout and recently reduced it to just a penny to free up cash. GE stock has cratered to levels it reached during the financial crisis. On top of that, the SEC has been investigating its accounting, including the $22 billion non-cash charge it took in the third quarter related to acquisitions in its power business.
GE's ripples were felt across the bond market this week, and its woes are one reason for the jump in spreads in corporate and high-yield debt. Investment grade spreads widened out by about 10 basis points and high yield by about 40 through Thursday.
"The big fear in the market all year has been that you have a lot of very large BBB rated structures and eventually some of these could be downgraded into high yield. Then comes GE. GE obviously is an ongoing story but now recently they actually got downgraded to BBB. GE is a very large BBB rated structure and it's pricing like high yield," said Hans Mikkelsen, head of high grade credit structure at Bank of American Merrill Lynch. Mikkelsen said he's not an expert on GE but the market views it as having downgrade risk.
A big credit sliding into the junk bond world would pressure yields in that market and trigger forced selling in the downgraded credit.
"Is this the beginning of a downgrade to high yield? My view is no. This is not that story. To me, GE was a single A-rated name that may or may not end up high yield for completely idiosyncratic reasons," Mikkelsen said.
Mikkelsen said other factors were also moving the market this week, including the steep drop in oil, and the turbulence in bonds of PG&E, the California utility which said earlier this week its insurance may not cover its potential liabilities in the . He expects to see corporates stabilize and see buying into year end.
GE BBB-plus senior debt is now three steps above junk, and it is also part of the largest BBB tier in the $5 trillion investment grade debt market. Half the investment grade market is now rated BBB, another concern in the market.
Mikkelsen said GE has about $50 billion in debt that is BBB rated, which is equal to about 0.8 percent of the investment grade market but would be 3.9 percent of the $1.2 trillion high yield market. It is 1.5 percent of BBBs.
"Our view is that GE is small enough, and the story sufficiently idiosyncratic, to leave other large BBB capital structures relatively little affected as this story plays out," Mikkelsen wrote.
But strategists say GE has to clarify where it is going. In the interview, Culp said the troubled power business was close to bottoming.
Duensing also said GE is not representative of trouble for the BBB tier of the market. "It's not a BBB thing. This is a company that has been struggling to manage their overall business platforms from an operational standpoint, and now it's in a situation where it's not only impacting the equity price, it's impacting the debt spreads because credit agencies moved on the credit rating and investors have lost confidence," he said. "That's a more specific issue."
But still, GE is a big new member of the BBB ranks, at a time when interest rates are rising and investors are concerned about where potential problems may be found in the next economic downturn.
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