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A wild week for markets shook financial hubs from New York to Hong Kong—and gave whiplash to your average investor. Friday saw U.S. equities swing between big gains and three-month lows, before ending the worst week in two years on a positive note. Not everyone missed the signs of the impending volatility; one tiny hedge fund in Denver just made 8,600 percent on a VIX bet. So here’s to spending the weekend recovering on the couch, watching the Winter Olympics. —Katie Robertson
Has anyone seen the president? Bloomberg View columnist Michael Lewis went to Washington in search of Donald Trump. He wound up attending a White House press briefing, witnessing the president’s return from Davos, and lunching with former ethics watchdog Walter Shaub. But watching the State of the Union with Steve Bannon was the highlight. Lewis writes: "What Bannon thinks, I'm guessing, is that Trump does not understand how he got elected. He doesn’t understand the power of the anger he’s tapped, almost by accident. And he likely never will."
The White House is racing to rewrite the budget. The changes are being made in response to a two-year budget deal passed by lawmakers early Friday and signed within hours by Trump to end a brief government shutdown. The deal boosts spending caps by $300 billion, providing $90 billion in emergency disaster aid, and a raft of tax benefits and incentives for the energy industry.
Flu caused 1 in 10 deaths in America last week, and that number is likely to rise before we see the end. The levels of influenza-like illnesses being reported now are as high as the peak of the swine flu epidemic in 2009. It’s an unexpected phenomenon that public health experts are still trying to decode.
Uber agrees to pay Waymo $245 million in stock to settle the high-stakes trade-secret theft lawsuit, resolving a conflict that already cost the ride-hailing giant its top driverless car engineer and threatened to further embarrass the company. That would give the Alphabet driverless-car unit 0.34% of Uber equity, Waymo said.
You can no longer return duck boots after years of hard use. For more than a century, L.L. Bean has offered a lifetime returns on its products. Now, thanks to growing abuse of the program, the bootmaker is drastically cutting back on its generous policy. The company announced Friday it will impose a one-year limit on returns.
Climate change just got a little less terrible. A new analysis rules out the worst-case scenario, one where an overpopulated, technology-poor world digs up all the coal it can find. The researchers contend that current goals of reducing coal, oil and gas consumption may be closer than we think. But without radical change, we’re still in plenty of danger.
How to make the most of Paris in just two days. On your next visit to the French capital, forget your old favorites: The city has brand-new delights to show off. Innovation is sweeping Parisian restaurants and hotels, adding even more excuses to extend a business trip. Here’s where to eat, shop, and explore right now.
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