Your Evening Briefing

Josh Petri

01 Jan 2020, 04:19 AM IST

(Bloomberg) --

Carlos Ghosn, the fallen automotive titan facing trial for financial crimes, fled to Lebanon to escape what he called Japan’s “rigged” justice system. The dramatic exit followed Ghosn’s equally dramatic arrest just over a year ago in Tokyo on charges of financial misconduct. Lebanon, where the former head of Nissan and Renault grew up and has citizenship, provides legal protection against extradition. “I have not fled justice,” Ghosn said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “I have escaped injustice and political persecution.” How he got to Lebanon is unclear. The internet, as usual, has some theories.

Here are today’s top stories

Dozens of Iraqi militiamen and their supporters stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday to protest deadly U.S. airstrikes against their Iranian-backed force, as President Donald Trump blamed Tehran.

Trump said he will sign the first phase of a trade deal with China on Jan. 15, sealing an agreement that sees the Asian nation raising purchases of American farm goods in exchange for lower tariffs on some of its products.

Asia's richest man has started testing an online shopping portal offering free delivery and a return policy that asks no questions. Sound familiar?

Bitcoin was slow to break through at first. Fraud, thefts and scams turned away many and brought closer regulatory scrutiny. But once it burst into the mainstream, it proved to be the decade’s best-performing asset.

U.S. stocks capped one of the best years of the past decade with a slight gain, pushing the S&P 500 to an annual advance of 29% and a record $5.9 trillion in value added.

Chancellor Angela Merkel called global warming “real” and “dangerous” in her New Year’s address, promising that Germany will make every effort to combat climate change.

What’s A. Gary Shilling thinking about? The Bloomberg Opinion columnist says the U.S. economy has experienced its slowest recovery from a recession in the post-World War II era, and the longer it lasts the more evidence there is that normal cyclical patterns are missing. Their absence, Shilling says, means market participants shouldn’t rely on them to divine the economy’s future.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

Indexing was huge in 2019 but the real money was in index stocks.
The strongest major currency this year could stall out in 2020.
Hong Kong rang in the new year with more democracy protests.
Australia's wildfire crisis worsened on Tuesday.
Florida netted $16 billion from people moving to the Sunshine State.
Dutch car buyers may help Tesla meet its annual delivery goal.
These are the top nine dive watches of the year.

What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Technology

Netflix has been making its own movies for years, but 2019 may be remembered as the year it truly became a film studio. The company released nearly 60 English-language feature films over the course of 2019, including Oscar contenders “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story.” That's double or even triple the output of Hollywood's biggest studios. “I’m very proud of this slate," Scott Stuber, Netflix’s film chief, said in an interview. "I can look you in the eye and say we’ve made as good movies this fall as anybody.”