“The trick is not to be the hottest stock-picker, the winningest forecaster, or the developer of the neatest model; such victories are transient. The trick is to survive! Performing that trick requires a strong stomach for being wrong because we are all going to be wrong more often then we expect. “ — Peter Bernstein

1. Intel To Buy Mobileye for $14B-$15B — Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) agreed to buy Mobileye (NYSE:MBLY), a leading manufacturer of software for autonomous vehicles, for $14B-$15B. There are no industry standards for relatively nascent driverless-car technology, and being in the lead now could set Intel up for long-term dominance. The move, if approved, would leapfrog Intel ahead of Qualcomm and Nvidia, said Rolland. That’s even as Qualcomm’s pending $39 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NXPI, -0.22% gives it a suite of automotive chips and Nvidia’s partnership with Bosch and Audi puts it on track to get Level 4 driverless cars—almost fully autonomous—on the road by 2020.
2. Pershing’s Ackman Exits Valeant(VRX) — Long-time Valeant Pharmaceuticals bull Bill Ackman has apparently waved the white flag. CNBC reports that he sold 27.2M shares for around $11 each, taking a loss of more than $3B after trying to rescue the struggling drug company for some 18 months.
3. International Energy Agency (IEA) Noted Oil demand to ease in 2017 — in its latest monthly report, the IEA cautioned that the market was still dealing with a vast amount of past supply, but added the compliance rate from OPEC’s production cuts averaged 98% during the first two months of the deal. While oil demand is expected to drop from 1.6M bpd last year to 1.4M bpd in 2017.
4. The U.S. Federal Reserve Raised Interest Rates For The Second Time In Three Months — the decision by the FOMC to lift the target overnight interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 0.75 percent to 1.00 percent marked a convincing step in the Fed’s effort to return monetary policy to a more normal footing. The Fed also stuck to its outlook for two additional rate increases this year and three more in 2018. The central bank lifted rates once in 2016. However, they did not flag any plan to accelerate the pace of monetary tightening, with the policy-setting committee reiterating and Yellen emphasizing that future rate increases would be “gradual.” At the current pace, rates would not return to a neutral level until the end of 2019.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: