“The desire for constant action irrespective of underlying conditions is responsible for many losses in Wall Street even among the professionals, who feel that they must take home some money every day, as though they were working for regular wages.” – Jesse Livermore

1. T-Mobile, Sprint Deal Wins Approval, Reshaping Industry — a federal judge’s approval of T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint will test whether three giants will compete as aggressively for cellphone users as four unequal players once did. The opinion will leave most of the country’s wireless customers with three major network operators: Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and the new T-Mobile. New entrant Dish plans to use the deal as a springboard for its mobile ambitions, while U.S. cable companies are stuck with existing providers’ networks for their fledgling cellular services.
2. President Trump Unveilled $4.8 trillion budget — President Trump budget will propose steep reductions in social-safety-net programs and foreign aid and higher outlays for defense and veterans. The plan would increase military spending 0.3%, to $740.5 billion for fiscal year 2021, which begins Oct. 1. It will request $2 billion in new funding for border-wall construction, significantly less than the amount it sought last year. The proposal is unlikely to become law, however, as Democrats control the House and spending bills in the GOP-led Senate need bipartisan support.
3. FTC Expands Antitrust Investigation Into Big Tech — the Federal Trade Commission ordered five big tech companies to provide detailed information about their previous acquisitions of small companies, expanding the agency’s investigation into possible antitrust concerns in digital markets. The FTC ordered the companies— Amazon. com Inc., Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google owner Alphabet Inc. —to turn over information and documents relating to the scope, structure and purpose of their takeovers of smaller companies between 2010 and 2019.
4. Bernie Sanders Wins New Hampshire Primary — Sen. Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary Tuesday night in a narrow victory that ensures the race to challenge President Trump this November will remain heated.
With more than 85% of precincts reporting, Mr. Sanders, who is from neighboring Vermont, had 25.7% of the vote, followed by Pete Buttigieg with 24.4% and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota with 19.7%. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Vice President Joe Biden, who each have previously led the Democratic field in national polling, lagged well behind with less than 10% of the vote.
4. Mobile World Congress Called Off Amid Virus Worries — with swaths of individual companies pulling out of the exhibition over the past week, the GSMA telecoms association that hosts the get-together has called off the Feb. 24-27 event. Fears over the coronavirus outbreak were to blame despite assurances from local and national health officials that it would have been safe to hold it. The Mobile World Congress draws more than 100,000 visitors to Barcelona and is known as the year’s biggest event for the telecom industry.
5. Huawei Charged With Racketeering, Stealing Trade Secrets — Huawei Technologies Co. and two of its U.S. subsidiaries were charged with racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to steal trade secrets in a federal indictment. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said the new charges related to a decadeslong effort by Huawei and its subsidiaries, in the U.S. and China, to steal intellectual property, including from six U.S. technology companies. Prosecutors said Huawei’s efforts were successful and resulted in the company obtaining nonpublic intellectual property about robotics, cellular-antenna technology and internet-router source code. The alleged thefts allowed the company to cut costs and research-and-development delays, giving it an unfair competitive advantage

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: