“If you take emotion – would be, could be, should be – out of it, and look at what is, and quantify it, I think you have a big advantage over most human beings.” — John Henry

1. Honeywell is Looking to Spinoff Subsidiaries — sources indicate that the company is considering a plan to spin non-core assets in a streamlining strategy that could see at least two new publicly listed companies created. The development arrives with hedge fund Third Point applying pressure on the Honeywell board.
2. EPA Pruitt Confirms Withdrawal from Clean Power Plan — EPA Administration Scott Pruitt announced in a speech in the coal mining state of Kentucky last week that “Regulatory power should not be used by any regulatory body to pick winners and losers,”. The Clean Power Plan, which required states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one-third by 2030, was blocked by the Supreme Court in February 2016 as it worked its way through the courts. New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says he will sue to stop the repeal, likely one of several lawsuits in what promises to be a broad legal fight from states and environmental groups to preserve the plan.
3. Time Launches Print Cutbacks at Newsweekly, SI, Fortune and Others — Time Inc. (NYSE:TIME) is cutting back on its print – both in circulation and in frequency of key magazine titles – as it intends to cut circulation of the weekly Time magazine by a third to 2M copies. In part this will be done by cutting back on promotional copies and focusing more on an ad-friendly core audience. It will cut circulation for People en Espanol as well. Meanwhile, seven other titles will come out less often, including Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly and Fortune. In 2018, SI will publish 27 issues rather than this year’s 38, but there will be 23% more editorial pages in each, on a weightier paper stock. The moves are effective January 1 2018.
4. Equifax Hack Included Breach of Driver’s License Data — according to the WSJ, driver’s license data for roughly 10.9M Americans were compromised during the cyberattack on Equifax (NYSE:EFX). This news is in addition to the personal information of more than 140M Americans, not all of whom would have had DL information with Equifax. In a separate announcement, the company said a file with 15.2M U.K. consumer records was also part of the breach (roughly double the previous number of those in the U.K. thought to be affected).
5. Trump to Cut Off ACA Subsidies to Health Insurers — the Trump administration says it plans to cut off billions of dollars in payments to health insurers that offset their costs for providing subsidies to consumers. The payments will stop immediately, with no transition period, Acting HHS Secretary Eric Hargan and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma stated. Given the ongoing uncertainty over the payments, many health insurers had dramatically raised the premiums they planned to charge for next year in anticipation of not getting the funds. The move, coming just hours after President Trump signed an executive order that paves the way for a proliferation of pared-down insurance plans for individual buyers, marks the start of what promises to be a long and contentious campaign to unravel the Affordable Care Act. Companies effected include: CNC, MOH, UNH, AET, WCG, CI, HUM, ANTM, GTS, HQY, QHC, HCA, THC, UHS, LPNT, CYH, HCP, SEM.
5. GM Joins List of Automakers Checking Safety in Aluminum Supplier Scandal — Kobe Steel is the largest supplier of aluminum panels for automobiles in Japan, and it has a large share of the global market for forged aluminum pieces used in suspension systems. General Motors (NYSE:GM) said it is checking whether any of its cars contain falsely certified aluminum parts or components sourced from Japan’s Kobe Steel (OTCPK:KBSTF). The company joins a list of Japanese manufacturers involved in scandals over product quality control in recent years. Toyota (NYSE:TM), Nissan (OTCPK:NSANY) and Honda (NYSE:HMC) all said that aluminum from Kobe Steel was used in their car hoods and doors, Subaru (OTCPK:FUJHY) and Mazda (OTCPK:MZDAY) said they believed the aluminum could have been used in car hoods, Mitsubishi Motors (OTCPK:MMTOF) said it used Kobe Steel aluminum in the past and was assessing the situation, and Suzuki (OTCPK:SZKMY) said the aluminum was used in its motorcycles; ~200 companies used the metal in their products. Boeing (NYSE:BA) said it is inspecting its supply chain but “nothing in our review to date leads us to conclude that this issue presents a safety concern.”

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: