“Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others.” – John Maynard Keynes

1. ECB’s Draghi Starts Squaring QE Circle in Month of Persuasion — bloomberg, as European officials prepare to consider sovereign-bond purchases on Jan. 22, ECB president Mario Draghi is busy working to get as many policy makers as possible on his side. One concession being debated is to require national central banks to be responsible for at least some of their own credit risk, according to people familiar with the talks. The stimulus is intended to expand the ECB’s balance sheet by as much as €1T ($1.2T).
2. Abbvie (ABBV) New Hepatitis C Drug Gets Helping Hand — WSJ, the price war over hepatitis C drugs continues, after Express Scripts (NASDAQ:ESRX) announced that it will only cover AbbVie’s (NYSE:ABBV) newly approved Viekira Pak, which received clearance from the FDA on Friday. The move will help the drug maker take market share away from Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) and J&J (NYSE:JNJ), which make blockbuster hep C drugs, including Sovaldi, Harvoni and Olysio. AbbVie’s Viekira Pak will have a price of $83,319, although the agreement with Express Scripts involves a significant discount to that price.
3. Russia Tells State Exporters to Sell Forex Revenues to Help Ruble — CNBC, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed an order forcing the country’s largest state exporters to sell part of their foreign currency revenues to help stabilize the ruble. Orders were sent to gas firm Gazprom (OTCPK:OGZPY), oil firms Rosneft (OTC:RNFTF) and Zarubezhneft and diamond producer Alrosa.
4. Russia on Verge of Junk as S&P Puts Rating on Negative Watch — Bloomberg, Russia may lose its investment-grade credit rating for the first time in a decade after Standard & Poor’s placed the country on CreditWatch Negative. The move “stems from what we view as a rapid deterioration of Russia’s monetary flexibility and the impact of the weakening economy on its financial system,” the agency said in a statement.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

“I think to be in the upper echelon of successful traders requires an innate skill, a gift. It`s just like being a great violinist. But to be a competent trader and make money is a skill you can learn”. – Michael Marcus, Trader

1. Russian Ruble Registered the Biggest One-Day Fall Since 1998 As Oil Drops Below $70 — the ruble registered its steepest one-day fall since the Russian financial crisis of 1998 last Monday, plunging more than 6 percent against the dollar before recovering to losses of around 4 percent due to a drop in oil prices. Oil and gas account for about two thirds of Russia’s exports and half of federal budget revenues, making its economy and asset prices heavily dependent on global energy prices.
2. ‘Black Friday’ Fades as Weekend Retail Sales Sink — WSJ, Retail spending over this year’s four-day Thanksgiving weekend fell 11% to $50.9B according to the National Retail Federation, although total holiday sales through the end of the year are expected to rise 4.1%. The decline, the second annual drop in a row, comes as retailers, including Target (NYSE:TGT) and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), offer their sales and promotions days or even weeks before the holiday weekend.
3. Cyber Monday sales start slower than Expected — Cyber Monday sales grew by much less than expected, according to data from IBM. Online retailers began their web promotions and sales during and even before the Thanksgiving weekend. Cyber Monday sales, which were projected to grow between 13%-15%, only reported an 8% rise.
4. U.S. Oil and Gas Well November Permits Tumble Nearly 40 Percent — Reuters, falling oil prices sparked a decline of almost 40% in new oil and gas well permits issued across the U.S. in November. A total of only 4,520 new well permits approved last month, down from 7,227 in October. New permits, which outline what drilling rigs will be doing 60-90 days in the future, showed heavy declines for the first time this year across the top three U.S. onshore fields: the Permian Basin, Eagle Ford and Bakken shale.
5. More Than $150 Billion of Oil Projects Face the Axe in 2015 — Reuters, Oslo-based research firm Rystad Energy stated that global oil and gas exploration projects worth more than $150B are likely to be put on hold next year as plunging oil prices render them un-economic. With rising costs of production and analysts forecasting oil to average $82.50 a barrel next year, around one third of the spending on a total of 800 oil and gas projects worth $500B, is unlikely to be approved.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: