Dozens of corporate giants are sitting atop a mountain of debt totaling close to a $1 trillion. Why? They spent the past decade borrowing, thanks to weak sales and super-low interest rates. By now some of their credit should be junk, but ratings agencies have been giving them a pass. We've seen this movie before, and it doesn't end well. —David E. Rovella

Here are today's top stories

U.S. stocks tanked again amid wild swings and heavy volume. Treasuries surged and the dollar fell along with oil. Gold bugs were happy.

President Donald Trump continued his unprecedented public assault on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, blaming him for the rout. But there's a more nuanced picture of why equity investors are getting kicked in the teeth.

Trump's global trade war and its increasing focus on China is redirecting oil flows to the benefit of Latin America and Africa.

When it comes to cheap oil, China has a friend in Canada, which has lots of the sludgy stuff that's good for building roads, runways and roofs.

Trump has repeatedly said China is manipulating its currency. His own Treasury Department just announced that he's wrong.

Bayer's Monsanto caused a man's cancer with its Round Up weed killer, a jury found, but an irked judge is considering setting aside its $289 million damages award because of a lawyer's reference to champagne.

What's Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director says that as bad as the market's been this week, some experts consider it just another buying opportunity.

What you'll need to know tomorrow

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What you'll want to read tonight

Tequila's Success May Be the Cause of Its Bust

Tequila sales are skyrocketing along with the price of the agave plant from which the magical margarita juice flows. But demand is causing producers to cut corners, hurting quality. And worse, volatile agave prices are combining with the plant's seven-year growth cycle to scare growers out of the market entirely. It might be time to switch to scotch.

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