Trump versus Wall Street

At a time when General Electric Co. is facing what amounts to an existential crisis, a $31 billion deficit in its pension plan may complicate any turnaround that involves a breakup. Divvying up the obligations won’t be easy. After all, GE owes benefits to at least 619,000 people. And retirees aren’t the only ones at risk: GE’s pension deficit has gotten so big, a misstep could risk leaving the separate units with commitments they can't pay.

Trump has some advice for investors: They’re making a “big mistake” by selling off stocks amid good economic news. Trump's criticism via Twitter was his first about the stock market since it started a swan dive last week. The irony, of course, is that a Labor Department report showing rising wages and lower-than-expected unemployment, the aforementioned good news, was one of its causes, since it makes inflation and thus interest rate hikes more likely.

Which, of course, brings us to the Federal Reserve. The long-expected clash between the Fed and the White House over interest rate policy may be about to arrive. Investors have come to believe that the Fed, under Powell's leadership, is serious about raising rates to prevent inflationary overheating—and they’re scrambling to avoid the fallout. If this recent stock drop turns out to be more than a shudder, Trump may start looking for someone to blame.

Where were you when Bitcoin hit zero? The tumble in cryptocurrencies that erased almost $500 billion of market value over the past month could get a lot worse, warned Goldman Sachs. Most digital currencies are unlikely to survive in their current form, said the bank's global head of investment research, and investors should prepare for their coins to lose all value as they’re replaced by a small set of future competitors.

The Senate surfaced a two-year budget proposal that would provide almost $300 billion more for defense and non-defense spending, a bipartisan deal aimed at averting a second government shutdown.The plan would also suspend the debt ceiling and provide hurricane and wildfire disaster aid. But there's no guarantee it will happen: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who was part of the negotiations, said earlier in the day that House Democrats won’t back the plan without a commitment from Speaker Paul Ryan to allow an open debate on immigration legislation.

Oil posted the biggest loss in more than two months as record crude production from U.S. fields reignited fears that supplies will swamp demand. Output from American wells has put the U.S. on par with Saudi Arabia and Russia. With production set to climb even higher later this year, major global suppliers will come under renewed pressure to reconsider self-imposed output caps.

Football is over and spring is a few weeks away (exactly how many depends on which groundhog you subscribe to). Major League Baseball players report soon, but there's already a crisis brewing. They've been criticizing what they say is an unusually—even suspiciously—quiet offseason for free agents. Most of the league’s best free agents remain unsigned. And the total number of free agents signed so far is much smaller than in years past. League officials say all is well. We'll see.