Worst since 2008

Investors have dumped equities at a record pace in the days since major central banks signaled they won’t be deterred in their fight against inflation—a fitting end to the worst year for world stocks since the global financial crisis. Equity funds were hit by outflows of almost $42 billion, the highest ever, in a week when the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan all sounded staunchly hawkish notes in their policy outlook for next year, squashing bets of an imminent return to the era of cheap money. In the US on Friday, new numbers showing inflation cooling there seemed to mollify some investors, as markets rose slightly to end the week. Here’s your markets wrap. —David E. Rovella

In a blow to Viktor Orban’s far-right government, the European Union, will withhold almost all of Hungary’s €22 billion ($23.3 billion) in earmarked “cohesion” funds, aid used to strengthen economic and social conditions in less-wealthy bloc countries, until it resolves concerns over adherence to the rule of law and the protection of human rights.

Xi Jinping’s sudden retreat from “Covid-zero” has been followed by more than 248 million Chinese contracting the deadly coronavirus this month alone—some 18% of the nation’s population. On one day this week, almost 37 million people became infected, according to Beijing.

The full report on what’s been called the first attempted coup in American history echoed the dramatic public hearings held this summer by the Congressional committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. It is unsurprisingly damning, given that members have already recommended Donald Trump be prosecuted for overseeing a “multi-part conspiracy” to retain power after losing the 2020 election. Among new elements and testimony revealed: investigators found more than 200 instances in which Trump and his adjutants sought to pressure election officials to participate in the scheme; warnings of violence that were seemingly ignored by the Trump administration, including US Secret Service officials and other law enforcement agencies; and that Trump not only wanted to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6, but that he wanted to go inside the chamber and take part in the electoral count. And then there was the $250 million the former president raised from his followers to supposedly fight election fraud: the report concluded Trump diverted most of that “Stop the Steal” cash to other things.

Climate-driven weather disasters across a dozen African countries are threatening the physical and mental development of an entire generation, and their plight is expected to get even worse next year. The worst drought in at least four decades across the Horn of Africa in the east and floods and water shortages in West Africa’s Sahel region have left 76 million people food insecure. Parts of Somalia are on the verge of famine.

Russian forces conducted limited counterattacks along the Kreminna-Svatove line in the east of Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops maintained counteroffensive operations in the area. Russians also continued their siege of Bakhmut while Ukrainian partisans target Russian occupation authorities behind the lines. Russia also struck Kherson Friday, killing two people and damaging residences and critical infrastructure, Ukraine authorities said. Here’s the latest on the war.

Facebook’s parent agreed to pay $725 million for allowing a UK research firm connected to Trump’s 2016 campaign, Cambridge Analytica, access to the data of as many as 87 million subscribers. Last month,Google agreed to pay a total of $391.5 million to 40 US states to resolve a probe into controversial location-tracking practices in what state officials called the largest such privacy settlement in US history.

Will Americans still be able to work from home next year? Maybe yes, given the historic strength of the US job market. But if the small cracks in employment that have shown up in recent weeks spread, your boss may start telling you to come in five days a week.

Bloomberg continues to track the global coronavirus pandemic. Click here for daily updates.

The fight over a tunnel project in Belgium has revealed extraordinary levels of toxins known as “forever chemicals” in the water, soil and people near a 3M factory there. While the company said this week that it will cease using or making the chemicals in a few years, for people living near the Antwerp plant, the damage is already done. And for regulators elsewhere in Europe, the battle may be just beginning.

The Evening Briefing will return on Tuesday, Dec. 27.

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