What you need to know on Wall Street today
Traders are betting more and more that the stock market will soon snap out of its prolonged slumber.
This can be seen through a measure called skew, which looks at bullish CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, options contracts compared with bearish ones. It's at its highest level in two years, having risen swiftly in recent weeks, indicating an expected volatility spike.
In deal news, leaked Mashable documents show how bleak things were before Ziff Davis came to the rescue. And Kinderd Healthcare is being bought by Humana and two private equity firms for $4.1 billion.
In related news, Jefferies had a record year in investment banking. And here's who's on pace to win Wall Street bragging rights for 2017.
In tax news:
- CRUNCH TIME: Republicans are set to close out their massive tax overhaul
- The GOP tax bill has a last-minute change that could be a huge win for Sen. Bob Corker and Donald Trump
- The Republicans' massive tax bill keeps a loophole that benefits fund managers - even though Trump slammed it during the campaign
- A rough new analysis shows the final GOP tax bill would favor the richest Americans
- The GOP tax plan separates Wall Street's rich from its filthy rich
And in crypto news:
- BANK OF AMERICA: Bitcoin is the "most crowded" trade
- MORGAN STANLEY: Investors pumped $2 billion into crypto funds this year - and 2018 will be bigger
- Citron Research gets short Riot Blockchain, says it's reached "full mania"
- A little-known import/export financier soared 2,400% after buying a blockchain technology - but now shares are crashing off their highs
- The SEC just halted trading of The Crypto Company - whose shares have soared 17,000% in three months
- A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange is filing for bankruptcy following a second hack
Lastly, a "prominent Upper East Side couple" in NYC is offering two people a $150,000 salary to cook, clean, and run errands for them.