U.S. plans to lift China’s designation as currency manipulator: reports

The Trump administration plans to lift its designation of China as a currency manipulator, news reports said Monday, ahead of the expected Wednesday signing of the so-called phase one U.S.-China trade deal. The Treasury Department plans to lift the designation, which it made last August, in a semi-annual report expected to be released ahead of the Wednesday signing, a Fox Business Network correspondent tweeted. The Chinese yuan extended gains versus the U.S. dollar in offshore trade USDCNY, -0.3757%. The dollar bought 6.883 yuan in offshore dealings, according to FactSet, a gain of 0.5%. Earlier, the yuan had traded below 6.9 yuan in onshore USDCNY, -0.3757% trading for the first time since August.

Saudi Aramco’s IPO balloons to record $29.4B

Saudi Aramco has boosted the size of its initial public offering by nearly $4 billion after selling millions of additional shares.

Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil giant said Sunday that it’s raised a record $29.4 billion after exercising a “greenshoe option” to sell 450 million more shares than originally planned. The option allowed the company to issue more shares to meet demand from investors.

The extra shares “had been allocated to investors during the book-building process and therefore, no additional shares are being offered into the market today,” Aramco said.

Aramco initially raised $25.6 billion last month when it offered 3 billion shares worth 1.5 percent of the company. That number itself eclipsed the $25 billion record set in 2014 by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Aramco’s share price quickly spiked in its first two days of trading on Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul stock exchange to give it the $2 trillion valuation sought by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

But the stock has taken a hit in recent weeks amid mounting tensions in the Middle East. Aramco shares hit a low of 34 riyals, or $9.06, on Jan. 8 as markets grappled with the Jan. 3 US airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Aramco’s stock price traded down Sunday to about 34.7 riyals a share, or $9.25. Aramco’s market cap of about $1.85 trillion makes it the world’s most valuable company ahead of tech giant Apple at about $1.3 trillion.

With Post wires

On New Zealand’s Stunning West Coast, the Beauty Doesn’t Stop

The 52 Places Traveler

For Stop #47, the 52 Places Traveler reveled in nature unleashed on the new Paparoa Track, where alpine forests and craggy peaks give way to dense rainforest.

Photographs and Text by Sebastian Modak

Ocasio-Cortez sums up inequality in 5 words after Dow breaks through 29,000

That’s “inequality in a nutshell,” according to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who fired off those words in a tweet response to NBC’s coverage of a fresh high for the Dow Jones Industrial AverageDJIA, +0.26%on Friday.

The New York Democrat was making the point that while the blue-chip index rallied more than 20% last year, U.S. average hourly earnings gained less than 3%. And since stocks are generally held by those with higher wealth levels, the data would support her “rich getting richer” stance.

Of course, President Trump constantly touts record highs in the market — like his “409K” tweet last week — but critics like Ocasio-Cortez maintain that such a message is irrelevant to the working class, which has missed out on such gains.

Only about half of Americans own stock, according to the Fed.

Check out: It now costs the average U.S. worker a record 114 hours of pay to buy the S&P 500

These attacks on Trump are nothing new. Here’s a tweet from early last year when Ocasio-Cortez delivered the same message:

At last check, the Dow had yet to reclaim the 29,000 mark, but was still trading higher in Monday’s trading session, as were both the S&P 500SPX, +0.51%and Nasdaq CompositeCOMP, +0.77% .

‘Jeopardy!’ sparks social media backlash over Bethlehem question

Jeopardy! stirred up a bit of controversy on Friday after contestants were asked where the Church of the Nativity was located.

Contestant Katie Needle chose the category Where’s That Church, and the clue was “Built in the 300s A.D., the Church of the Nativity.”

MOVES-Goldman Sachs' information officers, wealth head named to top committee

NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc appointed four new members to its powerful management committee on Monday, according to an internal memo seen and verified by Reuters.

The new members are Tucker York, global head of private wealth management, George Lee and Marco Argenti, co-chief information officers, and Asahi Pompey, global head of corporate engagement and president of the bank’s foundation. (Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts Marshall, Editing by Franklin Paul)

Goldman Sachs, Dow Inc. share gains contribute to Dow’s 75-point jump

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is climbing Monday afternoon with shares of Goldman Sachs and Dow Inc. leading the way for the blue-chip average. Shares of Goldman Sachs GS, +1.50% and Dow Inc. DOW, +1.13% have contributed to the blue-chip gauge’s intraday rally, as the Dow DJIA, +0.28% is trading 77 points (0.3%) higher. Goldman Sachs’s shares are up $3.50, or 1.4%, while those of Dow Inc. are up $0.68, or 1.3%, combining for an approximately 28-point boost for the Dow. Also contributing significantly to the gain are American Express AXP, +0.81%, Cisco CSCO, +1.38%, and Intel INTC, +1.37%. A $1 move in any one of the 30 components of the benchmark equates to a 6.78-point swing.

Editor’s Note: This story was auto-generated by Automated Insights using data from Dow Jones and FactSet. See our market data terms of use.