The daily business briefing: November 16, 2016

1. Snapchat parent files for IPO to raise $4 billion

Snap, the parent company of messaging app Snapchat, has filed confidentially for an initial public offering of stock that could raise as much as $4 billion, people briefed on the matter said Tuesday. The IPO could value the company at more than $30 billion — up from $18 billion at its last valuation. No final decision has been made on the timing or size of the IPO, although some expect it to happen as early as March. The filing indicated that Snap's annual revenue is under $1 billion. The cash raised in an IPO would help it better compete with rivals such as Facebook and Google.

The New York Times The Verge

2. U.S. retail sales jumped more than expected in October

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that retail sales increased by 0.8 percent last month, indicating sustained economic growth and bolstering the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next month. The larger-than-expected jump came as households bought cars and a wide range of other goods, including supplies to make repairs after Hurricane Matthew. "The economy is doing pretty well," said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York. "This data is bullish for the economic outlook in the months ahead."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Reuters

3. OPEC's renewed output-cut push lifts oil prices

Oil prices surged by 5.8 percent on Tuesday as OPEC stepped up its push to seal a proposed deal to cut production, although futures edged back down by 0.7 percent overnight. Even though the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, which seeks to discourage oil consumption, is taking effect, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that oil consumption would not peak before 2040, leaving its previous forecast unchanged. The IAEA said that even if demand for oil to power cars falls, "the difficulty of finding alternatives to oil in road freight, aviation, and petrochemicals" will continue to buoy global oil demand.

Bloomberg Reuters

4. Megyn Kelly's memoir tops 3 Amazon bestseller categories

Fox News host Megyn Kelly's memoir Settle for More was released Tuesday, making its debut at the top of three Amazon bestseller categories — Political Science, Commentary and Opinion, and Journalists. The book also ranked No. 14 overall. Details have been leaked from Kelly's book in the weeks leading up to its release, particularly surrounding her accounts of covering Donald Trump throughout the election and dealing with unwanted advances from former Fox News chief Roger Ailes early in her career.

Amazon USA Today

5. Breitbart to sue unnamed media company

Breitbart News plans to sue a "major media company" for calling it a white nationalist website, the far-right website said Tuesday. Breitbart has been vaulted into the spotlight since its former executive chairman Stephen Bannon was named first as Donald Trump's campaign CEO, then as the president-elect's senior White House counselor and strategist. Breitbart did not name the company to be targeted in its lawsuit, but said it "cannot allow such vicious racial lies to go unchallenged," calling any attempt to link it to racism "baseless." Under Bannon, Breitbart News published numerous stories critics called offensive, including one in which the writer, David Horowitz, referred to conservative commentator Bill Kristol as a "renegade Jew."

The Hill