The daily business briefing: November 14, 2018

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1. U.K. reaches draft Brexit deal but opposition looms
2. Amazon officially announces new HQ split
3. Flipkart CEO resigns after investigation
4. Oil futures drop further after Tuesday's plunge
5. Dow, S&P 500 remain under pressure after Tuesday losses

published 14 November 2018

1. U.K. reaches draft Brexit deal but opposition looms

British Prime Minister Theresa May's government reached a draft Brexit deal with the European Union on Tuesday after more than a year of tense negotiations. The British government did not immediately release details on the deal's hundreds of pages of text, including how it would get past the sticking point of keeping people and trade flowing freely over the border between EU member Ireland and the U.K.'s Northern Ireland. May now could face a challenge tougher than negotiating the deal — getting it approved by her own Cabinet, and Parliament. Brexit supporters in May's party have accused her of surrendering too much control to the EU. The Cabinet is scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider the draft deal.

Amazon announced its decision to divide its new headquarters between New York City and Northern Virginia on Tuesday. The headquarters will be split between Long Island City in New York City's borough of Queens and the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia, which Amazon is seemingly rebranding as "National Landing." There will be about 25,000 employees at each site. Amazon will also open an Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville with 5,000 employees. Seeking a second headquarters equal to the one in Seattle, Amazon first started looking for a site in September 2017. Reports emerged last week revealing Amazon was planning to split its new headquarters, dubbed HQ2, between two cities.

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Binny Bansal, CEO of India-based e-commerce company Flipkart, has resigned after an investigation into "serious personal misconduct." Walmart, which owns Flipkart, announced the news in a statement Tuesday. Walmart said Bansal denied the allegation and an investigation "did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant's assertions," but that investigators discovered "other lapses in judgment, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation," which led to his resignation. Walmart, Flipkart, and Bansal declined to provide details on the allegations, but Walmart said the case "risked becoming a distraction."

Oil futures edged down early Wednesday, fighting to stabilize after dropping by 7 percent on Tuesday on signs of surging supply and weakening demand. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures fell 17 cents or 0.3 percent to $55.52 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude futures fell 9 cents to $65.38 per barrel. Crude oil prices have fallen by a quarter since early October, one of the sharpest declines since prices collapsed in 2014. A surge in U.S. production has contributed to rising stockpiles. "Crude oil futures succumbed to overwhelmingly bearish pressure amidst ... weaker market fundamentals," said Benjamin Lu, an analyst at brokerage Phillip Futures in Singapore.

U.S. stock-index futures edged down early Wednesday, pointing to a lower open and threatening to extend the Dow Jones Industrial Average's four-day slide, its longest since mid-August. Futures for the Dow fell by 0.1 percent, while those of the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq-100 were down by 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. The Dow dropped by 0.4 percent on Tuesday, and the S&P 500 fell by 0.15 percent. The Nasdaq Composite inched up by 0.01 percent. Oil volatility is contributing to investor caution. "The searing oil price dive continues to echo, whilst sterling-borne Brexit optimism wavers," wrote Ken Odeluga, market analyst at City Index, in a Wednesday research note.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.