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Has Founders Fund made money? The WSJ reports, citing its unnamed sources, that the firm bought about $15 million in Bitcoin and that its stake is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

— Michael J. de la Merced

Regulatory concerns sink Ant Financial’s purchase of MoneyGram.

MoneyGram and Ant Financial of China called off their planned merger after failing to get regulatory approval in the United States.

It is the latest Chinese acquisition of an American company to fall apart because the companies were unable to secure approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or Cfius.

The deal between MoneyGram and Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of the internet giant Alibaba, was seen as a test of the Trump administration’s political and regulatory approach to China. The deal’s failure could spell trouble for other Chinese companies considering major acquisitions.

The strong flow of Chinese money into the United States has prompted growing worries. Lawmakers from both parties have introduced legislation calling for greater scrutiny of Chinese investments in the United States. They are pushing for a significant expansion of Cfius, a multiagency panel that reviews foreign deals for potential threats to national security.

MoneyGram’s shares are down 6.8 percent after the close.

Tech keeps climbing in the new year.

The Nasdaq Composite closed above 7,000 for the first time.

A rise in the shares of Netflix, Facebook, Google-parent Alphabet, and Apple pushed the tech-heavy index up 1.5 percent on the first day of trading in 2018. Netflix jumped 4.8 percent, while Facebook gained 2.8 percent. Alphabet and Apple rose nearly 1.8 percent apiece.

Gains in those stocks also lifted the Standard & Poor’s 500 index to a record high.

Technology stocks led the markets higher in 2017. Facebook, Alphabet, Netflix, and Apple each gained more 35 percent in 2017 with Facebook and Netflix topping 50 percent.

Credit J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press..

Our thoughts exactly.

Shot: Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, won’t run for re-election, according to the NYT. That gives Mitt Romney — former presidential candidate, former Massachusetts governor, former private equity mogul, current (and increasingly frequent) Trump critic — a chance to run for the seat.

Chaser:

The screams you hear are coming from the PR department at Bain Capital. https://t.co/1AukOXT3pS
— Dan Primack (@danprimack) Jan. 2, 2018

— Michael J. de la Merced

Expect a “frothy” and “frustrated” 2018.

Money is cheap, the global economy is gaining momentum and markets are at records. “Yet things look less reassuring close up,” writes Quentin Webb of Breakingviews.

“The populist anger that enabled Trump and Brexit is still simmering, fueled by inequality, disruption, immigration and the echo chambers of social media. An unpredictable America is no longer committed to advancing a rules-based, liberal world order. China is growing increasingly assertive under President Xi Jinping, while Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is flexing his muscles around the Gulf. The risk of a conflagration on the Korean Peninsula is all too real. Business is grappling with self-inflicted scandals and activist attacks, and a backlash is building against Big Tech’s overweening power.”

With that as the backdrop, here are a few of Breakingviews’ predictions for 2018:

In investing

• “For the first time in years, rich-world bond issuance will outstrip buying by the Fed and friends,” and “bond vigilantes will rise from the dead.”

• “Passive funds will, despite their name, dethrone a chief executive.”

In tech

• “In tech, investors can consider a tasty new dish: SLAW, for Spotify, Lyft, Airbnb and WeWork, four prospective candidates for public life.”

• Apple’s position as a privacy-sensitive hardware specialist will give it some shelter from mounting anger at Silicon Valley’s power and lack of accountability.

— Stephen Grocer

Credit Paul J. Richards/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Dreaming of an Amazon-Target deal.

We’re just two days into 2018, and we already have a huge M.&A. prediction, courtesy of the analyst Gene Munster.

From his note yesterday:

Getting the timing on this is difficult, but seeing the value of the combination is easy. Amazon believes the future of retail is a mix of mostly online and some offline. Target is the ideal offline partner for Amazon for two reasons, shared demographic and manageable but comprehensive store count.

It’s a big, if logical, assumption given the ever-expanding empire that Amazon has been assembling — one that has put more and more industry incumbents on their back heels.

Target shares were up nearly 4 percent as of this afternoon.

Could Amazon afford Target?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Yes, but it’d be pretty expensive. Target’s market capitalization as of Tuesday morning was nearly $37 billion. Amazon had about $24.3 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet as of Sept. 30, meaning that the company would have to borrow a hefty amount.

Assuming a 20 percent takeover premium, Target would be almost $40 billion.

Amazon could pay in stock as well as cash, but it hasn’t struck a big deal using stock since its takeover of Zappos in 2009. And stock remains an expensive form of currency, though that hasn’t stopped the likes of Disney from stock deals.

(Mr. Munster asserts that a deal is affordable because the cost of a Target acquisition is just 8 percent of Amazon’s market cap. Obviously, I think it’s a bit more complicated than that.)

The big caveat (other than price)

Obviously, it’s antitrust. Mr. Munster notes that a combined Amazon-Target would only have about a 13 percent share of the overall American retail market, compared to Walmart’s 23 percent.

But it’s hard to determine at the moment what the Trump administration’s yardstick for market concentration is:

• AT&T and Time Warner say that their proposed deal is a vertical deal that falls within the bounds of acceptable deals. The Justice Department has sued to block that.

• Disney and Fox have announced a deal that would inevitably lead to lots of layoffs. President Trump has praised that transaction as potentially “great for jobs.”

“As for antitrust, the Trump administration won’t do any favors for Jeff Bezos, but the market share numbers suggest the deal will be approved,” Mr. Munster writes. That’s a potentially big assumption.

— Michael J. de la Merced

Larry Ellison of Oracle. Credit Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Are Amazon and Salesforce moving away from Oracle?

Kevin McLaughlin of The Information reports that the two companies “are actively working to replace Oracle software running on critical business systems with open-source database software alternatives, and have made significant progress toward getting off Oracle entirely,” citing people familiar with the matter.

“A mass exodus from the Oracle database isn’t likely anytime soon. Yet losing Amazon and Salesforce as customers could pose major problems for Oracle, as it could provide a road map for other large companies that also are looking to cut costs by jettisoning Oracle database software in favor of open-source database alternatives.”

Oracle’s shares are down nearly 2 percent. They had been trading about 1 percent higher before the report.

— Stephen Grocer

Where are stocks heading in 2018?

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 25 percent in 2017. Does that mean investors should turn bearish on stocks this year? The answer is no if history is any indicator, LPL Financial’s Ryan Detrick points out.

Dow up +25% in '17 ... time to look for a pullback?
Since '50, up >25% YTD 10 times.
Higher next year 8 times with 6 of those times up double digits.
Avg +12.6% vs avg yearly return of +8.5%.
In other words, don't turn bearish simply because '17 was up a lot.
— Ryan Detrick, CMT (@RyanDetrick) Jan. 1, 2018

Also, is the first day of trading predictive of the stock market’s performance for the full year?

Does the 1st trading day of the year matter? Sounds random, but ...
Past 20 years, on the 1st day of a new year the S&P 500 has been higher 10 times and lower 10 times.
Full year return if up the first day? +14.2%.
Full year return if down the first day? -0.6%
— Ryan Detrick, CMT (@RyanDetrick) Jan. 1, 2018

— Stephen Grocer

Remembering 2017, and looking ahead to 2018.

If you couldn’t recall last year’s highlights over the recent holidays, Andrew can remind you with his annual year-end column (the humor of which is his and his alone). A sample:

The seating chart is, of course, always a bit complicated. We had to keep Jeffrey Bezos of Amazon from the dais to prevent Mr. Trump’s Twitter war with him from interrupting the festivities. And we had heard that Mr. Bezos had a practical joke planned: He was going to tell Mr. Trump that he had chosen Mexico City as Amazon’s second headquarters.

But it’s a new year, and here are some important story lines we’ll be keeping our eyes on:

• Now that the tax fight is over, the White House is turning to trade. Will Gary Cohn and Steven Mnuchin be able to tame President Trump’s hard-line tendencies?

• Can Congress make progress on the many, many other issues it’s facing?

• SoftBank did its Uber deal. Will the ride-hailing giant make further strides toward going public this year? (Maybe not.) And what will Masa Son of SoftBank and his $100 billion Vision Fund get up to?

• What other industries will Amazon disrupt this year? And how much bigger can Mr. Bezos’s behemoth get?

• North Korea is trying to drive a wedge between South Korea and the U.S. And it seems to be working. How will Mr. Trump — and the global economy — respond?

• Stevie Cohen is finding takers for his new hedge fund. But how much presence will he retain in the industry?

• In the world of M. & A. fights, who will AT&T or the Justice Department prevail? Broadcom or Qualcomm? And will Disney and Fox get their deal done?

Businesses are opening their wallets.

And the Trump administration’s deregulatory push looks to be a reason for that — even if skeptics question whether rolling back government rules stimulates corporate growth.

Corporate leaders always cite “uncertainty” as a reason to hold back on capital expenditures or transformative acquisitions. And fewer than half of the respondents in the National Association of Manufacturers’ most recent survey said they faced an “unfavorable business climate.”

Yet some see a bigger phenomenon at work. This is what Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics told the NYT:

“The fundamental backdrop here is that this is a global synchronized expansion lifting everyone’s spirits, from Tokyo to New York.”

The tax flyaround

• Corporate America’s great loophole scavenger hunt has begun. (NYT)

• China has responded to the tax law by temporarily exempting foreign companies from taxes on their earnings in the country — but there’s a catch. (NYT)

• Democrats in high-tax states are seeking ways to blunt some of the impact of the tax overhaul. (NYT)

• The gig economy could get a boost. (NYT)

• Betting on the dollar continuing to strengthen in 2018, thanks to the tax law. (WSJ)

The Murdoch family tensions behind the Disney deal.

It may have been a brief sales negotiation with Verizon that prompted Rupert Murdoch to consider selling pieces of 21st Century Fox. But the NYT reports that friction between the media mogul and his son James helped push the family toward the Disney transaction.

From the article by Brooks Barnes and Sydney Ember:

• James Murdoch has privately grumbled about the control that his father still exerted at Fox and has chafed at some of the elements of Fox News’s coverage.

• Rupert Murdoch was wary of how Hollywood was being reshaped by digital giants like Netflix, Apple and Amazon, and unsure his empire could compete.

• Lachlan Murdoch, who is more conservative than his brother, has become the heir apparent at what would remain of Fox, but was initially uneasy about a sell-off.

What they gain: Beyond easing family tensions among the trio, the deal could make the Murdochs some of Disney’s biggest shareholders.

The mutual fund king bucking the low-fee wave.

Yes, Ron Baron has lowered fees on some of his smaller funds. But he’s unapologetic about charging roughly 54 percent more than the industry average.

Here’s what he told Landon Thomas Jr. of the NYT:

“Since inception, 98 percent of our funds have beaten their benchmark,” he said in an interview. “If you want the lowest fee, you should not invest with us.”

How he (and other mutual funds) do it: Chalk it up to a combination of looser oversight, the $10 trillion of investor money still dedicated to actively managed funds and a lack of investor awareness that high fees don’t necessarily pay for performance.

Can this go on?

One fund investor’s take in the NYT:

“I won’t say performance warrants the fees they charge,” said Barry Edelman, a Las Vegas retiree and a 20-year Baron shareholder. “But I appreciate how they differentiate themselves from the competition.”

Tragedy strikes Bridgewater.

Bruce Steinberg, an executive at the hedge fund, and his family were among the 12 killed when a single-engine plane crashed in Costa Rica on Sunday.

Ray Dalio of Bridgewater posted this to Facebook yesterday:

Also of note: Richard Cousins, the C.E.O. of Compass Group, the world’s biggest catering company, was one of six killed in a plane crash in Sydney on Sunday.

Hollywood organizes to fight sexual harassment.

What’s notable is that Time’s Up — formed by more than 300 women and including a legal-defense fund — isn’t focused only on the entertainment industry. It plans to offer help to janitors, nurses, hotel staff and other blue-collar workers.

Here’s what Shonda Rhimes, a backer of the initiative, told Cara Buckley of the NYT:

“If this group of women can’t fight for a model for other women who don’t have as much power and privilege, then who can?”

Who else is involved: The actresses America Ferrera, Eva Longoria and Reese Witherspoon; Donna Langley, the chairwoman of Universal Pictures; and roughly 295 other women in Hollywood.

What’s different: The Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which is backed by $13 million in donations and is overseen by Tina Tchen, a former chief of staff to Michelle Obama. It will help provide less-privileged women with lawyers to bring misconduct cases to court and protect them from blowback.

The misconduct flyaround

• Take a peek behind the curtain at the monthly drug- and sex-fueled monthly parties attended by some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful men, in an excerpt from “Brotopia,” the forthcoming book by the Bloomberg anchor Emily Chang. (Vanity Fair)

• The former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, who was a Miss America, will take over as chairwoman of the pageant as it works through its harassment scandal. (NYT)

• Business schools in the United States are hastily reshaping their curriculums with case studies on sexual harassment. (NYT)

• Political partisans are starting to exploit the #MeToo movement. (NYT)

• The former C.E.O. of SoFi, Mike Cagney, has approached potential investors about backing a fintech start-up. (Recode)

• The longtime leader of the New York City Ballet, Peter Martins, has retired after accusations of sexual harassment and verbal and physical abuse. He denies wrongdoing. (NYT)

Read this story. (Lloyd Blankfein said so.)

Last week, the NYT reported on how the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ends up with some of the highest construction costs in the world. Some facts:

• The Second Avenue subway cost $2.5 billion. Expanding Grand Central Terminal is now expected to cost $12 billion.

• Construction companies inflate their projected costs by up to 50 percent for M.T.A. work. Labor unions have arranged for up to four times the necessary staffing on some projects.

• Consultants have persuaded officials to spend heavily on design and management.

Here’s what Mr. Blankfein, Andrew’s choice as 2017’s best corporate tweeter, had to say:

(Mr. Blankfein has good reasons for pique over the tax law: Goldman Sachs is taking a $5 billion charge in its fourth-quarter earnings tied to the changes.)

The Speed Read

• Caterpillar faces a potential tax bill of $2 billion from the I.R.S., which says it has underpaid on profits from parts sales through its Swiss unit. (WSJ)

• The new Salesforce Tower in San Francisco is the tallest office building west of the Mississippi, and a symbol of tech’s triumph in the city. (NYT)

• Morgan Stanley is entering the robo-advice market, with an automated service that includes a choice of exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and seven themed portfolios. (FT)

• Europe’s new “MiFID II” investment rules — on how research is paid for, how trades are documented and executed, and how brokers share information — come into force tomorrow. (Bloomberg)

• Playboy Enterprises is considering shutting the print magazine to concentrate on licensing deals and brand partnerships. (WSJ)

• Retail cannabis shops in California opened their doors on Monday, inaugurating what proponents say will become the world’s largest legal market for recreational marijuana. (NYT)

• One of America’s biggest rehab companies built an empire. But after a patient died, its enemies — investors and rivals alike — struck hard. (NYT)

• Andrew picked his favorite business (and business-adjacent) books of 2017, including “The Spider Network” by David Enrich, “Reset” by Ellen Pao” and “Principles” by Ray Dalio. (NYT)

We’d love your feedback as we experiment with the writing, format and design of this briefing. Please email thoughts and suggestions to bizday@nytimes.com.