Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your morning brief for Friday, February 13th. I'm Daniel Bach for The Wall Street Journal. Washington and Taipei have today finalized a trade deal to lower the tariff on Taiwan from 32 to 15 percent. Core to the deal is an agreement that the world's largest advanced chipmaker, TSMC, will continue investments in the U.S. Taiwan and U.S.
officials consider the deal a strengthening of not just trade, but also their security ties. Beijing has not commented on the announcement but said last month that it opposes any official exchanges between Taipei and Washington.
Chapter 2: What are the key details of the U.S.-Taiwan trade pact on chips and security?
In the latest fallout from the Epstein files, Goldman Sachs top lawyer Catherine Rumler is set to step down later this year. Recently released files revealed Rumler remained a close ally of the convicted sex offender up until his 2019 arrest, calling her on the night of his arrest and naming her as a backup executor in a version of his will.
Rumler maintains their relationship was strictly professional and said she had no knowledge of any new or ongoing unlawful activity on Epstein's part. And crypto exchange Coinbase posted a fourth quarter loss with revenue falling more than 20 percent as the recent downturn in crypto prices is starting to hit the biggest institutional investors.
Bitcoin has been on a months-long slide since touching record highs in October, with the broader market for digital assets having lost nearly $2 trillion in market value, with many fearing the start of the next crypto winter. Robinhood Markets, the brokerage app popular with crypto investors, has tumbled more than 50% since Bitcoin's high. Asian stocks ended the day lower.
European stocks are also down in midday trading. And U.S. stock futures have fallen ahead of January's inflation reading. The consumer price index is due at 8.30 a.m. Eastern. And we've got a lot more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast. You can add it to your playlist on your smart speaker or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.