Good morning. The U.S. introduced its latest restrictions on transferring advanced chips to China, but the delay in cutting off chips useful in artificial intelligence showed how the Biden administration has struggled to stall Beijing’s advances.

• What are the new rules? The rules, the fourth attempt in three years by U.S. policymakers to curb China’s access to cutting-edge semiconductor technology, limited the sale of memory chips that power AI applications and narrowed the suite of chip-making tools available to China. The Commerce Department also announced the addition of 140 Chinese companies and other entities to its trade blacklist.
   
• Impact of delay: Industry analysts said a monthslong pause between the drafting of the rules and their release Monday allowed Chinese entities to stock up on semiconductors and machines they knew were likely to be restricted.
   
• What the new restrictions mean: The latest export regulations prevent makers of advanced memory chips, referred to as high-bandwidth memory, from shipping their products to China without permission from the Commerce Department. Such chips work in tandem with AI processors in the computations behind generative AI systems. There are three major manufacturers of HBM: SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics of South Korea and U.S.-based Micron Technology.

Super Micro says accounting review clears management.

Super Micro Computer shares rose after the company said a final review showed no evidence of fraud or misconduct by its management or board relating to accounting issues that have dragged on the stock in recent weeks.

The server maker also said Monday that it would appoint a new chief financial officer, one of several recommendations that a special committee suggested to strengthen corporate governance and support the company’s rapid growth.

• A Delaware judge upheld her earlier ruling striking down Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package, plunging Tesla’s board into more uncertainty over how to compensate its superstar chief executive for a decade of work.
   
• President-elect Donald Trump's new Securities and Exchange Commission chair will likely withdraw from lawsuits aimed at forcing crypto to follow Wall Street rules. The WSJ's Dave Michaels discusses what a second Trump term means for the industry.
   
• Microsoft faces a 1 billion pound ($1.27 billion) dispute in the U.K. over how it charges customers who buy cloud software services that rival its own Azure, the latest antitrust challenge to the U.S. tech giant’s approach to licensing.

Cyberattack and financial troubles force Stoli’s U.S. arm to file for bankruptcy.

The U.S. arm of spirits maker Stoli Group filed for bankruptcy late last week, citing an August cyberattack as a contributing factor.

Worldwide litigation by Russia, which claimed itself owner of the Stolichnaya brand in 2000, and a dispute with primary lender Fifth Third Bank also prompted the move, Chris Caldwell, Stoli Group’s global chief executive, said in a court filing.

The railroad on the wrong side of Trump’s tariffs.

Railroad boss Keith Creel drove a shiny ceremonial spike through the track in Kansas City, Mo., last year to celebrate a $28 billion deal that forged the only freight railroad that directly connects Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

His corporate creation, called Canadian Pacific Kansas City, or CPKC, operates a 20,000-mile network stretching from Canada’s ports on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts through Midwest rail hubs such as Chicago and down to factories and seaports in Mexico.

The issue at stake. The railroad is the ultimate bet on the promise of the free flow of goods and a key cog in an intricate supply chain that underpins North American trade. It is a bet that suddenly got a lot riskier. Donald Trump’s election victory sparked a small selloff in CPKC’s shares and the president-elect’s threat last week to impose new 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada further spooked investors.

• A U.S. Navy destroyer can fire dozens of cruise missiles within minutes. Reloading the deadly warship back in port can take two months. In a war against China, that could be a fatal weakness, and the U.S. is looking to fix that. 
   
• China’s central bank has pledged to adopt a supportive policy stance next year, marking the latest effort by policymakers to bolster an ailing economy.
   
• In a speech and in a series of meetings with American political figures during his visit to the U.S., Taiwan President Lai Ching-te signaled that Taipei hopes to enjoy the same support from the incoming Trump administration that it has enjoyed from President Biden.
   
• Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger retired abruptly, ending a nearly four-year run that saw the chip maker fall behind rivals in building semiconductors to power the artificial-intelligence boom.
   
• Thousands of workers at Volkswagen sites across Germany participated in warning strikes on Monday as a conflict with management escalated over the carmaker’s plans to slash jobs, cut pay and close factories.
   
• Manufacturing activity in the U.S. contracted for an eighth-straight month in November, albeit at a less sharp pace, reflecting the challenge for the incoming Trump administration to revive the struggling industrial sector.
   
• Last week’s major economic updates offered new details but no consequential surprises, leaving big questions hanging over the economy’s trajectory heading into the final month of the year.
   
• South Korea’s headline inflation was softer than expected in November and remained below the central bank’s 2% annual target, likely supporting its easy monetary policy.

• As President-elect Donald Trump prepares for border restrictions and deportations that formed the bedrock of his election victory, the state that has pioneered extreme immigration crackdowns is reaching out to lend a hand.
   
• A ruthless focus on efficiency made Carlos Tavares a giant of the automotive industry. It was also his undoing at Stellantis.
   
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s distrust of authority has taken him to the unlikely pinnacle of the medical establishment—if he can convince lawmakers that he will be a responsible steward of the U.S. health system.
   
• So far, 2024 has been an unexpectedly winning year for female bosses.
   
• The growth of the e-commerce giant Shein has spawned a new U.S. delivery service called SpeedX that is leaving packages on the doorsteps of shoppers across the country.

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