Two pieces from me in the @wsj today: First up: Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group. In his last job as a pharma CEO, he was the very face of expanding access to medicine. Now, that image is turned on its head, and there is no playbook for what comes next.

Next: Meet Richard Toh. You’ve probably never heard of the head of hedge fund Kenrich Partners. He’s been in the business almost 40 years. But this year, he got washed. And in an extraordinary letter, he let it all out.

Dealmakers say less regulation, lower interest rates and rising stock markets could fuel activity. But ‘people really don’t know,’ one banker says, thanks to Trump's unpredictability. Ben Dummett Ben Glickman wsj.com/business/deals… via The Wall Street Journal

Three more big banks quit a climate coalition this week. JPMorgan could be next. ⁦Gina Heeb⁩ wsj.com/finance/bankin…

NEW and my first big story for ⁦The Wall Street Journal⁩ in 2025: Centerview Partners, long seen as a holdout on Wall Street for taking outside money or going public, is mulling a deal of its own after a record year. wsj.com/finance/center…

Yet another strong addition to Team Wall Street. Welcome, Dylan!

New scoop from me: Designer Jonathan Adler's retail brand, which rakes in $150m in rev/year, is being acquired by Consortium Brand Partners, with a minority stake taken by American Exchange Group wsj.com/business/retai…

Donald Trump has yet to name his picks to head Washington’s banking agencies, but possible nominees are already teasing a pullback of regulations. ⁦Gina Heeb⁩ ⁦⁦Dylan Tokar⁩ wsj.com/finance/regula…

Steve Cohen’s New York Mets lost to a playoff rival to end their 2024 baseball season. The billionaire’s hedge fund, meanwhile, topped the competition. ⁦Peter Rudegeair⁩ wsj.com/finance/invest…

Goldman’s biggest competitors are increasingly private-credit firms and the like. It is rearranging itself to reflect that. Scoop from ⁦AnnaMaria Andriotis⁩: wsj.com/finance/bankin…

Short seller Nate Anderson is shutting down his firm, Hindenburg Research, and will turn now to low-stress investments. “I’ve spent most of the last eight years either in a fight or preparing for the next one,” he told ⁦Ben Foldy (he/him)⁩. wsj.com/finance/invest…

“No company can do what he’s done. They own about 2% of bitcoin—who can own more of it?” ⁦Gregory Zuckerman⁩ wsj.com/finance/curren…

Scoop: Conservative shareholders are targeting JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs and pushing them to abandon their diversity, equity and inclusion policies. W/AnnaMaria Andriotis wsj.com/finance/bankin…

From Wall Street to the White House: Star technology banker Michael Grimes is in talks to leave Morgan Stanley to work for the Trump administration. Fun scoop with ⁦Brian Schwartz⁩ and ⁦Corrie Driebusch⁩ wsj.com/finance/bankin…

Accounting firm CohnReznick is in advanced talks to sell a stake to private-equity firm Apax Partners wsj.com/articles/accou… via The Wall Street Journal Mark Maurer Miriam Gottfried

🚨🚨 Banks are preparing to sell up to $3 billion of X loans next week and have just offloaded $1 billion to investors. Scoop w/Justin Baer wsj.com/finance/bankin…

John Femenia went to jail for three years for running an insider-trading scheme while he was a banker at Wells Fargo. I spoke with him about how an addiction to Adderall inspired him to start the scheme and how he’s rebuilt his life after prison. wsj.com/finance/inside…

E-commerce didn’t kill bricks-and-mortar stores, but it made them worse. Much worse. wsj.com/business/retai… via The Wall Street Journal

🚨 SCOOP: Walgreens is closing in on a deal with Sycamore that could come as soon as Thursday. (WSJ has been all over the Walgreens/Sycamore deal, from breaking the initial talks until now!) $wba w/ Cara Lombardo and Anna Wilde Mathews wsj.com/business/deals…

🚨 BREAKING: Walgreens’s almost centurylong run as a public company is coming to an end. The drugstore chain has struck a deal to be taken private by Sycamore in one of the biggest LBOs in recent memory. $wba wsj.com/business/deals…