The Financial Regulatory Authority is expected to rule on 23 December on Beltone Financial’s appeal of a six-month suspension handed to its investment banking arm, Beltone attorney Osman Mowafi said yesterday after the FRA heard the firm’s argument. The closely watched case could have wide impact on everything from how bookbuilding (the process of figuring out how much stock to allocate to which investor, at what price) is regulated in Egyptian IPOs to the mood in the wider investment banking community.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s visit to Vienna continues today. The visit has thrust into the spotlight Egypt’s role in preventing illegal migration to Europe, an issue on which Austria and Germany have pressed Egypt since at least the fall of 2016, as we have previously reported. Both countries have suggested Egypt could land a Turkey-style incentives package. Egypt has already done a lot of clamp down in the flow of migrants and is believed to have been talking with the EU since late summer on a series of incentives. We have more in this morning’s Speed Round, below.

Reminder: The emphasis on migration to Europe comes as Egypt takes over the presidency of the African Union in 2019.

The US stock market is on track for its worst December since the Great Depression, CNBC reports in what has become the business story of the week. The Dow is down 7.8% for the month and the S&P 500 is off 7.6% after slides yesterday, putting them on pace for their worst December performance since 1931, the broadcaster says. This is despite December “typically [being] a very positive month for markets.” Yesterday’s sell-off brought US stocks to their lowest level in 14 months, Bloomberg notes.

What’s going on? Investors are spooked about the global growth outlook and are jittery ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision, due tomorrow after the Fed’s two-day meeting wraps. “It’s a treacherous market right now,” one observer told the WSJ, noting that “investor sentiment has shifted” and that the “‘buy-the-dip’ mentality used to work really well, and prior downturns were short lived. This time it hasn’t happened.” The US retail sector is the bellwether to watch, the FT suggests, noting that shares here are “on course for their biggest quarterly sell-off since the financial crisis” despite a bullish Christmas sales forecast as the sector is at the center of “concerns about the global economy” and The Donald’s trade war with China.

Oil is also taking it on the chin, as is the greenback. US crude closed below USD 50 per barrel yesterday for the first time in some 14 months. What’s more, “Institutional investors have sharply reversed their outlook for the USD in the past three months and expectations have risen that the US stock market will fall in 2019,” according to a quarterly survey of 200 asset allocators in London cited by the Financial Times. “The last few months have spooked investors,” said David Bowers, head of research at Absolute Strategy Research. “People are fastening their seat belts for a pretty bumpy year [in 2019].”

So, what should you expect the US Fed to do tomorrow? The US central bank will likely hike rates for the fourth time this year to 2.25-2.50%, but there are signs that the US central bank will slow the pace of interest rate hikes in 2019.

Also worth a moment of your time this morning:

What do 10 of the world’s largest asset managers predict will happen in 2019? The Financial Times’ fund management desk asked 10 CIOs with USD 21 tn in combined AUM what they expect, and it boils down to a year marked by market volatility, trade tensions and lots of talk about Brexit in a year full of downside for the global economy. (Read)

Goldman Sachs faces criminal charges in Malaysia, which is demanding more than USD 3 bn in fines for the firm’s alleged involvement in a corruption case involvingastate investment fund, the Financial Times. Lax oversight allowed the firm to ignore clear warning signs, the WSJ adds in an investigation. Goldman has fought back, describing itself as a “victim of deceptive Malaysian officials,” CNBC writes. Reuters also had the story.

Tunisian activists took the streets yesterday in Sidi Bouzid, the same town in which the January 2011 self-immolation of a fruit seller named Mohamed Bouazizi helped set off the Arab Spring, Bloomberg reports. Activists modeling themselves on France’s Yellow Vest protesters were demanding lower prices and more jobs.

MUST READ for anyone thinking about binning the 9-to-5 in middle age: When couples retire — and then start a business, via the Wall Street Journal.

Not ready to retire? You can still push back against the 9-to-5 grind, Axios reports