Trade War Hits U.S. Ports, Italian Poverty, U.K. Risks: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Good morning Americas. Here’s news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your week started:

• U.S. ports tremble. To understand what a trade war means for America, go to the Mississippi. Follow the mud-brown river past Louisiana’s chemical plants, oil refineries, granaries, ports, and the rail networks and highways that spring from its fingers
  • Now on, now off. President Trump signaled he may take a less confrontational path toward curbing Chinese investments in sensitive technologies. In the meantime, the pressure on Trump’s trade moves -- which may reduce the value of U.S. farm exports to China by about 40 percent -- is mounting and the U.S. blasted Europe’s “hypocrisy" on trade
• Defusing Brexit risks. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned that time is running out to remove the threat that the U.K.’s exit from the European Union poses to trillions of pounds of derivative contracts, stepping up pressure on the bloc to act
  • Presenting its Financial Stability Report, Britain’s central bank highlighted sharply rising U.S. corporate debt as a risk to global stability
• Slightly more than 5 million Italians lived in absolute poverty last year, up from 4.7 million in 2016. Elsewhere, Italian manufacturing confidence fell in June as the country’s employers lobby revised down its economic growth forecasts for this year and next
• Russia is a country with an unpredictable past, according to a local saying, and a recent change in some of its economic data appears to prove it
• Growing uncertainty on Brazil’s economic recovery and inflation prevented the central bank from providing guidance on its next interest rate move
• Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Masayoshi Amamiya is paying close attention to the downside of stimulus after five years of aggressive monetary policy

To contact the reporter on this story: Zoe Schneeweiss in Zurich at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Sam Unsted

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