Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
(Bloomberg) --
Good morning. The debate about the future of trade talks goes on, the battle for Commerzbank may be heating up and volatility could be on the horizon. Here’s what’s moving markets.
Trade Worries
The first national security ruling made by the World Trade Organization could set up a battle with the U.S. on its trade policy, and some experts also are concerned about the U.S. agreeing to face reciprocal consequences of breaking a pact with China. But those are problems for down the road. Larry Kudlow, the White House economic adviser, says the talks the U.S. is holding with China are going well, even if some may conclude from the outside that the trade war isn’t going entirely to plan for Donald Trump. Just look at stalled U.S. factory output and bulging stockpiles that need to be moved on while China’s economic growth surprisingly holds firm.
Bank Battle
The battle for the future of Commerzbank AG may be just getting started. Netherlands lender ING Groep NV is reportedly taking a look at the German bank as the saga around a possible merger with Deutsche Bank AG rumbles on. Not only rumbles on, but continues to pick up opposition from unions and the German government, which would need shares in Commerzbank to triple just to make back the money used to bail it out in the financial crisis.
Volatility Ahead?
Questions are growing about whether foreign-exchange markets have gotten complacent and whether a volatility explosion is just around the corner. Here's how to prepare if and when it does get going. There are also warning signs flashing on the dollar in the options market, with investors the most pessimistic in a year on the outlook for the greenback. No such indications from the Treasury market, where yields are back to where they were before all the Fed-induced anxiety took hold.
Streaming and Chips
Plenty for people watching the tech sector to digest this morning. Streaming giant Netflix Inc. dropped before paring those losses after its outlook disappointed investors in the face of Walt Disney Co.’s cut-price Disney+ streaming network, which got a huge thumbs up from analysts last week and drove shares in the house of mouse to new highs. Elsewhere, chip giant Intel Corp. said it’s abandoning its plan to break into the mobile-phone industry, just as Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. managed to reach a settlement on their long-running dispute and sealed a long-term supply deal.
Coming Up...
Asian stocks were mixed and European futures look undecided moving into Wednesday’s session, while Treasury yields ticked higher and the dollar dipped. Oil is extending gains amid concerns crude prices could be overheating. Gucci owner Kering SA will report after Europe closes and we’ll have numbers in the U.S. later from food and drink group PepsiCo Inc. and Morgan Stanley to round out the reporting from the big investment banks. Inflation data is also on the way for the euro area and the U.K.
What We’ve Been Reading
This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours.
- People in the U.K. work the longest hours in the EU.
- College kids are living it up in Vancouver’s empty mansions.
- The world’s biggest electric car maker looks nothing like Tesla.
- Sales of the Hunchback of Notre Dame are soaring.
- The app helping gay couples have children in China.
- The Texas oil industry meets yoga.
- Charting the rise of plastic in the ocean over six decades.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net
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