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Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

(Bloomberg) --

Good morning. U.K. lawmakers return to work, Donald Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry and China is buying more U.S. pork. Here’s what’s moving markets.

Parliament Returns

U.K. lawmakers will get back to work after the Supreme Court ruled that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s prorogation was unlawful and that, essentially, Parliament was never prorogued. Johnson, facing calls to resign, was defiant and will return from his trip to New York early to face what is likely to be a cavalcade of criticism. Given Johnson doesn't have a majority to work with, Parliament is now in control but, as has been the case for some time now, what members of parliament will actually do with that power remains to be seen. All eyes on Westminster.

Impeachment

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a formal impeachment inquiry will be opened into President Donald Trump, with an accusation that the president had violated his oath of office and his obligations under the constitution. You’d have to have been willfully ignoring American politics to miss that impeachment has been talked about many times, but the formal step appears to have been triggered by revelations that Trump pushed Ukraine’s government to investigate Joe Biden, now the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. The transcript of that call is due to be released on Wednesday.

Pork Purchases

Chinese companies are preparing to buy more U.S. pork, according to people familiar with the situation, ahead of a meeting of top trade negotiators from both sides in Washington next month. That may soothe some concerns after Donald Trump used his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday to accuse China of currency manipulation and reiterate his distaste at their trade practices. On a whole other front for the U.S., beyond the aforementioned issues at home, European allies are urging the country to talk with Iran as the window to ease tensions between the nations appears to be closing. All the above adds to the risk for investors, according to Goldman Sachs Inc.’s COO.

Listing Blitz

The much-awaited listing of German software firm TeamViewer will materialize on Wednesday, only the fifth IPO in the country this year. It comes in a busy week for listings, even if much of the attention is still on bankers scrambling for a place on the Saudi Aramco deal and ongoing discussions about WeWork’s postponed attempt to go public, heightened by the departure of its controversial boss. This week we’ve already had Anheuser Busch-InBev NV’s Asia-Pacific unit listing, with the price at the bottom end of the range, but Swedish buyout firm EQT AB not only priced near the top end of guidance but also popped on day one. Let’s see how TeamViewer fares.

Coming Up...

U.S. stock futures edged higher and Asian stocks pared losses following the report of a slight easing of U.S.-China tensions, though European stock futures are pointing to a negative start. Watch out for any read-across into Adidas AG and Puma SE after U.S. sportswear giant Nike Inc. hit a record high after earnings and keep an eye on results from Boohoo Group Plc, the high-flying U.K. online clothing retailer. We’ll have consumer confidence data from both France and Germany, plus a central bank decision in Czech Republic.

What We’ve Been Reading

This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net

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