Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
(Bloomberg) --
Good morning. It’s goodbye for now from Mario Draghi, the European Union is debating the length of the next Brexit delay and Telsa Inc. shares surged after earnings. Here’s what’s moving markets.
Ciao, Mario
Mario Draghi concludes his last European Central Bank meeting today before handing over the presidency to International Monetary Fund boss Christine Lagarde on Oct. 31. The Italian is expected to make a final plea for fiscal help from governments as inflation languishes below target, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, but with investors forecasting no meaningful change to policy or outlook today, traders may just spend the day reminiscing over the Italian’s “whatever it takes” heroics of yesteryear, or even the #DraghiTieGuesses Twitter trend he started.
Macron Holds Out
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been left hanging by the European Union as Brussels debates how long of an extension to the Brexit process to grant Britain, with the French said to be pushing for a shorter deadline. France’s president has even signaled he’s ready to block it. Here’s how the process for agreeing on a delay actually works, and, with the U.K. seemingly heading toward a general election, here’s how that could unfold. But with the process on hold for now, U.K. assets like the pound have been range-bound, while volatility is ebbing.
Elon’s Surprise
It was a solid day’s work for Elon Musk, as Tesla Inc. stock surged more than 20% in after-hours trading as the company delivered a profit few saw coming and declared it’s ahead of schedule on a new plant and product. The big question now is whether the carmaker can maintain the momentum. Elsewhere in the U.S., Microsoft Corp.’s sales and profit got a boost from demand for cloud-computing and internet-based versions of Office software, while EBay Inc.’s forecast ahead of the all-important Christmas period left some wanting.
Stocks Higher, Oil Pares
Shares edged up in most of Asia, taking the lead from Wall Street where earnings are generally being seen as better than expected so far. Meanwhile, oil pared a 2.7% surge from Wednesday — the biggest gain since the attacks on Saudi Arabia, following a surprise decline in U.S. crude stockpiles. In Europe today, purchasing managers’ index data could be a big focus. An improvement on recent readings is especially needed after downgrades to growth forecasts from a number of outlets.
Coming Up…
Other than the PMIs, the data slate is relatively light, although U.S. durable goods numbers could be a focus this afternoon. In earnings, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc kicks off earnings for Brexit-hit U.K. banks, while others reporting numbers in Europe include French luxury goods-maker Hermes this morning and Kering, the owner of Gucci, after the market close. Mercedes-parent Daimler AG from Germany also updates.
What We’ve Been Reading
This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours.
- Why cigarettes might make a comeback.
- BBC apologizes after Marr suggested U.K. home secretary was laughing.
- Boeing crash pilot’s mother calls for more training.
- Trump reckons American incomes have surged during his presidency. Data says otherwise.
- Google says its new machine performs computation in 200 seconds that would take fastest supercomputer 10,000 years.
- Goldman Sachs dismisses senior banker in Middle East over compliance violations.
- U.K. police raid homes linked to driver after lorry deaths.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net
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