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Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
U.S. President Donald Trump walks to speak to members of the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) --

Donald Trump’s Plan B sounds a lot like his Plan A. Thousands of protesters took to the streets again in Hong Kong. And Bitcoin goes on an epic roller coaster ride. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today.

‘B’ is for Billions

Donald Trump took to the airwaves to reiterate his warnings to China, suggesting he’d impose “substantial additional tariffs” if  there’s no progress on a trade deal after his planned meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G-20 Summit in Japan. “My Plan B with China is to take in billions and billions of dollars a month and we’ll do less and less business with them,” the U.S. president said on Fox Business. Trump accused China of devaluing its currency “like a ping-pong ball,” and called Vietnam an “abuser” when responding to a question about companies relocating production there from China following U.S.-imposed tariffs.

Asian Stocks Point Higher

Oil jumped 2.7% as U.S. government data showed the biggest crude stockpile drop since 2016, adding momentum to a market already rallying on the standoff between Washington and Tehran. U.S. stocks edged downwards, Treasuries fell and the dollar was broadly lower against its G-10 counterparts.  Gold dropped for the first session in seven. Bitcoin surged as much as 22%, topping $13,000 for the first time since January 2018, before plunging in late trading. Asian equity futures are headed for a mixed start.

Iran Scorns Talks With U.S.

Iran rejected talks with the Washington after the latest round of U.S. levies. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said plans to sanction him demonstrate that the White House's claims of wanting negotiations with the Islamic Republic are a lie. Iran is set to breach the 2015 nuclear deal that the U.S. walked away from for the first time on Thursday, which could strain European ties. 

Hong Kong 

Thousands of peaceful protesters rallied in Hong Kong ahead of the G-20 summit, seeking democracy and the full withdrawal of a proposed extradition law. Some demonstrators later moved on to blockade police headquarters for the second time in a week. Meanwhile, Hong Kong graftbusters arrested Eugene Yeoh, an official responsible for vetting IPOs at the city's stock exchange, people familiar said. He'd retired in May, citing family reasons. The ICAC announced the detention earlier, without identifying the target by name, along with two of his associates on suspicion of corruption and misconduct related to two listings. The SFC is conducting a review.

Singapore’s Not-So-Sanguine Forecast

Singapore’s heading for a recession. According to Maybank Kim Eng Research, the city-state’s economy will probably experience a “shallow technical recession” in the third quarter as the global trade outlook worsens. Maybank downgraded its projection for Singapore’s economic growth for this year to 1.3% from 1.6%, below the government’s forecast range of 1.5% to 2.5%. A report on Wednesday showed manufacturing contracted 2.4% in May from a year ago, worse than expected. A recession increases the chance of the central bank easing monetary policy in October, Maybank economists said.

What we’ve been reading

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

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alyssa McDonald at amcdonald61@bloomberg.net

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