Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
(Bloomberg) --
Good morning. Iran retaliated for the U.S. airstrike, Samsung’s earnings beat expectations and we await a press conference from Carlos Ghosn. Here’s what’s moving markets.
Retaliation
The retaliation begins. Iran hit U.S. military bases in Iraq with missiles, a direct attack on U.S. forces in the region that will risk a further escalation from President Donald Trump. The news, as the airstrike that kicked off the tensions last week had done, sent investors into safe-haven assets and caused U.S. equity futures and Asian stocks to swing wildly on Wednesday. Adding to the jitters, a Boeing 737 jet crashed in Iran shortly after takeoff on Wednesday, killing all passengers and crew on board. There’s no indication so far that it’s linked to the wider picture, but that’s unlikely to prevent it from creating more nerves.
What to Do
The gold price topped $1,600 per ounce following the attacks on the military bases and the new developments are likely to send investors back to the drawing board as they continue to game out all the potential scenarios that may evolve. So far, market participants have taken a range of moves as they reassess the geopolitical risks facing their portfolios, including making short-term bets to taking out hedges to protect against price movements to retreating to the sidelines to wait it out.
Samsung Beats
Korean giant Samsung Electronics Co.’s profit topped expectations for the December quarter, adding to the increasingly brighter underlying picture for the chip sector following decent results from the U.S.’s Microchip Technology Inc. on Monday. Samsung’s beat was driven by memory chip prices starting to recover from the recent downturn and this appears to be happening faster than the market had previously anticipated. The tensions around Iran may weigh on European technology stocks on Wednesday, but the fundamentals for the industry are getting better.
Ghosn Speaks
The world’s most famous white-collar fugitive, Carlos Ghosn, plans a press conference in Beirut on Wednesday at 3 p.m. local time at which he’s expected to hit back at Nissan Motor Co., the Japanese automaker that ousted him after his arrest in Japan. He’s expected to name people behind what he says was a plot to halt his plans to integrate Nissan more closely with France’s Renault SA, but according to people familiar with the situation, the Japanese group intends to go on the offensive to head off the attacks. Whatever happens, eyes will be glued on Ghosn once more after his dramatic flight to Lebanon over the new year holiday.
Coming Up…
Asian stocks pared losses and European stock futures are pointing firmly lower as markets try to decipher what’s next in the U.S.-Iran situation. Oil initially jumped on the attacks but has come off the intraday highs. German factory orders will top the agenda for economic data while on the earnings front we’ll get more on how British grocers fared over the festive season from J Sainsbury Plc, plus an update from the country’s top vegan sausage roll merchant, Greggs Plc.
What We’ve Been Reading
This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours.
- Australian wildfire smoke is obscuring skies half a world away.
- Taiwan’s election is China’s next big risk.
- Approval for psychedelic mushroom medicine nears.
- No 4-day-week on the way in Finland.
- Great white sharks re-emerge off Cape Town’s coast.
- How to spend on drinking in Las Vegas.
- An online services for matching co-parents.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net
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