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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
A pedestrian checks a mobile device while standing on Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York. (Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) --

Hong Kong’s stock market will open Monday after Typhoon Mangkhut leaves a trail of destruction, stocks on edge as Trump threatens further tariffs and China is said to rebuff overtures for more talks. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today.

Typhoon Havoc 

Typhoon Mangkhut is losing power after making landfall in China and leaving Hong Kong with roads blocked, buildings damaged and low-lying areas flooded. The death toll in the Philippines rose to more than 50. Mangkhut is set to weaken as it passes over inland areas of South China. The Hong Kong Observatory lowered the storm warning signal to 3 from 8, which means stock trading will proceed Monday as normal. All schools in the city, including six universities, will be shut. Macau suspended all casino operations for the first time as Mangkhut approached. Almost 900 flights were canceled in Hong Kong on Sunday. Cathay Pacific Airways said it now expects a gradual return to scheduled flight operations from Monday, but there’ll still be delays and some cancellations.

More Tariffs

China is considering declining the Trump administration’s offer of trade talks later this month after fresh threats of tariffs from Washington, the Wall Street Journal reported. President Donald Trump instructed aides to proceed with tariffs on about $200 billion more in Chinese products despite his Treasury secretary’s attempt to restart talks with Beijing to resolve the trade war, according to four people familiar with the matter. An announcement, which has been delayed so officials can consider revisions based on concerns raised via public comment, may come as soon as Monday.

Coming up…

Monday will feature August data on Indonesian trade, with the latter forecast to report a much smaller deficit after July's widest shortfall in five years. Tuesday will see South Korean President Moon Jae-in visiting Pyongyang for a summit with Kim Jong Un. We also may get some fresh Aussie housing market gloom, with quarterly data expected to show the first year-on-year decline for property prices since 2012. There'll also be minutes from the latest Reserve Bank of Australia decision. Wednesday brings central bank decisions from the Bank of Japan -- which may refrain from fresh moves after a series of tweaks at the previous meeting -- and the Bank of Thailand -- which could consider shifting to a tightening bias while holding rates unchanged. Friday features Japan CPI, with economists looking for another incremental shift toward the BOJ's 2  percent goal.

Markets Down 

Stocks in Asia will likely kick off the week under pressure after the latest U.S. move to tariff incoming Chinese goods. The dollar maintained gains. U.S. equities staged a late-day rally on Friday after earlier sinking on the reports of Trump instructing aides to proceed with tariffs on more Chinese products. The dollar strengthened for the first time in three days and U.S. 10-year note yields briefly climbed past 3 percent. Silver led precious metals lower and oil hovered around $69 a barrel.

China’s Offshore Trillions 

Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Hillhouse Capital Management Ltd. are joining the throng of financial firms seeking to service the huge number of Chinese investors looking to diversify outside of the mainland. GaoTeng Global Asset Management Ltd., the duo’s one-year-old venture in Hong Kong, plans to start accepting money shortly from retail Chinese investors who have existing assets internationally. A weakening yuan amid escalating global trade tensions and domestic credit tightening is likely to spur Chinese interest in diversifying holdings outside of the world’s second largest economy.

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: Adam Haigh at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net

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