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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. Brexit will again dominate the agenda with the U.K. seeking more time to do a deal, while in the U.S. a tentative agreement has been reached to avoid another government shutdown and in Spain potentially acrimonious budget talks are to get under way.

Here’s what’s moving markets this morning.

More time

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May brought forward her statement to the U.K. Parliament and on Tuesday will ask for more time to continue negotiations with the European Union to make changes to her Brexit plan in order to win some favor among lawmakers. She’ll be speaking after GDP figures showed investment in the U.K. suffering and as Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, says the clarity on what the next steps are for Brexit must come from London.

Spain’s budget

It’ll be a different kind of wrangling to what Italy faced last year but Spain’s budget plans will  be front and center in coming days. The debate on its budget kicks off amid continued pressure on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and talk of a possible early election that reared its head on Monday. The trial of the separatists who pushed for Catalan independence in 2017 also begins, so temperatures are likely to be elevated in Madrid for the next few days.

Art of the Tentative Deal

Congressional negotiators have reached a tentative deal on border security in the U.S. that would give President Donald Trump much less money than he has demanded for new barriers and avert another government shutdown at the end of the week. Stocks and the dollar rose on the news; investors were reassured when Trump, at a rally on the Mexican border, didn’t take the opportunity to cast immediate shadow over the possible deal. European futures too are pointing to a positive open.

Meeting soon

Trump’s administration said he wants to meet with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping “very soon,” providing some more optimism for markets ahead of the next round of trade talks between the two nations this week. Still, tensions haven’t dissipated entirely, with China accusing the U.S. of tricks after two warships sailed through waters claimed by Beijing. All this as another voice was added to the chorus predicting a mild U.S. recession in the near future.

Coming up…

A couple of big European earnings releases are on the slate: German steel firm ThyssenKrupp is already out with a report that shows quarterly profits plunged on the damaging effects of U.S. tariffs and rising costs in China. Investors are hoping it’s a different story for Gucci owner Kering SA, given that luxury peers LVMH and Hermes have already said demand from Chinese consumers is holding up. Euro finance ministers will meet to discuss the European Commission’s economic forecast and Italian Finance Minister Giovanni Tria will address the European Parliament. OPEC will publish its monthly oil market report amid continued, if less intense, volatility in crude prices.

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: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net

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