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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) --

Navarro plays down risks from trade policy, problems pile up for China, and Republicans to present immigration bill. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today.

Calming words

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said that a Treasury Department report later this week on American restrictions on foreign investment won’t be as broad as investors fear as he sought to allay a trade standoff. His words came after increasing worries that the world is heading for a full blown trade war sparked a  global market selloff yesterday. Worldwide supply chains mean companies have had to change how they’re doing business to heed measures already in place.

Panda

Financial markets in China are suffering a double whammy of trade tensions and a domestic campaign to deleverage, providing a raft of sell signals. The Shanghai Composite Index entered a bear market, ending today’s session 20 percent below its January high with analysts seeing little reason to expect a rebound any time soon. The yuan was fixed at a reference rate of 6.518 per dollar, slightly stronger than expected, which may point to efforts by authorities to stem the currency’s weakening

Immigration

House Republicans are set to present a compromise immigration bill tomorrow, with no certainty yet as to whether they can get it past the more conservative members of the party. The current version has added a requirement for employers to electronically check the immigration status of workers in an attempt to win over those key votes. Meanwhile, on the border, the patrol agency head said that separation of families has stopped

Markets gain 

Overnight, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.1 percent while Japan’s Topix closed 0.2 percent higher, recovering from losses of more than 1 percent earlier in the session. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.3 percent higher by 5:50 a.m. Eastern Time as stocks rose on the back of a weakening euro. S&P 500 futures pointed to a quiet open, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 2.882 percent and gold was dropping. 

EM warning

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley have all shown bearish sentiment towards emerging markets, with trade threats and a rising dollar cited as some of the biggest risks to the asset class. EM currencies were again hit yesterday, suffering their worst Monday since August 2016. The uncertainty adds to the challenges facing Turkey’s newly re-elected president, who enjoyed a post-victory market rally of  less than one day

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: Cecile Gutscher at cgutscher@bloomberg.net, Samuel Potter

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