Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
(Bloomberg) --
Brexit breakthrough, oil market can’t catch a break, and some good news breaks on trade. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today.
Now, the hard part
The draft agreement on the U.K.’s exit from the European Union reached yesterday will be presented to government ministers in London today when Prime Minister Theresa May asks the cabinet to back the proposal. Should she get through this unscathed, she then faces the much bigger challenge of getting it passed by a parliamentary vote. Already Northern Ireland’s DUP, whose MPs support the minority Conservative government, have come out against it, while the opposition Labour party have also indicated they won’t support it. With the parliamentary vote not expected until closer to Christmas, there’s still a long way to go to seal the deal.
Crude
Oil price action has moved from a selloff to a collapse, with West Texas Intermediate plunging 7.1 percent in yesterday’s session. The latest leg-down in the price came after OPEC warned that demand for its crude is falling faster than expected. A barrel of WTI for December delivery was virtually unchanged at $55.75 by 5:45 a.m. Eastern Time as the International Energy Agency welcomed the oil market’s return to surplus.
Park the car (tariffs)
The Trump administration will hold off for now on imposing new tariffs on imported automobiles, according to two people familiar with the matter. Shares of Japanese car manufacturers jumped. It will also be good news for Germany where the economy shrunk for the first time since 2015 in the third quarter as the car industry there took a hit on the emissions scandal. China, the target of many of the White House’s tariff moves to date, will be able to handle the trade war just fine, according to a major European miner.
Markets drop
Overnight the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.3 percent while Japan’s Topix index closed 0.2 percent higher, helped by the rally in automakers. In Europe the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.6 percent lower by 5:45 a.m. amid disappointing economic data and caution about the prospects of the Brexit agreement. S&P 500 futures pointed to a lower open, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 3.138 percent and gold was down slightly.
Coming up…
At 8:30 a.m. U.S. inflation numbers for October are published, with the data expected to show a pickup in price growth to 2.5 percent, from 2.3 percent previously. Look to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s discussion on the economy with Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan at 6:00 p.m. for any indication on whether the number will do anything to change the policymaker’s thinking on the rate path. In earnings today Cisco Systems Inc., Macy’s Inc. and Canada Goose Holdings Inc. are all due to report.
What we've been reading
This is what's caught our eye over the last 24 hours.
- 50 companies to watch in 2019.
- Worries grow about where economic growth is going to come from.
- Steve Cohen says a bear market is coming within two years.
- If Italy behaves itself, Mario Draghi’s parting gift for Europe may be a rate hike.
- Chinese conglomerate offers airline tickets instead of cash to repay investors.
- Lindsey Graham calls Saudi prince “unstable,” sees sanctions ahead.
- Gaia spots ‘ghost galaxy’ next door.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Cecile Gutscher at cgutscher@bloomberg.net, Samuel Potter
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