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Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about.

Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day
Trucks wait to be loaded with shipping containers at the Port of Savannah in Savannah, Georgia, U.S. (Photographer: Ty Wright/Bloomberg)  

(Bloomberg) --

America’s China tariffs remain on track, Theresa May faces the possibility of a leadership challenge over her Brexit deal, and Goldman Sachs’s CEO says he’s “outraged” about the 1MDB debacle. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about.

Tariffs on Target

The U.S. still plans to raise tariffs on Chinese imports in January with President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping likely at best to agree to a “framework” for further talks to resolve trade tensions at an upcoming meeting, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said. The U.S. and China are now discussing the agenda for the two leaders’ meeting on the sidelines of the Nov. 30-Dec. 1 Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires and what a realistic outcome could be. When asked about a report that China this week had presented a list of possible concessions ahead of the talks, Ross said in an interview Thursday that everything leading up to the meeting is just “preparatory.”

May Holds Firm...for Now

Is Theresa May’s time finally up? She doesn’t think so. After months of veiled threats and dark warnings, the pro-Brexit army of hardliners  have finally mobilized. Their informal leader -- Jacob Rees-Mogg -- has submitted his letter of no-confidence to Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of rank-and-file Conservatives. But the prime minister is standing firm: “Am I going to see this through? Yes.” Asked if she would carry on if she won a confidence vote by just one vote -- a scenario that is hypothetical -- her answer was revealing: “Leadership is about taking the right decisions not the easy ones.” For now it seems the threshold to trigger that process has not been reached yet. Here’s a guide to how the Conservatives might try to dump May.

Goldman’s 1MDB Outrage

David Solomon had a message for Goldman Sachs employees shaken by the firm’s involvement in a multibillion fraud scandal: This isn’t us. “I am personally outraged that any employee of the firm would undertake the actions spelled out in the government’s pleadings,” the firm’s chief executive officer said in a voicemail left with employees on Wednesday. “The behavior of those individuals is reprehensible and inconsistent with the good work and integrity that defines work that 40,000 of you do every day.”

U.S. Stocks Halt Skid

U.S. stocks rose for the first time in six days, advancing 1.1 percent, with beaten-down technology shares leading the rebound. The pound plunged as Brexit again threw the U.K. government into turmoil. The dollar was little changed, while oil and Treasuries jumped. Trade-sensitive industrial shares led the S&P 500 Index higher in afternoon trading amid hope that China and the U.S. would de-escalate their trade spat before the G20 summit later this month, even as the threat of new tariffs looms. Technology, materials and energy stocks also reacted positively to the news, offsetting a decline in consumer stocks brought on by disappointing results from department stores.

Coming Up…

Asian investors this Friday may be thankful for small mercies. While the MSCI Asia-Pacific index is headed for a second week in the red, the retreat is a measured one at least -- consecutive declines of less than 1%. Meanwhile, classic risk proxy the Aussie dollar is heading for its first 3-week advance since June and the strongest such gain since January. On the economic data front, the week winds down with GDP data due for Malaysia and Hong Kong, as well as Singapore exports.

What we’ve been reading

This is what caught our eye over the last 24 hours.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Boris Korby at bkorby1@bloomberg.net

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