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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
Trucks wait in line as shipping containers stand in a terminal at the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai, China, on Friday, March 23, 2018. The trade conflict between China and the U.S. escalated, with Beijing announcing its first retaliation against metals levies hours after President Donald Trump outlined fresh tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports and pledged there’s more on the way. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) --

Stocks bounced back. Trump signals China tariffs increases are likely to go ahead. And the Renault-Nissan alliance’s troubles continue. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about.

China Tariff Increase

President Donald Trump said he’ll likely push forward with plans to increase tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, indicating he would also slap duties on all remaining imports from the Asian nation if negotiations with China’s leader Xi Jinping fail to produce a trade deal. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said he’s prepared to impose tariffs on a final batch of $267 billion of Chinese shipments if he can’t make a deal with Xi when they meet at the Group of 20 meeting in Argentina, which starts Nov. 30. The rate could be either 10 percent or 25 percent, Trump said. Apple Inc.’s iPhones and laptops imported from China could be hit by new tariffs, the U.S. president said.

Market Bounceback

Stocks still have a lot of ground to make up, but on Monday beaten-down tech shares led the strongest session for U.S. equities in two weeks, extending the run of turbulence that has made this month one of the wildest of the past five years. The S&P 500 roared back from the worst week in a month as investors speculated a strong start to the holiday season will keep economic growth on track. Amazon.com and L Brands led gains among retailers, while Microsoft was among the tech leaders. It was a different story for the cryptos. Bitcoin fell below $4,000 and extended its 2018 crash to within striking distance of the biggest cryptocurrency’s worst bear markets. The virtual currency conceived just over a decade ago slid as much as 14 percent to $3,664 on Monday, bringing its decline from last December’s record high of almost $20,000 to about 80 percent. All nine of its largest peers tracked in real time by Bloomberg fell. Bitcoin miners hit hard by the cryptocurrency’s crash may be throwing in the towel.

Cuts at GM

General Motors will cut more than 14,000 salaried staff and factory workers and close seven factories worldwide by the end of next year, part of a sweeping realignment to prepare for a future of electric and self-driving vehicles. Four factories in the U.S. and one in Canada could be shuttered by the end of 2019 if the automaker and its unions don’t come up with an agreement to allocate more work to those facilities, GM said in a statement Monday. Another two will close outside North America. The Detroit-based company’s shares surged on the plan, which includes abandoning some of its slower-selling sedan models.

Billionaires Prepare for a Downturn

Billionaires and millionaires in the U.S. are arranging loans to have funds readily available so they won’t have to sell off investments in the event of an economic downturn, according to Jim Steiner, head of Wells Fargo & Co.’s ultra-high-net-worth business. “They always want to have lines in place for if markets do turn down and they get capital calls on private investments,” Steiner, who leads the bank’s Abbot Downing unit, said. “They want to be able to make those capital calls through use of the line, as opposed to basically selling equities in the public markets.”

More Renault-Nissan Troubles

Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co.’s auto alliance is threatened with disarray over a rift between the partners about how to fill a leadership vacuum as its chairman, Carlos Ghosn, remains in custody in Japan. Executives overseeing the Amsterdam-based alliance are scheduled to meet on Thursday in their first encounter since Ghosn was arrested last week on allegations of understating his income and misusing Nissan’s assets. Nissan Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa and others may attend by video conference, according to people familiar with the matter.

What we’ve been reading

Here’s what caught our eye over the past 24 hours.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Jeffrey at pjeffrey@bloomberg.net

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.