Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

22 Nov 2019, 03:23 PM IST

(Bloomberg) --

Good morning. The Israeli prime minister will need to stand trial, Christine Lagarde gives her first major speech as head of the ECB and the Aramco IPO is progressing. Here’s what’s moving markets.

Netanyahu Trial

For the first time, a sitting Israeli prime minister will stand trial after the Justice Ministry indicted Benjamin Netanyahu in each of the three cases in which he was entangled. While Netanyahu has said he has no intention of resigning and that he’s the victim of left-wing opponents, the indictments on bribery and fraud charges come amid a tumultuous time for Israeli politics. He’s been unable to form a governing coalition after back-to-back elections this year and challenger Benny Gantz also failed, leaving a high chance of a third vote early next year. For more about Netanyahu and the charges, click here.

Lagarde’s Debut

After three weeks in the job, Christine Lagarde will give her first major speech on Friday morning for the first time as European Central Bank president. She'll be speaking at a banking conference in Frankfurt and investors will be looking for any clues on rate policy as lower-for-longer rates keep putting pressure on lenders' margins. Beyond that, they’ll be listening for comments on banking integration, which could potentially provide fresh impetus to the banking sector’s rebound that has stalled this month.

Aramco Subscription

Subscriptions to the initial public offering of Aramco reached about $19.5 billion during the first five days of the offering period, Samba Capital said. The totals suggest that the institutional part of the deal is about 90% covered, and 46% of the retail tranche. Global banks have been sidelined after the offering was pared back to a mostly domestic one when international money managers balked at the reduced price target of $1.6 trillion to $1.71 trillion. Another thing for Aramco investors to worry about: Climate change could make it difficult for some of its refining facilities to operate in the next few decades, a report showed.

Land Tax

Boris Johnson’s Conservatives want to make it more expensive for foreigners to buy a house in the U.K. The Tories plan a 3% surcharge — that’s on top of the current land tax known as stamp duty — in an effort to damp demand and keep housing prices in check. Housing is a hot issue all over election campaigning, with the Liberal Democrats pledging to build 300,000 homes a year and Labour promising to build at least an additional 150,000 council and social homes annually. Of course, that’s not all Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has in his manifesto. Read here for more on his remedy for voters’ austerity fatigue.

Coming Up…

Asian stocks were mixed as investors await details on trade discussions. It’s an extremely quiet day for European earnings reports as the season winds down, while next week, investors can look forward to updates from Compass Group and Remy Cointreau. In Hong Kong, voters are scheduled to go to the polls Sunday for the first time since the unrest started in June, though the government has threatened to postpone if there is a renewed round of violence. And Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union holds a two-day party convention today and tomorrow. One thing they may not discuss: who will be their candidate to become Germany’s next chancellor.

What We’ve Been Reading

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

What’s a bigger problem than a potential recession?
How we loved frequent-flyer programs to death.
Deutsche Bank's last-ditch plan to save the best of its business.
Marie Kondo is selling stuff that sparks her joy.
Hong Kong’s rich are planning escape routes. For money.
Borat actor wants Facebook to combat fake news.
Being French is best, index shows.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net