Bloomberg
“Tesla Go-Private Effort Advances With Board Panel to Study Offer.”
Teslas Inc’s board formed a special committee to evaluate Elon Musk’s proposal to take the electric-car maker private, a day after the chief executive officer revealed more on who will advise him and help fund the potential deal.
Independent directors Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm and Linda Johnson Rice will comprise the committee, which hasn’t yet received a formal proposal from Musk, according to a Tesla statement Tuesday. They haven’t reached any conclusion on whether taking the company private is advisable or feasible.
Musk, 47, set off a firestorm a week ago with his highly unconventional announcement of the effort to take a company off the public markets and has been drip-feeding details since in tweets and blog posts that have preempted Tesla’s board. The chairman and CEO wrote late Monday that he’s getting advice from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and private-equity firm Silver Lake and has lined up legal advisers. Earlier in the day, he said Saudi Arabia first approached him with interest in helping take Tesla private early last year.
Tesla shares opened up 0.5 percent to $358.17 as of 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in New York. The stock remains well below the $420 level at which Musk has said existing shareholders could be bought out if they choose, underscoring investor skepticism that the deal is doable.
While Tesla considers Buss to be an independent director, major proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis don’t because he served as the chief financial officer of SolarCity Corp. before Tesla acquired the company in 2016.
Reuters
“Erdogan says Turkey will boycott U.S. electronics, lira steadies.”
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday Turkey would boycott electronic products from the United States, retaliating in a row with Washington that helped drive the lira to record lows.
The lira TRYTOM=D3 has lost more than 40 percent this year and crashed to an all-time low of 7.24 to the dollar early on Monday, hit by worries over Erdogan’s calls for lower interest rates and worsening ties with the United States.
The lira’s weakness has rippled through global markets. Its drop of as much as 18 percent on Friday hit European and U.S. stocks as investors fretted about banks’ exposure to Turkey. On Tuesday the lira recovered some ground, trading at 6.5300 to the dollar at 1334 GMT, up around five percent on the day.
It was supported by news of a planned conference call in which the finance minister will seek to reassure investors concerned by Erdogan’s control of the economy and his resistance to interest rate hikes to tackle double-digit inflation.
Erdogan says Turkey is the target of an economic war, and has made repeated calls for Turks to sell their dollars and euros to shore up the national currency.
“Together with our people, we will stand decisively against the dollar, forex prices, inflation and interest rates. We will protect our economic independence by being tight-knit together,” he told members of his AK Party in a speech.
BBC News
“Italy bridge: Genoa motorway collapse kills at least 22.”
A motorway bridge has collapsed in the northwest Italian city of Genoa, sending vehicles plummeting up to 90m (295ft) to the ground and killing at least 22 people, officials say. Video footage appears to show one of the towers holding up the suspension bridge collapsing in stormy weather.
Vehicles fell along with bridge debris on to rail tracks and a warehouse. Emergency workers are trying to free people caught in crushed vehicles or rubble, and are using sniffer dogs. Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli spoke of an «immense tragedy» and France offered Italy its support. Shares in Atlantia, the toll road operator which runs much of the country’s motorways, fell 6.3% after news of the collapse.
French President Emmanuel Macron has tweeted a message of sympathy to the people of Italy, writing in both Italian and French. He said France was ready to offer any necessary aid.
It fell around 11:30 local time (09:30 GMT) during heavy rain. Police reported a violent cloudburst. «It was just after 11:30 when we saw lightning strike the bridge,» eyewitness Pietro M all’Asa was quoted as saying by Italy’s Ansa news agency. «And we saw the bridge going down.» Another witness, unnamed, recalled: «We heard an incredible roar and first we thought it was thunder very close by.
Bloomberg
“FX Traders Are on Alert as U.S. Dollar Intervention Risk Climbs.”
Foreign-exchange traders are always scanning the globe for signs of government intervention in the market — but it’s rare for them to suspect the world’s reserve currency as a candidate.
That’s changed after U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly signaled his preference for a weaker dollar and accused other countries of manipulating exchange rates. The administration’s rhetoric could foreshadow a shift to an interventionist policy, according to Michael Feroli, JP Morgan Chase & Co.’s chief U.S. economist. Deutsche Bank AG sees a material risk that Trump will become the first president in recent history to take measures to weaken the dollar.
“It would be foolish to ignore” the possibility of the U.S. selling dollars, said Aaron Hurd, a money manager in the currency group at State Street Global Advisors, whose team manages $118 billion. The early stages of any intervention would spark a “very serious correction in the dollar” as speculators piled in, followed by a period in which traders would challenge the Treasury’s ability to sustain prolonged selling, he said.
The dollar has risen 2.7 percent year-to-date, buoyed by strong U.S. growth, rising interest rates and escalating trade tensions, which boost the greenback’s appeal as a haven. Last month, Trump blasted China and the European Union for manipulating their currencies, leaving investors to wonder whether he would go further than jawboning the dollar.
“No one can really feel confident with predictions in this very unconventional administration,” said Paresh Upadhyaya, a portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer Asset Management, which manages about $89 billion. “That said, I strongly doubt the U.S. would intervene,” because the greenback is supported by robust growth and tightening monetary policy, he said.
Intervention to weaken the dollar would prompt knee-jerk selling of the currency — but that “would be faded pretty quickly because the markets will conclude there is no justification for a weaker USD,” Upadhyaya said.
The U.S. hasn’t intervened in markets to sell the dollar since 2000, when it united with fellow members of the Group of Seven in an effort to boost the sliding euro. It last bought greenbacks in 2011 as part of an international bid to stop the yen from surging after an earthquake and tsunami in Japan led locals to repatriate cash.