Bloomberg
“U.S. Stock Futures Track Gains Across Europe, Asia.”
U.S. equity futures and European stocks followed Asian shares higher on Monday as traders held onto hopes for an easing of the trade war ahead of a meeting of central bankers later in the week that may throw up clues on the market outlook. The dollar edged up and the euro fell.
Contracts on the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq all pointed to a positive open, while miners climbed with metals to help the Stoxx Europe 600 Index gain in thin volumes. There were advances across most Asian equities, though Japan’s gauge bucked the trend. The dollar firmed after two days of declines and the 10-year Treasury yield fell. The onshore yuan climbed amid signs China is propping up the currency just as it prepares to restart trade negotiations with the U.S. The euro slipped for the first time in four days.
Markets appear to be striking a more optimistic tone after talks between the world’s biggest economies on trade made their way back onto the agenda. Meanwhile, investors will be closely watching this week’s Jackson Hole symposium for clues on monetary policy, and to see whether central bankers can do anything to help bring back stability after the recent bout of emerging market-led volatility.
Elsewhere, the lira slipped a second day. Turkish markets are closed for most of this week, which may mean low trading volumes and sharper currency swings than usual. Emerging-market stocks and currencies rose. Industrial metals helped an index of commodity prices higher.
Reuters
“U.S. firms warn next China tariffs to cost Americans from cradle to grave.”
A broad cross-section of U.S. businesses has a message for the Trump administration: new tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports will force Americans to pay more for items they use throughout their daily lives, from cradles to coffins.
Six days of public hearings on the proposed duties of up to 25 percent will start on Monday in Washington as part of President Donald Trump’s and the U.S. Trade Representative’s efforts to pressure Beijing for sweeping changes to its trade and economic policies.
Unlike previous rounds of U.S. tariffs, which sought to shield consumers by targeting Chinese industrial machinery, electronic components and other intermediate goods, thousands of consumer products could be directly hit with tariffs by late September.
The $200 billion list targets Chinese seafood, furniture and lighting products, tires, chemicals, plastics, bicycles and car seats for babies.
“USTR’s proposed tariffs on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports dramatically expands the harm to American consumers, workers, businesses, and the economy,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in written testimony for the hearing.
The top U.S. business lobbying group said the Trump administration lacks a “coherent strategy” to address China’s theft of intellectual property and other harmful trade practices and called for “serious discussions” with Beijing.
Mid-level Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts are expected to meet later this week in Washington to discuss their trade dispute. But it is unclear whether the talks will have any effect on the implementation of U.S. tariffs and retaliation by China.
In more than 1,400 written comments submitted to USTR that will be echoed in the hearings, most businesses argued that the tariffs will cause harm and higher costs for products ranging from Halloween costumes and Christmas lights to nuclear fuel inputs, while a small number praised them or asked that they be extended to other products.
BBC News
“Greece emerges from eurozone bailout programme.”
Greece has successfully completed a three-year eurozone emergency loan programme worth €61.9bn (£55bn; $70.8bn) to tackle its debt crisis.
It was part of the biggest bailout in global financial history, totalling some €289bn, which will take the country decades to repay. Deeply unpopular cuts to public spending, a condition of the bailout, are set to continue.
But for the first time in eight years, Greece can borrow at market rates. The economy has grown slowly in recent years and is still 25% smaller than when the crisis began.
«From today, Greece will be treated like any other Europe area country,» the EU’s Commissioner on Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, said on Monday. Its reforms had, he said, «laid the foundation for a sustainable recovery» but he also cautioned that its recovery was «not an event, it is a process».
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), only four countries have shrunk economically more than Greece in the past decade: Yemen, Libya, Venezuela and Equatorial Guinea.
The last €61.9bn was provided by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) in support of the Greek government’s efforts to reform the economy and recapitalise banks. The bailout – the term given to emergency loans aimed at saving the sinking Greek economy – began in 2010, when eurozone states and the IMF came together to provide a first tranche of €20bn.
Bloomberg
“Tesla Keeps Sliding as JPMorgan Sees No Secured Funding for Deal.”
Tesla Inc.’s shares continued to fall pre-market on Monday after JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman slashed his price target on the stock, saying that funding for the “going private” deal does not appear to be secured.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker were down as much as 4.3 percent in pre-market trade, after closing down 8.9 percent on Friday.
Brinkman, who had hiked his price target on Tesla after Elon Musk’s Twitter statement about taking the company private, lowered it to the earlier level of $195 from $308.
“The revelation the Saudi fund is subsequently asking Tesla for details of how the company would be taken private suggests to us that any deal is potentially far from even being formally proposed,” the analyst wrote in a note to clients.
Brinkman had imagined following the Aug. 7 tweet that a party had already firmly decided to fund a going private transaction.
Earlier, Musk Defends Punishing Pace as Tesla Saga Enters Third Week. Also, Aug. 17, Tesla Loses Shine as Musk’s Tweet Saga Gets Worse and Worse”