10 things you need to know in markets August 8

A
Tesla car charges at a charging station in
Beijing.
Thomson
Reuters

Good morning! Here’s what you need to know in markets on
Wednesday.

1.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he wants to take Tesla
private at $420 per share. In an email to employees,
Musk said taking the company private is “the best path forward.”

2.
Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has
bought a minority stake in Tesla at just below 5%, a source
familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. PIF did
not immediately respond to a Reuters query for comment, while
Tesla declined to comment.

3.
Snapchat’s user base is in decline and investors are
panicking. On Tuesday the messaging app’s parent
company, Snap Inc., reported its Q2 2018 earnings, and it
included its first-ever decline in daily active users.

4.
China’s foreign exchange reserves unexpectedly rose in July even
as worries over escalating trade tensions between the United
States and China have caused market volatility. July
FX reserves rose to $5.82 billion, versus an expected drop of
$12.1 billion.

5.
Asian shares’ recovery lost momentum on Wednesday, despite strong
US earnings and expectations that Beijing will ramp up fiscal
stimulus to cushion the impact of its worsening trade dispute
with Washington. Japan’s Nikkei closed down 0.01%,
while the Hong Kong Hang Seng is down 0.13% at the time of
writing (7.50 a.m. GMT/2.50 a.m. ET), and China’s Shanghi
Composite is down 1.36% at the same time.

6.
China’s exports growth unexpectedly accelerated in July despite
fresh US tariffs, while its trade surplus with the United States
remained near record highs. Imports also rose
much faster in July thanks to still solid domestic demand,
official data showed on Wednesday, with purchases of commodities
like copper and iron ore rising from June.

7.
South Korea’s Samsung Group will invest 25 trillion won ($22
billion) over the next three years in artificial intelligence, 5G
mobile technology, electronic components for autos, and the
biopharmaceutical business, Samsung Electronics said on
Wednesday. Samsung Electronics, the world’s top
maker of memory chips and smartphones and the group’s flagship
company, did not provide a breakdown of the figures but said it
will provide the majority of the investment.

8.
The amount of funding raised for startups through digital tokens
rose from $3.3 billion in the first quarter to $8.3 billion in
the second, according to a new report. But the
proportion of funding campaigns that failed also rose to 55%,
leading analysts to say the quality of projects in the market has
“significantly worsened.”

9.
Federal prosecutors drafted a criminal complaint against a former
Goldman Sachs banker early this year for his alleged role in a
Malaysian fraud, but the charges were never filed because of a
Justice Department turf battle, the New York Times reported on
Tuesday. The inquiry is now with federal prosecutors
in Brooklyn who are investigating Goldman Sachs itself, the Times
reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.

10.
Companies doing business with Iran will be barred from the United
States, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, as new US
sanctions took effect despite pleas from Washington’s
allies. Reuters reports that Iran dismissed a
last-minute offer from the Trump administration for talks, saying
it could not negotiate while Washington had reneged on a 2015
deal to lift sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear
programme.