10 things you need to know in markets, October 24

Thomson
Reuters

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

1. Asian stocks turned up on Wednesday as fresh signs of stimulus
from China propped up sentiment despite Wall Street’s overnight
losses, while crude oil approached two-month lows after Saudi
Arabia flagged possible supply
increases. MSCI’s broadest index of
Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 0.2% following a
decline of more than 2 percent in the previous session.

2. The United States does not plan to send senior government
officials to attend a major import expo in Shanghai next month, a
US embassy spokesman said on Wednesday, urging Beijing to end
what he called harmful and unfair trade practices.
The world’s two biggest economies are locked in an escalating
tariff row, with President Donald Trump having railed against
China for intellectual property theft, entry barriers facing US
businesses and a gaping US trade deficit.

3. China is struggling to restore confidence in its stock
markets, which are being weighed down by a massive amount of
shares that have been pledged as collateral as credit-starved
companies seek to raise funds. Analysts say the
practice, which involves 10 percent of total outstanding shares,
is a minefield for an economy already battling slowing growth and
a trade war with the United States.

4. The S&P 500 may not yet be in correction territory, but
the vast majority of the index’s components have already gotten
there. About 353 S&P 500 stocks have fallen 10%
or more from their 52-week highs. Of those, 179 stocks have
fallen by 20% or more from their highs, establishing them in a
bear market by many investors’ definitions. A correction is
defined as a 10% fall from a high.

5. Barclays reported a profit before tax of £3.1 billion
($4.02 billion) for the third quarter, as its under-pressure
investment banking division booked increased trading revenues
despite difficult market conditions. The bank also
said it will redeem $2.65 billion (£2 billion) worth of
preference shares, in a move to reduce its annual funding
costs.

6. Deutsche Bank on Wednesday said that it was on track
to swing to a profit this year, its first since 2014, despite a
steep decline in third quarter profit as it restructures under
new leadership. “We have our costs under control and
sufficient capital to grow. We are on track to be profitable in
2018, for the first time since 2014,” Chief Executive Christian
Sewing said.

7. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, will keep its
biggest European operation and regional headquarters in Britain
after Brexit, moving “only very few” roles to expanded offices in
the Netherlands and France, a memo to staff seen by Reuters
showed. The commitment by the US firm, which employs
around 3,000 staff in Britain and manages around $6.3 trillion
(£4.85 trillion) worldwide, means it will still have three times
as many staff in Britain as in all of the remaining 27 European
Union countries combined.

8. Theresa May has drawn up a drastic plan for ensuring Britain
has supplies if there’s a no-deal Brexit: chartering ships to
create a government-run flotilla. According to
a new report from The Financial Times on Tuesday, the UK
government is considering chartering ships for a makeshift fleet
that can be used to bring much-needed and perishable supplies
like food and medicines into the country if Britain leaves the
European Union without securing a deal.

9. Howard Wilkinson, the whistleblower who helped to reveal
suspected money laundering at Danske Bank, has accepted an
invitation to testify before the European Parliament, his lawyer
said. “Mr. Wilkinson has agreed to testify before
the Danish and European Parliaments,” U.S. attorney Stephen M.
Kohn, who represents Wilkinson, said in a statement late on
Tuesday.

10. Ford has appointed a new head of China operations to help
turn around flagging sales in the world’s largest auto market,
filling a post that had been vacant since January after the
firm’s previous China chief suddenly
quit. Anning Chen, a former chairman of Chery
Jaguar Land Rover in China and who also worked for Ford
previously, will become the U.S. automaker’s new CEO from
November 1.