10 things you need to know in markets today

1. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has reportedly landed a deal with the EU over markets access post-Brexit. The tentative deal would give UK financial services companies continued access to European markets after Brexit. The pound gained 0.8% against the dollar. 

2. Australia’s top cyber spy says Chinese tech is too good to be allowed near its key infrastructure. He says Chinese telecoms are a threat to critical infrastructure and that’s why companies like Huawei and ZTE were banned from Canberra’s growing 5G network.

3. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission will propose a regulatory regime known as a “sandbox” for crypto exchanges, its chief Ashley Alder said on Thursday. “Sandboxes” typically afford fintech firms special regulatory waivers for a limited period of time.

4. Saudi Arabia hopes the world will forget about Jamal Khashoggi’s killing, and still hasn’t answered simple questions about his death. Investigators have not even said where Khashoggi’s body is.

5. Google CEO Sundar Pichai emailed Google staff saying he was “deeply sorry” for the firm’s record on sexual misconduct.The email came after news emerged that Google employees were planning a walkout to protest the company’s handling of the sexual-misconduct allegations.

6. Tech giants such as Facebook and Google have grown so dominant they may need to be broken up, said Tim Berners-Lee, a London-born computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989. The digital revolution has spawned a handful of US technology companies that now have a combined financial and cultural power greater than most sovereign states.

10. A Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss is donating $US1 billion in an attempt to save the planet’s wild lands and waters from destruction. Only 15% of the Earth’s lands and 7% of the oceans have been protected in a natural state.