10 things you need to know in markets August 17

Oil
barrels are pictured at the site of Canadian group Vermilion
Energy in Parentis-en-Born
Thomson
Reuters

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

1. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the past year has been “the most
difficult and painful year of my career,” in a revealing New
York Times interview

 published
Thursday night. “There were times when I didn’t
leave the factory for three or four days — days when I didn’t go
outside,” Musk said, adding: “This has really come at the expense
of seeing my kids. And seeing friends.”

2. During the same interview, Musk said he has no plans to step
down as either CEO or chairman of the company. Musk,
who is under intense scrutiny by the US Securities and Exchange
Commission and is facing lawsuits over his tweets last week about
taking Tesla private, said he saw the tweet as an attempt at
transparency, according to the paper.

3. Asian shares won a modest reprieve on Friday after China and
the United States agreed to hold their first trade talks since
June next week and as the Turkish lira extended gains from its
record low earlier this week. MSCI’s broadest index
of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2% in early trade,
a day after it hit its lowest level in a year.

4. Oil prices fell on Friday, with U.S. crude heading for a
seventh weekly decline amid increasing concerns about slowing
global economic growth that could hit demand for petroleum
products. Brent is heading for a 2% decline this
week, a third consecutive weekly drop. WTI is on track for a
seventh week of losses, with a fall of more than 3%.

5. The next round of US-China trade talks “may not amount to
much,” according to staff at research house Capital
Economics. If the two sides do meet, it would mark
the first round of negotiations since talks broke down in early
June. However, yesterday’s statement from China’s Ministry of
Commerce said talks would be led by Vice Minister of Commerce,
Wang Shouwen, not Vice Premier Liu. That was seen as an
indication that the next round of talks will be a lower-level
discussion.

6. Fitch, one of the “Big Three” credit ratings agencies, now
believes that the manner of the UK’s exit from the European Union
is now so unclear that it is impossible to forecast.
In a statement on Thursday afternoon, Fitch said it is
abandoning its previous base case — effectively the Brexit
scenario it saw as most likely — because there is too much
uncertainty to forecast with any accuracy.

7. The major trade unions representing Air France KLM staff
issued a joint statement on Thursday to protest the appointment
of Air Canada President and COO Benjamin Smith as Air
France-KLM’s new chief executive. “Concerning
the choice of new chief executive…the trade unions would like
to state that it’s inconceivable that the company Air France –
which has been French since 1933 – would fall into the hands of a
foreign director,” the unions said in the statement.

8. Walmart skyrocketed more than 10% Thursday following
the grocer’s earnings report that crushed analysts expectations,
adding a cool $11.6 billion to the founding family’s
wealth. The richest family in the United States
— which owns about 48% of the US’ largest grocery chain through
Walton Enterprises — saw their net worth surge to $163.2 billion.

9. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is “very carefully”
watching the effects of a severe drought that has wasted vast
tracts of grazing and crop land in eastern Australia, the
country’s main food bowl. Australia recorded its
fifth-driest July on record last month. RBA Governor Philip
Lowe said the board discussed the drought at its last meeting on
August 7 and even looked at rainfall maps.

10. Stiff new U.S. sanctions against Russia would only have a
limited impact on its oil industry because it has drastically
reduced its reliance on Western funding and foreign partnerships
and is lessening its dependence on imported
technology. Western sanctions imposed in 2014
over Russia’s annexation of Crimea have already made it extremely
hard for many state oil firms such as Rosneft to borrow abroad or
use Western technology to develop shale, offshore and Arctic
deposits.