10 things you need to know in markets August 21

Camila
Cabello poses backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards with her
awards for Artist of the Year and Video of the Year for
“Havana.”

REUTERS/Carlo
Allegri

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

1.
Shares of Tesla were down about 1.3% in trading Monday after
fighting their way back from a 6% loss at the open that included
brief moments in the green. The losses come after a
dramatic price target cut from JPMorgan to $195 per share and a
Reuters report which said Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund
was considering an investment in a rival electric-car maker,
Lucid Motors.

2.
President Donald Trump continued to blast the Federal Reserve’s
recent interest rate hikes in an interview Monday, days after
complaining about Federal Reserve Chairman at a private GOP
fundraiser. Trump told Reuters that he was “not
thrilled” by Powell’s decision to raise interest rates and would
continue to criticize the Fed if interest rate hikes continued.

3. US
bond yields fell sharply overnight, following President Trump’s
critical comments about the Federal Reserve for its commitment to
hiking rates. US 10-year rates are down 1.5% at
the time of writing (7.10 a.m. BST/2.10 a.m. ET).

4.
Asian stocks were capped and the dollar dipped on Tuesday after
Trump accused China and Europe of manipulating their currencies
and said he was “not thrilled” with the Federal Reserve for
hiking interest rates. Japan’s Nikkei closed up
0.19%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng is up 0.50% and the Shanghai
Composite is up 1.29% at the time of writing (7.25 a.m. BST/2.25
a.m. ET).

5.
Britain’s second-largest house builder Persimmon, whose boss been
criticised for his high pay, posted a 13% increase in half-year
pretax profit and said it expected to see further
growth. Reuters reports profit before tax hit £516.3
million ($658 million) in the six months to the end of June.

6.
Microsoft said Tuesday it has uncovered new Russian hacking
attempts targeting US political groups ahead of the midterm
elections. The company said that a hacking group
tied to the Russian government created fake internet domains that
appeared to spoof two American conservative organizations: the
Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute.

7. Britain can be a “21st
Century exporting superpower”, Liam Fox is expected to say in a
speech detailing the government’s post-Brexit
ambitions. The BBC reports that Britain’s
international trade secretary will say in a speech today he wants
exports as a proportion of UK GDP to rise from 30% to 35%.

8.
The US dollar has been surprisingly strong this year amid Federal
Reserve tightening and escalating global trade tensions, but
Goldman Sachs says it’s due for a big reversal. The
firm identified 14 companies it expects to outperform the broader
market as this shift gets underway.

9.
Nvidia rose nearly 3% on Monday, clawing its way back from a red
open after CEO Jensen Huang announced a new set of graphics
cards. “Turing opens up a new golden age of gaming,
with realism only possible with ray tracing, which most people
thought was still a decade away,” Jensen Huang, founder and CEO
of NVIDIA, said at the conference.

10.
Farfetch, a London-based luxury fashion website, has filed plans
to list on the New York Stock Exchange. Sky News
reports that the loss-making fashion technology company, which
connects brands including Chanel, Gucci, and Balenciaga with
wealthy young consumers, was started a decade ago by Portuguese
entrepreneur Jose Neves.