10 things you need to know in markets August 28

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

1. The
U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday its $12 billion
farm aid package would include $4.7 billion in direct payments to
farmers to help offset losses from retaliatory tariffs on
American exports this season. The bulk of the
payments, $3.6 billion, would be made to soybean farmers. That
amounts to $1.65 per bushel multiplied by 50 percent of
production, Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation
Bill Northey said on a conference call.

2. Asian
shares advanced again on Tuesday while major currencies held on
to gains amid hopes global tariff tensions were abating as the
United States and Mexico made a deal to overhaul the North
American Free Trade Agreement. Investors expect
Canada too would agree to the new terms to preserve a
three-nation pact, ultimately dispelling the economic uncertainty
caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to ditch
the 1994 NAFTA accord.

3. Chinese
crude steel production hit another record high in July,
surpassing the previous peak struck in May this
year. According to the World Steel Association,
Chinese output rose to 81.2 million tonnes during the month, up
from 80.2 million tonnes in June and the previous record high of
81.1 million tonnes set in May.

4. Nestle
and Starbucks said on Tuesday they had concluded their licensing
deal for the Swiss food giant to market the U.S. coffee maker’s
packaged coffees and teas around the world. The
$7.15 billion deal grants Nestle perpetual rights to sell
Starbucks products such as Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee and
TeavanaTM/MC outside of the U.S. company’s coffee shops, and will
result in about 500 Starbucks employees shifting to Nestle.

5. ASX futures are pointing higher, up 0.18% against
the S&P at 7.55am BST, after the US and Mexico reached
a preliminary deal on a
modernised version of the NAFTA trade agreement. The
deal still needs to pass Congress but optimism on trade helped
push US stocks to new record highs.

6. Toyota
will invest about $500 million in Uber to jointly work on
developing driverless vehicles, the Wall Street Journal reported
on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

7. The
Turkish lira tumbled around 1.05% against the US dollar on
Tuesday (at 7.55am BST), hit by persistent concern about a
diplomatic rift with Washington over a U.S. pastor on trial in
Turkey. The slide left the lira down about 40
percent this year, driven by worries over President Tayyip
Erdogan’s grip on monetary policy and the stand-off with the
United States over the fate of evangelical Christian Andrew
Brunson. 

8.Berkshire
Hathaway made an investment in India’s One97 Communications, the
parent of digital payments firm Paytm, a spokeswoman said on
Monday. Billionaire Warren Buffett, who runs the
conglomerate, was not involved in the transaction, according to
the emailed statement from Buffett’s assistant, Debbie Bosanek.

9. A
narrowing gap between short-term and long-term borrowing costs
could be signaling heightened risk of a U.S. recession,
researchers at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank said in a
study published on Monday. The research relies on an
in-depth analysis of the gap between the yield on three-month and
10-year U.S. Treasury securities, a gap that like other measures
of short-to-long-term rates has narrowed in recent months.

10. Four
Transamerica entities will pay $97.6 million to settle U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they sold
investments that were supposedly based on quantitative models but
which did not work as intended, the regulator said on
Monday.The settlement with the units of
Netherlands-based Aegon NV includes a $36.3 million civil fine
plus $61.3 million of disgorged sums and interest, all of which
will be returned to investors.