10 things you need to know in markets September 13

Afghanistan’s
Charlie Chaplin, Karim Asir, 25, exercises during his rehearsals
in Kabul, Afghanistan August 29, 2018. Picture taken August 29,
2018.

REUTERS/Mohammad
Ismail

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

1.
Apple just launched a bunch of new products, including iPhones
and an Apple Watch. Click the link to see everything
that happened at Apple’s big iPhone launch event.

2.
Asian shares won a reprieve on Thursday as news the Trump
administration has reached out to China for a new round of trade
talks raised hopes a deal could be struck in the bitter tariff
dispute between the world’s two biggest economies.
Japan’s Nikkei closed up 0.97%, the Hong Kong Hang Seng is up
1.65% at the time of writing (7.25 a.m. GMT/2.25 a.m. ET), and
the Shanghai Composite is up 0.61% at the same time.

3.
Morrisons, Britain’s fourth-biggest grocer, beat forecasts with a
9% rise in first-half profit, and reported an eleventh straight
quarter of underlying sales growth, boosted by moves to broaden
its business into wholesale. Reuters reported that
for the six months to August 5 the firm made an underlying pretax
profit of £193 million — just ahead of analysts’ average forecast
of £192 million and up from £177 million made in the same period
last year.

4.
Chinese electric-car startup Nio, known as the Tesla of China,
debuted for trading in the US on Wednesday. Nio,
backed by Chinese tech giant Tencent, failed to raise the $1.8
billion it targeted during its initial public offering.

5.
Hershey said on Wednesday it would buy Pirate Brands from B&G
Foods for $420 million in an all-cash deal, giving the chocolate
maker rights to snack brands such as Pirate’s Booty, Smart Puffs,
and Original Tings. The deal is expected “to be
accretive” to Hershey’s financial targets as the company delves
into the more than $2.5 billion cheese puffs market, Hershey said
in a statement.

6.
The John Lewis Partnership has announced a 99% slump in half-year
profits, saying its department stores are being squeezed by the
“most promotional market we have seen for almost a
decade.” Sky News reported that the company, which
also has Waitrose supermarkets in its stable, had previously
warned that it expected to make no profits over the first six
months of its financial year to 28 July.

7.
Chinese online food delivery-to-ticketing services firm Meituan
Dianping raised $4.2 billion in the world’s biggest
internet-focused IPO in four years as it priced the float near
the top of an indicative range, people close to the deal
said. Meituan, backed by Chinese social media and
gaming firm Tencent Holdings, sold about 480 million primary
shares, or 8% of its enlarged share capital, at HK$69 ($8.79)
each in the Hong Kong IPO, the sources said on Thursday.

8.
Asian companies posted their lowest profit growth in nearly two
years in the June quarter and earnings are likely to come under
further pressure, weighed down by the escalating US-China trade
war and high currency volatility, Reuters analyses
showed. An analysis of about 4,000 Asian companies
excluding Japan showed their combined net profit rose 12.98% in
the June quarter, easing for the third straight quarter and the
slowest pace of expansion the September quarter of 2016.

9.
Adobe, the maker of image-editing software Photoshop, is in
negotiations to buy Marketo, a privately held cloud-based
marketing software company, according to people familiar with the
matter. Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners
Management took Marketo private two years ago for $1.8 billion.

10.
Tobacco stocks surged after the US Food and Drug Administration
threatened the industry to combat the widespread flavoured
electronic cigarette use among young people. The FDA
found top-selling brands were popular among minors.