10 things you need to know in markets today, November 21

FILE
PHOTO: Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of the
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, attends a press conference on
the second press day of the Paris auto show, in
Paris
Thomson
Reuters

Good morning! Here’s what you need to know on Wednesday.

1. Japanese prosecutors are considering bringing a case against
Nissan after Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s arrest on suspicion of
financial misconduct, the Asahi Shimbun daily said on
Wednesday. Ghosn, one of the global car
industry’s best-known leaders, was arrested on Monday after
Nissan’s internal investigations found he had allegedly engaged
in years of wrongdoing, including personal use of company money
and under-reporting earnings.

2. Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) – China’s answer to Spotify
– is facing crunch time on its hotly anticipated $2 billion mega
IPO this year. The streaming music giant, which
has more than 800 million monthly users, had initially pencilled
in an October launch for a U.S. initial public offering (IPO) of
up to $2 billion, but decided last month to delay until November
in the hope that markets would settle.

3. US oil prices stabilized on Wednesday after slumping more than
6% the previous day, with some support coming from a report of an
unexpected drop in U.S. commercial crude
inventories. But investors remained on edge,
with the International Energy Agency (IEA) warning of
unprecedented uncertainty in oil markets due to a difficult
economic environment and political risk.

4. Asian stocks slipped on Wednesday as intensifying concerns
about global economic growth gripped financial markets, sending
Wall Street shares tumbling and driving the safe haven dollar up
from a two-week low. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225
was down 0.25% as of 7.50 a.m. GMT (2.50 a.m.
ET). 
The Shanghai Composite
Index swerved in and out of the red and was last up
0.2%

5. US President Donald Trump reportedly wanted to direct the
Department of Justice to prosecute two of his political
rivals.
 Both former FBI director
James Comey and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were
the targets, according to the New York Times.

6. Facebook investors are starting to really worry about the
future of COO Sheryl Sandberg.

  Sandberg
is facing unprecedented criticism following the company’s slew of
recent scandals.

7. China’s top security agency is accused of directing a wave of
cyberattacks against Australia. A foreign
ministry spokesperson provided China’s stock responses to
accusations of hacking: “groundless, speculative, unprofessional
and irresponsible.”

8. Snapchat’s parent company is trying again with a new version
of its Spectacles glasses, this time with two cameras, at a price
of $350. According to Cheddar,
Snap is planning to produce around 24,000 pairs of the newest
model, a huge difference from the 800,000 units the company
ordered of its first generation glasses in a big overestimate of
customer demand.

9. Amazon employees are reportedly already buying up apartments
in New York City, and they started before the company even
announced HQ2. In the week since
Amazon announced plans to open headquarters in Long Island City,
a neighbourhood in Queens, New York, brokers say they’ve seen a
spike in interest from employees, The Wall Street Journal
reports.

10. Airbus on Wednesday named the finance director of German
chipmaker Infineon Technologies as its next chief financial
officer to replace fellow German Harald Wihelm, who is due to
step down next year. Dominik Asam, who is also
a former Siemens executive, will take over the post on April 1,
2019, it said in a statement.