10 things you need to know in markets today, November 22

FILE
PHOTO: Tesla Chief Executive Office Elon Musk speaks at his
company’s factory in Fremont
Thomson
Reuters

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

1. Nissan will hold a board meeting on Thursday to oust Chairman
Carlos Ghosn after the shock arrest of its once-revered leader,
starting what could be a long period of uncertainty in its
19-year alliance with Renault. The
Franco-Japanese alliance, enlarged in 2016 to include Japan’s
Mitsubishi Motors, has been rattled to its core by Ghosn’s arrest
in Japan on Monday, with the 64-year-old group chairman and
industry star accused of financial misconduct.

2. Chinese conglomerate HNA Group has turned to state-owned China
Cinda Asset Management Co , among the country’s largest bad debt
managers, for advice on asset disposals, people with knowledge of
the matter told Reuters. HNA’s vice president,
Dennis Chen, the nephew of its chairman Chen Feng, met with Cinda
President Chen Xiaozhou on Tuesday to discuss cooperation,
according to the people.

3. Corporate credit risk has increasingly come on the radar of
major players in global economics and finance. But analysis from
Citi suggests conditions in the US commercial lending market
aren’t conducive to a near-term market collapse.
Citi said current lending activity stands in stark contrast to
the sudden withdrawal of credit prior to the 2008 financial
crisis.

4. Asian shares seesawed in cautious trading on Thursday with
China extending losses as investors worries about slowing global
growth in the face of rising U.S. interest rates and trade
tensions. U.S. stock futures were slightly
higher after briefly turning down underscoring fragile investor
sentiment following a rout in October and steep sell-offs in
recent sessions. Spreadbetters pointed to a tentative start for
Europe.

5. U.S. prosecutors are investigating the systems that Japan’s
biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), uses to
track money laundering, the New York Times reported on
Wednesday. The bank was subpoenaed by federal
prosecutors in Manhattan late last year as it was locked in a
court fight with the New York Department of Financial Services,
according to the NYT report.

6. Leaving the European Union without a transition deal would
cost Britain tens of billions of pounds, and failure to support
Prime Minister Theresa May’s preferred plan could jeopardized
Brexit altogether, finance minister Philip Hammond said on
Wednesday. “A smooth exit from the European
Union, doing this in an orderly fashion, is worth tens of
billions of pounds to our economy,” Hammond told broadcaster ITV.

7. A new normal is taking root in U.S. stock markets, and the
word that best sums it up starts with a
“V”. For the second time this year, volatility
has returned with a vengeance, and traders in the equity options
market are betting ongoing market gyrations are not about to let
up any time soon.

8. Tesla is cutting the price of its Model X and Model S
cars in China, the U.S. firm said on Thursday, in a shift in
strategy that will see it take more of a hit from tariffs linked
to a biting trade war between China and the United
States. The electric carmaker, led by
billionaire CEO Elon Musk, said it will cut prices of the two
models by 12-26 percent to make the cars more “affordable” in the
world’s top auto market, where sales of so-called new-energy
vehicles are rising fast.

9. Amazon has found a new target to tackle in its continued
pursuits to dominate retail: in-store mobile
payments. Amazon has been talking with
brick-and-mortar retailers to convince them to adopt Amazon Pay,
the e-commerce giant’s online-payment
option The
Wall Street Journal reported. 

10. Facebook is going to fight the fine it received from
Britain’s privacy watchdog over the Cambridge Analytica
scandal. In a statement on Wednesday, the
company said it would appeal the £500,000
($640,000) penalty from the Information Commissioner’s
Office (ICO).

Reminder: US markets are closed on Thursday to observe
Thanksgiving.