Stock market news today September 18

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‘The clock is ticking for banks’: Morgan Stanley warns
banks need to up their game before they get disrupted

Banks need to transform themselves
or they’ll be left in the dust by new fintech companies,
according to a new report.

With fintech companies raising $58 billion globally in the first
half of 2018, banks are feeling more pressure than ever to spend
on their own technology. This is compounded by the fact that
fintech companies don’t suffer from legacy IT systems and can
provide banking services 50% cheaper than big banks.

“Pressure is mounting for banks to innovate and disrupt
themselves fast, before someone else ‘eats their lunch’,” Morgan
Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck wrote in the report.

Big banks are already stepping up their tech investments in
response. JPMorgan’s tech budget, for example, has grown to $10.8
billion in 2018, an increase of 14% over last year.

Tesla says DOJ asked for documents after Elon Musk’s
‘funding secured’ tweet about taking the company private

Tesla is
facing a criminal investigation by the US Attorney’s Office for
the Northern District of California over CEO Elon Musk’s
statements about taking Tesla
private, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing
two people familiar with the matter.

A Tesla representative said the company had received and
cooperated with a voluntary request for documents from the
Department of Justice but had not received a subpoena.

“Last month, following Elon’s announcement that he was
considering taking the company private, Tesla received a
voluntary request for documents from the DOJ and has been
cooperative in responding to it,” the representative said. “We
have not received a subpoena, a request for testimony, or any
other formal process. We respect the DOJ’s desire to get
information about this and believe that the matter should be
quickly resolved as they review the information they have
received.”

Gary Cohn says Jamie Dimon would be a ‘phenomenal’ and
‘spectacular’ president

JPMorgan CEO Jamie
Dimon would be
ideal for the presidency, according to Gary Cohn, the former top
economic adviser to President Donald Trump.

Cohn, who was president of Goldman
Sachs before he joined the Trump
administration, was speaking Monday, just days after Dimon said
he could “beat
Trump” in an election. Dimon later walked back his remarks.

“I think Jamie would make a phenomenal president,” Cohn said at a
Reuters event in New York. “I think Jamie would be a spectacular
president.”

Cohn added his experience in the Oval Office showed that the
president’s job was “in many respects very similar” to running a
complex, multinational firm.

China hits back at Trump with tariffs on $60 billion of
US goods

China
has hit back at the US with a fresh series of tariffs less
than 24 hours after President Donald
Trump announced
new tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, knocking
the trade
war between the two nations up another
gear.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday said it would levy
tariffs of 5% to 10% on $60 billion worth of US goods sent to
China, with 5,207 individual products affected. The tariffs are
to take effect September 24, the same day the latest ones imposed
by the US are scheduled to begin.

“In order to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests and
the global free trade order, China will have to retaliate as a
response,” a statement from the ministry said earlier Tuesday,
before the specifics of the retaliation were released.

The Trump administration initiated the latest round
in the
US-China trade war overnight. When the new
tariffs take effect, over half of all Chinese goods coming into
the US will be subject to duties. The US has sought to use
tariffs to pressure Beijing to change some of its trade
practices.

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