Finance Update – Death & Taxes

Asia – China not up to par

Asian benchmarks are levelling off this morning, the Shenzhen Composite adding 1.25% while Australia, New Zealand and the Hang Seng are in the red.

The Nikkei added a mere 0.15% after last night’s CPI fell to 0.2% YoY in September, while the nation’s Central Bank’s latest summary of opinions revealed that inflationThe rise in prices for goods and services, resulting in the deterioration of a currency’s purchasi... is expected to remain negative so long as the economic recovery is not as swift as earlier observed.

With the Yuan concluding its week-long head-&-shoulders pattern, this morning, China announced it would not be meeting its $200 bn purchase target of US products despite a 513% increase in corn purchases, 432% in soybeans and 97% in car purchases.

Europe – EU wants to make a deal

Europe yesterday firmly joined bullish global indices as the Eurostoxx50 added 2.75%, the FTSE only managing a 1.46% increase.

Both the Euro and Pound are gaining limited traction this morning after Reuters reported EU negotiators willing to begin working on a trade agreement text with the UK. And yet, 6 major European banks polled by Reuters yesterday still put the riskThe level of deviation of past returns and/or losses on an asset from the mean. Usually, the higher ... of a no-deal Brexit above 50%. UK PM Johnson is expected to announce new measures to fight unemployment through retraining.

ECB Board Member Isabel Schnabel yesterday said the bank could consider limiting its bond-buying programmes to environmental-friendly issuers only.

Americas – Trump’s paid millions

With the world still reeling from the New York Time’s revelation regarding the Presidential tax bill, US equities continued up yesterday led by the Russel 2000 with 2.67% after yesterday’s Dallas Fed Manufacturing Business Index shot up to 13.6 in September.

Ahead of tonight’s presidential debate, Trump has said he pays “millions” in taxes.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Pelosi revealed that she was meeting today with Treasury SecThe US Securities & Exchange Commission is the US regulator of financial markets.. Mnuchin to discuss the nation’s upcoming aid package – by now scaled down to $2.2 tn.

Commodities – Oil still in a rut

Despite continuing hopes of a US stimulus package and its pendant-like propensity over the past 2 weeks, oil continues struggling with demand constraints. The commodityA tangible good that can be and which has been “commoditized”, i.e. standardized by quality and ... lost nearly 2/3 of a per cent overnight, as it continues to cling to $40 supportThe price level that traders believe represents the lowest value an asset can reach. At this point, ....

And gold added 47 cents per troy ounce during yesterday’s US session, only to lose a third of that in Asia.

Corporate – Google to charge Play apps

Uber surged by 3.19% after being approved in the UK. Amazon is up 2.55% after announcing its new Luna cloud gaming services, joining Twitch as the company takes on Nvidia and Google. Google was up 1.36% yesterday after announcing it would start taking a 30% cut of all apps sold on its Play store. And Tesla is up 3.4% after CEO Elon Musk announced plans to list Starlink, his SpaceX venture, according to Reuters.

The outlet also announced yesterday that US casino operator Caesars (+2%) is in advanced talks to purchase UK bookmaker William Hill (-11.63%) in a bid to gain control of the US online betting sector. William Hill surged 34% on Friday’s announcement.

Today, expect dividends from Goldman Sachs, Standard Life, Mondi and Reckitt Benckiser.

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