Investing.com -- Markets are set to open lower after investors take a more sober look at the provisional trade deal delivered by the U.S. and China at the end of last week, while the U.K.'s Brexit hopes get a fresh setback and Turkish assets fall after the U.S. and EU threaten sanctions. Elsewhere. Softbank is reported to be set to take control over WeWork's parent company to stop the hemorrhaging of cash at the office space provider. Here's what you need to know in financial markets on Monday, 14th October.
1. Stocks euphoria to continue ebbing
U.S. stock markets are indicated to open the week lower, on disappointment that the substance of Friday’s interim trade agreement between the U.S. and China falls well short of the hype given it by the White House.
By 6:05 AM ET (1005 GMT) Dow futures were marked down 120 points, or 0.5%, while S&P 500 futures were also down 0.5% and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.6%, die partly to a report by Bloomberg saying that China wants more talks before it commits even to the little that was supposedly agreed on Friday.
Both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ will open for trading as normal today, despite the Columbus Day holiday. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, by contrast, has recommended that the bond market be closed.
2. China's economy is still slowing
Asian markets rallied in relief at the results of U.S.-China trade talks at the end of last week, but the hard data continued to show the extent of China’s problems.
Chinese exports fell at the steepest level since March in September. They dropped 3.2% on the year. Imports fell an even steeper 8.2%, equalling their worst drop since 2016.
There was further evidence of the Chinese economy’s struggles in a 5.2% annual drop in car sales, the 15th straight monthly decline. Even sales of new-energy vehicles – cars which are either wholly or partially electric-powered, fell for the third month in a row. That’s due in large measure to the phasing out of subsidies for electric car purchases.
On an otherwise light day for data, the euro zone’s industrial production fell by a worse-than-expected 2.8% on the year in August, despite a 0.4% monthly rebound.
3. Softbank set to take over WeWork
Softbank is in talks to take control of WeWork’s parent company, according to the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, aiming to recapitalize the company at a sharply lower valuation than that which it was seeking from the public capital markets last month.
The papers reported that Softbank is also lining up billions of dollars in fresh debt from JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM). Both reports said that a deal wasn’t guaranteed and the FT noted that if new money can’t be raised, then bankruptcy proceedings may be necessary. The WSJ noted that We Co., the largest commercial tenant in some urban real estate markets, needs $3 billion to get through the next year.
Softbank is already We Co.’s largest external shareholder, having invested over $10 billion in We Co. directly and through its Saudi-backed Vision Fund.
4. Turkish assets falls under sanctions threat
The Turkish lira, and the local stock and bond markets, all fell sharply after both the U.S. and EU warned of imposing economic sanctions on the country if it continues its military operations in Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria.
The dollar rose as high as 5.9225 lira, the highest since June, after a weekend peppered with reports of atrocities committed and jailbreaks by Islamic State prisoners whose Kurdish guards had been redeployed to fight Turkish units.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has counted on Turkey’s significant geopolitical value to defy pressure from the West: he has threatened to reignite Europe’s migrant crisis by sending 3.6 million Syrian refugees westward, while also threatening a major security realignment by buying new missile defense equipment from Russia rather than from its NATO allies.
5. Not good enough, EU tells U.K. on Brexit plans
The British pound retreated after its sharpest one-day rally in more than two years, after the EU’s top negotiator Michel Barnier reportedly told EU diplomats that the U.K.’s latest proposals on settling the Irish border chapter of the Brexit negotiations were unworkable.
The EU’s reaction means that it’s virtually impossible to agree a legally-binding withdrawal agreement at a summit due at the end of this week. As such, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be forced under a recently passed law to ask the EU for another extension to the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline.
Outgoing EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told an Austrian newspaper at the weekend that it would be “unhistoric” not to grant such a request.
Johnson's government meanwhile is preparing for a general election: a new session of parliament opened by the Queen today will read out a laundry list of major spending promises for the time after Brexit.