Early Headlines: Asia Stocks Mostly Down, Dollar And Oil Down, Gold Mixed, Yields Narrowly Up, Emoluments, Quid Pro Quo, Meryl Streep Of Generals, Brexit Deal, Syria Cease Fire, China GDP New Low, Plus More - 21 Articles, 4 Graphics

Early Bird Headlines 18 October 2019

Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, published Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.

Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side for social media buttons.

Notice: We have changed the form of content coverage for Early Bird. We will provide discussion only for Asia Markets news and a small number (often 1 or 2) other articles. The remainder of the content will be headlines (with links) only.

Key Articles

Global

Asia Pacific markets mostly tumble as China’s growth weakens more than expected (CNBC) Asia Pacific markets mostly declined on Friday by the close, as China released worse-than-expected gross domestic product figures, impacted by Beijing’s protracted trade conflict with the U.S. Mainland Chinese markets tumbled after the release of the data. The U.S. dollar index was last lower at 97.614, sliding from an earlier high of 98.113. Oil prices declined in morning trade during Asian hours: Global benchmark Brent fell 0.42% to $59.58 per barrel while U.S. crude was almost flat at $53.88 per barrel. Spot gold was unchanged at $1,491.62 an ounce as of 0057 GMT. U.S. gold futures shed 0.2% to $1,495.40 per ounce. U.S. government debt prices ticked narrowly higher Friday afternoon as investors digested Chinese data and new Brexit developments.

U.S.

‘Get over it’: Mulvaney’s twin admissions put Trump at the center of emoluments and Ukraine controversies (The Washington Post) See also next article. For 39 minutes Thursday, White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney turned the press briefing room into a sort of confession chamber, openly admitting to several acts that could deepen the legal predicament for the president. Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry into whether he has abused his office for personal and political gain. In admitting that Trump had personally intervened to award a multimillion-dollar summit to his own company, and that the president had also used taxpayer money as leverage to push a Ukrainian investigation into Democrats, Mulvaney embraced a classic Trumpian tactic: saying the quiet – and potentially illegal – part out loud.

Mulvaney’s retort to those charges came in a three-word mantra that now forms the central theme of the White House impeachment response: “Get over it.”

Mulvaney walks back comments tying Ukraine aid to 2016 probe (The Hill) White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Thursday that the flow of security assistance to Ukraine was not conditioned on Kiev investigating a theory related to 2016 election interference, walking back statements he made earlier in the day. Mulvaney issued a statement Thursday afternoon accusing the media of “misconstruing” his earlier remarks to the press at the White House “to advance a biased and political witch hunt against President Trump.”
Trump accuses Biden of ‘quid pro quo’ hours after Mulvaney remarks (The Hill) Econintersect: The president’s remarks show little relationship to the Biden situation. Trump said:

[the former vice president was in charge of Ukraine policy for the Obama administration and sought the firing of the then-Ukrainian prosecutor general while his son, Hunter] “was paid massive sums of money [to] buy a Ukrainian energy company. Now that’s what you call quid pro quo,”

Judge rules DOJ improperly redacted court filing related to Mueller probe (The Hill) The Department of Justice improperly redacted a court filing related to the Mueller investigation and must reveal the names of two individuals who figured prominently in the probe, a federal judge in Washington ruled on Thursday. Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in her opinion that the department erroneously redacted a portion of a document after invoking grand jury secrecy protections, even though the two names that were concealed belonged to individuals who did not testify before a grand jury during the Mueller probe. Howell wrote:

“DOJ’s assertion that identifying individuals who did not testify before the grand jury as part of the Mueller investigation would reveal ‘a matter occurring before the grand jury’ is without merit and rejected.”

Jim Mattis has fun with Trump’s ‘overrated’ dig: ‘I’m the Meryl Streep of generals’ (Fox News) Former Defense Secretary James Mattis poked fun at himself and President Trump at the 74th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City on Thursday night, a day after the president called Mattis “the world’s most overrated general.” Mattis, who resigned last December after clashing with Trump on the president’s Syria policy, said he was honored by the “overrated” remark because Trump “also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress.” (See video here.) Mattis joked:

“So I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly that sounds pretty good to me.”

What Is in the New Brexit Deal? (The New York Times) See also next article. The knotty details of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new Brexit deal with the European Union are contained in 64 pages of revisions to the old withdrawal agreement, and an accompanying road map to future relations. Key points:

The biggest roadblock: the Irish border
Solution: Put Northern Ireland in an EU Custom Union
Northern Ireland situation could not be revoked for 4 years
Would create border duties between Northern Ireland and UK
Northern Ireland could not particpate in UK tarde agreements

Brexit on a knife edge as PM Johnson stakes all on ‘Super Saturday’ vote (Reuters) See also preceding article. Britain’s exit from the European Union hung on a knife-edge on Friday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson scrambled to convince doubters to rally behind his last-minute European Union divorce deal in an extraordinary vote in parliament.

China

China economy: Third quarter growth misses expectations (BBC News) China’s economy grew at a slower pace than expected in the third quarter as it struggled with a US-led trade war and softer domestic demand. In the three months to September, the economy expanded 6% from a year earlier, official figures showed. The result fell just short of expectations for 6.1% growth for the period.