Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 10 January 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.
​Global
- Asia markets mostly lower as China inflation data miss expectations (CNBC) Asia markets mostly slipped on Thursday following lower-than-expected Chinese inflation data while investors digested the conclusion of a three-day trade negotiation between the Beijing and Washington. The U.S. dollar index was lower at 95.127 after seeing an earlier high around 95.9 in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at $51.80 per barrel at 0432 GMT, down $0.56 (1.1%) from their last settlement. International Brent crude futures were down 0.9%, or $0.57, at $60.87 per barrel. Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,295.85 per ounce as of 0436 GMT.
U.S.
- Trump’s threat of a national-emergency declaration to fund the border wall is leaving Capitol Hill in shock (Business Insider)
- President Donald Trump has been floating a national-emergency declaration in order to start the construction of a border wall without congressional approval.
- Democrats said he has no legal basis for such action and said it would not stand up to court challenges.
- Republicans are uneasy about the issue, and some have attempted to withhold judgment until any formal announcement is made.
- Trump storms out of meeting as shutdown careens toward fourth week (The Hill) President Trump abruptly left a White House negotiating session with congressional Democrats about 20 minutes into the meeting, dismissing it as a “total waste of time” as the partial government shutdown careened toward a fourth week. The acrimonious collapse of the talks left no clear solution for ending the impasse, which has consumed Washington and raised concerns about pain for hundreds of thousands of federal workers across the country. See also GOP senators challenge Trump on shutdown strategy.
- A New Cold War Has Begun (Foreign Policy) The United States and China will be locked in a contest for decades. But Washington can win if it stays more patient than Beijing.
The constant, interminable Chinese computer hacks of American warships’ maintenance records, Pentagon personnel records, and so forth constitute war by other means.
- Elon Musk tweets: Tesla to stop selling lowest-priced versions of Model S and X vehicles on Monday (CNBC)
- Elon Musk wrote in a tweet late on Wednesday that Tesla will stop selling the lowest-range versions of its Model S sedans and Model X SUVs on Monday.
- The Model S and X are Tesla’s second and third major lines of electric cars. The versions being retired have a 75 kWh battery, which promises a range of 259 miles for the Model S, and a 237-mile range for the Model X.
- Higher-end versions of both models will still be made and sold by Tesla, and come with a higher price.
- Trump tells FEMA not to send more money to California for forest fires (The Hill) See also next article as well as Firefighters union rips into Trump over threat to withhold FEMA funding from California. President Trump said Wednesday that he has ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to withhold funding for California unless the state improves its forest management to prevent wildfires.
- California Forest Statistics (Forest Unlimited) California owns only 3% of the forest land within the state while the federal government owns 57%:
33 million acres of forest(ed) lands in California
- Federal ownership is 19 million acres = 57%
- Privately owned forest lands are 13.3 million acres = 40%
- State and local agencies (including land trusts) own 3%
- New Data Suggests Shocking Shale Slowdown (Zero Hedge) See also At $50 WTI Extra Shale Oil Production Will Be Zero. U.S. shale executives often boast of low breakeven prices, reassuring investors of their ability to operate at a high level even when oil prices fall. But new data suggests that the industry slowed dramatically in the fourth quarter of 2018 in response to the plunge in oil prices.
EU
- Europe is faltering (Business Insider)
- Italy recorded GDP growth of exactly 0.0%.
- The economies of Germany and the UK also looked fragile last week.
- “Eurozone growth is faltering faster than we had expected,” says HSBC.
- Until now, Europe has coped with a war in Syria on its Southern border, Russian incursion into Ukraine, the Greek crisis, Britain voting to leave the EU, and Turkey falling off a cliff. But the Italian debt crisis and Trump’s global war on trade might be the final straws.
UK
- Brexit: May loses grip on deal after fresh Commons humiliation (The Guardian) Theresa May’s room for manoeuvre should her Brexit deal be rejected next week was further constrained on Wednesday night, after the government lost a second dramatic parliamentary showdown in as many days. An increasingly boxed-in prime minister must now set out her plan B within three working days of a defeat next Tuesday, after the rebel amendment passed.
- Rare Stonehenge-Like Monument in Scotland Has Single ‘Recumbent’ Stone (Live Science) A Neolithic circle of standing stones was recently “discovered” by archaeologists in Scotland. But it turns out, local farmers have known about it for generations. The ancient monumental structure – thought to be between 3,500 and 4,500 years old – consists of 10 stones, each about 3 feet (1 meter) high, standing in a circle about 25 feet (7.7 m) across. The stone circle is located in a remote patch of farmland near the village of Alford, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Aberdeen. What is unusual about this location is that it is complete – almost all similar sites have stones missing.
Germany​
- ‘Bad and unexpected’: Germany probably just went into a recession (Business Insider)
- German industry went into a sudden and unexpected collapse in November. The data is so bad some economists think it might be wrong.
- Nonetheless, they agree that Germany may have been in a recession for the last two quarters of 2018.
- Germany is the largest economy in Europe and the fourth-largest on the planet. So this is bad.
Turkey
- Turkey says U.S. missile deal impossible if tied to dropping Russian S-400s (Reuters) Turkey may buy U.S. Patriot missile systems if conditions are right, but a deal will be impossible if Washington forces Ankara not to purchase the S-400 systems which it agreed to buy from Russia, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.
North Korea
- South Korea, China urge concessions on both sides to end U.S.-North Korea standoff (Reuters) China and South Korea called for concessions from the United States as well as North Korea, ahead of a possible second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, suggesting a U.S. pressure campaign aimed at the North’s denuclearization may be slipping.
China
- A U.S. delegation returned home on Wednesday after a three-day round of trade talks in Beijing.
- The American side released a statement noting a long list of outstanding issues in the relationship, but also recognizing that China had pledged to buy “a substantial amount” of goods and services from the U.S.
- Some outside observers say the talks yielded some small signs of progress toward resolving the ongoing trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
- Yuan is Strengthening (Twitter) If the Chinese economy is in trouble, the yuan renminbi is not showing it.
- China: PPI Growth Shrinks (Twitter)
Canada
- China envoy accuses Canada of ‘double standards’ over Huawei arrest (Reuters) China’s ambassador to Ottawa has accused Canada of “double standards” and disregarding his country’s judicial sovereignty, in a diplomatic row sparked by the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.
.
