Early Headlines: Asia Stocks Mostly Up, Dollar Up, Oil Down, Gold Flat, Yields Mixed, Impeachment, SNAP Purge, China In Cambodia, NK Submarine, Plus More - 20 Articles, 6 Graphics

Early Bird Headlines 24 September 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 stocks subdued as weak Europe data fuel growth fears (CNBC) Stocks in Asia struggled for direction on Tuesday as weak economic data in Europe fueled fears of slowing growth and weighed on investor sentiment. Shares on mainland China edged up on the day. The U.S. dollar index was higher at 98.647 after touching an earlier low of 98.618. Oil prices slipped in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with the international benchmark Brent crude futures contract declining 0.76% to $64.28 per barrel and U.S. crude futures shedding 0.65% to $58.26 per barrel. Spot gold was little changed at $1,521.62 per ounce at 0734 GMT. U.S. treasury yield changes were mixed.

U.S.

‘Seismic change’: Democratic hold-outs rush toward impeachment (Politico) See also Republican lawmakers scramble to contain Ukraine whistleblower fallout (The Hill). Speaker Nancy Pelosi and party leaders are ramping up their offensive against President Donald Trump for pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden – with a potential House vote on a resolution condemning Trump as the caucus edges toward impeachment.

Pelosi spent all weekend and Monday working the phones, including reaching out to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, as she sought to take the temperature of the caucus on impeachment. She’s set to meet with the six committee chairmen investigating Trump on Tuesday afternoon to discuss Democrats’ next steps.
Pelosi is expected to make a statement on the issue Tuesday and has seemed more open to the idea of an impeachment investigation than ever before, according to lawmakers and aides.

Agriculture Department Flooded With Appeals to Stop Food Stamp Purge (The New York Times) Governors, mayors, attorneys general, state delegations, teachers and pediatricians have flooded the Agriculture Department with comments that overwhelmingly oppose the Trump administration’s proposed rule to limit eligibility for food stamps – and cut millions from the nation’s pre-eminent food assistance program.

The rule change’s public comment period ended on Monday, with more than 75,000 comments logged, 70 from mayors and 17 from governors. Congressional delegations from Vermont, Maryland and Maine also voiced opposition to changing eligibility rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.

But on several occasions, Congress has decided against limiting eligibility, the last time in the 2018 Farm Bill. House Republicans had moved to strip nearly two million Americans of food stamps benefits, but a coalition of urban Democrats and farm-state Republicans prevailed, as they had other times.
Ellen Vollinger, the food stamp director at the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group, accused the Trump administration of trying to “do through rule-making what Congress had already said no to.”

Cambodia

Sihanoukville’s big gamble: the sleepy beach town in Cambodia that bet its future on Chinese money (South China Morning Post) Sihanoukville may be more than 3,500km (2,170 miles) away from Beijing, but it feels more like a Chinese city than a sleepy beach town in Cambodia. Everywhere, people can be heard speaking in Mandarin. Chinese restaurants have sprung up on dusty roads where huge construction sites – including many hotels and more than 80 casinos – now dominate the skyline. This former fishing village in the country’s southwest used to be a favourite of backpackers. Now it is booming, and much of the development is being driven by Chinese money.

But while the boom has created opportunities, it has also brought serious problems for Sihanoukville.
Authorities say illegal gambling, prostitution and drug trafficking are rife, while a deadly building collapse prompted a backlash over the quality and safety of Chinese construction work. Rising rents are meanwhile pushing the poorest out of the city.

North Korea

Satellite images suggest North Korea working to hide launch of missile submarine (CNN) North Korea may be close to launching a submarine capable of firing missiles and is making efforts to conceal its preparations, new commercial satellite images obtained by CNN appear to show. The images from the Middlebury Institute and Planet Labs, appear to show North Korea making progress readying the vessel at the Sinpo South Naval Shipyard along the central coast of the country off the Sea of Japan. Such a vessel would be capable of delivering nuclear strikes against the continental U.S.