Early Headlines: Asia Stocks Mixed, Dollar And Yields Up, Oil And Gold Down, State Dept. Clinton Probe, Impeachment, Whistleblower Threatened, Plus More - 26 Articles, 6 Graphics

Early Bird Headlines 30 September 2019

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Key Articles

Global

Asia stocks mixed amid better-than-expected Chinese manufacturing activity (CNBC) Asia stocks were mixed on Monday as Chinese factory activity in September came in above expectations. Mainland Chinese stocks slipped on the day. The U.S. dollar index was higher at 99.071 after bouncing from levels below 98.4 last week. Oil prices slipped in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.52% to $61.59 per barrel and U.S. crude futures slipping 0.29% to $55.75 per barrel. Spot gold was 0.4% lower at $1,490.50 per ounce as of 0649 GMT. Prices had hit $1,486.60 in the previous session, their lowest since Sept. 18. U.S. treasury yields were higher (bond prices were lower).

U.S.

State Dept. intensifies email probe of Hillary Clinton’s former aides (The Washington Post) The Trump administration is investigating the email records of dozens of current and former senior State Department officials who sent messages to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email, reviving a politically toxic matter that overshadowed the 2016 election, current and former officials said.

As many as 130 officials have been contacted in recent weeks by State Department investigators – a list that includes senior officials who reported directly to Clinton as well as others in lower-level jobs whose emails were at some point relayed to her inbox, said current and former State Department officials. Those targeted were notified that emails they sent years ago have been retroactively classified and now constitute potential security violations

How a Shadow Foreign Policy in Ukraine Prompted an Impeachment Inquiry (The New York Times) In an apparent attempt to curry favor with President Trump, former Ukraine president Petro O. Poroshenko’s top prosecutor moved ahead on two investigations of intense interest to Mr. Trump. One was focused on an oligarch – previously cleared of wrongdoing by the same prosecutor – whose company employed former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son. The other dealt with the release by a separate Ukrainian law enforcement agency to the media of information that hurt Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign. According to this article, Rudy Giulliani has been actively engaged with Ukraine for many months, starting from before the Ukrainian prosecutor reopened (for the third time) an invstigation of Hunter Biden’s company.

The actions by the prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, did not come out of thin air. They were the first visible results of a remarkable behind-the-scenes campaign to gather and disseminate political dirt from a foreign country, encouraged by Mr. Trump and carried out by his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani. In the last week their engagement with Ukraine has prompted a formal impeachment inquiry into whether the president courted foreign interference to hurt a leading political rival.

Trump demands to meet whistleblower, warns of ‘Big Consequences’ (The Hill) President Trump on Sunday evening called for the outing of a whistleblower and railed against other individuals, including Rep. Adam Schiff (D, CA), at the center of a growing scandal involving his phone call with Ukraine’s president, warning there could be “Big Consequences“. See also Lawyers express concern for whistleblower’s safety.