Early Headlines: Asia Stocks Mostly Up, Dollar Up, Oil Up, Gold Flat, Yields Down, Pompeo Role, Trump Admin 'Frenzy', Nigel Farage, Trump Approval By Women, Iran Backs Iraq, Morales To Mexico, Plus More - 21 Articles, 8 Graphics

Early Bird Headlines 12 November 2019

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Key Articles

Global

Asia stocks higher amid US-China trade jitters and unrest in Hong Kong (CNBC) Major stocks markets in Asia mostly closed higher on Tuesday after struggling for direction earlier in the day. Concerns over the state of U.S.-China trade negotiations as well as a recent escalation of violence in protests in Hong Kong continued to loom over regional markets. Stock markets in mainland China were mixed. The U.S. dollar index was last higher at 98.238. Oil prices reversed an earlier decline to rise in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures gaining 0.29% to $62.36 per barrel and U.S. crude futures adding 0.26% to $57.01 per barrel. Spot gold was flat at $1,456.01 per ounce, as of 0319 GMT. U.S. gold futures were also unchanged at $1,457 per ounce. U.S. treasury yield were slightly lower.

U.S.

Pompeo’s Impeachment Role Draws Outcry From Diplomats, Staffers (The Wall Street Journal) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been credited with improving State Department staffing and morale, but his treatment of U.S. Foreign Service officers caught in the impeachment inquiry has undercut those efforts, according to current and former career professionals upset over his recent actions.

As the impeachment inquiry increasingly pits the White House against members of the U.S. Foreign Service who have been called to testify, Mr. Pompeo has sided at key junctures with President Trump, prompting at least one high-level resignation and eliciting protests from groups that represent current and former staff members.
They complain that Mr. Pompeo has described Mr. Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president as “appropriate” even though the president during the call disparaged the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who was pulled from her post.
Mr. Pompeo later ignored calls by diplomats for a public statement of support for the ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch. He also denied speaking about the matter with a top aide, Michael McKinley, who testified before the impeachment probe that he had personally approached Mr. Pompeo about it.

‘Signs of concern’: What Laura Cooper told impeachment investigators (Politico) Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine, told impeachment investigators in a deposition made public Monday that President Donald Trump’s abrupt hold on military aid to Ukraine sent all corners of the Trump administration into a frenzy to get it released – and to understand what motivated Trump’s decision.

Public Document Clearing House: Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry (Just Security) Just Security has compiled and curated all publicly available documents in Congress’s impeachment inquiry concerning President Donald Trump in connection with Ukraine. This collection seeks to include significant original source material, including relevant legislation, letters, subpoenas, deposition transcripts, executive branch communications, and litigation documents.

Nigel Farage urged to stand aside in Tory target seats after climbdown (The Guardian) Nigel Farage (video below) is facing calls from Brexit supporters to stand down further candidates to help Boris Johnson after he made a dramatic public U-turn by agreeing to withdraw his party from all Conservative-held seats. The Brexit party leader claimed he had changed his mind about fielding candidates in 317 seats held by the Tories after Johnson released a video pledging to take Britain out of the EU by 2020 and to pursue a Canada-style trade deal. Sources say Brexit Party will pursue Labour-held seats.