GLOBAL NEWS-
The United States on Monday announced criminal charges against China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, escalating a fight with the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment maker and coming days before trade talks between Washington and Beijing.The Justice Department charged Huawei and its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by doing business with Tehran through a subsidiary it tried to hide and that was reported on by Reuters in 2012 and 2013.In a separate case, the Justice Department said Huawei stole robotic technology from carrier T-Mobile US Inc. Huawei has said that the two companies settled their disputes in 2017.Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested in Canada in December and is fighting extradition to the United States. The charges against Meng, which include bank and wire fraud, were not unsealed until Monday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Monday the United States expects significant progress this week in trade talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, but the two sides will be tackling “complicated issues”, including how to enforce any deal.The talks, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, will include a meeting between Liu and U.S. President Donald Trump and take place amid worsening tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
China on Tuesday unveiled a flurry of measures aimed at spurring sales of items ranging from cars and appliances to information services, as the world’s second-largest economy grows at its slowest pace in nearly 30 years.In a statement on its website, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said restrictions will be loosened on the second-hand auto market, and “appropriate” subsidies will be provided to boost rural sales of some vehicles and purchases of new energy vehicles.The state planner did not give details of the subsidies, which it said that central and regional governments will set.For the first time since the 1990s, auto sales in the world’s biggest car market shrank in 2018, as China grapples with a slowing economy and fallout from trade frictions with the United States.
Japan has cut its assessment of exports in January for the first time in three months due to the trade war between the United States and China in a warning that the fallout is spreading to the world’s third-largest economy.The Cabinet Office, which helps coordinate government policy, said exports have weakened recently in its monthly economic report for January. This marked a downgrade from last month when it said exports had flattened.Shipments of electronics and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China have slowed sharply because of the trade dispute and waning smartphone demand, making it more difficult for Japan’s policymakers to ensure healthy economic growth. We need to keep in mind that there is uncertainty about how trade disputes and China’s economic outlook will affect the global economy.
Asian shares stumbled on Tuesday and the dollar hovered near two-week lows as prospects for a long-awaited Sino-U.S. trade deal was dealt another blow after the United States levelled sweeping criminal charges against China’s telecom giant Huawei.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan got off to a shaky start with losses accelerating as other regional markets opened.Chinese shares opened in the red too, with the blue-chip index down 0.2 percent.Japan’s Nikkei slid about 1 percent. U.S. stock futures also lost ground following from a torrid overnight session on Wall Street, with E-Minis for the S&P 500 down 0.4 percent.
The Trump administration on Monday imposed sweeping sanctions on Venezuelan state-owned oil firm PDVSA, aimed at severely curbing the OPEC member’s crude exports to the United States and at pressuring socialist President Nicolas Maduro to step down.Minutes before the announcement, Juan Guaido, the Venezuelan opposition leader who proclaimed himself interim president last week with U.S. backing, said congress would name new boards of directors to the company and its U.S. subsidiary, Citgo.
Maduro, in a live national broadcast on Monday, accused the United States of trying to steal U.S. refining arm Citgo Petroleum, the OPEC member’s most important foreign asset, which also manages a chain of U.S. gas stations. He said Venezuela would take legal actions in response.The Trump administration sanctions stopped short of banning U.S. companies from buying Venezuelan oil, but because the proceeds of such sales will be put in a “blocked account,” PDVSA is likely to quickly stop shipping much crude to the United States, its top client.
Theresa May faces losing control of Brexit to Parliament on Tuesday in a series of crucial votes that will shape Britain’s split from the European Union.Despite a last minute gamble aimed at buying off rebels in her Conservative Party, the prime minister will face a knife-edge battle to block a proposal that would hand Parliament the power to delay the process and prevent a no-deal divorce.The leadership of the opposition Labour Party was preparing to order its MPs to vote for the amendment, put forward by Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Tory Nick Boles as May scrambled for a compromise all sides could support.
In a dramatic meeting Monday evening, the prime minister effectively abandoned the agreement she’s spent the past 18 months negotiating with the EU and threw the weight of her government behind a separate proposal to re-write the deal.May urged hundreds of Conservative politicians crammed into a room inside Parliament to support another amendment that would strip out the so-called backstop plan for the Irish border, wrecking a compromise she’s agreed to with the EU in the hope of securing one with her own party.
Bulgaria's preparations to join the euro zone are on track and the Balkan country may adopt the euro as early as January 2022, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said on Monday.That is some months earlier than indicated by the EU commissioner in charge of the common currency. Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Jan. 18 that Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007, would have to wait at least until mid-2022 to join the euro.
But Goranov said he remained hopeful that Bulgaria will be allowed to enter the bloc's banking union and the ERM-2 mechanism, the two-year obligatory precursor to the euro currency, this summer. Bulgaria's lev currency is already pegged to the euro.
Australia’s TPG Telecom Ltd on Monday said it has halted construction of its mobile telephone network because it relied on Huawei Technologies Co Ltd equipment that has been banned by Australia’s government on security grounds.The nascent network is the first commercial casualty in Australia of the ban announced in August and comes as Western powers restrict market access to Huawei over allegations - which it denies - that China could use its equipment for espionage.The world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker has been under siege since the arrest of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in Canada last December. The U.S. Justice Department on Monday accused the company of bank fraud and conspiring to steal trade secrets from T-Mobile US Inc.
Gold prices hit a more than seven-month high on Tuesday as investors shun riskier assets on worries over escalation in Sino-U.S. trade tensions after the U.S. Justice Department charged China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd with fraud.Spot gold rose to its highest since June 14, 2018 at $1,304.53 in morning trade and was firm at $1,303.62 per ounce. U.S. gold futures were also steady at $1,302.70 per ounce. Investors are very cautious with many uncertainties on U.S.-China trade talks and Brexit. Those prospects don’t look positive.
Oil prices crept higher on Tuesday after the U.S. government slapped sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil firm PdVSA in a move aimed at severely curbing the OPEC member’s crude exports to the United States.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $52.17 per barrel up 18 cents, or 0.3 percent from their last settlement. International Brent crude oil futures were at $60.08 per barrel, up 15 cents, or 0.3 percent.