- Asian Stocks Tick Higher After Wall Street Decline: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Stocks in Asia advanced Wednesday after US benchmarks wiped out gains in the final half hour of trading, with investors tweaking portfolios after a rally that’s already topped $4 trillion this year. Shares climbed at the open in Japan, while Australian and South Korean stocks were little changed. Futures pointed to a decline in Hong Kong. - Baltimore Bridge Collapse Reverberates From Cars to Coal
(Bloomberg) — The 1.6-mile-long bridge collapsed in a matter of seconds. The catastrophic consequences are set to stretch out for weeks. As much as 2.5 million tons of coal, hundreds of cars made by Ford Motor Co., and General Motors Co., and lumber and gypsum are threatened with disruption after the container ship Dali slammed into and brought down Baltimore’s Francis. - Japan Banks Poised to Step Up Cuts to $65 Billion in Stocks
(Bloomberg) — For decades, banks in Japan have clung to a network of cross-shareholdings that date to the nation’s industrial emergence from World War II, helping companies expand globally and ride out periods of economic hardship. Now, expectations are growing for a more rapid sell-down of the equity stakes. - China Confuses Yuan Traders With Surprise Changes to Fixing
(Bloomberg) — Traders seeking to navigate the most crucial part of China’s foreign-exchange management are finding visibility getting increasingly cloudy. Since last Friday, authorities have flipped backward and forward with their favourite tool for guiding expectations — the yuan’s daily reference rate, which pins the currency to a level around which it’s allowed to deviate just 2%. - Biden Erases Trump’s Lead in ‘Blue Wall’ States He Needs to Win
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden has gained ground against Republican Donald Trump in six of seven key swing states, and significantly so in at least two of them. The results make for the Democrat’s strongest position yet in a monthly Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll. - Putin’s Allies Divided Over His Ukraine Claims on Moscow Attack
(Bloomberg) — While Vladimir Putin continues to argue that Ukraine may have had a role in the Moscow attack that killed 139 people, some of the Russian president’s own inner circle disagree with him. There’s no evidence of involvement by Ukraine, according to four people with close ties to the Kremlin. - Trump Judge Imposes Gag Order in New York Hush-Money Trial
(Bloomberg) — A New York judge banned Donald Trump from making statements about witnesses, lawyers or jurors involved in his upcoming trial over alleged hush-month payments, limiting the former president’s ability to campaign on his claim that the case is part of a political “witch hunt.” - Fed Stoking Inflation Premium Heralds Bear Steepener: Macro View
(Bloomberg) — Treasury investors in search of wider risk premiums should send yields on longer maturities higher, leading to a steeper yield curve, after the Federal Reserve’s dot plot suggested that the monetary authority may be willing to tolerate an inflation overshoot. The Fed’s own gauge of the inflation risk premium — which measures the compensation that traders. - SEC Unleashes Latest Salvos Against Ripple, Terra: Finance Brief
(Bloomberg Government) — The SEC plans to seek $2 billion from Ripple over its crypto token one day after it called Terraform “a House of cards” over its imploded stablecoin in the latest round of actions against the crypto industry. The agency will release a public brief today seeking $2 billion in fines and penalties in its legal fight over the XRP crypto token. - USDJPY hits 1990 highs as yen weakens; Intervention in focus
The Japanese yen weakened on Wednesday amid persistent pressure from a strong dollar and relatively dovish outlook for the Bank of Japan, with the USDJPY pair hitting its highest level in nearly 34 years. The yen’s weakness put the prospect of government intervention in currency markets squarely in focus, especially following comments from top government officials that recent weakness in the currency was “speculative.” USDJPY rose 0.2% to 151.97- its highest level since mid-1990. - Alibaba Scraps Logistics Arm’s IPO After Market Turmoil Worsens
(Bloomberg) — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. called off an initial public offering for its Cainiao logistics arm in Hong Kong, shelving a $1 billion-plus deal in a surprise move that underscores its new approach toward rejuvenating a flagging e-commerce empire. It’s the second time Alibaba has nixed a high-profile debut for one of its main businesses. - UPS shares reversed early gains to fall 8.2% Tuesday, after Wall Street analysts were underwhelmed by the company’s targets.
Morgan Stanley said the outlook was in line with buy-side expectations, while BofA
noted that UPS’ in its prior investor day meetings had set targets that were higher than realized results. 2024 OUTLOOK: Sees consolidated revenue $92 billion to $94.5 billion, saw about $92 billion to $94.5 billion, estimate $93.16 billion. Sees 1H down 1% to 2% y/y. Sees 2H up 4% to 8% y/y. 2026 FINANCIAL TARGETS: Consolidated revenue of about $108 billion to about $114 billion; est. $100.84 billion. Consolidated adjusted operating margin of above 13%. Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker (underweight, PT $95) says that while the implied 2026 guide is comfortably above sell-side consensus, it is consistent with buyside expectations, as indicated by MS’s recent buy side survey. - BNP Paribas jumped 2.9% after Goldman upgraded the lender to buy from neutral, saying operating backdrop should improve over the coming years.
BNP Paribas’s operating backdrop should improve over the coming years from expected ECB rate cuts and a gradual recovery in activity in capital markets, Goldman says. Analyst Christopher Hallam sees upside risk to consensus estimates both in the near and medium term. Notes multi-year relative underperformance, which creates an attractive entry point for the stock. PT set at €82.6. - Seagate rose 7.4% as Morgan Stanley raised its recommendation on the computer hardware and
storage company to overweight from equal-weight, predicting a period of “structurally stronger gross margins.”
Analyst Erik Woodring says the upgrade reflects expectations for an EPS upside from higher gross margins and AI-driven demand in 2026-2027. “Gen AI will be a longer-term, “rising tide lifts all boats” tailwind for storage,” he adds. Hikes PT to $115 from $73. - Merck & Co. shares gained 4.8% afterhours after it won US approval for a new treatment for a rare, dangerous form of high blood pressure.
The drug, known as sotatercept, will be sold as Winrevair in the US, according to information posted on the Food and Drug Administration website. It will cost $14,000 per vial and will be taken every three weeks, according to Merck. At that rate, the drug would cost about $242,000 a year, although some patients will require more. The clearance is crucial to Merck’s efforts to bolster its pipeline of treatments for heart and metabolic disorders while preparing for bestseller Keytruda to lose market exclusivity toward the end of the decade. Revenue from the cancer drug reached $25 billion last year, more than 40% of Merck’s overall. - Johnson & Johnson is in discussion to acquire the medical device maker Shockwave Medical
Which has a market value of around $ 11 billion after its stock rallied around 50% year-to-date. Shockwave produce devices which focus on treating cardiovascular disease. - Viking Therapeutics Inc. jumps almost 17% after the startup unveiled results from an early study of its experimental weight-loss pill, an alternative product to popular obesity shots.
This biotech firm plans to move its medication called VK2735 into mid-stage studies based on the results.
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