Good morning! Here’s what you need to know in markets on Wednesday.
1. Asian equities got some relief on Wednesday after upbeat US earnings drove a rebound on Wall Street and helped restore a little confidence in emerging market stocks and currencies. US stocks had jumped more than 2% on Tuesday in reaction to upbeat earnings reports from companies including UnitedHealth and Goldman Sachs.
2. Rupert Murdoch’s six children are in line for about $2 billion each in proceeds from the sale of 21st Century Fox, the Financial Times reports. All six heirs are beneficiaries of the Murdoch Family Trust, which owns a 17% stake in 21st Century Fox. Rupert Murdoch doesn’t have a financial interest in the trust, although he still controls it. Murdoch’s four adult children – Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James – are direct beneficiaries of the Trust.
3. Analysts are warning that oil prices could hit triple-digits if tensions between Saudi Arabia and the US escalate. Saudi Arabia has pushed back against the overwhelming evidence that it was behind the disappearance of a prominent journalist. And while the oil-rich country isn’t likely to follow through with what many saw as a veiled threat to pressure the energy market if the West imposes sanctions against Riyadh, analysts aren’t ruling that scenario out.
4. Chinese search engine Baidu has become the first Chinese company to join an artificial intelligence (AI) ethics group led by top US tech firms, amid wider political clashes over AI competition between China and the United States.
5. Ride-hailing firm Uber increased the size of its debut bond offering to $2 billion as orders for the private placement swelled during an otherwise slow week for junk-bond sales, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said the company is on track to go public next year.
6. There's little evidence that an escalating trade war with the US is impacting China's industrial sectors, according to Macquarie Bank's China Business Cycle Indicator, or MCBCI for short. "The MCBCI continued to track sideways in October, with a modest dip to 50.8, well within the range that could be accounted for by statistical volatility," Macquarie Bank said.
7. Switzerland's nine-year streak as the world's most competitive economy came to an end on Wednesday, dethroned by the United States in an annual league table published by the World Economic Forum. A revamp of the WEF's rankings, reoriented towards future technology-driven growth, pushed Switzerland into fourth place, with Singapore second and Germany third out of 140 countries, each marked on a scale from 0 to 100.
8. The Trump administration said late on Tuesday it has withdrawn or delayed more than 2,200 regulatory actions since taking office in January 2017 as it vows to reduce the role of government.
9. Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler and Renault led a 23.4% European car sales decline in September, the main regional industry body said on Wednesday, as automakers continued to suffer from the introduction of tougher new emissions tests.
10. Prospects for a new treaty cementing ties between Switzerland and the European Union, its biggest trading partner, appeared to fade on Wednesday as four years of negotiations failed to produce a breakthrough by the EU's mid-October deadline.
