1) Citizens of Hong Kong have started moving assets offshore amid fears of a China takeover. China’s demand to extradite criminal suspects to face trial in China is seen as a political move to be able to more tightly control the population politically, by eliminating dissidents and political opposition. People of money are also fearing that China will clamp down on moving money out of the reach of the Chinese government. This move is heightening the tensions of China and western nations.
2) As a result of its legal entanglements from lawsuits alleging Roundup herbicide is a carcinogen, Bayer AG plans to invest almost $6 billion dollars in developing new chemical products to combat weeds over the next decade. Roundup is a product inherited by Bayer in its takeover of Monsanto Co. last year, which has driven its stock down by 50%.
3) The trade war between China and U.S. is having unexpected results of other countries taking up the manufacturing slack. This runs the risk of China permanently losing market share to America as well as China failing to archive its goal of becoming the worlds top global manufacturing base. This decreases China’s chances of becoming a technologically advance and innovative economy. China’s loss of their once famed ‘low pay for unskilled labor’ is further increasing the flight of factories to other countries.
4) Stock market closings for- 14 JUN 19:
Dow 26,089.61 down 17.16
Nasdaq 7,796.66 down 40.47
S&P 500 2,886.98 down 4.66
10 Year Yield: unchanged at 2.09%
Oil: unchanged at $52.51