1) China has announced they are ending caps to foreign financial ownership, allowing foreign firms to have full ownership of financial services companies. Starting in 2020, overseas institutions can apply for total control of onshore ventures. China has been opening its financial sector at an unprecedented pace to lure financial giants such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley into greater participation in China’s economy.
2) Investors are retracting the fastest since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. In the past six months, money market funds have attracted billions of dollars of inflows, the largest flight to safe assets since the second half of 2008, with investors raising their cash holdings despite falling interest rates. This is being driven by unresolved issues of the trade war, Brexit and the domestic political turmoil mixed with fears of a recession.
3) The U.S. and China have reached a partial agreement Friday which would broker a truce in the trade war. This will lay the groundwork for a broader deal later with Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping. News to the agreement cause the markets to shoot up over 300 points. Part of the agreement is for China to make agricultural concessions and the U.S. provide some tariff relief.
4) Stock market closings for – 11 OCT 19:
Dow 26,816.59 up 319.92
Nasdaq 8,057.04 up 106.26
S&P 500 2,970.27 up 32.14
10 Year Yield: up at 1.75%
Oil: up at $54.91