TheChek News Flow

The rally in risk assets eased on Monday, with stocks in Asia trading mixed as doubts on the possibility for progress in the U.S.-China trade talks crept back into markets.

Resurgent worries on global growth are driving bonds higher and threatening to dent this year’s rally in riskier assets, with stocks dipping last week. Equities rallied in China where exchanges reopened after a one-week holiday, and edged higher in Hong Kong. Shares in Sydney fell while those in South Korea fluctuated. European futures pointed to a modestly firm start. Australia’s 10-year yields slid four basis points. Japan is shut for a holiday, so Treasuries won’t trade until the London open after 10-year yields edged down to 2.63 percent last week.

Nikkei -2.01% Hang Seng +0.53% CSI +1.80% Shanghai +1.35% Shenzen +2.89%

Eur$ 1.1325 CNH 6.7825 CNY6.7723 JPY 109.98 GBP 1.2933 CHF 1.0004 RUB 65.5965 TRY 5.2474 WTI$52.27 -0.85%

S&P -0.04% EuroStoxx +0.48% FTSE +0.46% DAX +0.47%SMI +0.66%

* AAK Upgraded to Accumulate at Handelsbanken; PT 140 Kronor

Macro :

- Hedge Funds Start February With Lowest Stock Exposure in a Year

- Fidelity Still Bullish on Emerging Markets Despite Trade Angst

Keep an eye on :

- AC FP : Paris City Hall Seeks Maximum EU12.5m Fine Against Airbnb: JDD

- AGN US : Allergan Committed to Engaging With Appaloosa on Its Proposal

- BARC LN : Barclays Holder Sherborne May Make Further Board Proposals: 13D

- BARC LN : Barclays to Move Some Derivatives Sales Jobs to Paris: Reuters

- BPE IM : BPER Banca acquires Unipol Banca for EUR 220m in cash; acquires 49% of Banco di Sardegna for 33m new BPER shares and EUR 150m convertible bond

- BG US : Bunge's Takeover Chances High, With More Suitors Than Just ADM

- BAS GY : BASF Taps Goldman Sachs to Advise on Construction Chemicals Sale

- DBK GY : Ex-Deutsche Bank Trader Avoids Prison for Libor Manipulation

- MTRO LN : New York Investor Hound Takes 5% Stake in U.K.’s Metro Bank

- SN/ LN : Smid-Cap MedTech May Gain After Report of Smith & Nephew Talks

- SOLG LN : Cornerstone Reiterates Opposition to SolGold Offer

- SPD LN : Sports Direct Intl. SPD Offers to Buy Patisserie Valerie

- UNI IM : BPER Banca acquires Unipol Banca for EUR 220m in cash; acquires 49% of Banco di Sardegna for 33m new BPER shares and EUR 150m convertible bond

- WDI GY : After $10 Billion Share Plunge, Wirecard’s CEO Fights Back

Weekend Papers Summary

* NYT: (Saturday): A second woman came forward with claims that Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax sexually assaulted her, intensifying the weeklong political crisis in the state and leading top fellow Democrats to call for Fairfax to resign; The decision by AMZN chief Jeff Bezos to attack American Media’s shaky legal position for allowing The National Enquirer to expose his extramarital affair has hit the company where it hurts, and is showing early signs of paying off; Many people in Venezuela fear that the U.S. sanctions imposed last week on Venezuela’s state oil company will push the already suffering nation of about 30 million people into an even greater humanitarian catastrophe; Donald Trump refused to provide Congress a report determining who killed the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, defying a demand by lawmakers intent on establishing whether the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was behind the murder; Faced with limited options and a looming deadline to prevent another government shutdown, Trump is moving toward accepting a border security deal that would fall well short of his demand for $5.7B for a wall along the border with Mexico; After being forced out of his job, former CBS chief Les Moonves is running a Hollywood company called Moon Rise Unlimited, a limited liability company that will focus on “entertainment services” and of which he is listed as manager in a legal filing; Top Democrats, eager to reverse a corporate windfall created by President Trump’s $1.5T tax cut, are developing economic policies aimed at limiting the ability of companies to enrich shareholders; +/- Huawei: Chinese tech giant threatened legal action against the Czech Republic if its cybersecurity agency doesn’t rescind its warning about the risk the company poses to the nation’s critical infrastructure; (Sunday): Potential presidential candidate senator Bernie Sanders has 2.1M online donors, a massive lead among low-dollar contributors that is roughly equivalent to the donor base of all the other Democratic hopefuls combined, while Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke has twice as many donors as anyone eyeing the race besides Sanders; Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts formally announced her 2020 presidential bid Saturday, calling for “fundamental change” on behalf of working people and arguing that Donald Trump is a symptom of what’s gone wrong in America; A “green new deal” is far from reality, but at the state level, the recent midterm elections brought in a new wave of governors who are setting climate goals for their states and laying out more ambitious plans to cut emissions and expand low-carbon energy; Sunday Business: “Soak-the-rich” plans were recently considered ridiculously far-fetched or political poison, but are now receiving serious and sober treatment, even by critics, and remarkably broad encouragement from the electorate; Though the wealthy tend to be healthier and fill fewer prescriptions over all, they’re likelier to purchase medications for some serious diseases, according to an analysis by GoodRx, which tracks prescription drug prices.

* WSJ (Weekend): Front page story says AMZN is re-evaluating a planned headquarters in New York City, turning up the heat on local officials who oppose giving billions of dollars in tax incentives to one of the world’s most valuable companies; Washington lawmakers are said to be near a compromise spending package that boosts funding for border barriers and related security measures, with the goal of reaching a bipartisan deal early next week and avoiding a new government shutdown; The first tax-filing season the Republican tax overhaul was passed has gotten off to a slower start than last year and filers so far are seeing smaller average refunds, according to early Internal Revenue Service data; Acting Interior secretary David Bernhardt, a former oil industry lobbyist, said in an interview he can balance the interests of environmentalists with those of the Trump administration, which has put a priority on opening public lands to energy development; Trump is in very good health, a White House physician said Friday following the president’s annual exam, which took about four hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center; A greater number workers were involved in strikes and other labor disputes in 2018 than at any point in the past three decades, fueled by widespread teacher protests last spring—a sign of a healthy labor market; Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker testified that he hasn’t interfered in the special counsel’s Russia investigation and hasn’t shared information about it with the president or top White House officials; Saudi Arabia hopes to build an international media empire to combat the kingdom’s rivals and remake its image in the West, and it sought a partnership with Vice Media as part of the project; Brazilian officials are preparing to toughen mining safety rules following the rupture of a dam last month that created a sea of mud over a valley, killing more than 150 people, the mining regulator’s top official said on Friday; As China and the West—digital powers with very different approaches to technology—race for 5G dominance, some Silicon Valley executives worry the divergence risks giving Chinese companies an advantage in new technologies; + HON: Company is introducing a new line of aircraft cockpit and flight-data recorders—known as “black boxes”—that offer more data-storage capacity and the ability, for the first time, to use satellites to retrieve accident information in real time; Collateralized loan obligations overseen by women deliver better returns on average than those run by men, according to research from Citigroup, a finding that adds to the debate about the relative lack of women in the upper echelons of the alternative asset-management field; +/- BAC: Chief Brian Moynihan received a compensation package valued at $26.5M last year, a 15% raise from the $23M he earned in the prior year; H.O.T.S.: The success of Uber’s planned initial public offering, one of the year’s most anticipated, will hinge on whether investors believe the ride-hailing company can stop burning money; ARNC is falling short when it comes to explaining its latest change in strategy to investors, who still don’t have a sense of who will be leading the company long-term; MAT and HAS survived the first holiday season without Toys ‘R’ Us, but Mattel did far better relative to expectations, and its shares look more attractive.

* FT( Weekend): “Brussels is pushing ahead with plans to name Saudi Arabia and Panama on a blacklist of high-risk countries that fail to fight dirty money, despite resistance from France, Germany, and the UK”; Singapore police raided the office of German fintech Wirecard in the city-state, a significant step in their investigation into irregularities in the company’s accounting and other potential misconduct; The Reserve Bank of Australia has trimmed its forecast for growth amid weak consumption, global trade tension, and a worsening outlook for the Chinese economy; Big Read story says that while a year ago the International Monetary Fund was confidently speaking of a surge in the global economy, things have changed now that China is slowing, Brexit talks are stalled, and trade disputes are mounting; Lex Column: There is growing evidence that Donald Trump’s animosity towards AMZN chief Jeff Bezos has damaged the company, and the fact that such ire is directed toward a CEO underlines the concentration of power in hands of few bosses; Tata Motors has been shaken by a recent writedown on its acquisition of JLR, but it is unlikely to sell the company; A recently buyback at Softbank has bolstered shares temporarily, but chief Masayoshi Son’s tech bets would have to start paying off big time for the effect to be permanent; Comment: Changing markets are killing the “cult of the investing genius,” says Robert Armstrong, leading to the downfall of once powerful figures such as Pimco co-founder and former “bond king” Bill Gross.

* NY POST (Saturday): Hedge fund titan Leon Cooperman, who owns stock and bonds in American Media Company, isn’t worried about a potential criminal investigation into The National Enquirer’s alleged extortion of AMZN chief Jeff Bezos; (Sunday): American consumers are finding new ways to shop for toys now that Toys “R” Us is no longer in business, with independent stores experiencing an upsurge in business, according to toy review website TTPM.

- New stake: CI

- Liquidated: UTX LEN MSFT BABA MPC WPX DE NFLX FANG ARCE

- Raised: CPB CRM IQV SHPG

- Cut: BAX PYPL DOV DWDP AXP MRK STZ V SPGI DHR