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Five Things - Europe
Bloomberg

Welcome to your morning markets update, delivered every weekday before the European open.

Good morning. Coronavirus cases on a cruise ship are climbing, Credit Suisse's CEO is out and we'll get the biggest European IPO of the year so far. Here's what's moving markets.

Virus Update

The cruise ship quarantined in Japan is now the biggest center of infection of the new coronavirus outside of China, with 61 people on board sick. Meanwhile, Beijing is growing increasingly angry at countries imposing harsh travel restrictions on visitors from China, where the number of infections has now passed 31,000 on the mainland. Sadly, the Chinese doctor who issued an early warning about the virus has died, stoking fresh anger online. 

Credit Suisse Drama

Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam is stepping down and will be replaced by Thomas Gottstein. The move comes after escalating tension between Thiam and Chairman Urs Rohner culminated in a board meeting in Zurich. Major investors in the U.S. and the U.K. had warned that Rohner had to publicly back his hand-picked CEO. Credit Suisse on Friday morning said Rohner has the unanimous backing of the board until his term ends in April 2021.

Calisen IPO

The largest European listing of the year takes place today, with Calisen Plc going to market in London. The smart-meter company, which is backed by KKR & Co., is a test of demand of investor appetite for companies with a environmental, social and governance focus as well as for the U.K. capital post-Brexit. As London hit a decade-low for IPO activity in 2019, with offerings by British issuers particularly sparse, Calisen's float could open the door for more if it does well in its first trading session Friday.

U.S. Jobs

Following this week's State of the Union speech, we'll get a real look at the state of the U.S. job market today. The report is projected to show U.S. employers added more than 165,000 jobs in January-- less than last year's 176,000 average but still enough to keep unemployment at a half-century low. At the same time, revisions of 2019 payroll stats will probably pour some cold water on past figures. A preliminary projection released in August forecast payrolls will be revised down 501,000 in the year through March.  Friday's report will include historical revisions for all of 2019.

Coming Up…

Asian stocks retreated after their biggest daily jump since June and U.S. futures slipped after Wall Street notched a fresh record high. Earnings slow down today after a busy week; French video-game maker Ubisoft Entertainment SA and cosmetics company L'Oreal SA both came out with better-than-expected revenue after the market closed Thursday. Uber Technologies Inc. shares will be worth keeping an eye on later as the company forecast its first-ever quarterly profit by the end of this year.

What We've Been Reading

This is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours. 

And finally, here's what Cormac Mullen is interested in this morning

While the stock market has been quick to move past concerns over the deadly coronavirus outbreak — with U.S. and European shares climbing to fresh record highs Thursday — moves in the bond market suggest traders there remain wary. Ten-year U.S. yields, the global bond benchmark, have failed to close above a multi-month technical resistance level and remain in the downtrend that began this year. Yields ticked lower again Friday with the report of a surge in infections in the cruise ship moored off Japan — an unusual situation for investors to analyse. The new cases are outside China which is obviously a negative, showcasing the virus's ability to rapidly spread, yet have occurred in an already well-isolated location. Net net, a mild risk-off move looks about right. Stepping back from the amateur epidemiology, what's becoming ever clearer is that the risks to China's growth are very much to the downside, despite the recent stimulus measures. That suggests the caution in the bond market is justified, and the fresh highs in a number of equity markets will soon need to be backed up by something more than hope.

Cormac Mullen is a cross-asset reporter and editor for Bloomberg News in Tokyo.

(Correction: Yesterday's Five Things incorrectly stated that U.S. President Donald Trump avoided impeachment.)

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