| Concerns are emerging that a second wave of Covid-19 pandemic may be about to sweep the world, U.S. equity futures tumbled in early Asia trading Monday, and new details cast light on Carlos Ghosn's takedown at Nissan. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today. There are fears the coronavirus pandemic is resurging as economies continue to reopen after lockdowns. Beijing shuttered the city's largest fruit and vegetable supply center and locked down nearby housing districts as dozens of people associated with the wholesale market tested positive for the coronavirus. Meanwhile, Tokyo disclosed its highest daily total of new coronavirus cases since May 5 at 47, local media reported. In the U.S., Governor Andrew Cuomo warned New Yorkers against triggering a second wave of the coronavirus, singling out bars and restaurants in Manhattan and the Hamptons as the worst offenders. Still, New York's new deaths fell for a second day though Florida's cases outpaced the weekly average for a fifth straight day. A former top U.S. health official said new outbreaks are now occurring. Over in Europe, French President Emanuel Macron is accelerating the pace of reopening, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched a review of social-distancing rules as he tries to encourage consumers to go out and "shop with confidence." Here's how Bloomberg is tracking the virus. S&P 500 futures declined at the open in Asia Monday, and the Australian dollar slipped as investors monitored China's latest coronavirus outbreak. Stocks headed for a mixed start in Asia after gains on Wall Street Friday. The yuan and the euro also edged lower, the standout moves in currency markets as trading began for the week. Concerns about a second wave of the coronavirus is keeping traders on edge and helped push global equities lower with Treasury yields last week. Oil fell. A broad risk aversion spurred by the concerns over a second wave is also eroding gains in the New Zealand dollar, pushing it down to a key support level seen at the start of the month. New evidence supports Carlos Ghosn's claim that he was set up. According to people familiar with what happened and previously unreported internal correspondence, a campaign by top Nissan executives to dethrone one of the most celebrated leaders in the automotive industry started almost a year before Ghosn's arrest in late 2018 for alleged financial misconduct. The effort was motivated in part by opposition to the former chairman's push for greater integration between the Japanese carmaker and long-time alliance partner Renault, the new information reveals. A chain of email correspondence dating back to February 2018, corroborated by people who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive information, paints a picture of a methodical campaign to remove a powerful executive. Ghosn, 66, fled to Lebanon in a daring escape last year. Singapore pledged its commitment to globalization despite the coronavirus pandemic inspiring a rise in protectionist trade policies worldwide. "For many countries, Covid-19 has accelerated the retreat from globalization, and the erection of more protectionist barriers." Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday. "We must resist these pressures." Chan warned a less connected world means a poorer world and a less connected Singapore means fewer and poorer quality jobs. Singapore's economy relies heavily on trade and Chan echoed efforts across the government to promote global cooperation, especially during the crisis. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will on Monday announce A$1.5 billion ($1 billion) in new infrastructure funding as his government seeks to kickstart an economy emerging from the coronavirus lockdown. The funding will be used "to immediately start work on small priority projects identified by the states and territories," Morrison will say in a speech to a conference hosted by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. About A$1 billion will be allocated to "shovel-ready" projects, with the balance to target works to improve road safety. Morrison is seeking to reopen most parts of the economy by the end of next month, helped by success in containing the spread of the coronavirus and keeping the rate of new daily infections to below 0.2%. What We've Been Reading This is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours: And finally, here's what Tracy's interested in this morning Some 58 years ago, the U.S. stock market was facing its worst sell-off in decades in an event that would come to be known as the Kennedy Slide of 1962. Adding to the uncertainty at the time was the presence of a new entity in financial markets: open-ended mutual funds that allowed big and small investors to pool their money into larger portfolios offering daily liquidity. Such funds had raised billions of dollars in assets, but no one knew how they might react in a major market crash. Having never been tested before, the worry was that the new fund structure would allow retail investors to pull money out of the market at the first sign of trouble, thereby exacerbating the sell-off. But that doomsday scenario never materialized, and investors in open-ended mutual funds wound up purchasing shares. In other words, instead of contributing to instability in markets, the new financial structure unexpectedly helped to stabilize them.  It's an interesting piece of financial-market history and one worth pondering as we consider what's happening in the U.S. stock market today. The proliferation of commission-free online trading accounts at places like Robinhood and TD Ameritrade has been blamed for fueling speculation in low-quality — and even bankrupt — companies. We know that investors have been piling into the shares of businesses such as Chesapeake Energy and Hertz, forcing stock prices up even in the face of a liquidation processes that would likely render such equity worthless. In a weird turn of events, by the end of the week Hertz had announced it planned to take advantage of the rally in its stock by selling new shares worth about $1 billion. So: making it easier for people to place what have arguably been pretty silly bets on the market may have unexpectedly acted as a source of stability. There's now a Japanese edition of Five Things. 世界のビジネスニュースを毎朝メールでお届けします。ニュースレターへの登録はこちら。 | 
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