| Want the lowdown on what's moving European markets in your inbox every morning? Sign up here. Good morning. Coronavirus cases are spiking in Europe, big storms are brewing in an oil-producing region and stocks are gaining. Here's what's moving markets. Alarm Bells France reported 4,897 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, the largest one-day jump since the previous peak in mid-April. France and its neighbors are grappling with a pickup in infections as people travel for vacations and attend summer gatherings. Officials are tightening measures to curb the spread but are reluctant to resort to the sweeping closures imposed during the initial peak of the pandemic in March and April. Meanwhile, new cases reported in the U.K. stayed above 1,000 for a fourth day, and Italy reported 1,210 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, an increase threatening its hard-won control of continental Europe's deadliest outbreak. Fast Track President Donald Trump said a coronavirus treatment that involves blood plasma donated by people who've recovered from the disease will be expanded to many more sick Americans after the FDA approved use of the therapy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirmed Sunday, just ahead of Trump's news conference, that it had cleared what's known as convalescent plasma for use with certain patients. Separately, the Financial Times reported that Trump may seek another FDA emergency-use authorization for the Covid-19 vaccine under development by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford. Engulfed Back-to-back storms will deliver a double hammer blow to the U.S. Gulf Coast this week, where more than half of offshore oil production is already shut and residents from Texas to Florida are warily watching the skies. From the south, Hurricane Marco is rushing toward a Monday landfall in Louisiana, and while it will be damaging, larger and deadlier Tropical Storm Laura is stoking concern among meteorologists because of its potential to strengthen as it traverses warm Gulf waters. The double threat has already prompted evacuations of offshore energy platforms, and nearly 58% of oil output and 45% of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut. App Wars Microsoft Corp. is backing Epic Games Inc. in its fight with Apple Inc.
Epic, a game developer, is set to ask a federal court on Monday to force Apple to restore the Fortnite app to the App Store, and block the iPhone maker from cutting off Epic's developer tools and limiting its ability to provide key graphics technology to other apps. Cutting off Epic from Apple's iOS and Mac developer tools would mean the gaming company can no longer distribute the graphics technology, known as Unreal Engine, to other developers, Epic said in its legal filing. Microsoft, which makes the Xbox, uses the technology for games developed for consoles, PCs and mobile devices. In a court declaration, it said Apple's move will place Unreal Engine at a substantial disadvantage. Coming Up… European stock futures are pointing to a positive market open, tracking gains in Asia overnight. A Dutch court is due to rule on Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica SA's lawsuit demanding insight into its takeover target GrandVision NV's business performance during the coronavirus crisis. In the evening, Spain's latest Covid-19 case count, the first since Friday, will show whether last week's alarming spike in new cases has continued. 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 A more focused, multilateral trade policy under President Joe Biden would likely mark the end of the current spate of outperformance of China's new-economy stocks. Despite the recent increase in trade tensions, the concisely-named Nasdaq Overseas China New Economy Companies Top 50 Index has climbed almost 40% this year, smashing the mere 1% rise in the MSCI AC World Index. But that jars with the growing possibility that Biden is on track to win November's U.S. presidential election. Though the removal of China hardliners like Pompeo and Navarro would slash the potential for tariff wars, a Pandora's box has already been opened on national security, human rights and privacy issues. Biden promises to "unite the economic might of democracies around the world" in order "to win the competition for the future" against China. That would shift the narrative from U.S.-China tensions to China-versus-the-West ones. Biden's manifesto specifically mentions technology companies and the importance of them not empowering the surveillance state, nor facilitating repression but protecting free speech -- a big red flag for China's internet giants looking to expand abroad. On artificial intelligence -- a key technological battlefield for China -- Biden talks about ensuring it is bound by laws and ethics, and proposes joining with allies to develop secure 5G networks, suggesting no respite for Huawei and its peers. Meanwhile, the growing power of the youthful, progressive and social-media savvy wing of the Democratic Party could quickly increase pressure to respond more forcefully to China's human rights issues, especially if they turn out in heavy numbers in November's election. All this suggests increased pressure on China's new-economy firms and a return of the marked underperformance they experienced during periods of heightened trade tensions in 2018 and 2019.  Cormac Mullen is a cross-asset reporter and editor for Bloomberg News in Tokyo. Like Bloomberg's Five Things? Subscribe for unlimited access to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. | 
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