Trump threatens more tariffs — this time on U.S. companies. Asia's entrepreneurs seek out direct loans. And speculation brews about China's food security. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today. U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to impose tariffs on American companies that refuse to move jobs back to the country from overseas, if he's re-elected. "We will give tax credits to companies to bring jobs back to America, and if they don't do it, we will put tariffs on those companies, and they will have to pay us a lot of money," Trump said during a campaign event. He offered no explanation about how such a system of tax credits and tariffs would work, and it isn't clear if the White House is developing such a policy. Meanwhile, China confirmed plans for talks with the U.S. on their preliminary trade deal, even as relations between the two countries deteriorate. Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng didn't announce an exact date but said the two nations will be in touch in the near term. U.S. oil exports to China are set to reach a record next month in a sign that Beijing is stepping up purchases to meet its commitments under a landmark trade deal reached earlier this year. Roughly 37 million barrels of oil will be sent to China in September, according to provisional tanker fixtures, surpassing the 35.2 million barrel record set in May. Asian stocks looked set for gains Friday after a rise in U.S. technology shares drove the Nasdaq 100 to a record, tempering concern over a bumpy economic recovery. Treasuries climbed. Futures pointed higher in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. The S&P 500 saw modest gains as a rally in technology heavyweights offset a slide for energy producers and banks amid light trading volume. The benchmark shrugged off earlier weakness from disappointing jobs data. Money managers are bracing for upheaval, with stocks at an all-time high. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 0.65% and the dollar weakened. Crude oil retreated, while gold rose. KKR, Asia's largest private equity investor, says the region's entrepreneurs are seeking more direct loans as the coronavirus pandemic dries up other avenues of funding. More lending opportunities are emerging particularly in Southeast Asia, where some governments have fallen short in supporting companies, according to Brian Dillard, who oversees credit for Asia Pacific. Under Dillard, KKR has lent north of $1 billion over the past year. The firm is now preparing to raise its first dedicated credit fund for the region, people familiar with the matter said. Private credit is still nascent in Asia, even as it's ballooned globally into an $850 billion asset class dominated by U.S. deals. Alibaba's revenue growth returned to levels not seen since the pandemic, fueling hopes of a Chinese economic recovery despite worsening U.S. relations. China's most valuable corporation reported better-than-expected 34% sales growth in the June quarter, a shade off the 38% it managed in the December quarter before Covid-19. The e-commerce giant is riding a pick-up in consumer spending in China — one of the first places to start to recover. But Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang said it will keep a close eye on "very fluid" U.S. policies toward China, and offered reassurances that its presence in the U.S. is benign, as lawmakers brandish regulations that may force Chinese corporations like Alibaba off U.S. bourses. Its shares slid about 2% in New York. A new national campaign against food waste in China has sparked a rare bout of speculation — and anxiety — over the government's ability to safely feed its 1.4 billion citizens when faced with floods, epidemics, locusts and rising tensions with some of its biggest trading partners. The sudden and massive push to curb the problem of discarded leftovers is known as the "Clean Plates Campaign". Government officials have stressed that the country's food reserves are ample, but some observers have nevertheless questioned the timing of a campaign aimed at reducing consumption when China's economy is still recovering from the effects of the coronavirus epidemic. "Fears of supply disruptions due to Covid-19 have caused China's leaders to re-emphasize food security and self-sufficiency," said Darin Friedrichs, a senior analyst at StoneX Group Inc. in Shanghai. What We've Been ReadingThis is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours: And finally, here's what Tracy's interested in this morningThere's a tendency for investors to think of inequality as tangential to the economy, rather than an actual foundation of it. Growing inequality is a trend that might feed into the economy through political unrest, upheaval or populist political change, but most finance professionals rarely think about it as anything other than "something that happens alongside more important things." I think that's misguided. Joe Weisenthal and I just recorded an episode of Odd Lots with Paul McCulley, the former Pimco chief economist now turned adjunct professor at Georgetown. He argues that the dominance of capital over labor for the past 40 years means that inequality has been at the root of decades of disinflation rather than merely growing up alongside it. In other words, the disinflationary environment that's propped up risk assets over the past four decades is founded in inequality (and, of course, that almighty run-up in risk assets has also exacerbated inequality over time). "We've been in a 40-year disinflationary environment that boosted assets because capital dominated," he says.  The implications of that are worth considering. If the coronavirus crisis and the fiscal response to it really do start tipping the scale in favor of labor, then inflation (and a big change for markets) might be the natural result. It makes you ask whether measures of labor's respective bargaining power — e.g. wage growth — might end up being the most important indicators for markets going forward. It also makes you think about whether wage growth might be a more natural thing for the Federal Reserve to target rather than inflation itself. In any case, the podcast episode with McCulley will be coming out soon. He has a great way of drawing together lots of disparate threads to create one giant narrative of the political economy and markets so make sure to subscribe so you don't miss it. You can follow Tracy Alloway on Twitter at @tracyalloway. | 
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