| Trump tells TikTok to leave the U.S. by September 15. A Singaporean hedge fund prepares for a U.S.-China armed clash. And in India, Modi's no. 2 is hospitalized with coronavirus. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today. TikTok will have to close in the U.S. by Sept. 15 — that is, unless parent company ByteDance sells the social network's domestic operations to Microsoft or another American company. So said U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, before adding that the federal government would also have to be paid a "substantial amount of money" as part of the deal. Amid a furious scramble over the fate of the Chinese-owned app, Microsoft is now saying that it's aiming to complete a deal for TikTok's operations in the U.S., as well as in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, no later than Sept. 15. Key details for the deal — including price — are yet to be worked out. Microsoft pledged to add more security, privacy and digital safety protections to the TikTok app and ensure that all private data of Americans be transferred back to the U.S. and deleted from servers outside the country. But Microsoft's history in China complicates a possible deal. Asian stocks looked poised for gains Tuesday after a technology-fueled rally in the U.S. amid positive economic data and the potential for further stimulus. The dollar climbed, and futures pointed higher in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong. The Nasdaq 100 reached a record as traders sought out companies poised to do best in a stay-at-home economy. Apple set an all-time high and Microsoft gained. The dollar rebounded following its worst July in a decade and Treasuries fell across the curve as data showed U.S. manufacturing expanded in July at the fastest pace since March 2019. Elsewhere, oil rose the most in nearly two weeks. Gold was little changed. As investors grapple with rising global coronavirus cases, one Singaporean hedge fund is preparing for another dire event: the possibility of an armed clash between the U.S. and China. In the lead-up to November's U.S. presidential election, APS Asset Management is increasing allocations to the relative safety of cash, along with stocks that would weather an outbreak of hostilities, said founder and Chief Investment Officer Kok Hoi Wong. Recent tit-for-tat consulate closures were merely the opening salvo and there's a chance that political posturing during the election campaign could peak with American forces triggering an altercation in the South China Sea, Wong said. Investors have underestimated tensions between the two superpowers, he said. Stephen Diggle's conviction in unpopular volatility trades helped him mint money during the 2008 financial crisis. Now, the former hedge fund manager's patience is paying off again with a biotechnology firm. Diggle's family office, Vulpes Investment, is the largest shareholder in Oxford Biomedica. While few had heard of the gene and cell therapy company before 2020, its stock has been given an extra boost since joining a consortium to produce the University of Oxford's experimental coronavirus vaccine. Vulpes Investment's 14% interest in London-listed Oxford Biomedica is now worth 94 million pounds ($123 million). That's small change compared to the $2.5 billion Diggle made in the 2008 crash, but not a bad return on an investment of around 22 million pounds made over a seven-year period. India has the world's fastest growing coronavirus epidemic and the third highest number of total cases. That figure now includes now includes Amit Shah, the man leading India's fight against Covid-19 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's top lieutenant, who confirmed on Sunday that he was hospitalized with the virus. Officially India's death rate is nearly 20 times lower than the U.S., but independent experts are warning India has failed to properly record fatalities. Meanwhile, American cases increased 0.9% Monday, lower than the average 1.4% daily gain over the past week, and Hong Kong said it had the fewest number of new cases since July 22. Here's how Bloomberg is tracking the virus. 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 One way to view the plethora of exchange-traded funds tied to increasingly esoteric financial instruments is to see them as the democratization of finance. Through the medium of an ETF wrapper, bundles of leveraged loans and Special Purpose Acquisition Companies that once were the purview of professional investors are suddenly available to anyone with access to your average online brokerage platform. Bloomberg reports that Janus Henderson is planning an ETF that will replicate exposure to AAA-rated tranches of collateralized loan obligations, or CLOs (ticker: JAAA). Meanwhile, an SEC filing details plans for an ETF to track exposure to controversial financing vehicles known as SPACs (ticker: SPAK).  But who are the retail investors clamoring for exposure to CLOs and SPACs? Are they writing in to fund managers to request that these ETFs get made? Do mom and pop wake up one day and think to themselves "BKLN just isn't providing enough exposure to floating-rate loans anymore — I want an alternative vehicle"? Plenty of professional investors use index funds in their portfolios now, it's true. So perhaps they are the ones asking for a simple trading solution to make their professional lives easier. But when I see these kinds of headlines and press releases, I can't help but think of a different type of "reverse inquiry." Ultimately, these kinds of structures may be most useful to those looking for an easy way to short the product, rather than to invest. You can follow Tracy Alloway on Twitter at @tracyalloway. | 
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