| Xi Jinping congratulates Joe Biden. China's fintech giants run up against regulatory crackdowns. The U.S. issues more Iran-related sanctions. China's President Xi Jinping broke his silence on Joe Biden's election victory, sending the U.S. president-elect a message that he hopes to "manage differences" and focus on cooperation between the world's two largest economies. The congratulatory note said China wants to advance a "healthy and stable" relationship and uphold the principles of "no conflict" and "no confrontation." China's Communist Party leaders had held off on offering extended comments as President Donald Trump — who also just pardoned his ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn — pursued unfounded claims of fraud in an effort to overturn the election result. Meanwhile, Joe Biden's first three weeks in the stock market have been just as good as any in history. Asian stocks looked poised for a cautious start Thursday after U.S. shares slipped on disappointing economic data. The dollar retreated. Futures pointed lower in Japan and slightly higher in Hong Kong. The S&P 500 Index pulled back from an all-time high, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 30,000. Volume dwindled at the end of the U.S. session as traders headed out for the Thanksgiving holiday that will keep markets closed. Treasuries were little changed, erasing earlier gains. Oil rose. Ant Group is in talks with regulators about injecting capital into its micro-lending units just weeks after its $35 billion initial public offering was halted in a sector-wide crackdown. The listing plans of e-commerce billionaire Richard Liu's JD Digits Technology have also been thrown into limbo, and Lufax had to renegotiate terms with some shareholders after its recent IPO valued China's largest listed online lender at less than a previous funding round. It's all part of the rapidly shifting landscape for China's fintech leaders as they rush to shore up capital, mulling business overhauls and bracing for more turbulence as industry watchdogs set their sights on areas spanning lending, banking partnerships and data privacy. The U.S. sanctioned five firms in China and Russia over claims they are promoting Iran's missile program, and a Trump administration official said more penalties are to come. The Treasury Department plans to announce additional sanctions on Iran in coming weeks related to arms, weapons of mass destruction and human rights violations. The U.S. has ratcheted up its pressure on Iran since Trump quit the 2015 multinational deal that offered sanctions relief in return for caps on the Iranian nuclear program. After years of pushing austerity policies in Asia, the IMF's October acknowledgment of the case for temporary debt monetization in the region marks yet another example of how the pandemic has upended economic orthodoxy. The group's former harsher stance is sometimes blamed for worsening the economic hardship caused by the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s. But it's a different story now: The IMF now acknowledges that countries with limited room to borrow, or who are vulnerable to swings in bond market sentiment as deficits soar, can lean more on their central banks. Meanwhile China's economic recovery stabilized in November, underpinned by solid global demand for exports ahead of the Christmas period. 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 todayWhen it comes to U.S. Treasuries, this year might actually end up being a game of two halves. The first six months were marked by intense volatility as the coronavirus sparked a huge market sell-off, with moves that "aren't supposed to happen" occurring quite regularly in U.S. government debt. JPMorgan points out that the percentage of days with sharp moves in U.S. Treasuries was significantly above what might normally be expected. Meanwhile, the second six months of the year are showing the polar opposite with volatility in the U.S. Treasury market absolutely crushed and now abnormal in the other direction. Thanks to the Federal Reserve's forward guidance, we've gone from kurtosis to kurtosisn't.  Bloomberg Bloomberg You can follow Tracy Alloway on Twitter at @tracyalloway. | 
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