| Good morning. China seeks calm, Fed stays patient, Robinhood debut. Here's what's moving markets. China's stocks gained, leading Asia markets higher, as the nation's central bank injected cash and regulators convened a virtual meeting with executives of major investment banks, attempting to ease market fears about Beijing's crackdown on the private education industry. Some bankers left with the message that the policies were targeted and not intended to hurt firms in other industries, people familiar with the matter said. The July meeting of the Communist Party's top leadership now has added importance. Tech giant Tencent is now one of the year's worst-performing stocks. U.S. and European futures were lower. U.S. central bank officials are moving closer to when they can start reducing massive support for the U.S. economy, though Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said there was still some way to go. "We're not there. And we see ourselves as having some ground to cover to get there," he told a press conference after the Federal Open Market Committee held interest rates in a range near zero and maintained asset purchases at $120 billion a month. Ten-year Treasury yields initially advanced as investors digested the somewhat hawkish tone of the statement, but declined as he spoke. Robinhood Markets priced its initial public offering at the low end of a marketed range to raise $2.1 billion in a lacklustre showing for one of the year's most highly anticipated listings. The price indicates investors weren't clamoring to buy Robinhood's stock the way they had with some of the year's hottest offerings. Robinhood took off during the coronavirus pandemic as homebound young people turned to online trading to pass the time and make money. The stock begins trading later today. AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine doesn't raise the risk of a rare blood clotting disorder after a second dose, according to a study, suggesting people shouldn't hesitate to get another one if they didn't have trouble after the first. The estimated rate of the disorder was about 2 per million in people, according to data published in the medical journal The Lancet. That's comparable to what's found in an unvaccinated population. Elsewhere in virus world, the rise of the highly-contagious delta variant continues to challenge even the most aggressive Covid-19 containment regimes. It's a monster earnings day with drugmaker AstraZeneca, lender Credit Suisse and beer firm AB Inbev just some of the names reporting. French grocers' earnings are in the spotlight after Carrefour's sales showed progress in its home market. And watch Facebook in the U.S. after a cautious tone sent shares lower after hours. Elsewhere, investors will parse the U.S. GDP figures for their first look at the pace of economic growth in the second quarter. This is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours. China's sweeping crackdown of its technology and education sectors has helped push emerging-market shares to a 17-year relative low against their developed-market peers. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index -- with more than a third of its weight in Chinese names -- has fallen into negative territory for the year, while the MSCI World Index of developed-market stocks is up about 14%. The spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus has also weighed, as vaccination rates in developing nations have lagged those in the likes of the U.S. and Europe. That is helping to create a multi-tier global recovery with most developed countries to the fore and emerging ones dropping further behind. The fact that China was out in front with its economic recovery was an important bulwark for emerging-market equity investing until the regulatory crackdown turned the country into somewhat of a liability. That leaves the rest of EM dependent on the rollout of vaccines and control of the virus spread to jumpstart growth and reignite investor interest in the asset class. That time will come but it may be too soon now for the emerging-market underperformance to reverse.  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. | 
Post a Comment