Renault’s board on Friday fired its chief executive, Thierry Bolloré, just days after Nissan shook up its leadership, as the two automakers in a much-vaunted alliance struggled to regain their footing nearly a year after the ouster of their former chairman, Carlos Ghosn.
The French automaker named its chief financial officer, Clotilde Delbos, as the interim chief executive. Mr. Bolloré, a former executive who served under Mr. Ghosn, became chief executive after Mr. Ghosn’s arrest on charges of financial wrongdoing last year.
Renault and Nissan are attempting to turn a page on the Ghosn era by shedding executives who have complicated efforts to reboot the world’s largest auto alliance since his arrest.
On Tuesday, Nissan appointed a new leader following the ouster of longtime chief executive Hiroto Saikawa, a protégé of Mr. Ghosn’s.
Friday’s surprise maneuver paves the way for Renault to look for a new chief to work closely with Nissan and Renault’s chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard, who took the helm of the French automaker in January.
In a Thursday interview with a French financial newspaper, Les Échos, Mr. Bolloré said he was the target of a “very disturbing coup” and that the only thing he had done wrong was to be promoted by Mr. Ghosn, who resigned under pressure from Renault. The French carmaker has also alerted prosecutors in France to investigate possible irregularities with the funding of Mr. Ghosn’s wedding at Versailles in 2016.
New leadership at the head of both auto giants could open a new chapter in the partnership, which has been plagued by festering relations, governance problems, corporate intrigue and an increasingly flagging financial performance since Mr. Ghosn was toppled last November as head of the alliance, which also includes Mitsubishi Motors of Japan.
Nissan declined to comment on the changes at Renault.
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese state newspaper said on Friday that a “partial” trade deal would benefit China and the United States, and Washington should take the offer on the table, reflecting Beijing’s aim of cooling the row before more U.S. tariffs kick in.
Both sides have slapped duties on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods during the 15-month trade dispute, which has shaken financial markets and uprooted global supply chains as companies move production elsewhere.
As top U.S. and Chinese negotiators wrapped up a first day of trade talks in more than two months on Thursday, business groups expressed optimism the two sides might be able to ease the conflict and delay a U.S. tariff hike scheduled for next week.
China’s top trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, said on Thursday that China is willing to reach agreement with the United States on matters that both sides care about so as to prevent friction from leading to any further escalation.
He stressed that “the Chinese side came with great sincerity”.
Adding to that, the official China Daily newspaper said in an editorial in English: “A partial deal is a more feasible objective”.
“Not only would it be of tangible benefit by breaking the impasse, but it would also create badly needed breathing space for both sides to reflect on the bigger picture,” the paper said.
Hours ahead of an expected meeting between China’s Liu and U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, China’s securities regulator unveiled a firm timetable for scrapping foreign ownership limits in futures, securities and mutual fund companies for the first time.
China previously said it would further open up its financial sector on its own terms and at its own pace, but the timing of Friday’s announcement suggests Beijing is keen to show progress in its plan to increase foreigners’ access to the sector, which is among a host of demands from Washington in the trade talks.
Chinese officials are offering to increase annual purchases of U.S. agricultural products as the two countries seek to resolve their trade dispute, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified sources.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Thursday confirmed net sales of 142,172 tonnes of U.S. pork to China in the week ended Oct. 3, the largest weekly sale to the world’s top pork market on record.
A U.S.-China currency agreement is also being floated as a symbol of progress in talks between the world’s two largest economies, although that would largely repeat past pledges by China, currency experts say, and will not change the dollar-yuan relationship that has been a thorn in the side of Trump.
PESSIMISM ‘STILL JUSTIFIED’
Analysts have noted China sent a larger-than-normal delegation of senior Chinese officials to Washington, with commerce minister Zhong Shan and deputy ministers on agriculture and technology also present.
The sudden optimism about a potential de-escalation is in stark contrast to much more gloomy predictions in business circles just days ago on the heels of a series of threatened crackdowns on China by the Trump administration.
On Tuesday, the U.S. government widened its trade blacklist to include Chinese public security bureaus and some of China’s top artificial intelligence startups, punishing Beijing for its treatment of Muslim minorities.
Surprised by the move, Chinese government officials told Reuters on the eve of talks that they had lowered expectations for significant progress.
Friday’s China Daily editorial also warned that “pessimism is still justified”, noting that the talks would finish just three days before Washington is due to raise tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports.
The negotiations were the “only window” to end deteriorating relations, it added.
Trump, said on Thursday that the talks had so far gone very well. But he has previously insisted he would not be satisfied with a partial deal to resolve his two-year effort to change China’s trade, intellectual property and industrial policy practices, which he argues cost millions of U.S. jobs.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (R) and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer welcome China's Vice Premier Liu He before the two countries' trade negotiations in Washington, U.S., October 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo
There have also been reports that the Trump administration is readying additional measures aimed at China, with unknown consequences for trade negotiations.
Such wildly shifting expectations have been a persistent feature of the trade war, and observers remained cautious over what might emerge from this week’s talks.
“China wants peace, but I don’t think China will give more,” one Chinese trade expert said on condition of anonymity.
Reporting by Yawen Chen and Michael Martina; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore & Kim Coghill
ICON Advisers founder and president Craig Callahan discusses why the market is priced at about 20 percent below his estimate of fair value.
The latest round of trade talks between the U.S. and China will conclude with President Trump meeting at the White House on Friday with the leader of the Chinese negotiating team.
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Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is leading the delegation in the 13th round of negotiations with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Trump offered an upbeat assessment of the latest round of talks.
Expectations were low that the negotiations would do much to resolve a 15-month trade battle that is weighing on the global economy.
But as the first of an expected two days of talks wrapped up Thursday, Trump told reporters at the White House, "We're doing very well ... We're going to see them tomorrow, right here, and it's going very well."
The world's two biggest economies are deadlocked over U.S. allegations that China steals technology and pressures foreign companies to hand over trade secrets as part of a sharp-elbowed drive to become a world leader in advanced industries such as robotics and self-driving cars.
Under Trump, the United States has slapped tariffs on more than $360 billion worth of Chinese imports and is planning to hit another $160 billion Dec. 15. That would extend import taxes to virtually everything China ships to the United States. China has hit back by targeting about $120 billion in U.S. goods, focusing on farm products.
The high cost of the tariffs and uncertainty over when and how the trade war will end have taken an economic toll, especially on manufacturing companies. A private survey last week found that U.S. factory output had dropped to its lowest level since 2009, when the economy was in the grips of a deep recession.
Liu met Thursday with leaders of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S.-China Business Council. Liu told them the Chinese negotiators "come with great sincerity" and were ready to discuss the trade balance, market access and investor protection, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The report made no mention of willingness to discuss Chinese industrial and technology policy, a major irritant that sparked the tariff war.
There are hopes a productive meeting would persuade the Trump administration to call off or postpone plans next Tuesday to raise tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports from 25 percent to 30 percent.
Still, Beijing has been reluctant to make the kind of substantive policy reforms that would satisfy Washington. Doing so likely would require scaling back the Chinese leaders' aspirations to technological competitiveness they see as crucial to their country's future prosperity.
Edge of your seat or under your seat may both be good spots to watch the U.S.-China trade talk-show getting under way Thursday.
That’s judging by the stream of conflicting news reports that have been whipping markets around, such as one report saying the Chinese would bail early, briefly wiping 300 points off Dow futures late Wednesday. Wall Street shares are up in early trade on some promising trade headlines, but it’s early still.
And then earnings season kicks off next week with some big banks. Before you know it, we’re hitting the holidays and maybe some uneasy flashbacks to last year’s December stock meltdown.
A repeat of that rout may be unavoidable, warns our call of the day from former Goldman Sachs alumnus Raoul Pal. “We’re coming into a period of illiquidity for equities,” the author of the Global Macro Investor newsletter, followed by the world’s biggest hedge funds, told MarketWatch in a recent interview.
He cites three reasons why a repeat of that stock selloff may be inevitable. The first is the blackout period for companies, which hits around earnings time when their share buy backs start to slow. Secondly, he notes that this year has also seen problems with the short-term borrowing market, or repo market, that the Federal Reserve has been trying to tackle. It could mean less buying from market makers — who help create liquidity for markets by bringing buyers and sellers together.
Pal says the third biggest issue facing stocks involves the baby boomers, Americans born between the mid 1940s and mid 1960s. They face an annual requirement to sell about 5% of their individual retirement accounts, loaded with stocks in some cases, as they reach 70.5 years old.
“The problem is the gap between this year and last year is huge. It’s like 50% increase in the amount of selling that has to be done,” said Pal, who was among the few investors who predicted and profited amid the 2008-09 mortgage meltdown. “They have to start selling by year-end. If you take out the Christmas week and you’re a financial adviser, and you want to get this done early, you will start in October.”
He blames boomer selling for part of the meltdown for stocks late last year. “The marginal change of an American baby boomer thinking ‘I’ve got too much equities,’ which they do have — that is catastrophic for the system, because they have way, way too much risk,” says Pal, co-founder of Real Vision financial television.
Our chart of the day shows investors headed for the sidelines in a big way ahead of U.S.-China trade talks. Vanguard’s S&P 500 exchange-traded fund
VOO, +0.97%
shows an outflow of $2.9 billion at the start of this week, marking the biggest withdrawal in the past 10 months, notes Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at ThinkMarkets:
He adds that that’s the second-biggest withdrawal on record since the fund’s inception in September 2010:
The Vanguard fund is the third most popular such fund behind the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
SPY, +0.97%
and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF
IVV, +0.96%.
Oxfam report finds workers overworked and poorly treated at a sweet potato farm that supplies Amazon’s
AMZN, +0.87%
Whole Foods, which says that’s not an accurate reflection.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a longtime opponent of reforming marijuana laws, expected to spend two days meeting with industry executives, sources tell MarketWatch.
And stay married, live longer, at least in the U.S., says survey
$300 haircut for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raises eyebrows
London airport braces for chaos from climate activists Extinction Rebellion
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1. Futures go on a wild ride on mixed messages ahead of US-China trade talks
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on August 23, 2019 in New York City.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez | Getty Images
U.S. stock futures were lower Thursday morning ahead of the resumption of high-level U.S.-China trade talks. Mixed messages about the progress being made sent Dow futures on a wild ride overnight — from down 300 points at one stage to small gains to losses again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke a two-session losing streak on Wednesday, rising more than 180 points. However, the Dow was still on track for a fourth straight losing week with two trading days to go.
2. Expectations for a trade deal are low after this week's deputy-level groundwork
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (R) with United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer (2nd L) and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (L) before the start of talks at the Xijiao Conference Center in Shanghai on July 31, 2019.
Ng Han Guan | AFP | Getty Images
U.S. and Chinese negotiators are scheduled to begin a 13th round of talks Thursday aimed at ending a 15-month trade war that's worrying global investors and weighing on the world economy. However, expectations for a deal were low after the South China Morning Post said that no progress was made in deputy-level trade talks this week. The SCMP also reported that the Chinese delegation may cut its two-day U.S. visit short. That was knocked down by the White House, which later said the situation was fluid. Here's a timeline of the developments.
3. Hong Kong protests continue and so does the NBA's related fallout in China
NBA Commissioer Adam Silver speaks during a press conference prior to the NBA Japan Games 2019 between the Toronto Raptors and Houston Rockets in Saitama on October 8, 2019.
Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images
4. Trump to hold a campaign rally as Biden calls for impeachment for the first time
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he departs the White House in Washington, DC, for his annual visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, on October 4, 2019.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
5. Turkey seizes targets in Syria as Trump defends decision that led to the offensive
Turkish Army's fighter jet takes off from 8th Main Jet Base in Diyarbakir, Turkey on October 09, 2019 as Turkish troops along with the Syrian National Army begin Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria against PKK/YPG, Daesh terrorists.
Hasan Namli | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Turkey said its forces seized designated targets on the second day of an offensive against a Kurdish militia in Syria after a withdrawal by U.S. forces opened up a new phase in the region's 8-year-old conflict. Senior Republicans condemned Trump, accusing him of making way for the incursion and abandoning Syrian Kurds, who led the ground campaign against ISIS. The president defended his decision to allow the Turkish offensive, saying the Kurds did not help America during World War II. "Now the Kurds are fighting for their land," Trump told reporters.
CNBC's before the bell news roundup
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— The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
A protester in Hong Kong checks his phone for police activity during a protest against the government in Hong Kong's New Territories, in August.
Aidan Marzo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
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Aidan Marzo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Apple has removed from its App Store a smartphone app used by Hong Kong pro-democracy activists to crowdsource the location of protesters and police, after Chinese state media suggested the tech giant was aiding "rioters."
Apple initially rejected the app last week, saying that it "encourages an activity that is not legal," and allows users to "evade law enforcement," according to its developers.
"Your app contains content - or facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity - that is not legal ... Specifically, the app allowed users to evade law enforcement."@Apple assume our user are lawbreakers and therefore evading law enforcement, which is clearly not the case.
Nonetheless, HKmap.live did briefly become available in the App Store before Apple announced Wednesday that it was being removed.
"We have learned that an app, HKmap.live, has been used in ways that endanger law enforcement and residents in Hong Kong," Apple said in a statement. "Many concerned customers in Hong Kong have contacted us about this app and we immediately began investigating it."
The app, it said, "has been used to target and ambush police, threaten public safety, and criminals have used it to victimize residents in areas where they know there is no law enforcement."
HKmap.live reportedly consolidates reports from social media and then uses the information to plot the locations of protests and such information as where police are using tear gas.
The protesters have staged months of protests in the former British colony, demanding universal suffrage and the right to choose Hong Kong's leadership. The level of violence has grown in recent weeks, with protesters wrecking store fronts and hurling gasoline bombs. Police have responded with tear gas, batons and, in some cases, live ammunition.
On Wednesday, an editorial that appeared in China's official People's Daily called out developers of HKmap.live for providing a "'navigation service' for the rioters."
"Apple chose to approve the app in the App Store in Hong Kong at this point," the editorial said. "Does this mean Apple intended to be an accomplice to the rioters?"
"[P]eople have reason to assume that Apple is mixing business with politics, and even illegal acts," it said. "Apple has to think about the consequences of its unwise and reckless decision."
Responding to Apple's decision to withdraw the app, its developers, who have not identified themselves because of security concerns, responded in a series of tweets on Thursday, reports The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based English-language daily.
"We once believed the App rejection [was] simply a bureaucratic f up but now it is clearly a political decision to suppress freedom and human rights in Hong Kong," the developers said, according to the Post.
Although HKmap.live has been removed from Apple's App Store, it remains available on an independent website.
The Hong Kong unrest is a sensitive issue in Beijing and anyone seen as showing sympathy or support for the protesters has come in for sharp criticism.
Earlier this week, Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey touched off a heated controversy by tweeting support for the Hong Kong protesters.
Although he quickly deleted the tweet and expressed contrition, that didn't stop the Chinese Basketball Association from suspending its business dealings with the Rockets. Tencent, a Chinese media partner with the NBA in China, also ended a streaming deal worth $1.5 billion and China's state television said it would stop airing Rockets games.
