Markets: Equity markets are weaker across the Asia-Pacific region. Investors are cautious ahead of interest rate decisions in the eurozone and the UK on Thursday plus a highly-anticipated monthly US jobs report on Friday. The broad losses follow a 0.1 per cent pullback in the S&P 500, after a strong private payrolls survey increased speculation that the Federal Reserve could soon trim back, or "taper", its stimulus measures known as quantitative easing. (Financial Times)
Biden tells Xi that US is unhappy with new air defence zone: On day one of a two day trip, US vice-president Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping that Washington does not recognise China's new air defence zone and wants Beijing to take steps to "lower tensions" in the Asia-Pacific region. (Financial Times)
Ukraine's deputy prime minister late on Wednesday said his government was prepared to discuss snap elections, in the first sign of potential compromise in the country's worst political crisis in nearly a decade.(Financial Times) While "China's Foreign Ministry made a noncommittal response on Wednesday to a query whether Beijing would provide any more aid to Ukraine, as President Viktor Yanukovich arrived in the country." (Reuters)
India's main opp party, the BJP, "is set to win four of five state elections held over the past month, wresting power from the ruling Congress party in one area and giving it momentum ahead of national voting next year." (Bloomberg)
The UK's Osborne will proclaim on Thursday that a budget surplus is in sight for the first time since the millennium, raising Tory hopes of significant tax cuts in the next parliament after nearly a decade of austerity. The chancellor will deliver his Autumn Statement against a backdrop of sharply rising growth forecasts, which could pave the way for Britain to be back in the black by 2018-19 – almost two years earlier than seemed likely in March. (Financial Times)
Young people entering the work force in the UK today may not be able to retire until 70, it will emerge as the British government accelerates plans to raise the state pension age to reflect life expectancy. (Financial Times)
President Barack Obama called increasing inequality the "defining issue of our time" and said the decades-long trend was undermining economic growth and social and political cohesion in the US. In a speech hosted by a prominent liberal think-tank in one of Washington's poorer districts, Mr Obama chronicled the impact of the decline in relative incomes since the 1970s and defended a role for government in alleviating its fallout. (Financial Times)
US company chiefs push for budget deal: Chief execs of big US companies are warning that the country faces another year of sluggish growth, while expressing hope that a deal over the budget being discussed in Congress will kick-start the economic recovery. (Financial Times)
Volcker Rule won't allow banks to use 'portfolio hedging': "In a defeat for Wall Street, the "Volcker rule" won't allow banks to enter trades designed to protect against losses held in a broad portfolio of assets, according to people familiar with the rule." (WSJ)
Three industry groups filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission challenging the agency's controversial, cross-border swaps rules, which are part of a broad effort to reform the derivatives market. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the Institute of International Bankers accused the CFTC of "unlawfully circumventing" procedures, failing to conduct legally required cost benefit analysis and imposing rules that are contrary to international co-operation. (Financial Times)
"China Mobile has signed a long-awaited deal with Apple to offer iPhones on its network, a person familiar with the situation said, an arrangement that would give the U.S. technology giant a big boost in the world's largest mobile market. The rollout of iPhones on the world's largest mobile carrier by users, with over 700 million subscribers, is expected to start later this month, around the time of a Dec. 18 China Mobile conference in Guangzhou, according to two people familiar with the carrier's plans. China Mobile is one of the world's last major carriers that doesn't offer the iPhone." (WSJ)
"Cinda Asset Management has raised US$2.5 billion in an initial public offering in Hong Kong, the city's largest float this year. The debt-clearing agent, which buys bad loans from Chinese banks, sold 5.3 billion shares at HK$3.58, the top end of its price range, said a person familiar with the situation. The indicative range was HK$3.00-HK$3.58 a share." (WSJ)
China regulator approves Dongfeng-Renault $1.3bn joint venture: "The 50-50 joint venture with the French automaker, to be known as Dongfeng Renault Automotive, will have total investment of 7.76 billion yuan ($1.3 billion), Dongfeng said in filing to the Hong Kong bourse." (Reuters)
"An employee of Deutsche Bank AG and a former executive of a pension fund for workers at units of Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. have been arrested over suspicion of bribery, police authorities said Thursday. Police authorities named the Deutsche Securities employee as Shigeru Echigo, 36 years old, and the former Mitsui employee as Yutaka Tsurisawa, 60." (WSJ)
"RBS and rating agency S&P have been sued by a group of European institutional investors for damages of up to $250 million suffered on complex financial products in the lead-up to the global financial crisis." (Reuters)
Carl Icahn has dropped his demand for Apple to return an extra $150bn of its cash pile to investors, after finding little support among fellow shareholders in the iPhone maker. The activist investor scaled back his requests for a share buyback to about $50bn, said people familiar with the matter. (Financial Times)
Qantas targets A$2bn of cuts amid profit warning: Qantas will axe 1,000 jobs, freeze pay and stop bonuses for its executives, and cut the pay of its chief executive and board members, as the Australian flagcarrier battles what it sees as unfair competition from Virgin Australia. The airline warned it would make a pre-tax loss of A$250m-A$300m in the first half of 2014 as growing domestic capacity, higher fuel costs and sluggish demand all take their toll on the Australia's number-one airline. (Financial Times)
Two of the world's highest-profile container shipping lines, Germany's Hapag-Lloyd and Chile's CSAV, are in talks about a potential merger that would create the world's fourth-largest container ship fleet. CSAV announced the discussions to the Santiago stock exchange after its shares rose nearly 15 per cent on reports in Germany's Die Welt about the talks. (Financial Times)
"Shopping mall giant Westfield said on Thursday it would buy the remaining 50 percent interest in New York's World Trade Center for $800 million, which will make the company the sole owner of the shopping mall." (Reuters)
COMMENTS & CURIOS
An astonishing, but very British, recovery (Financial Times Davies)
Employers forced to make good on final salary promises are having to find the money from somewhere (Financial Times Giles)
India is out of the woods but a long way from safe (Financial Times)
Americanized labor policy is spreading in Europe (NYT)
Australia: economy is weak, but rates are likely to be kept on hold (AFR)
OVERNIGHT MARKETS
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 down -146.62 (-0.95%) at 15,261
Topix down -6.95 (-0.56%) at 1,234
Hang Seng down -76.66 (-0.32%) at 23,652
US markets
S&P 500 down -2.34 (-0.13%) at 1,793
DJIA down -24.85 (-0.16%) at 15,890
Nasdaq up +0.80 (+0.02%) at 4,038
European markets
Eurofirst 300 down -7.26 (-0.57%) at 1,274
FTSE100 down -22.46 (-0.34%) at 6,510
CAC 40 down -23.92 (-0.57%) at 4,149
Dax down -82.77 (-0.90%) at 9,141
Currencies
€/$ 1.36 (1.36)
$/¥ 102.25 (102.35)
£/$ 1.64 (1.64)
€/£ 0.8304 (0.8295)
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) down -0.24 at 111.64
Light Crude (Nymex) up +0.17 at 97.37
100 Oz Gold (Comex) down -8.00 at 1,240
Copper (Comex) down -0.03 at 3.25
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 2.84%
UK 2.92%
Germany 1.82%
CDS (closing levels)
Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe +0.38bps at 63.6bp
Markit iTraxx Europe +1.08bps at 82bp
Markit iTraxx Xover +4.87bps at 328.92bp
Markit CDX IG +0.23bps at 70.75bp
Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit
