BitGou: Tuesday Morning Briefing: Huawei reviewing its relationship with FedEx

Highlights

Exclusive: Huawei is reviewing its relationship with FedEx after it claimed the U.S. package delivery company, without detailed explanation, diverted two parcels destined for Huawei addresses in Asia to the United States and attempted to reroute two others.

The United States walked out of the Conference on Disarmament to protest Venezuela assuming the rotating presidency of the U.N.-sponsored forum - as it did a year ago when Syria took the chair. “We have to try to do what we can to prevent these types of states from presiding over international bodies,” Robert Wood, U.S. disarmament ambassador, told reporters after leaving the session in Geneva.

Asia

Japan rolled out the red carpet for President Trump this week, winning Tokyo a brief respite in its trade battle with Washington, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces pressure to deliver concessions after a summer election. After his Monday summit with Abe, Trump had said he expected the allies to be “announcing some things, probably in August, that will be very good for both countries” on trade.

For the last decade, the city of Zhengzhou has been getting a taste of the Chinese dream. Fueled by investment, including large subsidies from the central government in Beijing, the provincial capital of the inland province of Henan has boomed. Once an impoverished city of 10 million set between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, Zhengzhou now boasts a gleaming downtown skyline and a cascade of freeway overpasses. But an economic slowdown that began in late 2018 appears to have accentuated uncertainties in the city. With momentum slowing across the board from real estate to consumer and tech sectors, some in heartland China feel their chances of moving up the social ladder have diminished.

The trade war between Beijing and Washington has stoked concern in financial markets that China might opt to weaponize its holdings of more than $1.1 trillion worth of U.S. Treasuries in retaliation for the tariffs the Trump administration has imposed on Chinese imports. Often referred to as the “nuclear option,” choosing to dump so large a pool of assets would likely destabilize world financial markets, drive interest rates higher and push tensions between the world’s two largest economies into uncharted territory. There is no evidence Beijing is seriously looking to flood markets with its U.S. bonds.

Tech

Alibaba is considering raising as much as $20 billion through a listing in Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, lining up a second blockbuster deal following its 2014 record $25 billion float in New York. The e-commerce giant is working with financial advisers on the offering and is aiming to file an application confidentially in Hong Kong as early as the second half of 2019, three people said on condition of anonymity as the plans are not public yet.

When Tencent made its first big foray overseas with an adaptation of its blockbuster mobile game “Honour of Kings” in the summer of 2017, executives thought they had a sure-fire success on their hands. The multi-player role-playing game had 55 million daily active users in China and was raking in roughly $145 million a month, making it the company’s top grossing game. But missteps in development and marketing, exacerbated by a rift with Tencent’s U.S.-based Riot Games subsidiary, has seen the international version, called “Arena of Valor”, flop in Europe and North America.

Business

Fallout from Brexit has helped New York overtake London to become the world’s pre-eminent financial center, a survey of financial executives by Duff & Phelps showed. They were asked where they think the top financial center is located. Just over half of respondents now see New York as the world’s top financial center, up 10% from 2018, while 36% see London as the leader, down 17% from last year.

New Zealand pub owner Chris Dickson worries his staff is overworked. He expected employment visas for two new overseas workers to be approved weeks ago, but the paperwork was delayed with no clear reason given. “We are struggling to find people,” Dickson said. “It’s an epidemic.” A plunge in net immigration is intensifying New Zealand’s labor shortage and hurting the economy to the point that the country’s central bank singled out the issue when it cut interest rates for the first time since 2016 this month.

Oil prices rose, supported by tighter global supplies that helped offset lingering worries that demand could be hurt by a U.S.-Chinese trade row. Oil prices have been broadly supported by supply cuts by OPEC and its allies since the start of the year and helped by political tensions in the Middle East. OPEC and some allies including Russia are due to meet on June 25 and 26 to discuss output policy.

Europe

New EU: Timeline to handover

European Union leaders meet in Brussels, two days after an election to the European Parliament returned a more fragmented pro-EU center and stronger nationalist groups. They will discuss the succession to key EU jobs over the coming months. Here is a timeline to change at the top.

4 min read

Euro dips on Italian debt worries and trade tensions

The euro dipped as investors nervous about trade tensions bought into the safe-haven dollar and fretted that political risks in Europe remain high, even though pro-Europe parties won a majority of European parliamentary seats.

3 Min Read

Britain's Hunt says 'political suicide' to pursue no-deal Brexit

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it would be “political suicide” for Britain to pursue a no-deal Brexit, becoming the most senior figure vying to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May to rule it out and drawing a battle line with rival contenders.

4 min read