BitGou: Wednesday Morning Briefing: China's Huawei challenges legality of U.S. defense bill

U.S.-China Trade

Huawei has filed a motion for summary judgment in its lawsuit against the U.S. government, in the telecoms equipment maker’s latest bid to fight sanctions from Washington that threaten to push it out of global markets. Less than a week after Huawei was blacklisted by the United States, more than a hundred South Korean politicians and business leaders toured the Chinese tech giant’s headquarters and its lavish new campus outside Shenzhen. The event was part of a Seoul-backed forum aimed at building tighter tech links between China and Asia’s fourth-largest economy. But the gathering was overshadowed by the U.S. decision to ban American tech and telecom firms from doing business with the Chinese tech giant, and a push to get companies around the world to follow suit.

U.S. stocks will build on this year’s already strong gains over the rest of 2019 despite growing U.S.-China trade tensions that represent the biggest threat to the market, according to a Reuters poll of strategists. Most strategists in the poll cited further escalation in the U.S.-China trade war as the biggest potential negative over the coming year, followed by a worse-than-expected U.S. economic slowdown and slower earnings growth.

China is ready to use rare earths to strike back in a trade war with the United States. Chinese newspapers warned in strongly worded commentaries on a move that would escalate tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Rare earths are a group of 17 chemical elements used in everything from high-tech consumer electronics to military equipment. The prospect that their value could soar as a result of the trade war caused sharp increases in the share prices of producers.

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Exclusive: Islamic State suspects sent by U.S. from Syria to Iraq. Iraqi sources, interviews with the men and court documents show that U.S. forces have quietly sent at least 30 suspected foreign Islamic State fighters captured in Syria last year and in late 2017 to stand trial in Iraq. Three of the men have been convicted of IS membership and sentenced to death by Iraqi courts, while five have been given life sentences. Four of them told Reuters they were tortured in prison, a claim Reuters was unable to verify.

Exclusive: Hong Kong judges see risks in proposed extradition changes. Some Hong Kong judges fear they are being put on a collision course with Beijing as the special administrative region’s government pushes for sweeping legal changes that would for the first time allow fugitives captured in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China for trial.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said that naval mines “almost certainly from Iran” were used to attack oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates this month and warned Tehran against new operations. He was speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi ahead of emergency summits of Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia on Thursday called to discuss the implications of the tanker attacks and drone strikes two days later on oil pumping stations in the kingdom.

The father of a university football player who died of a drug overdose is expected to testify on the second day of trial in a lawsuit by the state of Oklahoma accusing the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson of fuelling the U.S. opioid epidemic. The trial in a state court in Norman, Oklahoma, is the first to result from more than 2,000 similar lawsuits against opioid manufacturers nationally.

Boris Johnson, the favorite to replace Theresa May as British prime minister, must appear in court over allegations he lied about Brexit by stating Britain would be 350 million pounds a week better off outside the EU, a judge ruled. The figure, emblazoned on a campaign bus, was a central and controversial part of the Leave campaign’s “take back control” message ahead of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Opponents argued that it was deliberately misleading and it became symbolic of the divisions caused by the referendum, which saw Britons vote to leave the EU.

Business

The International Air Transport Association expects it could take until August before the Boeing 737 MAX returns to service, the airline group’s head said. Adding that the final say on the timing rested with regulators. The 737 MAX was grounded globally in March after a crash in Ethiopia killed all 157 people on board, the model’s second deadly crash in five months. “We do not expect something before 10 to 12 weeks in re-entry into service,” IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac told reporters.

Exclusive: T-Mobile, Sprint could sell Boost for up to $3 billion, potential bidders say. A group of potential buyers are preparing bids for prepaid wireless brand Boost Mobile in an upcoming sale valuing the offshoot of U.S. wireless carriers T-Mobile US and Sprint at up to $3 billion, interested buyers told Reuters.

The global bond rally accelerated, sending 10-year U.S Treasury yields to 20-month lows, as investors fearful of the fallout from the Sino-U.S. trade war sold shares and scurried for the safety of German and U.S. government debt. U.S. 10-year yields are down almost 30 basis points this month, while German yields slipped deeper into negative territory to the lowest in almost three years.

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