Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

Written by
Joanna Ossinger
Written by

Joanna Ossinger

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(Bloomberg) --

U.S. midterm election results will be streaming in during Asia's day, while China-U.S. trade tensions are top of mind at Bloomberg's New Economy Forum in Singapore. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about.

Midterm Mania

Good luck, Asia. You'll be the ones trading when most of the U.S. midterm results come in. Click here to follow along with Bloomberg's political bloggers throughout the day. Here's a guide to monitoring the action across time zones, another from Bloomberg Opinion's Al Hunt on what races are really key, and a third on what market strategists are saying about the whole thing. Most forecasts see the Democrats taking over the House of Representatives and the Republicans holding onto the Senate. Yet unsurprising to many, President Trump has made it a referendum on himself.

China's Trade Warning

The U.S. and China shouldn't let a lack of agreement on trade boil over into other aspects of cooperation, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said. Trade issues between the superpowers are "genuine ones," and leaders of the two countries need to make decisions to resolve any conflict, Lee said in an interview at Bloomberg's New Economy Forum in Singapore. Global trade issues need to be addressed or it could risk erupting into broader conflicts, he said. The comments come after Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan's offer of trade talks with the U.S. on Tuesday did little to assuage concerns that the world's two largest economies were headed for a confrontation that could disrupt the global order. Wang -- a long-time ally of President Xi Jinping -- said at the Forum that Beijing remained ready to discuss solutions to its trade war with the U.S. But Wang also warned that China wouldn't again be “bullied and oppressed by imperialist powers.”

More From the Forum

Speaking of Bloomberg's New Economy Forum, it's well underway, with speakers such Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen among those offering thoughts about geopolitics and more. Henry Kissinger is “fairly optimistic” that the U.S. and China can avoid catastrophe, while Southeast Asia's biggest bank downplayed the impact of the trade war. See a roundup here.

Malaysia and Goldman

Also at the NEF, Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's leader-in-waiting, said the government is looking into more Goldman Sachs Group Inc. deals carried out by Tim Leissner, the former partner whose work on 1MDB's fundraising dragged the Wall Street firm into one of Asia's biggest corruption scandals. Ibrahim didn't identify any specific transactions. He also said it would be “inexcusable” if Goldman were complicit in the scandal surrounding the state investment company known as 1Malaysia Development Bhd., levying among the harshest and most direct criticism of the U.S. bank so far by a Malaysian politician.

PBOC Tools

The People's Bank of China will expand the bond financing tool it announced last month and is pushing financial institutions to set up a similar tool for equities, the bank's governor told a government-affiliated newspaper. The central bank is studying the possibility of offering initial capital to the equity tool, which would support private firms with funding difficulties, Governor Yi Gang said in an interview with the Economic Daily.