WSJ City: Saudi Crackdown Targets $800 Billion in Assets, M&S Finance Chief to Leave, Snap Plunges
Good morning from the WSJ City desks in London. Be the first with high-value stories. Download WSJ City on your mobile and let us keep you in the loop from 6am. The WSJ City app. Upwardly mobile. iPhone and Android. Your friends and colleagues can sign up to this newsletter here.
MUST READS FROM WSJ CITY
The Saudi government is aiming to confiscate cash and other assets worth as much as $800 billion in its broadening crackdown on alleged corruption among the kingdom’s elite, according to people familiar with the matter.
Marks & Spencer said finance chief Helen Weir will leave the company, as it reported a fall in pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2018.
Snap shares plunged as much as 20% after the company said its quarterly loss more than tripled, disappointing Wall Street again as it failed to significantly grow the number of people using its app daily and the amount of money advertisers are spending to reach those users.
Help wanted: a senior executive with a keen knowledge of markets and economics, but who isn’t too close to Wall Street. This is the balancing act facing a newly formed search committee for the next president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
President Donald Trump opened a door to negotiations with North Korea, shifting his tone while the US Navy prepared for a rare display of strength nearby, in a carrot-and-stick approach to a nuclear standoff that has been marked by confrontational rhetoric from both sides.
High on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s wish list for Trump’s first presidential swing through Asia is an acknowledgement of China’s enlarged ambitions. Xi has pushed for what he calls a ‘new type of great power relations’ with the US, an innocuous-sounding slogan but one freighted with deep implications, writes Andrew Browne in his China’s World column.
Trump may want Japanese car makers to manufacture more in the US, writes Anjani Trivedi for Heard on the Street. But right now, the world’s second-largest car company, Toyota, finds it more comfortable to be at home.
IN THE PAPERS
A group of Wall Street banks has warned on a Brexit ‘point of no return’ with a lack of clarity on talks with the EU and the UK’s unstable government a threat to thousands of City jobs. FT (£)
Deutsche Bank’s chief executive has hinted at slashing jobs, with new tech bringing the lender into line with peers at ‘half’ its current headcount. FT (£)
Sky has warned it could shut Sky News if it proves an impediment with regulators in its takeover by 21st Century Fox. The Telegraph
Unilever has won a temporary respite in a case alleging the company colluded with another firm to divide up the spreads market in South Africa. WSJ
The EU is poised to propose a 30% cut in carbon-dioxide emissions from cars and vans in the decade through 2030. WSJ
MARKETS TODAY
European stocks inched higher at the open on Wednesday, as investors digested the latest round of corporate results.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index and FTSE 100 were each up 0.1% in early trading. SSE led the UK benchmark higher, climbing more than 3% after the energy company confirmed plans to merge with Npower. Marks & Spencer was also slightly higher after announcing its latest results and saying its finance chief plans to step down.
Asian stock markets were mixed on Wednesday after a strong start to the week. Solid buying pushed several stock indexes, including those in Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong, to multi-year highs on Tuesday, but that was followed by a muted performance on Wall Street.
COMING UP
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks at the King’s College Business School launch. BOE agents’ summary of business conditions.