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The Morning Ledger: Falling Stock Markets Challenge CFOs, Investors
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Major stock indexes in Asia and Europe slumped on Monday. On Wall Street, futures pointed to 0.2% opening falls for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
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Hello. Global stock markets fell at the start of the week as concerns mount about the health of the economy, adding to the challenge for finance chiefs and other executives to navigate the current environment, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Mounting concerns: Weak manufacturing data in the U.S. and Europe have added to worries about a slowdown for global growth. Uncertainty about the outcome of trade talks between the U.S. and China and the outlook for Brexit is also hurting the sentiment. European stocks opened lower on Monday after a selloff in Asia. U.S. markets are set to follow the downward trend.
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More clarity ahead? Corporate decision-makers and investors will get a new set of clues this week in the form of key economic data from the U.S. and other wealthy nations. Fourth-quarter gross domestic product readings from the U.S., U.K., France and Canada could enlighten the debate over whether the global economy is in the midst of a temporary dip or headed toward a more serious downturn.
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Growing pessimism: Traders have begun betting the U.S. Federal Reserve will not only have to hold rates steady but lower them to support the economy. Federal-funds futures on Friday showed the market pricing in a 56% chance of at least one rate cut in 2019, compared with 11% one month ago, according to CME Group.
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Red Hat Inc. and Winnebago Industries Inc. are among the companies slated to report earnings today.
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The U.S. Commerce Department publishes February housing construction data on Tuesday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expect that construction declined in February.
On Wednesday, the Commerce Department releases fresh trade data for January. Economists polled by the Journal expect that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed.
The Commerce Department publishes its final estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product growth on Thursday. Economists polled by the Journal expect that growth was a slower 2.4% pace. Also on Thursday, the European Commission will release its monthly survey of eurozone business and consumer confidence.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook. PHOTO: EPA.
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Apple Inc. became a tech colossus by pioneering a mobile phone that transformed technology, but can no longer count on it for growth. That’s why CEO Tim Cook is making a dramatic pivot to services—an area filled with risks and competition.
The fate of Deutsche Bank AG’s global investment bank, including its embattled U.S. operations, has emerged as a focus of debate following the first week of formal merger talks with Commerzbank AG, according to people familiar with the matter.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. said it is buying Brammer Bio for $1.7 billion in a move that would expand the lab-equipment company’s presence in the rapidly growing field of gene therapy.
A private equity-led consortium agreed to acquire Inmarsat PLC for about $3.4 billion in cash after the British satellite operator last year rebuffed a slightly lower bid from U.S. rival EchoStar Corp., Reuters reports.
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Following two fatal crashes of Boeing 737 MAX airplanes, U.S. lawmakers are questioning whether a new automated antistall system was properly vetted. PHOTO: DAVID RYDER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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The U.S. safety-certification process that put the Boeing 737 MAX in the air is coming under congressional scrutiny in what is shaping up as a test of the aircraft maker’s influence in Washington.
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Eli Lilly & Co., facing mounting scrutiny in the U.S. Congress over big increases in the list price of a widely used insulin, says the price it was paid dropped by 8.1% during the previous five years after accounting for rebates and discounts.
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U.S. insurance regulators are moving to plug legal loopholes used by a North Carolina insurance-company owner who lent at least $2 billion from his insurers to his personal enterprises.
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British entrepreneur Mike Lynch has denied new criminal charges against him, ahead of a court case in London on Monday over the sale of his firm Autonomy Corp. to Hewlett Packard Inc., the BBC reports.
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Charles Evans said, ‘If the economy performs as I expect, in 2019 we should see growth falling, but still being close to trend,’ he said Monday. PHOTO: DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said Monday that he doesn’t expect an interest-rate increase in the U.S. until next year, probably in the second half.
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A sweeping effort to diversify the Saudi kingdom’s oil-dependent economy is creating new problems, as Saudis and their businesses begin to feel the pain of an uncertain transition.
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U.S. companies facing a shortage of employees from health-care workers to forklift operators are confronting a new challenge: finding candidates who can pass drug tests in states that have legalized marijuana.
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