Friday newspaper round-up: Donald Trump, By-elections, London Stock Exchange
Asian stock markets plunged on Friday after Donald Trump's surprise threat of tariff hikes on additional Chinese imports. In early trading, Tokyo's main index tumbled 2.2% and Hong Kong's benchmark lost 2%. Markets in Shanghai, Sydney and Seoul also fell. The US president's announcement of 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods, due to take effect on September 1, surprised investors after the White House said Beijing promised to buy more farm goods. China's foreign minister said on Friday tariffs were "not a constructive" way to solve the US trade war. "Slapping on tariffs is definitely not a constructive way to resolve economic and trade frictions, it's not the correct way," Wang Yi said. - The Daily Telegraph
Boris Johnson has suffered a significant blow after the Liberal Democrats won the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, slashing the new prime minister's Commons majority to just one. Jane Dodds, the Lib Dem candidate, overturned a Tory majority of 8,083 to defeat incumbent Chris Davies by 1,425 votes in the Welsh constituency. The party chose to field Mr Davies as its candidate despite him being ousted in a recall petition by 19 per cent of the electorate in the Welsh seat, after he admitted submitting false claims for expenses. - The Independent
London Stock Exchange has agreed a $27 billion all-share takeover of the financial data provider Refinitiv to create a major global market data and infrastructure company that could rival Bloomberg. The deal combines the world’s oldest bourse with the provider of Eikon terminals, which offer live data feeds and news to trading floors across the City. Don Robert, the LSE chairman, said that the acquisition was a “defining moment” for the exchange in terms of its strategic importance. It is the biggest acquisition by a UK-listed company this year by far. - The Times
The German utility giant RWE will close its last UK coal plant after the coming winter, leaving only four remaining coal plants powering British homes. RWE will close the Aberthaw B power station in south Wales at the end of March 2020 after half a century generating electricity from coal. The energy company, which runs one of the largest portfolios of gas power plants, said it had been clear for some time that the UK was a challenging market for coal generators. - The Guardian
Pinterest shares soared after its second-ever quarterly earnings report exceeded expectations on Thursday, representing tentative success for another Silicon Valley “unicorn”. Pinterest joined a number of other tech “unicorns” – private companies valued at over $1bn – to list on the US stock markets when it filed to go public in March 2019. Its better-than-projected revenue and user growth caused shares to jump as much as 17% after markets closed for the day. - The Guardian