The Overnight News Roundup

Jan 14, 2025

PiQ and Zack Eiseman provide you with a consolidated roundup of the overnight news that matters most to markets.

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MACRO:

There was a modest risk on move into the Asia session, with Dollar weakness, after Bloomberg reported members of Trump’s incoming economic team are discussing slowly ramping up tariffs by 2-5% a month to boost negotiating leverage and avoid inflation spiking. Trump has not been presented the plan. (BBG)
Chinese officials are weighing an option that could see TikTok in America being sold to Elon Musk if the Supreme Court upholds its ban, Bloomberg reported. WSJ sources also echoed those reports. TikTok called the Bloomberg report "pure fiction." (BBG/WSJ/BBC)
China is increasing its scrutiny of exports by Apple and other American tech companies, hampering their efforts to expand production in Southeast Asia and India via its new dual-use technology export controls introduced in early December. (Nikkei)
China is implementing stricter control over its once-liberalized financial sector. The government has enacted measures including purges of high-ranking financial officials and pay cuts to reduce corruption and curb excessive risk-taking. (WSJ)
Trump is considering Washington trade lawyer Jeffrey Kessler to lead the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), a key post in the U.S.-China tech war and overseeing export controls. (RTRS)
Yen was choppy after BoJ Deputy Governor Himino gave some mixed remarks, saying the BoJ will debate whether to raise rates at its policy meeting next week based on its new quarterly growth and inflation forecasts. (newswires)
Japan former FX diplomat Kanda chimed in on the yen, saying it is desirable for the FX market to move in line with fundamentals, saying sudden divergences from fundamentals need correcting. (newswires)
Japanese Economy Minister Akazawa said the BOJ's considering of a rate hike and the government's aim to exit deflation are not contradictory. (RTRS)
Goldman Sachs's Hatzius, in a Bloomberg interview, said he expects China will use a broad range of stimulus measures, both monetary and fiscal, to offset the effects of expected US tariffs and the persisting housing downturn. (BBG)
ECB's Rehn said the ECB will keep cutting rates and should end policy restriction in the coming months, but looming trade tariffs, which may not even be effective, cloud the outlook. (RTRS)
French PM Bayrou is expected to lay out in a speech on Tuesday the contours of a deal to water down pension reforms in return for support from the left on passing a budget. (RTRS)
The final price tag for building the UK's planned Sizewell C nuclear power station is likely to reach close to £40bn, double the £20bn estimate given in 2020. The Treasury is due to decide whether to go ahead with the project in this year’s multiyear spending review. (FT)
The U.K. says it wants to do its “own thing” when it comes to regulating artificial intelligence, hinting at a possible divergence from approaches taken by its main Western peers. (CNBC)
Trump’s plan to ramp up LNG exports could provide a $1.3tn boost to the US economy over five years according to S&P Global. (FT)

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GEOPOLITICAL:

Israel and Hamas are on the brink of a cease-fire deal, President Biden said Monday, moving closer to bridging a fundamental divide: Israel wants its hostages back and then continue the war, while Hamas doesn’t want to release captives without ending the war. (WSJ)
Trump told Newsmax on Monday night that Israel and Hamas are "very close" to getting a hostage and ceasefire deal. "I understand that there has been a handshake and they are getting it finished - maybe by the end of the week”. (Axios)
Greenland’s PM said he will seek a closer relationship with the US, highlighting the Arctic island’s push for independence amid renewed interest from Donald Trump. (BBG)
A U.S. push to reach a prisoner-swap deal with the Taliban is in danger of collapsing due to Biden's demands. (WSJ)
North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Tuesday, South Korea's military said. (RTRS)

EQUITIES:

The EU is re-evaluating its investigations into major tech companies like Apple, Google, and Meta amid Trump's return, which could see probes, and potential fines, scaled back. (FT)
NVIDIA’s GB200 shipment schedule continues to be delayed, and Q1 shipment volumes are likely to fall short of market expectations, according to sources in Asia. Cloud service providers are increasingly turning to cost-efficient and reliable in-house ASIC solutions, with some growing frustrated amid Nvidia GB200 delays. (CTEE)
TSMC is boosting CoWoS-L advanced packaging capacity to compensate for poor yields of Nvidia B200 chips. (CTEE)
Nvidia CEO Huang has begun a tour of China and Taiwan. (BBG)
JPMorgan plans to launch Chase in Germany in late 2025 or early 2026 as part of Dimon's final chapter as the CEO. (WSJ)
Amazon is gearing up to relaunch its Alexa voice-powered digital assistant as an AI “agent” that can complete practical tasks having been dogged by challenges for the overhaul. (FT)
Cleveland-Cliffs is partnering with peer Nucor to prepare a potential all-cash bid for U.S. Steel, with an offer in the high $30s per share. (RTRS)
Edison International said the utility did not detect any electrical issues on a transmission line near the start of the deadly Eaton fire in the LA area. (BBG)
Robinhood has agreed to pay $45 million to settle U.S. SEC charges over record keeping, trade reporting and other rule violations. (RTRS)
SLB has come under new pressure to halt its operations in Russia following the imposition of sweeping new sanctions on the country’s oil sector by the Biden administration. (FT)
Klarna is seeking buyers for a portfolio of US “pay in four” instalment loans in a bid to unlock capital for growth ahead of a public listing. (FT)