The Morning Call – Donald Trump warns soft Brexit will ruin a trade deal with the US

Asian Markets

Asian stock markets largely extended their gains in early trading, as Thursday’s global rebound continued.

U.S. Markets

U.S. stocks closed solidly higher, with the Nasdaq ending at a record on the back of a rally in internet and technology giants, which helped to overshadow ongoing uncertainty over trade relations between the U.S. and China.

Today’s News

US President Donald Trump warned a soft Brexit will mean Britain will not be able to make a trade deal with the US, in a wide-ranging interview with the The Sun newspaper, in which he also said Europe was losing its culture because of immigration.

Ryanair welcomed the EU Commission’s decision to approve its proposed acquisition of Laudamotion, but also claimed that German carrier Lufthansa was attempting to ‘destabilise and damage’ the Austrian airline. It called on regulators to intervene to stop Lufthansa’s alleged ‘anti-competitive’ behavior. Ryanair was buying the 75% interest in Laudamotion that it didn’t already own.

Workspace Group said it experienced a 5% fall in lettings during the first quarter, though customer enquiries had risen. Lettings per month in the three months through June averaged 88, down from 93 on-year, while enquiries averaged 1,021 per month, up from 1,016 on-year. Three refurbishment and redevelopment projects were completed in June 2018, with a further six projects expected to complete during this financial year, Workspace Group said.

Experian said first-quarter performance was in line with expectations, supported by recent acquisitions. The company left its full-year guidance unchanged. For the three months ended 30 June, total revenue grew 10% at constant currency, from the same period a year ago, and 9% at actual exchange rates. The in-line performance comes as company grew organic revenue in all regions, led by 11% growth in both North America and EMEA/Asia Pacific.

BT Group sports strategy has suffered a blow, after losing the rights to broadcast Italian Serie A football matches next season. The loss of the license has weakened the telecom giant’s position in competition against Sky PLC, as it now has less top-level content on its channel. The source noted interest in the Italian league could potentially increase following Cristiano Ronaldo’s €100m transfer from Spain’s Real Madrid to Italy’s Juventus.

DCC said profits would be significantly weighed towards the second half of the year after operating profit in the first quarter was in line with expectation, well ahead of the prior year, driven by acquisitions. The group said it expects to generate profit growth in fiscal 2019. DCC also announced that DCC Technology had acquired Stampede in the US and Kondor in the UK.

Oil Prices were little changed as markets digested big swings earlier in the week that have left both major benchmarks facing a second weekly loss and largely shrugged off a warning about tightness in spare capacity.

Gold Prices were under pressure as the strengthening dollar caused weakness in the precious yellow metal.