The Morning Call – Markets mixed ahead of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin summit

Asian Markets

Asian markets fell while data showed China’s economic growth slowed in the second quarter as the country sits on the brink of a potential all-out trade war with the United States.

U.S. Markets

U.S. stocks closed pretty flat, showing a lack of direction over the course of morning trading. Allthough the US 30 reclaimed its perch above the 25,000 level for the first time in nearly a month

Today’s News

After months of exchanging long-distance compliments, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will sit down today for their first ever summit, a potential political minefield at home for the U.S. president but a geopolitical win for his Russian counterpart.

Comcast Corp announced in its formal offer document that it expects to pay its advisers between £203.0m and £242.8m in total for their work on Comcast’s takeover offer for the UK’s Sky PLC. The consideration under the offer implies a value of approximately £25.9bn for the fully diluted share capital of Sky.

Indivior said a US court had granted a preliminary injunction against Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, preventing the sale of a generic version of the company’s opioid addiction treatment. As the restrictions of Indivior’s previously entered temporary restraining order remained in place, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories would be unable to sell, offer to sell, or import its generic opioid addiction treatment.

Meggitt said it won a $21m five-year contract from the Defense Logistics Agency in Virginia to supply fuel cell equipment for the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter until 2022. Meggitt would manufacture the UH-60 fuel cell equipment from its Rockmart facility. The company said its self-seal fuel tanks had stopped fuel spillage and reduced fire-related death and injury in survivable helicopter crashes to almost zero.

Boeing Co said it won an order for 14 freight aircraft for a value of $4.7bn, firing the opening salvo against rival Airbus SE in a contest for business on day one of the Farnborough Airshow. Logistics group DHL placed the order for the 777 freighters and acquired purchase rights for seven more freighters, the U.S planemaker said.

Vectura Group said it has appointed Paul Fry as chief financial officer, effective October 29. The company said Fry succeeds Andrew Derodra who, as previously announced, is leaving the company on July 31. Fry joins Vectura from privately held biotechnology company Immunocore, where he has been chief financial officer since January 2017. Before joining Immunocore, Fry served as director of Global Finance Operations at Vodafone.

Oil Prices fell as concerns about supply disruptions eased and Libyan ports resumed export activities, while traders eyed potential supply increases by Russia and other oil producers.

Gold Prices were lower due to the threat of tariffs by the US on additional $200 billion of Chinese goods, dollar index trading at 11 month highs and the falling holdings in the SPDR gold trust all leading to the drop of the precious yellow metal.