This is Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend, our global look at the top stories in the coming week from our Daybreak anchors all around the world. Straight ahead on the program, more bank earnings and there could be some surprises.
I'm deg Chrisner. After three decades of deflation in Japan, we look at the flip side inflation.
I'm Kaylee Lines in Washington, where the Senate Judiciary Committee is getting such a vote on a Supreme Court ethics bill.
I'm Stephen Carolyn London. We're looking ahead to the general election in Spain and the challenges facing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
That's all straight ahead on Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend on Bloomberg Eleve them three on New York Bloomberg ninety nine to one, Washington, d C, Bloomberg one O six one, Boston, Bloomberg nine sixty, San Francisco, DAB Digital Radio, London, Sirius XM one nineteen and around the world on Bloomberg Radio, dot com and via the Bloomberg Business app.
You.
I'm Amy Morris in Washington. We spent most of the past week focusing on inflation and the economy, but now we're turning our attention to bank earnings with a kickoff of the second quarter reporting season. Joining me now to talk about all of this is Alison Williams. She's our global senior bank analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence and Alison, it
has been quite a week. We had JP Morgan, Chase, Wells Fargo, City Group reporting, as we've been talking about, and there's a we have been waiting now on the next wave. Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab will be reporting on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs, m and T Bank, US Bank Corporate others on Wednesday. Let's start with JP Morgan. That was some record revenue, just your initial reaction.
So it was a very strong quarter at JP Morgan, especially the return on tangible equity of twenty five percent very impressive, and a few things happening there. First of all, the net interest income coming in much better than expected and the bank increasing their guidance for the year that we think that's going to fuel higher revenue and EPs estimates, and in fact we did get relatively resilient net interest
income across JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and City Group. Wells Fargo also raising their net interest income guidance whereas City Group has some offsets from weaker fee income. But again focusing on JP Morgan, they are they have better than expected revenue they're trading and fees coming in a little bit better than expected, and also on the costs stable. Lastly, on the provision side of things, they are taking reserves.
A lot of that has to do with car growth that's been a contributor to the net interest income line, and I get that's something that we're seeing across the bank.
How much of this is impacted by those regional bank failures, and what I mean is the absorption or being able to merge with them. Has that proven to be a good deal, particularly I'm thinking with First Republic.
So JP Morgan you certainly is seeing the benefit of that deal. But I would say that some of the industry dynamics that came into play in March and perhaps early April have really stabilized in terms of we are seeing deposits migrate into higher yielding alternatives, but I think not at a pace that investors had fears. So a migration and not a flight, I would say with regard to deposits, and so as the cost of those deposits
are rising, but perhaps not as great as feirit. That's also aiding the interesting income line for these banks.
Now, I was reading on the Bloomberg terminal about trading and investment banking had actually been down from a year go, but still came in ahead of analysts expectations. What would be driving all of this or is there any one thing driving it?
So when you look at the trading and fees, they are both down, but it is a little bit of a tale of two cities because trading is normalizing in a historically higher range, whereas investment banking fees are normalizing in a weaker range, similar to pre pandemic levels. On the trading side of things, fixed income trading is really the story this year, but also last year as well. There's a benefit from interest rate volatility. What we're also
seeing in this year is credit trading improving. Credit trading was very weak last year, so to some extent, you know, when we look at the comparisons, they are easier, but we also did have some pretty good high yield issuance growth that helps the secondary volumes a little bit. The other thing that we're seeing on the just moving to the f side of things, so high yield issuance growth
is helpful. Equity undwriting also seeing some green shoots there, so some good growth off very weak levels, but the M and A headwind is really overwhelming there. M and A continue to be very strong last year, and now we're seeing that weakness and that turning to a headwind. And so the other trend we're seeing at banks is that they're starting to right size, they're staffing to these weaker levels.
Yeah, I wanted to talk about that a little bit because when you talk about them right sizing their staffing, the flip side of that coin. Another way of interpreting that is they're letting people go, and maybe that bodes poorly for the future. But it sounds like just from what you've said, this is a trend that's a very strong trend and that we can expect more growth.
Well, the strength is really on the trading side of things, and again we're just looking at sort of historically high things,
you know, normalizing in a historically high range there. So it is a little bit soft and down compared to last year, but it's not the same weakness that we're seeing on the investment banking fee side, and it perhaps isn't so much a statement about things getting worse on investment banking fees, but more that staffing levels are kind of coming to the reality that we've seen over the last several quarters. Keep in mind that twenty twenty one was a record year for equities for M and A.
It was very strong. The banks were scrambling for headcount, especially the hiring of junior bankers, and you recall the stories about pay for junior bankers happening at that time. So when we saw fees basically get cut in half last year, the banks were really hesitant to reduce their staffing to meet those lower levels. They were holding out hope that things would really pick up in twenty twenty three, and as of the first half, that really has not happened.
As I said, we saw some we've seen some green shoots, but not to the level of optimism that the banks have expected. And so it's really kind of coming to, as I said, the reality of those lower levels. And you know, there's some hope for the second half, but really banks and the M and A boutiques are really talking more about twenty twenty four at this point.
And we are talking with Alison Williams with Bloomberg Intelligence about bank earnings. I want to shift gears just a little bit talking about Bank of America often seen as a bell Weather, partly because of who its clients are, small business accounts making up the backbone of the US
economy and so many consumer clients as well. As we watch what that bank says, what should we be looking for if we are trying to gauge the direction of the economy or the health or the trends of the banking industry.
So, as you said, they are Bellweather, and we will be looking across their businesses and their client base. But I think the commercial and industrial lending side we may see some weakness there. The bank has talked about the fact that utilization rates of their commercial lines had been improving. That means that companies are drawing down on those lines,
but that has sort of stabilized. And if we look at the industry data, we did see that commercial industrial loans was the area of weakness, sort of flatish leans overall. So Bank of America will also benefit from the credit card side of things that we're seeing from JPMorgan City Group and Walls Bargo, but they will see that offset in terms of the commercial industrial loans. Will also be
looking at the wealth business for Bank of America. That's a very significant business for them, and we're going to be watching for the deposit costs. The wealth business is one of the more sensitive businesses in terms of the rising cost of deposits. But there is a potential that we could see things again leveling out and perhaps those costs rising a little bit less than feared after some of the increases that we saw last quarter.
Let's shift gears again. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs. Those are going to be coming up deal making important for them. There have been those job cuts that we've already touched on anything particular that you're going to be watching for what we may be expecting from them.
So for Goldman Sacks, they as you point out that the fees are weak M and A fees on the M and A side of things, they are always by far the revenue leader, and so that represents not just their ranking within the M and A league tables, but also the fact that they tend to be the lead advisor and more profitable deals. As I said, that's a headwind. So they will be feeling that headwind they are also likely to see some of the some of the benefit of the green shoots on the equity side of things.
But I think that the bank has definitely flagged a few things to watch out for. We are going to likely see more impairments on some of their real estate. That was that was a drag last quarter. We're going to continue to see that a drag this quarter.
We're going to watch it with you. Alison, Thank you so much for this insight. We are looking forward to those earnings coming up in the week ahead. Alison Williams a Global senior bank analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. Now coming up on Bloomberg day Break weekend, we are on inflation watch when it comes to Japan. I'm Amy Morris and this is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Daybreak weekend, our global look ahead at the top stories for investors in the
coming week. I'm Amy Morris in Washington. Up later in our program, lawmakers are considering new ethics rules for the Supreme Court. But how much authority does Congress have? But first, investors are watching for more signs of inflation in Asia. We're watching for key data from Japan this coming week and for more we go to Bloomberg Daybreak Asia host Doug Krisner Doug Amy.
Perhaps no other major economy in the world has had to deal with the deflation problem like Japan. It's persisted for three decades, but within the last year, price pressures have been building and it's creating a unique challenge for the Bank of Japan. Joining me now for a closer look is Bloomberg's Paul Jackson. He is based in Tokyo and he covers the governments and economies of both Japan
and South Korea. Paul, it's a pleasure to have you here, and I'm going to begin with the inflation data that we are expecting in the coming week. Just fill us in on what the markets are forecasting right now and what economist's saying.
Well, I think we're expecting CPI to stay firm around three point two percent for June. Now, that might not sound that high by international standards, but for Japan, after all these decades of deflation, that is high. And it's been above two percent since April twenty twenty two. So people are asking, you know, just when is the BOCHA going to change policy? You know, we see a lot of data that suggests that finally we are close to some kind of movement in this price trend that has
been so sluggish over the years. We've seen, you know BOJ survey on household expectations, that households are expecting prices to go up at a faster rate. We saw wage growth, which the Bank of Japan has been saying is the very important to ensure that price is continueizing. We saw gains of two point five percent in the most recent data.
Although you know, there's lots of complications to unpick that data and suggest it's volatile and can't be totally relied upon, but still it's a sign that things are bubbling up and that the time for the BOJ to consider policy change is coming upon us. And we do have a meeting coming up later this month, which economists surveyed by Bloomberg last month said was the most likely meeting for any near term tweaks to BOJ policy.
I'm wondering whether there is anyone that is concerned about the time that the BOJ is taking. I mean, you can understand from Uwaita's point of view or any other BOJ governor, if you've been in a deflationary environment for three decades. You want to be very confident that inflation has re emerged. But I'm wondering whether or not anyone is saying this is a dangerous exercise to keep monetary policy so accommodated for so long.
Well, of course, there's been a lot of criticism of Japan's addiction to keeping stimulus rolling when the rest of the world is raising rates and trying to really tackle inflation. But I think, Doug Ive, you've honed in on the point. You know, Japan has been in deflation for decades, so you know Japan doesn't want to stuff it up under
the new governor Huada. Remember that Huaida was on the board back in the early two thousands when Japan prematurely raised interest rates and then fell back into deflation shortly afterwards, And at that time Uada dissented from that decision. He said, we are moving too early. So this is a guy who does not want to see that happen again under his watch. So he's turned out to be a little bit more cautious than we expected. So that points to
a big change in BOJ policy coming later. The question is will the BOJ do some kind of stop gap measure to make its stimulus more sustainable in the meantime, and that takes us to its control of the yield curve and potential change for that in July.
What about changing the inflation forecast? Is that something that the BOJ could use also to kind of help the market understand what its intentions are.
Well, that's a very good point because Casuwdo is an economist, spent all his career as an economist, so he wants to have you know, data evidence to draw upon for change. Now, I think everyone is expecting the BOJ to raise its inflation forecast for this year because currently it says it's only going to average one point eight percent. Now, how is that possible when we're already you know, we're still
at three point two percent. So I think everyone thinks he's going to go above two percent for this year. But the thing is is the BOJ needs to see inflation staying above two percent for a period of time, like you know, the next two or three years. That's when the stars are aligned for big change.
The other thing that I'm wondering about is I look at the yen over the last week strengthened tremendously against the dollar. How this would affect the boj's thinking, What do you what do you think about that?
Well, of course there's been a lot of you know, worrying concern about the end going two week and the possibility of intervention, and then since we've seen this strengthening. Obviously the us CPI figures, cooling has helped that. But if you look at the differentials between ten year yields and put that against whether dollar yen is that the yen is definitely out of sync with where it should be on that chart. It is a little bit stronger
than it should be. So that suggests in markets there's a little bit of uneasiness about this July meeting, and they're not wanting to bet that the BOJ will just do nothing. They want to be in a better position in case there is change. I would just caution that if we really had people betting on change happening, we would be seeing the BOJ having to buy bonds at its fixed rate operations each day. We're still not quite there yet. Although yields are very close to its zero point five percent cap.
Isn't the BOJ somewhat trapped by the current structure of the economy in Japan, and I'm kind of opening up the conversation to include declining birth rates and aging populations. So there are certain structural variables that really have not shifted and that's only made the job a lot more difficult.
Well, it's true, I mean, in terms of the demographics of Japan, things are not working in favor of like a very vigorous, aggressively growing economy. Maybe at some point Japanese policymakers just have to understand and accept that Japan's economy, like you know, mature economies across the world, has to accept lower levels of growth, and that Japan's levels of growth maybe need to be at the lower end of the scale.
In the G seven, one of the things that I think has been critical for igniting or let's say reigniting inflation in Japan has been the wage component that was a long time coming. Is this being celebrated now as a major pivotal point.
Well, I think there's still a little bit of doubt and suspicion as to whether this will continue now. Obviously, if you've got prices going up, it's a lot easier for unions and workers to demand more pay and a lot easier for executives to offer more pay and explain it to their shareholders. So we've got a bit of a chicken and an egg thing here. We need the prices to go up to justify the wages, but then the Bank of Japan saying you need the wages going up to push up the prices.
So we've talked a lot about the macro in Japan. Tell me how this intersects with the current political environment.
Well, in terms of the current political environment, we were expecting an early election, with Prime Minister Fum taking advantage of up to in popularity ratings. However, things have turned in the other direction in the last few weeks. He's got a problem with an identification number scheme that the government's been trying to roll out. It's got all kinds of technical problems and this has led to a in his popularity. And so this means the likelihood of an
early election, certainly over the summer, has totally gone. Even in the autumn it's looking far more doubtful. And what this means is the boj doesn't have to worry about getting in the way of election or ruffling markets, because as an election going away, that factor is now taken out of the equation, and so investors I think should be a little bit more on guard for some kind of stopgap measure for the boj at this coming meeting.
Paul, thank you so much for being with us. Bloomberg's Paul Jackson. He covers the government's and economies of Japan and South Korea. I'm Doug Prisoner. You can join Brian Curtison and myself weekdays from Bloomberg Daybreak Asia beginning at six am in Hong Kong, six pm on Wall Street Amy.
Thank you, Doug, and coming up on Bloomberg day Break weekend. Senate Democrats are pushing for a set of ethics rules for Supreme Court justices. Morris. This is Bloomberg.
Broadcasting live from the Bloomberg It a active Brokers studio in New York. Bloomberg Elemon three oh to Washington, d C, Bloomberg ninety nine one to Boston, Bloomberg one oh six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixteen to the country, Serrius XM Channel one nineteen to London DAB Digital Radio, and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app in Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Date Break weekend.
I'm Ammy Morris in Washington with your global look ahead at the top stories for investors in the coming week. Senate Democrats are pushing for a law that would essentially set a new code of conduct for the Supreme Court. That's after a string of controversies related to the High Court. For more, let's head to our Bloomberg ninety nine to one newsroom in Washington and Bloomberg Sound On co host Kaylee Lines, Kaylee.
That's right, Amy. The Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Democratic chairman Senator Dick Durbin, will vote this coming Thursday on a bill that would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a code of conduct. Let's first remind ourselves of the reason why this push is happening, or reasons. Perhaps. Joining me now is Greg Store, who covers the High Court
for us here at Bloomberg. So, Greg, just to start, can you just give us a brief recap about all of the perhaps ethically questionable information that has come to light about certain justices in recent months.
Yeah, there's a growing list, and for all we know, the let's make get longer by the time that they hold this vote. The biggest stories had to do with Justice Clarence Thomas accepting luxury travel over the course of a couple decades from a Republican mega donor, a guy named Harlan Crowe. There's been another revelation that Justice sam Alito took a trip that was also funded by Republican donors.
A new story out by the Associated Press involving Justice Sonya Sodomayor using her staff members to when she would go out on speeches to encourage the venues to acquire her book books so that people she could sign them for people. So there's a kind of a panoply of things and I'm really just kind of scraping the surface here.
Well, and that of course is on both sides, right conservative leaning justices as well as those on the other end, which raises the question about what ethics checks really exist for the court. Now we've kind of learned that there aren't many, right.
Yeah, they are not bound by any code of conduct. They say they follow the code of conduct that applies to lower court judges, but there's really no mechanism for enforcing it. And that is part of the problem here that when there are these stories that come out and you know, people are complaining about them. There's no place for them really to turn where an independent entity will look at them and say either you did or did not violate the ethics rules.
So that brings us to this legislations bill that the Judiciary Committee is set to vote on this coming week. What is it trying to accomplish.
It's trying to require the Court, as you said at
the beginning, to put in place a code. It's not imposing one from the outside, because it is the idea by the Democratic senators who are pushing it is that the court would know best about exactly how to craft it, and they don't want to be too intrusive, they say, but it would require the court to have clearer disclosure rules, clearer rules about conflicts of interests, and it would set up an enforcement mechanism involving lower court judges so that
if there were a complaint, there would be somebody to review that.
So I guess, really this is more about avoiding ethics conflicts in the future than the ones of the past that we now about, right, is that a fair characterization?
It mostly is, you know, it remains to be seen how exactly this might apply to past things. You know, somebody could perhaps you know, file a complaint having to do with something that happened in the past. And of course this is just legislation, right, awful lot of hurdles, including the filibuster in the Senate, than the fact that the House is controlled by Republicans.
Well, that's what I was going to ask. Next, Is this something that it seems like it's going to get bipartisan support at this point?
No, you know, Republicans have generally said that these complaints about the Supreme Court, which are mostly geared towards the more conservative justices, Republicans have generally sort of said this is, you know, basically a proxy for complaints about the Court's outputs in the Court, of course, has had a number both this term and last term, a number of very big,
very conservative decisions. So it does not at this point look as though there's going to be enough Republican support to get it over the finish line.
I want to come back to the perhaps controversial decisions that have been made in the last several months and what that has done to the Court's standing on the part of the American public. But first, if I could just ask you one last question, around what's happening on the Capitol hillside. It's worth noting that the Judiciary Committee isn't just trying to vote on this legislation. They've also
been seeking information. They asked Harlan Crowe, who you mentioned, the billionaire involved with the Clarence Thomas dealings that had been spotlighted. They've asked him for information. He has refused to cooperate. And I believe they've had outreach toward Chief Justice John Roberts as well, and these efforts haven't necessarily been fruitful.
Right, Dick Durbin, who's the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, invited John Roberts to testify. The Chief Justice declined in a letter that really didn't even sort of acknowledge there was an issue here. The Court did put out this statement of ethical principles that they say they follow, but that didn't go nearly as far as of the Court want to. So far, the Court has not not been
willing to engage much on these issues. And you know, one question here is the Court has also never acknowledged that Congress has a constitutional right to impose any sorts of ethical requirements on them. So even if this legislation were to go forward, it's not clear that the Supreme Court would necessarily accept it as something that's binding on them.
So the Court could rule about itself almost.
It could rule, or it could just say, and of course these are nine individuals, say I or we are not going to abide by this. You know, one of the issues that John Roberts has over at the Court is, you know, imposing putting in place a code of conduct isn't necessarily something that can be done on a five to four or six to three vote, like other things that the Court does. It's the kind of thing that probably requires buy in from everybody since you're going to
expect everybody to abide by it. So that will be a hurdle that that you know, the Court, the Court has to deal with.
Well, especially if some of the justices that would need to sign on are the ones that have been in the spotlight for some of these ethics issues and could fear potential repercussions. So if we could just bring this around more broadly to kind of what you were suggesting about some of the decisions they've been made, and just the issue of trust in the Court or faith in the Supreme Court. Where is it standing in America right now?
Pretty darn lowe ad or near record lows. And that is especially among Democrats, because of course Democrats are the ones more likely to be unhappy with how the Court has been ruling. Yeah, and you know exactly what is causing that, and you know, the questions don't always get into that. Undoubtedly some of it is because of the Court's rulings. Undoubtedly some of it is because of the the way Republicans, both in the White House and the Senate have managed to get to get their nominees on
the Court. Of course, the you know, the well documented Mitch McConnell's hold open of that seat before the election that elected Donald Trump rushed to get Amy Cony Barrett co affirmed before the last presidential election. And then we have all these ethics issues on top of that, and you know, it's a time where more and more people are saying, I don't have confidence in this court.
So aside from you know, just this legislation around the Code of Conduct, it raises a question of whether or not we're going to have a more serious conversation about reform to the Court in some way or another, whether or not that means expanding it, which always isn't a politically a popular idea or something else.
We'll continue to have that conversation, I'm sure, but the political reality is it's not likely to happen anytime soon, even if Democrats, like even if Joe Biden were to wholeheartedly, you know, get on board saying I want to expand the Supreme Court, or I want to impose term limits. These are things that at a minimum would require legislation that requires it has all the congressional hurdles that we
talked about earlier. And to the extent, and I think inter large extent, this is happening, and the Supreme Court is being looked upon as kind of a zero sum game, as an extension of the political process. A lot of Republicans are very happy with what the Court's been doing on abortion, affirmive action. You know, you go down the list.
All right, So a lot of cases to look forward to, and of course Greg Store is going to have them all covered for us, our wonderful Supreme Court reporter here at Bloomberg and Amy. We'll send it back to you.
Thank you, Kaylee. That was Bloomberg sound on co host Kaylee lines reporting from our Bloomberg ninety nine to one newsroom in Washington, and you can hear sound on weekdays from one until three pm on Bloomberg Radio. Coming up on Bloomberg Daybreak weekend, some big elections are coming up in Spain. We'll tell you why we're watching so closely. Hi, Maybe Morris, This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Daybreak weekend. Our global look ahead at the top stories for investors
in the coming week. I Amy Morris in Washington. Spain's political parties are heading into the final week of campaigning ahead of the general election next weekend. Outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is seeking reelection for his Socialist Party, but he faces strong opposition from the Conservative People's Party. For more, let's head to London and bring in Bloomberg Daybreak Europe anchor Stephen Carroll.
This is a Snapsummer election called by Pedro Sanchez after a poor showing for the Socialist Party in local and region elections in May. The Conservative People's Party won seven of the twelve regions that were up for grabs in that vote. They're also leading in polls heading into this election as well. For more, let's bring in Bloomberg's Madrid bureau chief, Rodrigo Uruguelo Rodrigo. What was Pedro Sanchez's strategy in calling this election now in the height of summer.
The strategy was basically that he tried to put an end to the momentum the peep he was going to get if he waited for six more months. They already had the momentum from winning the election in May, and his main concern was that if he stayed in power for six more months with them celebrating all along those six months, he was going to become a bit of what Americans would call a lame duck, even though you know it's not technically the same, but that was kind
of the impression. And also in Spain, you have to focus on the two main parties, but also on the junior parties on each side of what we call the
right and left blocks. And on the left of Pedro Sanchez and the Socialist there is a key partner for him, which is his junior partner in government, and they were melting down and having a breakdown, and so by basically calling a snap election, he was also telling them pull your act together and you know, start, start, campaigning because the election is around the corner.
What are the issues that have dominated this campaign so far.
The one issue that Pedro Sanchez was betting on dominating the campaign in his favor was the economy, because the Spanish economy has recovered in quite impressive form from the COVID crisis. It has right now the lowest inflation rate in Europe and probably the highest GDP growth rate. However, this has not benefited him in any way. It didn't benefit him in the May election and it's not benefiting him now. Everybody seems to be focused on other issues.
The main one is the endless topic of regional nationalisms in Spain, so his proximity to Catalan and Basque In secessionists has become a big, big point of attack for the right. And the other issue that is dominating at a little slightly lower level are local cultural wars.
Well, let's talk about the main challenger then to Pedro Sanchez. This is the leader of the People's Party, Alberto Nunez Fejo. He's the key figure to watch in this election. What do we know about him?
The PP has traditionally been a broad church for the right. They included everything from centrist liberals to extreme right conservatives, and Faiho has always been rather ambiguous in where he stands, but the general consensus is that he is more towards the center than to the extreme right. But he can also play to both extremes. That is his strongest strength. He ruled his region, which is Galicia in the northwest, for twelve years, and as years went by he gained
more and more power and clout over the region. He was quiet. He was rather protected and shielded from some of the scrutiny that you get from the national stage. There's not much of a critical media establishment in Galicia. He didn't have much of a position, and interestingly enough, he also managed to put to bed the local nationalist movement, regional nationalist movement, which was the pro Galician independence movement. He has been quite skillful at keeping them at bay.
Okay, well, it sounds like a very interesting last week of campaigning there in Spain ahead of the vote on the twenty third of July. Thank you so much to Bloomberg's Rodrigo Aurguela in Madrid.
There.
I'm Stephen Carolyn London. You can catch us every weekday morning here for Bloomberg Daybreak here at beginning at six am in London and one am on Wall Street.
Thank you, Steven, and that does it for this edition of Bloomberg day Break Weekend. Join us again Monday morning at five am Wall Street time for the latest on markets overseas and the news you need to start your day. I n Amy Morris stay with us. Top stories and global business headlines are coming up right now.