Financial Times Europe - 13.11.2019

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Briefing

i ulls are back, says Bank of America pollB

New optimism over growth has spurred investors to

raise holdings of stocks by a fifth in the past month,

according to a survey, a dramatic turnround from

bearish sentiment earlier in the year.— PAGE 11

i rump hails economy in swipe at FedT

The US president has attacked the central bank for

failing to cut interest rates below zero and defended

his protectionist trade policy as next year’s election

campaign looms.— PAGE 4; MARTIN WOLF, PAGE 9

i pain’s Socialists in deal with radical leftS

Caretaker premier Pedro Sánchez has agreed in

principle to form a government with Podemos,

opening the door to bringing the far-left into power

for the first time since the Spanish civil war.— PAGE 2

i halaf to succeed Barber as FT editorK

Roula Khalaf, deputy editor, is

to succeed Lionel Barber, who

is stepping down after a

14-year tenure. She will be the

FT’s first female editor since its

founding in 1888.— PAGE 3

i sraeli strike on Gaza sparks retaliationI

A leader of an Iran-backed militant group in the

Gaza Strip has been killed in an air strike, sparking

a wave of retaliatory rockets and fears of a new rise

in hostilities with the Palestinian territories.— PAGE 3

i ebanon bank curbs hit medical suppliesL

A squeeze on the supply of US dollars as the central

bank seeks to bolster its own foreign reserves has

led to shortages of fuel and vital medical supplies,

deepening the country’s economic turmoil.— PAGE 4

i uropean court aid boosts Catalan leaderE

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain

to avoid prosecution, has been boosted by advice

that Madrid cannot stop those elected to Europe’s

parliament seeking judicial immunity.— PAGE 2

Datawatch

Not so super, man

Trump’s cavalier approach to allies

damages us all— MARTIN WOLF, PAGE 9

WEDNESDAY13 NOVEMBER 2019 WORLD BUSINESS NEWSPAPER EUROPE

World Markets

STOCK MARKETS

Nov 12 prev %chg

S&P 500 3096.54 3087.01 0.

Nasdaq Composite 8500.35 8464.28 0.

Dow Jones Ind 27723.20 27691.49 0.

FTSEurofirst 300 1594.95 1588.23 0.

Euro Stoxx 50 3717.09 3696.82 0.

FTSE 100 7365.44 7328.54 0.

FTSE All-Share 4060.54 4043.57 0.

CAC 40 5919.75 5893.81 0.

Xetra Dax 13283.51 13198.37 0.

Nikkei 23520.01 23331.84 0.

Hang Seng 27065.28 26926.55 0.

MSCI World $ 2266.36 2268.83 -0.

MSCI EM $ 1052.88 1064.85 -1.

MSCI ACWI $ 542.00 543.24 -0.

CURRENCIES

Nov 12 prev

$ per € 1.101 1.

$ per £ 1.284 1.

£ per € 0.858 0.

¥ per $ 109.150 109.

¥ per £ 140.137 140.

SFr per € 1.095 1.

€ per $ 0.908 0.

Nov 12 prev

£ per $ 0.779 0.

€ per £ 1.166 1.

¥ per € 120.201 120.

£ index 79.635 79.

SFr per £ 1.276 1.

COMMODITIES

Nov 12 prev %chg

Oil WTI $ 56.97 56.86 0.

Oil Brent $ 62.17 62.18 -0.

Gold $ 1458.70 1464.15 -0.

INTEREST RATES

price yield chg

US Gov 10 yr 127.69 1.93 -0.

UK Gov 10 yr 146.59 0.72 -0.

Ger Gov 10 yr -0.26 -0.

Jpn Gov 10 yr 118.36 -0.04 0.

US Gov 30 yr 106.97 2.40 -0.

Ger Gov 2 yr 105.75 -0.63 -0.

price prev chg

Fed Funds Eff 1.83 2.04 -0.

US 3m Bills 1.55 1.56 -0.

Euro Libor 3m -0.44 -0.44 0.

UK 3m 0.79 0.79 0.

Prices are latest for edition Data provided by Morningstar

A L I C E WO O D H O U S E , N I C O L L E L I U

A N D S U E- L I N WO N G— HONG KONG

Hong Kong is on the “brink of total

collapse”, the territory’s police warned

yesterday as a second day of violence

pushed the five-month crisis towards a

new and more dangerous phase.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets

to disperse protesters in the financial

district and at university campuses, a

day after the shooting by officers of a

demonstrator unleashed a wave of vio-

lencethatcontinuedlateintothenight.

Tear gas was deployed at the Chinese

University of Hong Kong. “The police

should not attack the campus and its

students,” said one young protester. “It

is no different from June 4,” he added,

referring to the Tiananmen Square

massacreinBeijingin1989.

The city’s transport infrastructure

was badly hit for a second day, with

multiplestations closed and trains can-

celled.Manyschoolswerealsoclosed.

“Over the past two days, our society

has been pushed to the brink of a total

breakdown as rioters went on a ram-

page,” said Kong Wing-cheung, a senior

police superintendent. “Rule of law has

been pushed to the brink of total

collapse asrioters recklessly escalate

their violence in the false hope that they

cangetawaywithit.”

The latest clashesfollow the death on

Friday of 22-year-old Chow Tsz-lok, in

whatisbeingtreatedbysomeprotesters

asthefirstfatalityofthecrisis.

Atotalof128peoplewerehospitalised

on Monday, including a man who was

set on fire after scuffles with protesters.

Apoliceofficerwasalsosuspendedafter

videoappeared to show him riding his

motorbike intoprotesters. The shot

protester and the man who was set

alightwerebothinacriticalcondition.

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief execu-

tive, called protesters “extremely

selfish” for paralysing the transport

network.

MsLamconfirmedthatthecitywould

pressonwithelectionsonNovember24,

the first big test of public opinion since

protests began. We will try our very“

best to ensure the election will continue

in a safe and orderly manner,” she said.

Pollsshowedherapprovalratinghadhit

anall-timelowofunder20percent.

Record numbers of pro-democracy

candidates are standingbut there have

beeneight attacks on pro-democracy

figuresrecently.Junius Ho, an outspo-

ken pro-establishment politician, was

stabbed astweekwhilecampaigning.l

Big Read age 7p

Editorial Comment & Letters age 8p

Hong Kong ‘on the brink’ as shooting

of protester ramps up violence level

© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2019

No: 40,246★

Printed in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin,
Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Orlando, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Seoul, Dubai, Doha

AnalysisiPAGE 3

Warren gives billionaires

a run for their money

Austria €3.80 North Macedonia Den
Bahrain Din1.8 Malta €3.
Belgium €3.80 Morocco Dh
Bulgaria Lev7.50 Netherlands €3.
Croatia Kn29 Norway NKr
Cyprus €3.60 Oman OR1.
Czech Rep Kc105 Pakistan Rupee
Denmark DKr37 Poland Zl 20
Egypt E£42 Portugal €3.
Finland €4.50 Qatar QR
France €3.80 Romania Ron
Germany €3.80 Russia €5.
Gibraltar £2.70 Serbia NewD
Greece €3.60 Slovak Rep €3.
Hungary Ft1200 Slovenia €3.
India Rup220 Spain €3.
Italy €3.60 Sweden SKr
Latvia €6.99 Switzerland SFr6.
Lebanon LBP7500 Tunisia Din7.
Lithuania €4.30 Turkey TL
Luxembourg €3.80 UAE Dh17.

Medical staff

educated abroad

play a vital role

in health systems

in a number of

developed

countries. Israel,

at 57.7 per cent,

had the highest

proportion of

foreign-trained

doctors in the

OECD. Turkey had

the lowest share

Foreign doctors

 trained overseas

  

Israel

Ireland

Norway

UK

US

Germany

Spain

Italy

Turkey

Source: OECD, 

OECD

average

Academic interest

Beijing’s soft power hits home on

western campuses— BIG READ,PAGE 7

Vanishing point

Foreign groups are ditching Tokyo

listings— MARKETS INSIGHT, PAGE 18

G U Y C H A Z A N— BERLIN

Angela Merkel has urged Europe to
seize control of its data from Silicon Val-
ley tech giants, in an intervention that
highlights the EU’s growing willingness
to challenge the US dominance of the
digitaleconomy.
The German chancellor said the EU
should claim “digital sovereignty” by
developing its own platform to manage
data and reduce its reliance on the US-
based cloud services run by Amazon,
MicrosoftandGoogle.
“So many companies have just out-
sourced all their data to US companies,”
Ms Merkel told German business lead-
ers. “I’m not saying that’s bad in and of
itself; I just mean that the value-added
products that come out of that, with the

help of artificial intelligence, will create

dependencies that I’m not sure are a

goodthing.”

Her speech, at an employers’ confer-

ence in Berlin, shows the extent to

which the information economy is

emerging as a battleground in the

EU-UStradingrelationship.

It also highlights the concern in Euro-

peancapitalsthattheEUcouldbeweak-

ened by the market dominance of the

big US tech companies, particularly in

storing,processingandanalysingdata.

Margrethe Vestager, thepowerful EU

competition chief who is now also to

overseedigital policy, told the Financial

Times last month that she was examin-

ingwhetherbiginternetgroupscouldbe

held to higher standards of proof in

competition cases, as part of a

tougher line on dominant companies.

Ms Merkel was speaking just two

weeks after Berlin unveiled plans for a

European cloud computing initiative,

dubbed Gaia-X, which it has described

as a “competitive, safe and trustworthy

datainfrastructureforEurope”.

At theconferenceyesterday,Peter

Altmaier, the economy minister, aids

the data of companies such asVolkswa-

gen, and that of the German interior

ministry and social security system,

were stored on the servers ofMicrosoft

andAmazon.

He said 40 companies had signed up

to Gaia-X, includingDeutsche Telekom

andSAP.

But some business groups are scepti-

cal. “While the intention to strengthen

digital sovereignty is absolutely right,

therearestillbigquestions:suchas,how

do you combine so many different play-

ers in an effective way?” said Susanne

DehmelofdigitallobbygroupBitkom.

In the past couple of yearsMs Merkel

has underscored the power of the US

and China over data, contrasting the

American approach — where big com-

paniesdominate the business of storing

and processing data — with China,

where the state exercises its vast powers

toaccessthedataofitscitizens.

EmmanuelMacronhasvoicedsimilar

fears. In an interview with The Econo-

mist, France’s president said in Europe

it was companies that decided whether

toco-operatewithUSandChineseman-

ufacturersonprojectssuchas5G.

German economy stagnatespage 2

Marietje Schaakepage 9

Europe must wrest control of data

from Silicon Valley, warns Merkel

3 US dominance feared in information economy 3 EU urged to claim ‘digital sovereignty’

On the move

Australians

flee wildfires

A woman carries her child to a car as
wildfires rage near the town of Coffs
Harbour,NewSouthWales.
Firefighters were tackling blazes
across eastern Australia yesterday, with
emergencies declared in Queensland
and New South Wales. Residents were
urged to evacuate, with the danger
exemplified when fire broke out in a
suburbofSydney.
Three people have died and hundreds
of homes have been destroyed in the
fiercest bushfires in years. Hope is
pinned ona change in wind direction
and cooler temperaturestoday. “Every-
thing that can be done is being done,”
ScottMorrison,Australia’sprimeminis-
ter,wroteonTwitter.
Australia fights ‘catastrophe’page 3
Dan Peled/AAP Image

Angela Merkel

warned: ‘The

value-added

products that

come out

of [data storage]

will create

dependencies

that I’m not sure

are a good thing’