Aurelia Butler

Click here to listen to the latest news — in less than three minutes. Top Stories Today is an audio news digest that gets you up to speed on the day’s top headlines in three minutes or less. Listen every weekday by clicking here. Joe Biden has nominated Jay Powell to serve a second term as chair of the Federal Reserve, opting for continuity at a delicate moment for the US economy as it confronts persistently high inflation and a patchy labour market recovery. Lael Brainard, considered Powell’s main competitor for the top job, was selected for the role of vice-chair, a position at present held by Richard Clarida. Biden praised Powell’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, his commitment to the Fed’s goals of full employment and stable prices, and his defence of the central bank’s “integrity and credibility” during the administration of former president Donald Trump. The decision ends months of speculation about the Biden administration’s appetite to reshape the Fed. It comes as the central bank debates how to fine-tune monetary policy in the face of supply-related disruptions and mounting inflationary pressures.Go deeper: Jay Powell faces significant challenges in second act as Fed chairWhat do you think of Biden’s decision to reappoint Jay Powell as Fed chair? Tell me what you think at [email protected]. Thanks for reading FirstFT Asia. — EmilyFive more stories in the news1. Weak performance in Asia-Pacific markets Most markets in Asia-Pacific fell yesterday as investors began the week on a cautious note. Shares in Reliance Industries tumbled more than 4 per cent after the Indian conglomerate revealed that a $15bn deal with Saudi Aramco had been called off. And shares in the recently listed financial services company Paytm plunged for the second day.2. Elizabeth Holmes describes Theranos’s mission to jurors The Theranos founder accused by US prosecutors of defrauding hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, took the stand in her own criminal trial, telling jurors: “We thought this was a really big idea.”3. EY files criminal complaint over leaked classified Wirecard report EY has filed a criminal complaint over a German newspaper’s publication of a classified parliamentary report into its work for disgraced payments company Wirecard. The criminal complaint was submitted yesterday to Munich criminal prosecutors, the Big Four firm told the Financial Times.4. Uber to sell cannabis to customers in Canada Uber is adding cannabis to the list of items that can be ordered through its app, though for now it will be pick-up only, and only for customers in Ontario, Canada. From Monday, users in the province can buy the drug via a new cannabis category in the Uber Eats app, to be picked up within the hour.5. Five die as car is driven into Wisconsin Christmas parade A sport-utility vehicle drove into a Christmas parade in a suburb of Milwaukee yesterday, killing at least five people and injuring 48 adults and children. The suspect, Darrell Brooks, 39, would be charged with five counts of intentional homicide, police said.

A red SUV speeds past moments before ramming into a crowd at a Christmas parade in Waukesha, in a still taken from a video published on social media on Sunday © City of Waukesha via Reuters

Coronavirus digestAustralia will ease entry requirements for visa-holding travellers next month in a significant easing of some of the world’s strictest pandemic border controls.Cases of Covid-19 in the US have ticked up in recent days as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches and many are expected to travel to gather with family. (NYT) Booksellers have done better than expected from the pandemic. However, leading players in this market, now warn of a coming supply shortage.Chief executive pay in the FTSE 100 has fallen by nearly a tenth this year, as companies reined in executive rewards under shareholder pressure.The day aheadFuneral service for MP David Amess Mourners will reflect on the significant contribution of public service made by David Amess, the Southend West MP who was killed at a constituency surgery meeting last month.IAEA chief meets Iranian officials Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will meet Iranian officials in Tehran ahead of next week’s meeting of IAEA’s Board of Governors. (Reuters) What else we’re readingChina’s exiled crypto machines China’s ban on cryptocurrency mining in May triggered an exodus of miners and a global race to relocate millions of the clunky, power intensive machines they use to solve complex puzzles and earn bitcoin. From Venezuela to Russia, data collected by the FT map where the machinery ended up.Inside Modi’s U-turn on farming laws Prime minister Narendra Modi made a rare apology last week when he made a stunning reversal by pledging to repeal contentious farm laws. Analysts said the climbdown reflected the ruling party’s growing anxiety about its prospects in elections next year in Uttar Pradesh.Peng Shuai’s plight poses Olympics headache for China Communist leaders may have underestimated the world’s alarm about the tennis star’s disappearance, writes Tom Mitchell. Instead, party leaders are more concerned about how to quash — and quash quickly — the rapidly developing scandal.Where did all the workers go? Two years of unprecedented upheaval in labour markets has caused millions on both sides of the Atlantic to step out of the workforce. Is it the result of reduced migration? Early retirement? And will it last? This is the first part of an FT series analysing how the pandemic has transformed the labour market.How to nudge an asteroid off course There is always a touch of Hollywood about a rocket launch, but the Nasa mission due to leave Earth this week is more dramatic than most, writes Anjana Ahuja. The mission, to slam a spacecraft into an asteroid to knock it off course, is a dummy run for a strategy that might one day save the planet.

An artist’s impression of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, which is scheduled to cross paths next October with the asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet, Dimorphos © Nasa/Johns Hopkins, APL/Steve Gribben

Your feedback Thank you to readers who shared their views on US President Joe Biden considering a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics. “If the US boycotts the Beijing Olympics for diplomatic reasons then it will affect the world economy. On the other hand, if I consider only Uyghurs and the genocide, I strongly support the diplomatic boycott. As a person who grew up in a small nation that also suffered from genocide and oppression by the Japanese government, I wish the US government would speak up more loudly for the minority ethnic groups in China.” — Minhee Kim, Seoul, South Korea“A boycott of the Beijing winter Olympics by the US will backfire on the co-operation needed to move forward on the most pressing issues the world is facing right now. Yes, there is a geopolitical rivalry between the US and China and clearly not everything China does should be tolerated silently; however, a boycott by the US will do nothing to deter China from realising its vision . . . More trust between the two powers is what is needed rather than insult. The recent reach-out by the Biden administration to start a dialogue with its rival sets a better example for resolving geopolitical differences.” — Gijs Holstege, The Hague, Netherlands More

Yellen said she believed Powell’s nomination and that of Lael Brainard as vice chair would win broad support in Congress and that she was confident in their ability “to make good judgments” on balancing the Fed’s dual mandates of maintaining maximum employment and price stability.”I think we do have to be concerned about inflation. It’s reached the levels that concern most Americans who are seeing it and their pocketbook when they go to the store to buy food or to fill up their cars,” said Yellen, who chaired the Fed from 2014 to 2018.She adding she believes that it is due to a supply-demand imbalance and economic bottlenecks that need to be worked out and expressed confidence the surge in prices would subside.”Over the longer run, the Fed needs to play an important role to make sure that this doesn’t become endemic. And I know that he can be counted on to do that,” she said of Powell.The U.S. economy is now experiencing a “strong growth spurt” that will continue into next year and it is up to the Fed to determine how much monetary support is needed, given falling unemployment, built-up household savings and other factors, Yellen said.”What we do see in the marketplace, with a strong dollar and generally low, longer-term interest rates, is confidence that inflation is not something that is going to become long lasting or endemic in the U.S. economy and that’s important.”She said the Fed was gearing up to include analysis of climate change as part of its stress testing because it “poses a major risk to financial institutions.” More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cryptocurrency products and funds posted inflows in the latest week, with investors undeterred by the latest price corrections, weekly data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed on Monday.Institutional investors poured in $154 million in the crypto sector in the week ended Nov. 19, with a year-to-date total of $9.2 billion, already exceeding total inflows of $6.7 billion in 2020.Bitcoin got the lion’s share of inflows with $114.4 million, equivalent to 74% of the total. So far this year, total inflows into bitcoin products and funds hit $6.7 billion.The inflows came despite a 10.4% drop in bitcoin last week. On Monday, bitcoin was down 4.5% at $56,042. The world’s largest cryptocurrency hit a record high of $69,000 on Nov. 10.”Bitcoin was ripe for a pullback and it might not be over yet before traders confidently feel a bottom has been made,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA in New York.Blockchain data provider Glassnode, in its latest research report on Monday, said bitcoin holders took profits after it hit a record high earlier this month.”Spikes in on-chain profit-taking during bullish impulses are to be expected as price climbs to new highs, and are typical for any bull market. As the realization of profits increase, so too does the probability of establishing a macro top,” Glassnode said.Ethereum saw inflows for a fourth straight week, of $12.6 million. Total inflows in the last four weeks were about $80 million. Some altcoins though, for the first time in many months, saw minor outflows, such as Cardano, with outflows of $2.1 million, data showed.But inflows into Solana, another public blockchain, totaled $8 million. By measure of total inflows over the last month, Solana has seen inflows of $43 million over the last month versus Cardano’s $23 million.Assets under management at Grayscale and CoinShares, the two largest digital asset managers, were at $51.62 billion and $6.5 billion, respectively. More

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The current spike in inflation is no reason for the European Central Bank (ECB) to rethink its interest rate policy, as inflation is still expected to slow towards the end of next year, ECB policymaker Klaas Knot said on Monday.”Interest rates will rise once inflation continues to exceed expectations in the time to come. But at the moment we have no reason to believe this will be the case”, Knot said in an interview with Dutch TV programme Nieuwsuur. More

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Investors looked to shed some risk in the U.S. corporate bond market on Monday, pushing a fund tracking the high-yield sector to its lowest level since March after Jerome Powell’s nomination for a second term as Federal Reserve chair raised expectations of sooner rate hikes.The iShares iBoxx exchange-traded fund fell about 0.38% to an eight-month low of $86.22. Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research in New York, said there was some shifting out of risk assets as U.S. Treasury yields rose with the two-year yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, topping 0.59%, its highest level since early March 2020.”If the market is correct that the Fed is going to tighten a couple of times next year, then financial conditions are going to get tighter and some of the lower-quality companies in the high-yield market are going to have a tough time,” Jones said.”You tend to see risk reduction when you get into a rate- hike cycle or tightening cycle,” she added. With the end of 2021 looming, investors may also be cashing in gains.Kenneth Monaghan, co-director of high yield at Amundi Asset Management US, said that after the sector’s record issuance and generally good performance, “people want to close down shop in this particularly exhausting year.””If I had to guess what will happen between now and the end of the year, it’s going to be a sideways to maybe modestly weaker conversation,” he said.President Joe Biden nominated Powell for a second four-year term, positioning the former investment banker to continue the most consequential revamp of monetary policy since the 1970s and finish guiding the economy out of the pandemic crisis.On Friday, high-yield spreads widened. After diving to 303 basis points on Nov. 8, the option-adjusted spread on the ICE (NYSE:ICE) BofA U.S. High Yield Index, a commonly used benchmark for the junk bond market, was at 324 basis points on Friday, its widest since Oct. 13. More