5 things to start your day

[Bloomberg]( Huawei charges escalate tensions ahead of trade talks, another day of key Brexit votes and PG&E files for bankruptcy. Huawei now? U.S. prosecutors allege Huawei Technologies Co. [stole trade secrets]( from an American rival and committed bank fraud by violating sanctions against doing business with Iran in charges filed in New York and Washington state yesterday. While the company has been in the crosshairs of the U.S. government [for some time](, these charges coming just days before trade talks with a Chinese delegation in Washington look like an escalation of tensions. President Donald Trump is [expected to meet]( Vice Premier Liu He, China’s top trade negotiator, during the talks scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. (Another) key vote What Brexit has [lacked in progress]( over the past few years, it certainly has made up for in drama, and there is more of that scheduled for later today. British Prime Minister Theresa May faces [votes in Parliament](, with one of those attempting to put Brexit on hold, while another would send her back to Brussels to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement. While traders would prefer the delay of Brexit [in the short term](, even that would not be enough to see a [meaningful change of sentiment]( towards U.K. equities.  Sponsor Content by PIMCO 2019 Cyclical Outlook: Synching Lower Is it the end of U.S. exceptionalism? In [“Synching Lower,” our 2019 cyclical outlook](, we take a closer look at how U.S. markets are "catching down" to global markets and what investors can expect in the year ahead.  Bankruptcy PG&E Corp. and its Pacific Gas & Electric Co. utility filed for Chapter 11 in San Francisco in one of the largest utility bankruptcies all time. The move follows two years of wildfires that killed more than 100 people and resulted in estimated liabilities of [more than $30 billion](. The knock-on effects of such a large bankruptcy will be [felt across the U.S.]( as suppliers to the company are downgraded, while California’s fight against climate change will also be hampered. Markets mixed Overnight, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.2 percent while Japan’s Topix index closed [0.1 percent higher](, recovering from early-session losses. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.8 percent higher by 5:50 a.m. Eastern Time with all sectors except tech stocks making gains for the session. S&P 500 futures [were flat](, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 2.740 percent and gold was higher. Apple earnings Following yesterday’s [disappointing outlook]( from Caterpillar Inc. and Nvidia Corp., today sees the turn of another global economy bellwether to report. Apple Inc. earnings are due after the bell, and will be very closely watched for further signs of a slowdown following Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s warning in early January about slower revenue from the holiday quarter. [iPhone sales]( will, as usual, be the key metric for investors to watch as worries about falling demand in China remain high. What we've been reading This is what's caught our eye over the last 24 hours. - U.S. government seen as [most corrupt in seven years](. - The cost of [dirty money](. - Shutdown talks team [stacked with deal makers](, not bomb throwers. - The dark case for both [QE and QT being bad](. And Treasuries as a haven. - Bitcoin’s [not a great hedge]( against U.S. stock losses either. - [China's equity market]( is already testing new chief regulator. - The art of [decision making](. And finally, here’s what Joe's interested in this morning It's the start of a two-day Fed meeting, and unlike January meetings of yore, this one will probably garner quite a bit of attention. No policy change is expected, but because all meetings have press conferences now, and since all the recent Chairman Powell speeches have been market moving, this will be closely watched. Obviously there's going to be tremendous interest in what Powell says about the use of the balance sheet as a live policy mechanism, since it was his perceived inflexibility on that issue last year that supposedly helped send the market into a tailspin. University of Oregon Fed Watcher Tim Duy (also a Bloomberg Opinion contributor) [expects Powell]( to have a more clean, polished answer to balance sheet questions than he's had in the past. Duy also notes one wrinkle that complicates the situation for the Fed: for technical reasons (not relating to economic conditions) there was already talk about slowing the pace of the balance sheet wind-down. But now that the message has been muddled about it as an economy policy lever, any such action to change the run-off pace may get confused as a macro signal. There's definitely plenty to tune in for tomorrow. Like Bloomberg's Five Things? [Subscribe for unlimited access]( to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. 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