5 Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

Good morning. Small agreements in US-China talks, a shutdown averted and a plunge for Cisco shares. Here’s what’s moving markets.A meeting b [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Good morning. Small agreements in US-China talks, a shutdown averted and a plunge for Cisco shares. Here’s what’s moving markets. Small deals A meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping led to a [handful of small victories]( that may help arrest deteriorating tensions between the two nations. The [agreements included]( counternarcotics efforts, top-level military exchanges, dialogue on artificial intelligence and an increase in direct flights. That detente was undercut slightly by Biden saying he still stood by a comment [calling Xi a dictator](. Shutdown averted Back in Washington, the US Senate gave its [overwhelming approval]( for a temporary funding measure to avert a government shutdown. The measure pushes a partisan clash over federal spending into the new year while also leaving out emergency funding for Israel and Ukraine. That kicks one major political risk for markets down the road for a bit. It’s a similar story with the US and European Union reaching a an agreement on steel. The two sides are haggling over terms to [extend a truce on steel and aluminum tariffs](, but talks on a more lasting agreement this year have stalled. Cisco slides Cisco Systems shares plunged about 11% after the world’s largest maker of computer networking equipment [gave a disappointing forecast]( which added to wider concerns that companies are pulling back on technology spending. Cisco remains heavily exposed to falling corporate tech budgets while it continues to expand in services and software to reduce its dependency on one-time equipment sales. Broader macro concerns also weighed on cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, where[billings growth and guidance]( missed expectations, sending shares lower in premarket trading. Less volatile Treasury yields are slightly lower and the dollar stronger, while stock futures are marginally down, [tracking declines]( across most European indexes and in Asia earlier. That follows volatility across assets in recent days in the wake of inflation and retail sales data, along with fluctuating bets on whether interest rates have peaked. The dollar has been particularly impacted, but investors at T.Rowe Price and Fidelity International think calling an end to the [greenback’s bull run is premature](. Plenty of Fed officials are speaking today, including John Williams and Loretta Mester. Consumer resilience The next leg of the consumer sector story is ahead in the US today, with numbers on the way from Walmart, department store chain Macy’s, personal care products maker Bath & Body Works and home furnishings retailer Williams-Sonoma. That comes after blowout earnings yesterday [from Target](, where profit topped expectations, sending shares up 18%. What We’ve Been Reading This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours. - A secretive hedge fund manager and a [deep sea treasure hunter](. - Nasdaq seeks to be [more than an exchange](. - Joe Manchin says “absolutely’’ considering [running for president](. - The Pentagon fails its financial audit for the [sixth year in a row](. - A $1 billion seizure of [knock-off luxury items](. - AI companies need to rethink how they [pay for data](. - An ex-Noma chef has plans for [better prison food](. And finally, here's what Joe’s interested in this morning Stocks rallied again yesterday and the big indices are now near their highest level of the year. QQQ, the Popular NASDAQ-100 ETF, is virtually right at its peak, having erased over three months of losses in just over two weeks. You don't often see stocks taking the stairs down and the elevator up like this. Of course, the boom in risky assets isn't just in stocks. Bitcoin is at its highest level in May 2022. There’s still a ways to go before it hits its highs, but for now its seems those weeks in the immediate wake of the FTX collapse late last year were the near-term bottom. So do these lines going up and to the right mean that speculative fever is back? If crypto is flying then that must be true on some level. But it's still not totally obvious whether We're So Back or whether this is something new or different. Maybe a chart to keep an eye on is whether people start going back to Robinhood or Coinbase again in a big way. So far neither are in the top five [of free finance apps on the Apple store, according to Sensor Tower](. [And if you look at Google Trends](, search activity for the two names is at rock bottom. Still it might be worth keeping an eye on whether some of these other measures of public interest in trading start to gather steam again. Follow Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal on Twitter [@TheStalwart]( 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. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Five Things to Start Your Day: Americas Edition newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](