Hong Kong airport suspends all flights due to protests
Hong Kong airport, the eighth busiest in the world, was forced to cancel all arriving and departing flights on Monday, after thousands of demonstrators staged protests at the arrivals and departures halls.
The semiautonomous Chinese territory has been struggling to end weeks of escalating violence and civil unrest, sparked by a now-shelved extradition bill that would have permitted the transfer of fugitives to mainland China.
Authorities in Beijing condemned the latest protests saying they marked the emergence of the first signs of terrorism in Hong Kong.
China sets yuan midpoint at 7.0211 per dollar
China set the official midpoint reference for the yuan at a level weaker than the psychologically important 7-yuan-per-dollar mark for a third consecutive session on Monday.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOA) fixed the midpoint for the currency at 7.0211 per dollar. Analysts surveyed by Reuters were expecting the central bank to set the midpoint at 7.0331 per dollar.
U.S. stocks set to drop at open
U.S. stock index futures were lower early Monday as the ongoing anti-government protests in Hong Kong and yuan’s devaluation dampened investor sentiment.
At around 5:22 a.m. ET, the Dow futures contract was down 116 points, or 0.44% to 26,152, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures contract fell 31.25 points, or 0.41% to 7,629, while the S&P 500 futures contract declined 12.63 points or 0.43% to 2,907.12.
WeWork reportedly planning to reveal IPO paperwork this week
WeWork is planning to make its IPO prospectus available to the public as early as this week, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. The New York-based office-sharing startup filed documentation for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this year.
The company is currently valued at $47 billion and plans to raise more than $3.5 billion, according to the report. That would make it the second-biggest U.S. public offering in 2019 behind Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER).