Global Markets Brace for Geopolitical Tests as Putin Meets Xi, Trump Halts Iran Attacks

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd writing to you from London. Welcome to today's edition of the Daily Open newsletter.

The so-called "strategic triangle" between Russia, China and the U.S. will face one of its most significant tests today.

A meeting between Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping in Beijing will give a crucial indication of the state of relations between the two nations. But it will also test ties with the U.S., after President Donald Trump concluded his own trip to China with a positive tone.

For markets, it's a lot of geopolitical news to digest — as investors walk a fine line between broadly resilient stocks and some bond markets signalling signs of distress.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Beijing for a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the two leaders meet for the second time in the past year.

Putin will seek reassurance that any improvement in China's ties with Washington will not alter the "strategic triangle" that keeps China and Russia closer than either country is with the U.S., said Dennis Wilder, a former U.S. intelligence official and professor at Georgetown University.

However, the Financial Times reports this morning that Xi told President Trump last week that Putin may "regret" his invasion of Ukraine, according to sources the FT cited as being familiar with the U.S. assessment of last week's talks.

For Putin, energy is top of the agenda during his time in Beijing, after the Russian leader signaled last week that the country is close to a "serious" gas and oil deal with China.

Meanwhile, President Trump has called off a plan to launch a fresh round of attacks against Iran after Middle Eastern nations requested he "hold off."

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE asked the White House to reconsider its action, while Trump said multiple countries called on him to put off the impending attack on Iran "for two or three days, a short period of time, because they think that they are getting very close to making a deal."

Crude prices eased on the news, while across equity markets, Asia-Pacific shares were mixed, and pre-market indicators suggest a varied open across Europe and the U.S.

In Paris, G7 finance ministers and central bank governors continue to sound a cautious tone. French Finance Minister Roland Lescure told CNBC that while the European economy is proving resilient, there is still a significant supply-side shock. The European Commission's economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis also warned the Iran war was driving a "stagflationary shock."

In corporate news, Standard Chartered has outlined plans to cut over 15% of its corporate functions workforce in a bid to meet its profitability targets through to 2030. The bank said automation and AI adoption will drive role reductions across back-office roles.

— Leonie Kidd

Musk slams Altman trial verdict as a ‘technicality,’ vows to appeal

A federal jury in Oakland, California, on Monday said Elon Musk waited too long to sue OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman over claims they allegedly violated an agreement to run their artificial intelligence venture strictly as a charitable nonprofit.

The advisory jury's verdict, which came after less than two hours of deliberations, was immediately adopted by District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.

The court did not address whether Musk's claims of "breach of charitable trust" were valid, but instead found they fell outside of a three-year statute of limitations.

Musk and his attorneys said they would appeal the verdict to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The end of the trial marked a loss for Musk in an early battle between two tech billionaires, who were once close friends.

In a post on his social network X, Musk called the decision a "calendar technicality."

— Jeffrey Kopp, Lora Kolodny