China Wants More

China wants more talks this month to hammer out the details of the “phase one” trade deal touted by Donald Trump before Xi Jinping agrees to sign it, according to people familiar with the matter. While Trump said the phase-one trade deal had essentially been reached, that wasn’t exactly the line rolled out by China. The Ministry of Commerce merely said “substantial progress” had been made, and the state-run Xinhua news agency didn’t mention a deal either. Investors will today be looking to China’s daily fixing of the yuan for a sign of goodwill toward the U.S. On Monday the People’s Bank of China fixed the yuan at almost exactly the same rate as it did on Friday. A stronger fix would have allayed concerns of currency manipulation in order to boost exports.

Turkey Sanctioned

The Trump administration called on Turkey for “ an immediate cease-fire” in Syria on Monday as it announced sanctions on three senior officials and sharply increased tariffs on steel in response to the military operation launched by Ankara last week. Vice President Mike Pence said that he would lead a delegation to Turkey at President Donald Trump’s request, in an effort to stop the military advance. He said Trump spoke with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier in the day. Turkey’s military offensive into northeastern Syria, to force back Kurdish militants controlling the border area, came days after President Donald Trump said the U.S. wouldn’t stand in the way.

Markets Sink

Asian stocks are set to open lower with little direction from their U.S. peers after China said it wanted more talks before signing a trade deal, while oil retreated and the dollar strengthened. Futures were lower in Sydney and Hong Kong, with modest gains seen in Japan as traders there return from a holiday. The S&P 500 Index fluctuated most of Monday after China appeared to pour cold water on the pact touted by President Donald Trump. A tweet from the Global Times’ editor-in-chief painted a more optimistic outlook, giving equities some support. U.S. bond markets were closed for the Columbus Day holiday. The iShares MSCI Turkey ETF slumped 3.9% as Trump promised to impose sanctions on Turkey. Elsewhere, the pound was higher early Tuesday after a U.K. Telegraph report that a Brexit deal appears to be taking shape.

Exploding Tensions

Violence in Hong Kong has  ratcheted up another notch, with police saying a radio-controlled improvised explosive device was detonated near a police car on Sunday evening. The explosive went off in the Mong Kok district, about 10 meters (33 feet) away from a police car. No injuries were sustained because no one was close enough to the bomb when it was detonated, Suryanto Chin-chiu, superintendent of the explosive ordinance disposal bureau, told reporters. The bomb appeared homemade but it “required a certain level of chemical knowledge,” he said. Protests in the city have become increasingly violent in recent weeks. A Hong Kong police officer was slashed in the neck by a protester in a subway station at the weekend. He remains in the intensive care unit, police said Monday. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s subway system has been closed down early for more than a week, effectively cutting off the main mode of transportation for millions of residents. Many are now wondering how long the disruption will last.

Separatists Jailed

Catalan separatists took to the streets of Barcelona Monday after many of their leaders were jailed by Spain’s Supreme Court over an attempt to break away from Spain back in 2017. Demonstrators blocked some of the city’s main avenues and highways outside the regional capital, cut off access to the city’s airport and closed a high-speed train line. The metro from the city center to the airport was disrupted. The protests came after the court sentenced former Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras to 13 years in jail, while eight other activists were given terms of between nine and 12 years. The unrest will inject an extra dose of rancor into Spain’s political system as the country prepares for its fourth general election in as many years on Nov. 10. Despite winning the last vote in April, acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez failed to piece together a majority as he struggled to manage divisions left behind by the Catalan crisis.

What We’ve Been Reading

This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours.

• Uber dismisses 350 employees.
• The latest in WeWork woes: formaldehyde in the phone booths.
• Human guinea pigs prepare for world’s first 20-hour flights.
• The Nobel Economics Prize is won by a trio fighting global poverty.
• A $3.4 billion hedge fund is let down by Japan on foreign buying rules.
• Apple is criticized for sending some browsing data to Tencent.