Geoffrey Smith 

China’s central bank suggests that it may ease policy as real estate crises slow down the economy. Europe protests against the reinstatement of lockdowns, and the impositions of vaccine mandates. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick could be leaving. Zoom Video is the leading pandemic bellwether stock and releases its earnings following the close. This is what you should know about financial markets Monday 22 November.

1. China suggests that monetary ease may be in the future

China’s central bank hinted it will ease monetary policy for the world’s second-largest economy, as it grapples with a slowdown caused by the problems of the real estate sector.

The People’s Bank of China left its key prime rate unchanged at 3.85% at its regular policy meeting earlier but dropped some of its more hawkish comments from the statement accompanying the decision. It previously spoke out about tight control of monetary supply, and not overloading the economy with stimuli.

The yuan, which has been one of the strongest emerging-market currencies all year, edged higher to 6.3794 against the dollar, continuing to test what would be a 3 ½-year high, while benchmark stock indices rose as much as 1.4%.

2. Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Officer may be leaving

Bobby Kotick, the embattled CEO of videogames publisher Activision Blizzard, has told senior executives at the company he may quit if he isn’t able to quickly resolve the sexual harassment scandal plaguing the company, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Activision’s stock, which has been hit hard in recent months by a series of allegations suggesting a toxic and discriminatory workplace culture, rose over 2% in premarket trading in response.

This report comes after allegations that Kotick knew of company problems for longer than he admitted. Major gaming partners, such as Microsoft (NASDAQ) were concerned by the allegations and expressed discontent with their staff. Sony (NYSE:).

3. Stocks will open higher following Clarida blow. KKR and Zoom Video are eyed

The U.S. stock market is expected to open this week higher after last week’s close on a mixed note. It was straddling a positive outlook for the economy and concerns about an acceleration in tightening monetary policy. Richard Clarida (Federal Reserve Vice-chairman) acknowledged that Fed policymakers could discuss a quicker phase-out for their bond purchases than is currently planned.

At 6:20 AM ET (11120 GMT), the points were up by 167, or 0.5%. Meanwhile, and were both up 0.4%.

Today is lacking major economic indicators. Zoom Video leads a very thin earnings report, although it is only at the end. Ericsson (BS) is interested in Vonage. KKR has also been prominent with a bid to purchase a number of European telecom stocks. Telecom Italia (MI:).

4. Europe revolts against Covid-19, as Bundesbank issues inflation alarm

Germany’s inflation rate will hit 6% this month while the economy will slow, the Deutsche Bundesbank warned in a monthly report that puts the recent surge in Covid-19 cases across Europe into an even more gloomy context.

At the weekend there were protests in Belgium and the Netherlands against the introduction of mobility restrictions. There was also a smaller scale demonstration in Italy, Croatia, and Austria. The last one imposed an entire nationwide lockdown at last week’s end.

Karl Lauterbach is a prominent health specialist with the centre-left SPD. He will likely be the head of the next coalition government. In the meantime, the euro struggled to stay below $1.1300.

5. Japan releases its reserve plans to increase oil production, but it is causing problems for the world’s oil supply

News from Europe has also led to a decline in crude oil. This is leading to expectations that there will be widespread curbs on mobility over the coming months. According to OPEC and the IEA, the markets could shift from surplus to shortage as a result.

Futures had risen 0.3% to $76.14/barrel by 6:30 AM ET (1130 GMT) close to intraday lows. However, futures were 0.2% higher at $79.05/barrel, which was 0.2% above their intraday lowests.

On Friday, CFTC data had showed that speculative long positions had fallen again in the week through Tuesday, suggesting that financial players have lost faith in oil’s momentum amid rising talk of a coordinated release of strategic reserves by major consumers. Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida indicated earlier Japan would be open to such a move.