Gold slips, China cools and London keeps dealing

Rates, higher for longer

Gold began the week lower. The Wall Street Journal tied the fall to expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer, a phrase that ran through much of the weekend's coverage.

The bond market is where that expectation shows most plainly, and the same paper came at surging yields from two angles. One piece observed that stocks are defying the rise, and looked to history for what could come next. Another gathered six investing professionals to give their views on the move and on how they would trade it. Between them, the two articles describe equities and Treasuries pulling in different directions, with the Journal asking its sources what that has meant in the past.

This is Money approached the equity side from another direction. Its piece argued that Nvidia, now valued at $5.4 trillion, is the cheapest it has been in a decade for investors, on the paper's own reckoning. The size of the figure alone kept the company at the centre of the weekend's market pages.

Rate expectations are shaping decisions well beyond Wall Street. The South China Morning Post reported buyers snapping up new Hong Kong flats ahead of likely interest rate rises, bringing purchases forward rather than waiting to see where borrowing costs settle.

Closer to home, the BBC put a plainer question to its audience on Monday morning: how much is in your savings account?

China's profits cool

China's industrial profits grew 4.2 per cent in August. CNBC reported it as the weakest growth of the year so far.

Mainland shares took the news poorly. The Wall Street Journal reported Chinese equities extending their losses on Monday, setting the cooling in August profit growth alongside the move. The figure arrived at the start of the week, with the losses already under way before it.

Beneath the index level, a different pressure is building. The South China Morning Post reported that Chinese fund managers are warning of premium risks after fresh quotas failed to ease demand. The paper's account is of supply added and appetite undiminished, which leaves prices for the products concerned running ahead of what sits underneath them. The warning came from the managers themselves rather than from regulators.

Property received a more mixed assessment. JLL told the same paper that global property investors see signs of recovery in China, though they remain wary of oversupply. The two halves of that sentence carry roughly equal weight in the report, and neither was presented as settled.

New listings are still coming to Hong Kong. A robotics chip designer backed by Xiaomi has cleared its listing hearing, according to sources cited by the South China Morning Post, and is eyeing an initial public offering of about US$100m.

London's deal season

The FTSE 100 was set to open higher, City A.M. reported in its early live coverage. Oil was up as well, after President Trump rejected a deal over Hormuz.

The weekend's corporate news ran in a similar direction. Sky News reported that the buyout firm Advent is eyeing a stake in Monzo, amid talks over a £10bn bid involving Nubank. The Guardian put a figure on the wider activity: London's investment bankers and lawyers have made more than £1bn from what it called a takeover frenzy. Advisers, at least, have had a profitable year.

Two company stories came from outside the deal pages. This is Money charted the recovery at Aberdeen, crediting a punt on data centres, and the restoration of the vowels to its name, with helping to revive the ailing fund manager. The Guardian reported that profits at Lime's bike business doubled as rider numbers surged in England.

Policy made a brief appearance. Healey said the UK has "low capital gains tax rates", according to City A.M. On the other side of the Atlantic, an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal argued for reforming the rules without silencing investors.

Taken together, London's weekend was more about who is buying what than about the price of money.