News Headlines - 05 August 2019

▽Stocks suffer worst drop of 2019 amid US-China trade war

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by more than 950 points in afternoon trading as China delivered a one-two punch to the US - first by allowing its currency to sink to an 11-year low against the US dollar, and then by halting imports of US crops.
The blue-chip index settled down 767.27 points - or 2.9 percent - at 25,717.74 - marking its steepest drop of the year on a points basis, and the sixth biggest drop in the Dow’s 123-year history, also based on points fallen.

▽China Halts U.S. Agriculture Purchases as Trade War Heats Up - Bloomberg

The Chinese government has asked its state-owned enterprises to suspend purchases of U.S. agricultural products, people familiar with the situation said. Also, privately run Chinese crushers that had received retaliatory-tariff waivers on American soybeans from Beijing have stopped buying the commodity due to uncertainty over trade relations, other people said.
Chinese buyers have turned to South American soybeans and the Asian nation said it doesn’t rule out for now taxing American agricultural goods that were traded after Aug. 3, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement on its website. The ministry also confirmed relevant Chinese firms have stopped purchasing American agricultural goods.

▽Trump administration labels China a currency manipulator - CNN

The Trump administration on Monday designated China a "currency manipulator," after the country's central bank allowed its currency to weaken amid the ongoing trade dispute.
The move comes hours after Trump accused Beijing of depreciating its currency on Twitter... The People's Bank of China allowed its currency to fall below 7 yuan to the American dollar, which is considered to be a psychologically important marker, for the first time in a decade.

▽Pentagon reviewing 'war cloud' contract after Trump claims Amazon favoritism | The Guardian

The US department of defense says the defense secretary, Mark Esper, is reviewing the bid process for the military’s $10bn cloud-computing contract.
Donald Trump has criticized the process, citing complaints from other companies, as potentially biased toward Amazon. The e-commerce giant and Microsoft have been competing for the contract, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure plan, or Jedi... The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing anonymous sources, that the White House ordered the Pentagon review. The Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, owns the Post.

▽Government Cool Japan Fund Invests $30M in US Anime Distributor Sentai | Hollywood Reporter

The Japanese government's Cool Japan Fund has invested $30 million in U.S. anime distributor Sentai as part of its strategy to expand the global market for Japanese content... Sentai runs the HIDIVE streaming platform, the Anime Network cable service, sells premium anime box-sets, releases features theatrically, supplies merchandise and sub-licenses content internationally.
Sentai Filmworks established a GoFundMe campaign hours after news broke of the Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) arson; it has raised more than $2.2 million since.