● Calm currency markets at odds with conventional wisdom Volatility nears historic low as investors assume liquidity will remain plentiful

● China developers snap up distressed real estate debt Large property groups buy up rivals’ soured loans, accelerating sector consolidation

● Honda closure may not be about Brexit, but it is about Brexports Politicians knew Japanese carmakers were in talks to make tariff-free EU trade possible

● Satellite group Inmarsat gets a boost from bid speculation Plus500 falls further as Odey AM eyes contracts-for-difference broker

● Honda closure triggers fears of UK car crisis Carmakers warn of dangers of ‘hard’ Brexit as clock ticks down to EU exit deadline

● Chinese police launch dragnet for peer-to-peer lenders Operation ‘Fox Hunt’ involves 62 people in countries including Cambodia and Thailand

● Oil prices hit three-month high on trade deal optimism Rally is tempting money managers to make more bullish bets on crude

● Reckitt Benckiser: a rock and a hard place Rakesh Kapoor’s legacy includes a restructuring that looks rather like a time-delayed break-up

● Facebook joins Amazon and Google in AI chip race Company needs faster hardware for smart digital assistant and real-time video moderation

● Brexit/derivatives trading: walk this way EU regulators say the UK can function as an equivalent European market — but that could change

● Poland pulls out of central European summit with Israel Warsaw withdraws as diplomatic row escalates over the Holocaust

● Wirecard/short selling: the naked civil servant If the payments services group requires protection, why not others?

● Handelsbanken names Carina Akerstrom as first female CEO The 56-year-old has her work cut out at the Swedish bank she joined in 1986

● South African group accused of Zuma bribes goes into liquidation Logistics company Bosasa is biggest corporate casualty so far of corruption inquiry

● Germany and France reach compromise over arms exports Preliminary understanding aims to ease tension over sale of jointly developed weapons

● We need to talk about Bunds A shortage of safe assets in the eurozone is creating market distortions

● Honda set to close Swindon plant in fresh blow to UK manufacturing Move would place 3,500 jobs at risk just weeks before Brexit

● EU threatens retaliation if US imposes punitive car tariffs European Commission to ‘react in a swift and adequate manner’ to any levies

● US and European rifts on display at Munich security conference This year’s Munich security conference was marked by sharp disagreements between the…

● German regulator bans shorting of Wirecard shares BaFin cites ‘serious threat to market confidence’ following collapse in stock price

● Miliband criticises UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia Former foreign secretary calls for rethink due to Riyadh’s role in Yemen crisis

● Kashmir attack revives India-China tensions Beijing accused of protecting man allegedly behind latest suicide bomb and previous lethal acts

● EM investors should make hay while the sun shines Risks cannot be discounted but, for now, EMs are in a sweet spot

● Stocks to watch: Reckitt Benckiser, Plus500, Petrofac Centrica is unlikely to shake dividend-cut fears this year, says Berenberg
