JD Vance lays out protectionist agenda at Republican conference | Invesloan.com

Good morning. We start in the US, where Donald Trump is set to close the four-day Republican National Convention with a speech later this evening.

But last night, the event’s star act was his pick for vice-president, Ohio senator JD Vance. In a speech to accept his nomination as Trump’s running mate, Vance praised a “country where a working-class boy born far from the halls of power” could rise to the highest levels of politics, as he pledged unwavering loyalty to the former president.

The 39-year-old also leaned heavily on his impoverished upbringing to rail against Wall Street and corporate America, putting economic populism at the centre of the party’s campaign. Here are more details on the isolationist agenda laid out in his speech.

We have a packed agenda in Europe today. Here’s what I’m keeping tabs on:

• UK: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hosts dozens of European leaders at a meeting of the European Political Community at Blenheim Palace, while chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to outline a new law aimed at preventing a repeat of Liz Truss’s “mini” Budget.

• ECB rate decision: The European Central Bank is widely expected to hold benchmark rates at the current level.

• France: The country’s hung parliament faces its first test with a vote to select the National Assembly’s president.

• Companies: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Nokia, Netflix and Novartis are among those reporting. AJ Bell has a trading update, while Anglo American has its production report.

Five more top stories

1. Exclusive: Warner Bros Discovery is weighing a possible split to boost its sagging share price. People familiar with the matter said chief executive David Zaslav was examining several options, including hiving off its Warner Bros movie studio and Max streaming service into a new company unburdened by most of the group’s current $39bn net debt load. More details on the potential spin-off.

2. Exclusive: Grant Thornton is weighing a deal to unite its transatlantic affiliates, according to people familiar with the proposal. The accounting group’s US business has discussed a possible deal to acquire its UK and Irish affiliates in what would be one of the most ambitious M&A transactions in the sector to date.

3. Exclusive: A former Segantii Capital Management employee has said the Securities and Exchange Commission is not planning to take action against him. Robert Gagliardi’s trading had formed part of the US probe into Morgan Stanley that the bank settled this year for $249mn. Read the full story.

4. Semiconductor stocks tumbled yesterday after Donald Trump said Taiwan should pay for its own defence and the US was reported to be considering tougher restrictions on trading chips with China. The US-listed shares of industry bellwether Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company slipped 8 per cent. Here’s how other chip giants fared.

5. Ken Griffin has paid $44.6mn for a 150mn-year-old stegosaurus known as “Apex”, making it the most valuable fossil ever sold at auction. The fossil — which is 11ft tall and 27ft long — surpassed its presale low estimate by more than 11 times, according to Sotheby’s. Here’s what the Citadel founder intends to do with his new purchase.

The Big Read

Once considered a barely investable backwater by global portfolio managers, India’s equity markets have recently transformed. Online “finfluencers” are tapping into frenzied enthusiasm for trading among the country’s vast millennial and Gen Z cohort. But as tens of millions of first-time domestic investors pile into stocks and mutual funds, the country’s regulators are growing concerned about the explosion of risk-taking.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Israeli politics: Despite his dismal approval ratings, Benjamin Netanyahu has clung on to power, with an opposition unable to capitalise on the slump.

• AI censorship: Chinese officials are testing artificial intelligence companies’ large language models to ensure their systems “embody core socialist values”.

• HSBC: New chief executive Georges Elhedery will have to cut stubborn costs and deliver profits without the help of rising interest rates.

Graphic of the day

Analysing aerial and satellite images and video at Saturday’s campaign event, our visual investigation demonstrates the extent of the security failures that allowed a would-be assassin to shoot Donald Trump.

Take a break from the news

What can modern art teach us about modern democracy? Focusing on works from a dark period of oppressive military rule in Europe’s recent past, a new exhibition at the revivified National Gallery of Greece explores the question with a stress test for our times.

Additional contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm and Gordon Smith