Good morning! Here's what you need to know in markets on Friday.1. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was "shrewd and mature" and had won the latest standoff with the West over his nuclear and missile programs. "I think that Mr Kim Jong Un has obviously won this round. He has completed his strategic task: he has a nuclear weapon, he has missiles of global reach, up to 13,000 km, which can reach almost any point of the globe," Putin told Russian journalists at a televised meeting.2. Saudi Arabia has shortlisted New York, London and Hong Kong - singly or in a combination of two or even all three - for the international portion of the listing of national oil company Aramco, two sources with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters.The initial public offering (IPO) will also include the Saudi stock exchange, Tadawul, and is still set for late 2018, the sources said.3. Asian stocks resumed their ascent on Friday, supported by U.S. earnings optimism and a rise in oil prices while the euro edged higher as the European Central Bank signalled an end to its massive stimulus.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%, following two straight sessions of decline.4. The global airline industry is flashing a positive indicator about the world's economy. According to the International Air Transportation Association, or IATA, the amount of cargo and passengers whizzing through the skies continued to grow strongly in November, a hard economic indicator that suggests the global economic recovery is continuing to build momentum.5. Donald Trump has cancelled his planned visit to the United Kingdom in February 2018. The US president had been due to open the new American embassy in London, but has pulled out because he is"unhappy about the arrangements and scale of the visit,"according to a new report from The Daily Mail.6. Elon Musk attended a now-notorious Silicon Valley event that has been called a "sex party," his spokesperson told Business Insider.Musk insists he thought it was a "corporate party" and saw no sign of sex when he left at 1 a.m.He spent apparently his time there talking about "technology and building companies."7. An exchange-traded fund that bets on companies with blockchain technology is set to start trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Wednesday January 17, according to a person familiar with the matter. Exchange operator Nasdaq and Reality Shares, an ETF issuer and index provider, unveiled an index in November designed to capture the growth of blockchain technology. The newThe Reality Shares Nasdaq Blockchain Economy ETFby Reality Shares will be based on that index and is anticipated to start trading Wednesday, a source told Business Insider.8. Morgan Stanley on Thursday announced a new class of 153 new managing directors, according to a person familiar with the matter.Of the new promotions, 64% came from theInstitutional Securities, Investment Management, and Wealth Management divisions. Ninety-five of the new MDs work in the Americas; 38 in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; and 20 in Asia.9. There's one area of the stock market where trading is even crazier than bitcoin, where big trades can have a sizeable impact on the price of a stock, according toDon Ross, CEO of PDQ Enterprises, operator of CODA Markets, a Chicago-based dark pool. That's US small caps."Tradingsmall caps can be like 'sticking your hand in a fan to see if its running.' You may get your trade done, but youre likely to be bloodied," Ross said.10. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD) worked through the night on Thursday to resolve differences on taxes, migration and other issues blocking formation of a new "grand coalition" government.Negotiators had vowed to decide by Friday whether to launch formal coalition talks, but no agreement was in sight around 5:30 a.m., after more than 20 hours of discussions.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: These are the watches worn by the smartest and most powerful men in the world
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