Markets

HONG KONG—One of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges said it would close all user accounts in mainland China by the end of the year, days after the country’s central bank declared all crypto-related transactions illegal. Huobi Global, which was founded in 2013 and currently operates from offices in Singapore, South Korea, the U.S. and other countries, over the weekend said it stopped allowing new customers in mainland China to register accounts. The exchange will also gradually retire existing accounts in China by the end of 2021 to ensure the safety of its customers’ assets, it added.

U.S. stock futures rose, and oil hit its highest level in nearly three years, as fears about China Evergrande Group ‘s debt problems waned and investors bet on further economic reopening from the pandemic. Futures tied to the S&P 500 edged up 0.1%, suggesting the broad-market index is set to extend its three-day rise. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 futures fell 0.2%.

The once-obscure world of automotive microchips will never be the same again. It has been a difficult month for the car industry. Manufacturers such as Toyota and General Motors have announced sweeping reductions to their fall production schedules for want of parts, particularly semiconductors. Consulting firm AlixPartners said Thursday that the chip shortage would likely cost the industry $210 billion in lost revenues this year, which was almost double its May estimate.

Day traders are targeting some companies that recently closed SPAC mergers, reinvigorating some of the meme-stock excitement that helped make such deals popular early in the year. The latest special-purpose-acquisition-company excitement focuses on firms like cybersecurity firm IronNet Inc. that suffered significant investor withdrawals ahead of going public by closing SPAC mergers. High withdrawals leave the companies going public with less cash to put into their businesses and can make it harder for them to meet the growth projections they made as part of the deals with so-called blank-check companies. 

It has been a banner year for fossil-fuel, metals and agricultural markets. For many commodity traders, the boom in prices has had an unexpected effect: a credit crunch that is reshaping the industry in favor of the largest players. Higher prices are requiring traders to borrow more money to finance the same volume of oil, copper or coffee. In some instances, extreme or unusual weather is causing gyrations in commodity prices, prompting traders to amass cash in a pinch.

One of China’s big state-owned oil companies, Cnooc Ltd. , plans to raise more than $5 billion from a domestic share sale as it faces a possible delisting of its U.S. securities. The planned issuance—like a recent megadeal by China Telecom Corp. —shows that China’s corporate champions are able to access large pools of capital back home if needed, blunting the impact of being exiled from American markets.

Polestar is nearing a deal to go public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company that would value the Swedish electric-vehicle maker at $21 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Polestar, owned by Chinese car maker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., is in advanced talks with Gores Guggenheim Inc. and could reach a deal by Monday, the people said, assuming talks don’t fall apart.

Shares of Robinhood Markets Inc. had mostly disappointed the trading app’s fans since their initial public offering. But Harsh Patel felt sure that was about to change. Mr. Patel, a 27-year-old nurse in Columbus, Ohio, figured its price would rise after he saw chatter about Robinhood light up a stock market chatboard. So on Aug. 4, he paid $600 for a call option—a contract that confers the right, though not the obligation, to purchase 100 shares at a stated price by a certain date.

Labor shortages and supply-chain disruptions have become make-or-break factors for some investors weighing bets on corporate debt. Tom Murphy, portfolio manager and head of global investment-grade credit at Columbia Threadneedle, said the asset manager is placing companies in two buckets: those that can offset increased wages, bottlenecks and shortages with higher prices, and those that can’t without losing business. That has him avoiding packaged-goods makers and department stores.

A buyout boom fueled by easy money and a looming hike in the capital-gains tax is sweeping Wall Street deal making to highs not seen since before the 2008 financial crisis. Companies have issued $120 billion of “leveraged loans” this year through Sept. 23 to finance corporate buyouts by private-equity firms—just shy of the $124 billion record for the first nine months of the year set in 2007, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence’s LCD.