Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

All eyes on China, day-trading army is back and delta-variant fallout grows.

The White House approved its first arms sale to Taiwan, an estimated $750 million deal that would raise U.S.-Sino tensions just as the Biden administration seeks to craft a new relationship with China. In an effort to de-escalate strains between the two world powers, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has warned that the Taiwan issue could “quite easily” become dangerous due to a miscalculation. All that underscores how Taiwan has become the biggest risk for a China-U.S. clash. Meanwhile, the aftershocks of Beijing’s regulatory clampdown on the private sector endure, with traders scouring Xi Jinping’s past speeches to find clues about which industries might be targeted next. China’s liquor and e-cigarette stocks fells as nervous investors seized on a series of reports from state media that could foreshadow the next targets for stricter regulation.