The daily business briefing: April 4, 2019

1. U.S., China start 9th round of trade talks

The U.S. and China on Wednesday started their ninth round of talks aiming to end a trade war that has rattled global markets. Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the two sides made "good headway" in the last meetings, in which U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met in Beijing with Chinese counterparts led by Vice Premier Liu He. Kudlow said he was optimistic that the two countries would get closer to a deal this week. "They'll be here for three days, maybe more," he told reporters at a roundtable sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor. "We're not there yet and we hope this week we get closer." U.S. stock futures were nearly flat early Thursday, inching down as investors awaited news from the talks.

The Associated Press CNBC

2. Ethiopia says 737 MAX pilots followed Boeing instructions before crash

The pilots of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing Max 8 plane that crashed last month, killing 157 people, followed Boeing's recommended procedures but could not correct a nosedive shortly after takeoff, according to the first official report on the disaster. "The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft," Ethiopia's transport minister, Dagmawit Moges, said Thursday as she delivered the report in the capital, Addis Ababa. Moges recommended that Boeing review an automated flight control system suspected of pointing the nose down due to faulty sensor readings. The findings increased pressure on Boeing ahead of the rollout of a software fix for the system following similar crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia five months apart.

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Reuters The Associated Press

3. Ghosn arrested again by Japanese prosecutors

Japanese authorities arrested former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn on Thursday for a fourth time, accusing him of causing $5 million in losses for Nissan in breach of his legal duties. The Kyodo news agency reported that the alleged losses involved funds moved through an Oman dealer to a company Ghosn effectively owned. Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese, and Brazilian citizenship, had been released on bail after being charged with underreporting millions in income. He denied the new charges and appealed for help from the French government. "I am innocent," Ghosn said in an interview aired on Thursday with French TV stations TF1 and LCI. His lawyers said the allegations that Ghosn tried to enrich himself at Nissan's expense were an attempt to silence him after he tweeted that he would go public with "the truth."

Reuters

4. Tesla shares sink after deliveries fall short

Tesla shares dropped by 7 percent in pre-market trading on Thursday after the electric-car maker announced that it delivered about 63,000 cars in the first quarter, falling short of analysts' expectations of 76,000. Tesla said "lower than expected delivery volumes and several pricing adjustments" also would hurt the quarter's income. The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance of 360,000 to 400,000 deliveries, potentially reassuring investors. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called the miss "disappointing" but not "apocalyptic." Investors had expected a dip in demand in the first quarter as buyers lost some federal tax credits. Tesla said production exceeded deliveries because its cars were being manufactured at a single factory in the San Francisco Bay Area and shipped around the world.

CNBC

5. Facebook user data stored on publicly accessible Amazon cloud servers

Facebook user data — including account names, passwords, and email addresses — has been stored for years on publicly accessible Amazon cloud computing servers, researchers at cybersecurity firm UpGuard have discovered. The data was compiled several years ago, when Facebook used to more freely share it with third-party apps, but is reportedly still sitting unguarded. Over 540 million records containing Facebook users' comments, likes, reactions, and more were found in a database belonging to the Mexico-based media company Cultura Colectiva. Another 22,000 Facebook names, passwords, and email addresses were found available on a database for an app called At the Pool. A spokesperson said "Facebook's policies prohibit storing Facebook information in a public database," and that it has "worked with Amazon to take down the databases."

Bloomberg CNN