good morning markets alarmed by new virus variant fishermen step up pressure in the english channel and a potentially massive pe buyout here’s what’s moving markets there’s a new coronavirus variant b11529 has been identified in south africa and has scientists worried about a high number of mutations in its spike protein those spikes play a big role in how the virus enters the body and are also the feature targeted by vaccines we don’t yet know whether it’s more infectious or deadly than other variants but governments aren’t taking any chances the uk has banned flights from six countries in southern africa still the variant has already been found in travelers arriving in hong kong france’s leading fishermen union said it will block access to and from three ports as well as the eurotunnel today in an effort to raise pressure on the uk over postbrexit fishing licenses the protest will start with a onehour blockade of the saintmalo port in the morning followed by similar actions around noon in calais and early afternoon in ouistreham fishing licenses are one of the thorniest issues in the two countries’ postbrexit relationship which has been strained over issues from defense to migrant crossings and trade rules in northern ireland germany’s departing leader angela merkel raised the prospect of new eu sanctions if tensions with russia and belarus don’t subside she cited the russian military buildup near the ukrainian border the kremlin’s refusal to hold talks on peace in eastern ukraine and belarus’s role in a migration crisis on the border with poland this follows warnings based on us intelligence that russia is preparing for a largescale invasion of ukraine at the start of the new year a buildup of russian forces near ukraine’s border has continued this week private equity giants kkr and cvc are considering teaming up on a bid for telecom italia a move that would help share the financial burden for europe’s biggestever leveraged buyout people with knowledge of the matter said kkr offered to buy telecom italia last weekend but the telecom behemoths largest shareholder vivendi described that offer as too low european stocks are set for a significant drop after a selloff in asia that followed the news of the latest covid variant discovered in south africa which was also found among quarantined travelers in hong kong china’s food delivery giant meituan and online retailer pinduoduo are the biggest reports with few european or us earnings to note black friday kicks off the holiday shopping season amid threats ranging from supply chain disruptions to amazon boycotts and london commuters beware tube drivers are on strike today with the 24hour walkout affecting five lines starting at 430 am this is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours and finally heres what cormac is interested in this morning emergingmarket investors worried about the bearish impact of the resurgent dollar should take comfort from the fact that their developed peers are the ones getting it in the neck this year in november the fed’s tradeweighted dollar advanced economy index jumped 17 through last friday bringing yeartodate gains to almost 5 conversely the emergingmarket gauge was up just 03 and has risen a much more modest 24 so far in 2021 for commerzbanks thu lan nguyen interestrate rises in some em economies are playing a key role in bolstering their currencies several em countries are already well ahead of the ratehike curve which lest we forget has yet to begin in the us and looks far in the distance for the ecb and japan the latest hsbc investor survey showed emergingmarket bears growing in number with 27 of those polled negative on the em outlook up from 9 in july but the currency moves to date suggest their fears may be misplaced with emergingassets looking a lot more robust this year than during previous periods of dollar strength cormac mullen is a crossasset reporter and editor for bloomberg news in tokyo like bloombergs five things subscribe for unlimited access to trusted databased journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters the bloomberg open and the bloomberg close with assistance by cormac mullen and gearoid reidy