SQUAWK BOX WEDNESDAY 9TH OCTOBER 2019

Restricted and blacklisted. Asian stocks dip following a sharp plunge on Wall Street after the U.S. administration slaps visa restrictions on Chinese officials for alleged human rights abuses of Xinjiang Uighurs ahead of trade talks tomorrow. The move comes one day after Washington blacklisted 20 Chinese entities, drawing a harsh response from Beijing, which has called on the U.S. to stop interfering in its affairs. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell says the Fed will grow its balance sheet but cautions that the move should not be confused with the large-scale quantitative easing the central bank resorted to after the financial crisis. In the U.K., the pound slides following suggestions by No.10 that Brexit talks with Brussels are on the verge of collapse. The Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says a deal is highly unlikely ahead of next week’s EU leaders’ summit. We are live in Luxembourg for the Euro Zone finance ministers' meeting.