The main events by the morning: August 20

• Сrushed stone trading has started in Russia. For the first time in the history of the Russian market, trades in this raw material were held on the Eastern Stock Exchange. In the future, it is planned to expand this practice to sand, peat and other minerals. The idea of conducting exchange trading in crushed stone has been discussed since 2008, but the project was not implemented, mainly due to unstable logistics tariffs.

• American intelligence has accused Iran of a cyberattack on Trump's campaign headquarters. The purpose of the attack was to exacerbate political contradictions in the United States before the elections. Iran denies the accusations, but American intelligence claims that Tehran tried to obtain information about people with direct access to the presidential campaigns in order to influence the electoral process.

• Volkswagen recorded its first quarterly loss in 15 years. The German automaker is facing losses due to weak sales of electric vehicles, which are losing competition to Chinese brands. In addition, the company is experiencing serious production costs against the background of sanctions and the economic crisis that broke out in Germany.

• A new round of problems with payments from Russia to China. Chinese banks have begun to refund money to Russian importers for goods that have already been cleared and received. Although such cases have not yet become widespread, several Russian companies have already complained about this problem.