The UK’s Autumn Statement arrives laden with investors waiting to see whether the British government will make good on recent heavy-handed hints about fiscal expansion. Past Treasury updates have tended to be a damp squib in global financial markets — political posturing and fiddling with tobacco taxes rarely able to catch the interest of international money. This year however the chancellor, Philip Hammond, has an opportunity to […]
In Virginia, the picture is murkier. In August, after state lawmakers banned the Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, from implementing the Clean Power Plan, Gov. McAuliffe offered a workaround: He convened a cabinet-level commission to examine what he could do under state law to cut carbon emissions from Virginia’s power sector. The group is holding “listening sessions” and in May of next year will make recommendations. […]
Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, has voiced concerns about the temperament of Michael Flynn, the controversial retired army general who Donald Trump has chosen for national security adviser. Mr Mullen said Mr Flynn, who served as his top intelligence officer at the Pentagon, had been “highly regarded” in the military. But speaking at the Aspen Institute, he said he was less impressed by […]
Submitted by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, America didn’t get what it expected, but perhaps it got what it deserved, good and hard. Daddy’s in the house and he busted straight into the nursery and now the little ones are squalling in horror. Mommy was discovered to be a grifting old jade who ran the household into a slum and she’s been turned out to solemnly await the […]
WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump released a video on Monday laying out actions he will take on his first day in office on Jan. 20, including withdrawing the United States from a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Trump also said he would issue a rule cutting government regulations, direct the Labor Department to investigate abuses of visa programs, and cancel some restrictions on energy production, including shale oil […]
The dollar’s post-US election surge has investors contemplating not whether they have overdone the rally but just how far the greenback can rise and how quickly it will get there. A series of currency landmarks, which not long ago investors thought too distant to worry about, have already been trampled by the dollar’s relentless march. The euro fell below $1.06, the yen weakened towards ¥111 against the […]
Boosting spending on infrastructure and improving education could relieve some of the burden on the US central bank to support the economy, a top policymaker said on Monday amid speculation that Congress could push through a fiscal expansion after years of budgetary restraint. Stanley Fischer, vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, said that the central bank did not need to be the only game in town and […]
In light of the recent surge in shorts across the curve, which as the table below shows has pushed repo rates deep into special territory, with the 2-Year going negative ahead of today’s auction… … it may have been the squeeze going into today’s 1PM auction announcement that prevent an uglier result for the just concluded sale of $26 billion in 2 Year paper. Pricing at 1.085%, […]
“It’s almost like a puzzle mystery,” Priebus told me last summer. I don’t recall what we were talking about, but Priebus had a knack for homespun Wisconsin logic and, particularly, throwaway lines that would stick with me. I kept thinking of the puzzle mysteries that were playing out up and down Trump Tower, even though I showed up Friday without an appointment with Priebus and was confined […]
By Timothy Aeppel and Mai Nguyen American companies from appliance makers to auto parts suppliers have lined up to offer a quiet caution to President-elect Donald Trump as he considers pulling the United States from trade deals: most lost manufacturing jobs aren’t coming back, but higher costs for consumers could. Consider the sneaker industry, one of the first to move to Asia because of the sharply lower […]
Wall Street is betting big on small. US president-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to ignite faster economic growth has put the shares of smaller US companies on track to outshine big multinationals this year for the first time since 2013. The Russell 2000, an index of shares with a median market value of less than $1bn, has surged 10 per cent to a record since the US election. […]
A shift towards stimulative fiscal policy could help ease the burden on the Federal Reserve in supporting the US economy, the Fed’s vice president has said. Speaking in the wake of Donald Trump’s election to the White House, Stanley Fischer said productivity-enhancing government policy such as higher infrastructure spending would help “confront some of our longer-term economic challenges”. “Macroeconomic policy does not have to be confined to […]
Investors, central bankers and policymakers are once again talking about investing in infrastructure as a way to stimulate flagging economies around the world. If the zeitgeist is to be believed, 2017 will see a burst of infrastructure investment-related activity. It’s a good idea, but there is plenty of reason to suspect that little will happen. A big reason why infrastructure investment is back in vogue is that […]
Theresa May has set out the terms of a new grand bargain with business, where the government invests to boost productivity and cuts corporation tax, in exchange for help tackling the worst excesses of capitalism. Setting out her business strategy, the UK prime minister proposes in the Financial Times a pact with corporate Britain to work together to defend capitalism, free markets and free trade from populist […]
Photo President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, center, at a welcome ceremony earlier this month in Karaj, just west of Tehran, has said that his country will remain committed to a nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers. Credit Office of the Iranian Presidency, via Associated Press TEHRAN — At first blush, the election of Donald J. Trump would seem to be bad news for […]
November 21, 2016 by: Peter Wells in Hong Kong and Michael Hunter in London Monday 08.00 GMT. Oil prices are making notable gains, tracking the prospect of a deal on output cuts between major producers, setting Brent crude on course for its first two-session advance since early October. Brent crude, the international benchmark, is up 1.3 per cent at $47.47 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate is […]
The head of a leading Russian sovereign wealth fund has hailed Donald Trump’s election victory as a new opportunity for Moscow to do business with the US. “We believe having a businessman in the White House who makes pragmatic decisions is very important,” Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund, told the Financial Times in an interview. “We believe what is great about […]
Dr. Omar, the last neurosurgeon in eastern Aleppo, who declined to provide his full name out of fear for his safety, sounded desperate when reached at the height of the bombing on Friday. Continue reading the main story “We no longer have hospitals to operate in,” he said. “You can’t imagine what it’s like living in Aleppo right now. It feels like we are living in hell. […]
TOKYO Asian shares were on the defensive on Monday, undermined by fears that the strength in the U.S. dollar and rising U.S. bond yields since Donald Trump’s election to president could accelerate fund outflows from emerging markets. MSCI’s broadest dollar-based index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 0.1 percent, staying near four-month lows. In local currency terms, many markets are up slightly. Japan’s Nikkei .N225 rose […]
The Malaysian central bank’s moves to curb what it describes as “speculative and damaging” offshore trading in the ringgit are causing disquiet among investors and raising concerns about the regulator’s handling of the markets. Bank Negara Malaysia has asked foreign banks to commit to stop trading the ringgit — Asia’s worst-performing currency against the US dollar in 2015 — in the offshore non-deliverable forwards market. Malaysian debt […]
November 21, 2016 by: Shawn Donnan and Andres Schipani in Lima US President Barack Obama wrapped up his final official trip abroad with a call for his successor Donald Trump to live up to America’s responsibility as an “indispensable nation” in the world, and to bolster the international order it had helped create. Amid fears that Mr Trump’s election victory on the back of a populist anti-internationalist […]
For the past year, Deutsche Bank was one of the most stubbornly pessimistic banks. Then, overnight, everything changed for one reason: Donald Trump. The German bank laid out its 180-degree change in opinion in a 30-page Friday note titled “Trump: the huge picture for stocks”, in which it revealed that it now expects the S&P to easily rise to 2,250 by Trump’s inauguration, and then rise to […]
By Mitra Taj and Jeff Mason | LIMA LIMA Pacific rim leaders said on Sunday that they were committed to fighting “all forms of protectionism,” and encouraged signatories of the TPP trade pact to continue supporting it despite fears it may not have a future in its current form. “We reaffirm our commitment to keep our markets open and to fight against all forms of protectionism,” the […]
Here are the questions being asked at FT markets as a new trading week begins after the pronounced swings in equities, bonds and currencies that followed Donald Trump’s election victory in the US. Are the dollar bulls running too fast? When currencies start motoring, forget speed limits. The dollar has accelerated markedly since election day. Pressure on emerging markets is rising, while the euro slid through $1.06 […]
