November 15, 2016 by: Peter Wells in Hong Kong Tuesday 03.35 GMT. The US dollar has retreated from recent highs, leaving counterparts across the Asia-Pacific region firmer. US Treasuries are eyeing their first rise in more than a week, while stocks across Asia have followed on from a muted lead on Wall Street. The US dollar index, a measure of the US currency against a basket of […]
New London office construction activity has fallen 42 per cent from a year ago as Brexit and other uncertainties cast a shadow over the property market. Work began on 40 new office developments totalling 2.8m square feet over the past six months, down from a record 4.8m square feet recorded a year earlier, according to Deloitte Real Estate’s Crane Survey. Total development activity rose slightly from a […]
With US president-elect Donald Trump’s governing priorities slowly starting to take shape, the US steel industry emerged on Monday as one sector where investors are placing their bullish bets. Three companies — US Steel, AK Steel and iron-ore producer Cliffs Natural Resources — saw their stock ratings upgraded by Morgan Stanley analysts in the wake of last week’s election, pushing their share prices up. Mr Trump’s election […]
Mary Jo White is stepping down as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, putting a spotlight on one of the many regulatory roles Donald Trump will have to fill having promised to loosen rules on the financial sector Ms White, a former federal prosecutor and defence lawyer appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013, said she would leave at the end of the Obama administration, well […]
It was naïve to believe that enough white people would hear everything Donald Trump has said in the last 18 months — let alone five years — and stand in opposition to it. Instead, they stood with it, at a rate of 58 percent. Not necessarily because they’re racists, misogynists, xenophobes or anti-Islam, exactly, but because Trump made it in their interests to do so. They did […]
Brent crude oil dropped below $44 a barrel on Monday to hit its lowest level for three months, as a strengthening US dollar and doubts over Opec’s ability to agree supply curbs when it meets this month led to funds selling out of the market. Hedge funds and other large speculators have been paring their bets on higher oil prices for the past month, with the latest […]
US bank shares have staged the sharpest recovery rally since Wall Street emerged from the financial crisis in 2009, underlining the stark shift in investor sentiment that has gathered pace since Donald Trump captured the US presidency. The S&P 500 banks index, a gauge of the largest US banks, has turned a year-to-date fall that, at its worst, reached almost 25 per cent, to a gain of […]
By Elias Glenn and Kevin Yao | BEIJING BEIJING China’s economy largely showed further signs of steadying in October as expected, but disappointing retail sales growth and fears of U.S. trade frictions under incoming President Donald Trump are increasingly clouding the outlook. Fixed-asset investment quickened slightly and beat expectations in January-October as the government stepped up infrastructure spending to support growth, official data showed on Monday. But […]
November 13, 2016 by: Theodor Troev in Sofia and Kerin Hope in Athens Rumen Radev, Bulgaria’s former air force commander, was set to win a run-off vote in Sunday’s presidential election second round, triggering the resignation of Boyko Borisov, the centre-right prime minister, immediately after the polls closed. First results gave Mr Radev, an independent backed by the opposition Socialist party, a projected 59 per cent of […]
November 14, 2016 by: Michael Hunter in London and Peter Wells in Hong Kong Monday 10.50 GMT. A conviction that a Donald Trump presidency will deliver higher inflation is dominating market sentiment, lifting world equity markets, energising the dollar and drawing investors out of government bond markets. Yields on Treasuries shot higher in Asian trading, a move that has been sustained in early London trading on Monday […]
JERUSALEM — An Israeli ministerial committee on Sunday approved a contentious bill that would allow for the retroactive legalization of Jewish settlement outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. The measure breaks a longstanding taboo, and in the view of many experts, it defies international law. The bill requires approval by Parliament before becoming law. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposed its advancement […]
Copper recorded its best week in five years as speculators scrambled to reverse bearish bets following the election of Donald Trump as US president, which boosted hopes for more consumption in the western world. The promise of a big infrastructure programme in the US, following a decade of reliance on China, has driven the market to reassess the outlook for copper and other industrial metals such as […]
The election of Donald Trump represents a “tectonic shift” for global economics and politics, and will help kill the three-decade bond market rally, according to Henry Kaufman, the original “Dr Doom”. The former Salomon Brothers chief economist gained his gloomy moniker by correctly calling the last bond bear market in the 1970s, and is now predicting another one, as Mr Trump will probably fire a massive slug […]
The Bank of Japan faces a defining stress-test of its “yield curve control” policy in coming days as the benchmark Japanese government bond yield nears zero and currency markets recalibrate themselves for a Donald Trump US presidency. With post-election yen volatility already making a mark on Japanese equities, traders in Tokyo said the focus would this week turn on JGB markets and the BoJ’s resolve. After wrestling […]
Israeli government ministers gave a green light on Sunday evening to a bill that would retroactively legalise Jewish outpost settlements in the occupied West Bank which, if approved by the Knesset, would likely bring international criticism and anger the Palestinians. The ministerial committee for legislation approved the draft legislation unanimously, despite opposition from Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister. Avichai Mendelblit, attorney general, told ministers that the bill contradicted […]
Monday 02.10 GMT. The post-US election rally appears to have subsided, with Asian equities benchmarks having a mixed morning with the exception of Japan, which has been propped up by a weaker yen. Wall Street finished a strong week on a mixed note on Friday, as the S&P 500 slipped but the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high. The action on Monday is in […]
Moldova has elected as president a pro-Russian politician who has threatened to derail co-operation with the EU, in another setback for Brussels in eastern Europe. Igor Dodon, whose campaign called for closer ties with Moscow, had won 55.4 per cent of the vote with over 96 per cent of ballots counted, according to Moldova’s election commission. Mr Dodon’s election as head of state could strengthen Moscow’s hand […]
Investors are betting on a new era of improved US-Russian relations following Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election — anticipating that a possible easing of economic sanctions and a reduced risk of capital flight will make the rouble more robust than other emerging market currencies. At the end of last week, the rouble escaped the worst of a brutal sell-off in emerging market currencies that […]
Donald Trump and top allies have shown signs the New York billionaire may moderate some of his biggest campaign promises, while digging his heels in on others. In the wake of Mr Trump’s stunning electoral win last week, both political analysts and financial investors are waiting to see which of the two Donald Trumps will prevail: the bombastic primary candidate, or a pragmatist who viewed his more […]
Fear and loathing was the overriding sentiment of fund managers and analysts contemplating the market implications of an unlikely Donald Trump presidency. Instead we have seen hope and excitement as the reality sinks in. What changed? It’s been quite the turnround. The overwhelming finance industry view before Tuesday’s election was that the stock market would tank if Mr Trump triumphed. Going by how equities quivered every time […]
Photo Speaker of the House Paul Ryan showing the president-elect, Donald Trump, and his wife, Melania, the speaker’s balcony at the United States Capitol on Nov. 10. Credit Zach Gibson/Getty Images The president-elect walked onto the stage before a crowd of euphoric supporters. It was his first public sighting since the networks called the election for him. Gone were his hoarse pleadings for support. His face bore […]
Iraqi forces say they have recaptured Nimrud, the site of an ancient Assyrian city seized by jihadi militants when they swept through northern Iraq in 2014. “Troops from the Ninth Armoured Division liberated Nimrud town completely and raised the Iraqi flag above its buildings,” the Iraqi army said in a statement on Sunday. Modern day Nimrud is about 1km west of the remnants of the 3,000-year-old city, […]
Alia Khalifa Al Nabooda strikes a real balance – she’s an entrepreneur and mother-of-four, who puts in the time to be successful at both. Last year, the 32-year-old co-founded VoucherSkout, a 50 per cent discount app for services across the UAE. “We’ve had our struggles, like any start-up business. Things haven’t gone exactly to plan, but now that we’ve launched, we can see the fruits of our […]
Here are the key questions we are asking at FT Markets ahead of the first full week’s trading after the US election — with the overarching theme being the repositioning across portfolios for president-elect Donald Trump’s transition into power. Emerging markets — remission, or further pain? The prospect of a faster-growing US economy is usually good news for emerging markets. When it comes with the risk of […]
