Saudi Arabia plans to follow its record breaking debut on global debt markets with an Islamic bond issue in a sale that could come as early as February. The sharia-compliant sukuk will form part of a pipeline of bond sales to finance the kingdom’s budget deficit and invest in economic diversification away from oil and is likely to appeal to regional investors in the Gulf. Last year, […]
BRAZZAVILLE A former opposition leader in Republic of Congo was arrested on Tuesday for arms possession after months in hiding, police said. Okombi Salissa, who lost last year’s election to President Denis Sassou Nguesso, but accused the longtime leader of rigging the poll, had an arrest warrant out against him since December for holding weapons. “This arrest was made without violence. It is part of an investigation […]
WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve on Tuesday said it would turn over $92.0 billion in profits to the U.S. Treasury in 2016, down from the $97.7 billion the central bank’s 12 regional banks paid back to the U.S. government in the previous year. The Fed earns interest on government bonds that it holds as well as from securities tied to mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Through […]
The debate about “fake news” has gripped politics since the election of Donald Trump in November and has entered markets as investors spar over a “great rotation” from bonds into stocks. Long predicted by some analysts, expectations of a pronounced rotation out of low-yielding bonds and defensive share sectors into areas of the equity market that prosper from faster economic growth have been heightened by the prospect […]
By Jessica DiNapoli | NEW YORK NEW YORK Canadian apparel maker Gildan Activewear Inc (GIL.TO) has won a bankruptcy auction for U.S. fashion retailer American Apparel LLC after raising its offer to around $88 million, a person familiar with the matter said Monday. Gildan’s takeover marks the end of an era for the iconic Los Angeles-based company, which was founded in 1998 by an eccentric Canadian university […]
The Federal Reserve should be ready to consider reducing the size of its balance sheet as part of its efforts to prevent overheating in the US, a senior policymaker said as he noted the pick-up in wage inflation and predicted a return of inflation to target by the end of the year. Eric Rosengren, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said that if the […]
Using ring-closing metathesis to exploit the properties of carbon-carbon double bonds, researchers have developed a new catalytic approach for the preparation of compounds essential to drug discovery. (via WSJ)
By Zachary Fagenson | FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. The 26-year-old Iraq war veteran accused of killing five people at a busy Florida airport in the latest U.S. gun rampage was due to appear in a federal court on Monday on charges that could bring him the death penalty. Esteban Santiago, who had a history of erratic behavior, has admitted to investigators that he planned Friday’s […]
A new catalyst for breaking the tough molecular bond between carbon and hydrogen holds the promise of a cleaner, easier, cheaper way to derive products from petroleum, say researchers. Simple, plentiful hydrocarbons are the starting block for complex chemical products such as plastics and pharmaceuticals. The first step, however, is very, very difficult — breaking the carbon-hydrogen bond. A new au naturel catalyst mimics nature to break […]
Mayfield Robotics chief executive Michael Beebe unveils the Kuri robot at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, on January 6, 2017 Professor Einstein rolls his eyes, sticks out his tongue, and can give a simple explanation of the theory of relativity. With his lifelike rubbery “skin” and bushy mustache, he can almost make you forget he’s a robot. The Einstein robot is among dozens roaming the […]
After one of the most tumultuous years in its modern history, Turkey is struggling to convince global investors to look beyond economic weakness and political risk. Fund houses willing to bet on countries such as South Africa, where a corruption scandal is consuming the ruling ANC party, and Brazil, where President Michel Temer is battling to save his administration from corruption investigations, say the headwinds facing Turkey […]
Banks have flooded the market with debt in the first days of the new year, propelling a record pace of bond sales as companies seek to lock in borrowing costs before interest rates rise further. The sales have been met with ample investor appetite ahead of the fourth-quarter earnings season, when the majority of US banks are expected to report improved profitability. Banks have sold $42bn of the […]
By Rodrigo Campos | NEW YORK NEW YORK Investors puzzled over whether U.S. interest rates are rising due to a stronger economy or because of fears about inflation might want to look at the recent gains in REITs for some useful guidance. Real estate investment trusts typically perform poorly in an environment of rising interest rates, as they are used by some investors as a proxy for […]
One of the more cherished bits of jargon used in finance is an idea that cash may sit on the sidelines, as if piles of notes are substitute players ready to dive into the great game of markets. Investors are still sitting on large piles of cash, holding nearly 5 per cent of their portfolios in spare liquidity in December, according to data from BofA Merrill Lynch. […]
Banks and petrochemicals stocks could be relative strong performers in the GCC in 2017 thanks to benchmark interest rate rises and a recovery in the global crude oil price, although slowing economic growth may weigh on regional markets. Both sectors have suffered in the last couple of years due to the dramatic oil price decline. The knock-on effect of lower investment and economic growth hit banks, with […]
Here are the big questions for investors ahead of the coming trading week. What impact will Donald Trump’s press conference have on markets? “I will be having a general news conference on JANUARY ELEVENTH in N.Y.C. Thank you.” That was how the president-elect last week [3] tweeted news of what is surely the first big market-moving event of the year — if it takes place. Mr Trump […]
Along with most of his Wall Street peers, BofA’s Chief Investment Strategist Michael Hartnett flipped his outlook on risk assets shortly after the election, turning from quietly bearish to vocally bullish and forecasting a substantial rise in US equities, and even more substantial bounce for Japanese, European and UK stocks as well as oil. So far, Hartnett has been correct, and according to recent fund flows, much […]
Our round-up of the week’s best comment and analysis from the Financial Times focuses on debunking misleading parallels between Reaganomics and Trumponomics and what changes the new US president’s policies will force in investor behaviour. The selection is taken from our Markets Insight and Smart Money columns, written by industry contributors and FT commentators. The world is too different from the 1980s for Donald Trump to achieve […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. Even when it comes to brutality, little is left to the media imagination these days. The latest example of the decline in consensus about the acceptable involves the Facebook video of a mentally disabled Chicago man who was attacked and […]
By Jonathan Stempel The leader of a 2004 coup that toppled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and who had been wanted for more than a decade by U.S. authorities, was charged on Friday in the United States with engaging in drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracies. Guy Philippe, 48, faces a three-count indictment including conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, conspiring to launder money, and engaging […]
The amount of money making bets that US Treasuries will fall in value climbed to a new record high over the last week in a wager that faster US economic growth and higher inflation will weigh further on government bond prices. So-called “non-commercial” speculative positions selling the 10-year Treasury futures contract have been rising since the US presidential election and hit 816,156 contracts in the week to […]
Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com, Yes, the narrative of the “new normal” has been around for so long now that many people have simply grown used to it. The assumption is that the fiscal “new normal” has become the fiscal “normal,” and though the fundamentals continue to strain under the weight of poor global demand and historic debt levitated by extraneous fiat stimulus, the masses feel […]
Nobody likes to admit going along with the consensus. It sounds better to be contrarian, and in markets there is far more money to be made when you latch on to an unpopular notion that turns out to be correct. That is how you get to buy things cheap. But sometimes the herd gets it right, even if it gets overexcited and “overshoots” its target. On balance, […]
January 6, 2017 by: Adam Samson in New York US wage growth accelerated to the quickest pace since 2009 last month, underscoring rising inflationary pressure as President Barack Obama prepares to pass the torch to Donald Trump. Average hourly earnings climbed 0.4 per cent in December from the previous month, beating expectations for a 0.3 per cent pick-up, the Labor Department said in the final employment report […]
