By Jamie McGeever | LONDON LONDON World stocks and bond yields rose on Monday, lifted by a re-emergence of so-called “Trump trades” as investors bet that the U.S. president’s tax reform plans will boost economic growth and corporate profits. Following on from Friday’s record high closes on Wall Street, Asian stocks rallied to 1-1/2-year peaks and European stocks rose for the fifth consecutive session on Monday, their […]
Submitted by Nick Kaman of Letters from Norway Introduction: Norwegians are just now starting to grapple with the effects of their “single cylinder” economy, mostly dependent on oil and gas (ca. 60% of exports). Despite optimism about $50-$70/barrel oil, American crude output is surging, on track to be the highest ever, since 1970, while cracks start to form in OPEC’s latest agreement. In addition to the oil […]
Feb 13, 2017 11:59 am IST An earnest band of Indian activists is asking rich people to boycott money, so there’s more for the needy. A motley mix of bankers, Bollywood stars and bikers have pledged their support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s November move to ban almost 90% of Indian currency to fight counterfeiting, tax evasion and terrorism. A story from The Wall Street Journal investigated […]
Monday 04:15 GMT Overview Equities climbed and the yen softened after Japan reported gross domestic product figures for the final quarter of 2016 that suggested any monetary policy settings will remain on hold for now. Hot topic Japan’s economy closed out 2016 with growth of 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter, below estimates of 0.3 per cent despite a boost to exports from a weaker yen […]
When investors last month thumbed through the voluminous marketing materials from Blue Nile, the US online jeweller being taken private by Bain Capital, a few numbers — and footnotes — stood out. Blue Nile was seeking to raise $180m of debt to fund the $500m private equity takeover. By one measure, Blue Nile’s debtrepresented roughly four times its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of […]
Here are the big questions facing investors ahead of a new trading week. How long does a reprieve for French bonds last? After a burst of selling early last week, French debt was granted a reprieve with the 10-year benchmark yield easing back below 1.10 per cent. In turn, the divergence over 10-year Bund yields also pulled back from a four-year plus high. Traders remain nervous after […]
TOKYO Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp probably suffered a group net loss of about 400 billion yen ($3.52 billion) in the nine months through December, the Nikkei reported on Sunday. The loss is largely due to a goodwill impairment of around 600 billion yen on a U.S. nuclear unit that came to light in late 2016. During the year-earlier period, Toshiba lost a similarly significant 479.4 billion yen. […]
Friday 21:00 GMT Overview US stocks and industrial commodities were riding high and the dollar forged ahead at the end of a week in which an outbreak of worries over forthcoming European elections was replaced by renewed bullishness about the policies of Donald Trump, US president. The more confident mood was also driven by optimism about corporate earnings and evidence of strong trade growth in China. Hot […]
Thieves who want to rob banks often have to come up with elaborate schemes to steal money. Robbing banks may also involve working with a group of armed robbers with get-away vehicles who do thorough planning to commit the crime. A bank teller in Texas, however, did not have to resort to using guns and wearing mask to steal money from the bank where she used to work. […]
Investors have warmed to Russian assets, welcoming the country in from the cold. Russian bond funds counted record inflows in the week to February 1 as higher crude prices and improving relations with the US prompted an investor rotation back into the country. Emerging markets more broadly have found renewed investor appetite as the dollar has fallen to an 11-week low. More than $1bn flowed into EM […]
European stocks and S&P futures rose modestly ahead of January US payrolls data, along with the dollar, while Asian shares dropped after China returned from a week-long holiday. Bonds slid, oil rose while the JGB intervened in the bond market to prevent a bond rout, in one of two major surprises during the Asian session. As reported last night, having closed at 0.109% yesterday the 10y JGB […]
Russia is to spend more than Rbs113bn ($1.9bn) during the next month in an effort to weaken the rouble, marking a reversal from the 2014 foreign exchange shock that forced it to intervene heavily to stop the currency falling too far. The country’s central bank will spend Rbs6.3bn a day on forex transactions from February 7 to March 6, the finance ministry said in a statement on […]
By Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto | TOKYO TOKYO Japan will push back firmly on any attempts by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to meddle with its independence on setting currency and monetary policies, say sources familiar with the deliberations in Tokyo. It was the first clear sign from Japan that Tokyo won’t allow Trump to dictate domestic economic policy, leaving room for potential tensions between the […]
Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com, As I outlined in my article ‘The False Economic Narrative Will Die In 2017’, the mainstream media has been carefully crafting the propaganda meme that the Trump administration is inheriting a global economy in “ascension,” when in fact, the opposite is true. Trump enters office at a time of longstanding decline and will likely witness severe and accelerated decline over the […]
Friday 02.15 GMT Overview Asian markets retreated following another cautious session on Wall Street overnight. Investors have headed to the sidelines as they digest the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy meeting and await the closely watched US jobs report due later on Friday. Hot topic Central banks have been in focus this week. The Bank of Japan, Federal Reserve and Bank of England have all kept monetary […]
By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at Market dislocations occur when financial markets, operating under stressful conditions, experience large widespread asset mispricing. Welcome to this week’s edition of “World Out Of Whack” where every Wednesday we take time out of our day to laugh, poke fun at and present to you absurdity in global financial markets in all its glorious insanity. While we enjoy a good laugh, the truth is that the first step to […]
The rouble turned volatile as investors made sense of a tweak by the Trump administration to part of the US sanctions on Russia. The currency moved 1.7 per cent higher, trading at an 18-month high of RUB58.547, before quickly giving up most of that rise and falling back below the RUB59 level as investors parsed the decision. The changes in the sanctions appeared to re-authorised certain technology […]
La Villette, a corrugated iron convention hall on the northern rim of Paris, was meant to be François Fillon’s launch pad towards the French presidency after winning the centre-right nomination in a landslide. But on Sunday he stood in the packed venue, days after claims emerged that the Republican candidate had allegedly employed his wife in a fake parliamentary job for years and, suddenly, victory seemed to […]
Currency traders are in a bind. Has the dollar rally run out of steam and is it ripe for a big sell-off, or has bullish momentum paused ahead of another leg higher? Here are the pros and cons for the currency as we approach several key events in February. What’s bugging the dollar? Investors’ second thoughts. Dollar trading in recent months can be split into three phases. […]
ULAANBAATAR/HONG KONG Private citizens in Mongolia are donating cash, jewelry, gold and even horses to help the government make a near $600 million payment to bondholders next month. The cash-strapped nation has been embroiled in an economic crisis brought about by a collapse in foreign investment, slowing growth in China and weak commodity prices. Its currency, the tugrik, lost nearly a quarter of its value last year. […]
Chocolate industry executives breathed a collective sigh of relief earlier this year after the impact of the bankruptcy of a key cocoa industry player at the end of 2016 remained muted as a result of a weak cocoa market. Expectations of bumper supplies from west Africa, the leading regional producer of cocoa beans, have been weighing on bean prices of the key chocolate ingredient. This has helped […]
The banking caucus Economic stability and improved bank safety haven’t stopped supporters of the Choice Act from moving forward with tearing down Dodd-Frank. The bill was introduced in September by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican who is a deregulation crusader and friend of Vice President Mike Pence; Pence represented Indiana in the House from 2001 to 2013 and was a critic of Dodd-Frank when the law […]
TOKYO Asian shares inched up to four-month highs while the dollar was finding its feet on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve stuck to its mildly upbeat economic view but gave no hint of accelerating rate hikes. While strong economic data from the United States and elsewhere have underpinned risk assets, uncertainty and concerns over U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies have markets on edge. “With many of […]
India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley managed a fine balancing act in his budget announcement Wednesday, increasing spending to stimulate growth while at the same time ensuring the government’s financial health isn’t weakened. Investors reacted positively to his announcements, as the benchmark stock index climbed as much as 1.8% after he presented the budget to Parliament. Measures to boost a variety of sectors and strengthen the government’s efforts […]
