Bloomberg If you lost money on emerging Asian bonds and currencies this year, be warned: the first half 2019 may see more of the same. In what could be an unwelcome replay, risk assets are likely to remain at the mercy of the US-China trade war, a messy Brexit and rising US interest rates. Almost all emerging Asian currencies are ...

Bloomberg The world’s biggest banks are reckoning on a rebound in oil prices next year as fears of a recession prove misplaced. The Brent benchmark will average $70 a barrel in 2019, according to a Bloomberg survey of oil analysts. Futures in London and New York plunged this quarter, with volatility soaring in its final week as crude tracked gyrations ...

Bloomberg China approved its first large battery storage pilot project as it seeks to maximise clean energy output and improve grid stability. The initial phase of the venture in the northwestern prov-ince of Gansu will require 1.2 billion yuan ($174 million) of investment and have a capacity of 720 megawatt hours and storage duration of four hours, the Gansu Provincial ...

Bloomberg One of Hong Kong’s biggest sales of residential land this year added to the picture of a worsening home market. China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. won the site in Kai Tak with a bid of $1,726 per square foot of floor area. That’s 13 percent less than Goldin Group paid last month for a nearby parcel. “The number ...

Bloomberg Contract signings to purchase previously owned US homes unexpectedly fell for a second month in November, offering yet another sign that the housing market is struggling. The index of pending home sales decreased 0.7 percent, according to data by the National Association of Realtors in Washington. The gauge slumped 7.7 percent from a year earlier on an unadjusted basis, ...

Bloomberg Senior People’s Bank of China (PBOC) officials pushed back against interpretations of its recent moves as signalling significantly looser policy, emphas- ising that monetary policy remains prudent — though it will be more targeted and flexible. “The stance on prudent monetary policy hasn’t changed,” Sun Guofeng, director of the monetary policy department, told reporters in Beijing. “But it’ll be ...

Bloomberg China announced plans to rein in the expansion of lending by the nation’s regional banks to areas beyond their home bases, the latest step policy makers have taken to defend against financial risk in the world’s second-biggest economy. Those lenders, which include rural cooperatives, must have the proper licenses to provide financing beyond the region where they’re based, or ...

Bloomberg Regulators in Taiwan are taking another shot at consolidating a fractured financial system that’s scaring off foreign investors. The island’s authorities last month made it easier for lenders to merge, part of a long-running campaign to whittle down an industry where assets are so thinly spread that banks struggle to compete with regional rivals. Government policy in the 1990s ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s first home in Frankfurt — the iconic Eurotower — has been acquired by Fubon Life Insurance Co. It’s the Taiwanese company’s first deal in Germany. The office building, one of the most recognisable towers in the city’s financial district, served as the ECB’s headquarters until 2015 and is regarded as the birthplace of the euro. ...

Bloomberg Next year is shaping up to be another tough one for Nomura Holdings Inc’s employees in Europe, with more job losses likely as the Japanese securities firm shifts business away from the region to more profitable centers in Asia and the US. Japan’s biggest investment bank needs to cut staff while finding ways to spur revenue in the region, ...