The unrelenting selloff in China’s $9 trillion onshore bond market last year caused deep angst among investors. That performance is far from enticing as the country aims to further open up this market, the world’s third largest, through initiatives such as the Bond Connect programme. For now, foreign investors account for less than 2 percent of the onshore market, though ...

What drives volatility? In equities these days, it turns out, not much. With just 6.8 percent realized volatility in the S&P 500 Index, 2017 marked the least volatile year since 1964. Low correlation among stocks, muted inflation variability and market-friendly central bank policies all played a role. But that hasn’t stopped investors from asking, ‘Who ate the vol?’ We point ...

Citigroup Inc. investors are rightly looking past the ugly headline. The bank on Tuesday reported a large fourth-quarter loss, reflecting a bigger-than-expected $22 billion writeoff related to changes in US corporate tax laws and a move to a territorial tax regime. Importantly, the one-time charge shouldn’t compromise Chief Executive Officer Mike Corbat’s ability to deliver on targets due by 2020, ...

India’s banks were hoping the regulator would feel the pain of their bond-market losses and maybe offer a palliative. What they got instead from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was tough love. Condemnation by deputy governor Viral Acharya may be correct, but it won’t resolve the mess. In a speech in Mumbai on Monday, Acharya revisited the nexus between ...

Bloomberg A minor tweak in the Bank of Japan’s bond purchases has emboldened investors to bet the central bank is about to wind back monetary stimulus. Going long on the yen is the biggest currency wager for AMP Capital Investors Ltd.’s Nader Naeimi. Singapore-based hedge fund Kit Trading Fund Ltd. started a bet on the yen last week, predicting the ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. envisions years of tax-reform benefits ahead, even as competitors warned that their rewards may soon start fading away. Last month’s Republican-led legislation cut Citigroup’s effective threshold to about 25 percent in 2018 and company executives said it will go even lower from there, leading the bank to boost its forecast for profitability. That contrasts with JPMorgan Chase ...

Bloomberg Philippine central bank Governor Nestor Espenilla said it’s getting harder to cut the reserve requirement ratio for lenders as he’d pledged to do when he took office six months ago, with inflation set to pick up. “We have to be careful that we don’t send the signal that we are lowering the guard in terms of fighting inflation and ...

RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ordered a deposit of $2 billion to be paid into Yemen’s central bank on Wednesday to shore up the weak Yemeni currency, the Saudi government said. The move was made a day after the Yemeni prime minister issued a public plea for funds to prop up the rial and help stave off hunger ...

Bloomberg While the prospect of the European Central Bank’s withdrawal of monetary stimulus is bringing closer the end of an era of record-low borrowing costs in emerging Europe, it isn’t worrying countries both inside the euro area and those just on its eastern fringe. Governments from Slovakia to Croatia say their economies are in much better shape than when investors ...

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) somewhat more upbeat inflation view may not necessarily translate into early rate increases, according to a Bloomberg survey. In their first take since the SNB’s December policy meeting, when the central bank adjusted its forecasts, economists still see Switzerland’s deposit rate staying at a rock-bottom minus 0.75 percent until late 2019. A 25-basis point ...