Bloomberg Currency strategists are convinced that 2019 will be the year of the euro. Money managers and traders aren’t buying it. Morgan Stanley, Credit Agricole SA and Toronto Dominion Bank are all calling for the common currency to surge next year as investors shift focus away from an overvalued dollar. That’s not a view shared by Janus Henderson Group Plc ...
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Wells Fargo cuts estimates for stocks
Bloomberg Wells Fargo cut estimates for stocks next year on concern the Federal Reserve is making a policy mistake that will throttle economic growth. Chris Harvey, head of equity strategy at the bank, cut his year-end target for the S&P 500 Index to 2,665 from 3,079. While new forecast represents a 10 percent gain from current levels, he replaced Michael ...
Read More »PBOC’s new lending facility echoes earlier programmes by ECB, BOJ
Bloomberg China’s central bank reached into the toolkit of its peers around the world, announcing a new facility to encourage bank lending to companies that looks very similar to what others have done. The People’s Bank of China is trying to balance competing demands of a debt crackdown and ensuring that banks lend to support growth. The clampdown has made ...
Read More »Year-end inflation surge new headache for Russia
Bloomberg The latest data on Russian inflation are sending up warning signals that the first few months of 2019 could be even more hazardous than most economists had predicted. The latest weekly numbers indicate that Russia might end up starting next year with price growth around the central bank’s worst-case forecast of 4.2 percent, according to economists at ING Groep ...
Read More »Trading optimism in banks fades as bad volatility strikes
Bloomberg Financial-market turbulence is supposed to be a good thing for Wall Street trading desks — not so this quarter. Banks are struggling to capitalise on tumult across stock, bond and currency markets, in part because many investors are staying on sidelines as year-end approaches. Another culprit: dramatic but short-lived swings in asset prices that are striking some of their ...
Read More »Rwanda raises banks’ capital requirements
Bloomberg Rwanda’s central bank set out more stringent capital requirements for financial-services companies in the East African nation and announced a change in its monetary-policy framework to better accommodate the country’s requirements. Commercial banks need 20 billion francs ($23 million) of paid-up capital, four times the current requirement of 5 billion francs, while development lenders will need 50 billion francs, ...
Read More »BMO digs deep in mining in ‘transition’ year for bank
Bloomberg BMO Capital Markets’ metals and mining division faced upheaval this year after losing its two veteran co-heads during an already tough time for the resource industry. Its new leaders aim to prove the investment bank remains as strong as ever in the sector. The Bank of Montreal unit is accelerating lending and adding more bankers, including a sales-and-trading team ...
Read More »Trump-Powell battle would span three arenas where everyone loses
Bloomberg Donald Trump says he likes winning. Right now, it’s difficult to count up anything but losers if the president fires Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Trump has been discussing whether he can dismiss Powell, Bloomberg News reported, pro-mpting Treasury Secretary Ste-ven Mnuchin to tweet that the president said he doesn’t believe he has the authority to do so. Trump ...
Read More »Mnuchin called top bank execs on market stability
Bloomberg Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called top executives from the six largest US banks over the weekend, he said on Twitter, a move that followed heavy losses in the stock market last week and a partial federal government shutdown. “The CEOs confirmed that they have ample liquidity available for lending to consumer, business markets, and all other market operations,†the ...
Read More »Quantitative tightening is rattling markets
Bloomberg When it comes to reversing their crisis-era bond buying, central bankers are focussed on the destination. Traders in risk assets care more about what could be a painful journey. The contrasting views upset markets this week. Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated the notion that the Federal Reserve would remain on auto pilot when trimming its $4 trill- ion portfolio, and ...
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