China’s high-end consumers aren’t going on a “revenge spending†spree. They’re just bringing their love affair with luxury brands home. A surge in China sales for stores operated by the likes of LVMH and Hermes International has spurred optimism that consumer demand will snap back as the lockdowns lift. The reports offered a glimmer of light amid data showing that ...
Read More »Blog Layout
Coronavirus exposes dangers of age segregation
For most of the nation’s history, the idea that people over the age of 65 would voluntarily herd themselves into special communities built around their needs would have seemed absurd, even dystopian. Yet a largely voluntary movement towards segregating people by age has reached extreme levels in recent years — and without receiving much attention at all. The coronavirus outbreak ...
Read More »Stocks surge with US equity futures; oil deepens decline
Bloomberg Stocks rose on Wednesday with US equity futures as investors monitored continued volatility in energy markets and earnings reports that haven’t been uniformly negative. Oil prices renewed their slide. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index opened higher, with gains in tech and telecom shares countering declines in energy companies. Stocks slipped in Japan but climbed in most other major Asia ...
Read More »Top private bank asks wealthy clients to stop binging on India stocks
Bloomberg The top investment adviser to rich Indians is asking its wealthy clients to desist from loading up on equities even as the nation’s stock indexes get back into bull territory. “We are maintaining the view that this is a very uncertain environment, and hence, investors must not make impulsive decisions,†Shobhit Mathur, a director at Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd., ...
Read More »Banks in China hit by bad loans despite $212b relief
Bloomberg Bad debt at Chinese banks climbed in the first quarter even as lenders deferred payments on and rolled over a combined 1.5 trillion yuan ($212 billion) in loans after the coronavirus outbreak brought the world’s second-largest economy to a standstill. After allowing banks to take a more lenient approach on how they classify bad debt, regulators in Beijing on ...
Read More »Kotak Bank to sell 65m shares to raise capital
Bloomberg Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. plans to issue as many as 65 million shares in a move that will strengthen its capital buffers and reduce the stake held by its wealthy founder. The Mumbai-based lender didn’t provide details of the pricing of the new shares in its filing on Wednesday. However, under a regulatory formula, they should be priced around ...
Read More »Land Bank distress adds to pressure on government
Bloomberg The Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa is in talks with lenders after missing a loan payment and triggering an event of default, leaving its government owner liable for about $302 million of guaranteed debt. The state-owned provider of finance to the farming sector is seeking a waiver after failing to pay what it owed under the ...
Read More »India’s central bank eases up on currency intervention
Bloomberg India’s central bank may be reducing its intervention in the currency markets as volumes improve and volatility eases. The Reserve Bank of India likely sold a net $1.8 billion in the two weeks ended April 10, according to estimates by Bloomberg Economics. That follows likely sales of $7.7 billion in the spot forex market last month, which made the ...
Read More »UniCredit takes $980m provisions for virus hit
Bloomberg UniCredit SpA became the first big European bank to try to quantify the impact of the coronavirus, setting aside 900 million euros ($977 million) to cover potential loan losses stemming from the outbreak. Italy’s biggest bank said it will book the provisions for possible soured loans after estimating that the pandemic will cause a 13% contraction in the eurozone’s ...
Read More »European banks brace for storm as Covid-19 hits earnings
Bloomberg European bank stocks are trading close their steepest-ever discount to US rivals and early signals show that first-quarter earnings may only reinforce the gap. The continent’s lenders, already in a tough spot before the coronavirus outbreak hit, are likely to detail more worrying news for their embattled investors. In Germany, Deutsche Bank AG may have seen credit trading weigh ...
Read More »