For Asia’s most prosperous societies, Covid-19 has exposed a big vulnerability: People simply aren’t having enough babies to replenish their aging populations. It’s foreign workers that make these countries function. That’s why pulling up the drawbridge to halt further spread of the disease and protect domestic businesses would be perilous. Even Japan and South Korea, often seen as hostile to ...

Bloomberg European stocks rose alongside US equity futures on Thursday, trimming some losses from a day earlier as investors seeking to gauge the extent of damage caused by the coronavirus await the next set of corporate earnings and economic data. The dollar extended gains. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index opened higher with all sectors and major national gauges in the ...

Bloomberg Indian stocks rose in a volatile trading session, as investors mulled the outlook for company earnings after software services provider Wipro Ltd. declined to provide guidance for the first time since 2009. The S&P BSE Sensex advanced 0.8% to 30,618.57 as of 12:56 pm in Mumbai, after swinging between a loss of as much as 1.2% and a gain ...

Bloomberg Investors are pouring money into exchange-traded funds tracking gold amid expectations of a global recession and massive stimulus from central banks and governments. BlackRock’s iShares Gold Trust, ticker IAU, took in $486 million, its largest one-day inflow on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the same time, State Street’s SPDR Gold Shares, or GLD, has seen 10 ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) followed two big rivals in setting aside billions of dollars for loans likely to sour amid an almost total US economic shutdown. Profit plunged 45% as the company allocated $4.76 billion for loan losses, the most since 2010, as businesses and households reel from the coronavirus pandemic. The bank joins competitors JPMorgan Chase & ...

Bloomberg Default risks for India’s banks have declined from six-year highs on expectations that recent policy support will help the lenders avoid worse damage from the coronavirus pandemic. Average credit-default swaps on five Indian lenders, including State Bank of India, have dropped sharply since the Reserve Bank of India unleashed a 3.74 trillion rupee ($49 billion) stimulus package on March ...

Bloomberg A disappearing spread between money-market rates and expected policy equivalents indicates the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) official cash rate may no longer serve as the floor for borrowing costs. The three-month bank-bill swap rate — a gauge of Australian borrowing costs — has continued to slide, with its spread over a similar-tenor overnight index now poised to fall ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc.’s bond traders just posted their best quarter in eight years — a feat that was no match for the tidal wave of souring loans that walloped the bank’s profits. The deadly pandemic that sent global markets swooning helped the firm’s fixed-income, currencies and commodities traders generate $4.79 billion, trouncing analysts’ estimates by more than $1 billion. But ...

Bloomberg Investor demand for Switzerland’s currency, already trading at a five-year high, will increase as the country’s economy will outperform others during the recession, strategists at UBS Group AG predict. “Switzerland enters this recession with excellent credit quality, and its pandemic health situation is under control,” UBS strategists Thomas Flury and Gaetan Peroux wrote in a note to clients. “Hence ...

Bloomberg The yen’s advance this week may be a sign of things to come, with strategists in Tokyo saying the currency could climb towards 100 against the dollar in the next few months. Citigroup Global Markets Japan Inc. says the yen stands to gain as the Federal Reserve’s massive monetary stimulus weighs on the greenback. MUFG Bank Ltd. sees the ...