Bloomberg Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is struggling to contain the political fallout from investigations into the inner workings of his government after a close ally who heads the state holding company was forced to resign in the wake of damaging message correspondence. Thomas Schmid stepped down as chief executive officer of OeBAG after leaked messages showed how he had orchestrated ...

Bloomberg United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres won support from the UN Security Council on Tuesday for a second five-year term at the world body he’s led since 2017. Guterres, a 72-year-old former prime minister of Portugal, has struggled to forge diplomatic compromises in troubled hot spots amid deepening rifts between the US and its key rivals, Russia and China. He ...

Bloomberg Japanese banks are in a bind — again. Sitting on record levels of excess cash, lenders are turning to riskier investments that need complex foreign exchange hedges, such as US Treasuries, to make a return on deposits that ballooned during the pandemic. Many will be seeking to avoid past mistakes. The surplus, calculated by subtracting bank loans from deposits, ...

Bloomberg Market watchers haven’t been this bullish on State Bank of India in almost two decades, as they bet on the lender’s improving asset quality to help it weather the pandemic. Among 48 analysts who cover the stock, 47 recommend buy and only one has a hold rating — a ratio of 98% that’s the highest since June 2004, according ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong has started a project to explore issuing a digital currency that is anticipated to last over the next 12 months. “This is essentially a research study similar to what is being undertaken by many other jurisdictions,” the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said on Tuesday. It remains open minded and hopes to offer “initial thoughts” in 12 months, ...

Bloomberg Some investors are cheering the Bank of Japan’s withdrawal from the stock market, even as they brace for more volatility. Japan’s central bank (BOJ) didn’t buy any exchange-traded funds for an entire month of May, the first time since Governor Haruhiko Kuroda kicked off his easing campaign in 2013. That’s prompting some in the market to believe the BOJ ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) started a major new stress test of the country’s biggest banks and insurers to judge how resilient they are to climate change. The assessment, delayed last year because of the pandemic, requires HSBC Holdings Plc, Barclays Plc and other lenders to scrutinise the impact of global warming on everything from real estate to corporate ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will extend its phase of faster bond-buying through the summer to ensure the economic rebound after coronavirus lockdowns morphs into a sustained recovery, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. The majority expects the ECB to keep purchasing about 20 billion euros ($24.4 billion) worth of debt a week until September before slowing down. ...

Bloomberg China’s sovereign bonds have defied expectations for a selloff all year but their day of reckoning may be getting closer. The amount of cash in the banking system has been shrinking, while local government debt sales are set to double this week, hoovering up more funds. As a result, the overnight interbank interest rate rises to the highest level ...

Bloomberg Treasuries rise with the US dollar as investors debated the impact of resurgent inflation on monetary policy, while US index futures stalled with stocks near record highs. The 10-year yield falls back to 1.56% area with focus turning towards Thursday’s consumer-price data that may offer clues on how far the Federal Reserve can postpone a tapering of stimulus. Futures ...