April, 2019

• 15 April

  Papua New Guinea minister quits over gas deal

  

  Bloomberg Papua New Guinea’s Finance Minister James Marape has left the government, citing differences with Prime Minister Peter O’Neill over resources policy, days after the state signed a deal with France’s Total SA on a liquefied natural gas expansion project. Marape announced his resignation in a Facebook Inc. post, saying his voice was not being heard on policy-related matters, including …

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• 15 April

  Estonia blocks $1.9b wind park at sea on security concerns

  

  Bloomberg The Estonian government has decided not to proceed with an application for a 600-megawatt wind farm by developer Saare Wind Energy OU, citing security concerns. The company had been drawing up plans for four years and had applied for a 50-year building permit for 100 six-megawatt turbines off the island of Saaremaa. The cost of the project was estimated …

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• 15 April

  Singapore home sales surge as developers market new projects

  

  Bloomberg Private-home sales in Singapore soared in March as developers marketed more projects after a typically slower February that included the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday. Developers sold 1,054 units last month, more than double the 455 in February, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said in a statement. Residential home prices decreased for a second straight quarter in the three months …

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• 15 April

  US stocks slip as earnings disappoint; crude slides

  

  Bloomberg US stocks slipped as the latest results from major banks disappointed. Treasuries were little changed with the dollar. The S&P 500 Index halted a three-day advance as Goldman Sachs Group Inc retreated after missing estimates for sales and trading revenue. Citigroup Inc was little changed after its revenue matched expectations. The benchmark for American equities is near a six-month …

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• 15 April

  Sensex rebounds from weekly fall on results

  

  Bloomberg Indian equities rose, with key indexes rebounding from a weekly decline, on better-than-expected earnings at the nation’s biggest software exporter and a weather office outlook that predicted a near-normal rainfall this year. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.4 percent to 38,905.84 in Mumbai, more than recouping last week’s 0.2 percent decline, its first weekly drop in eight. The …

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• 15 April

  Fed hints at another side of good-news story on US jobs

  

  Bloomberg It began as an inquest into what went wrong. Now the Federal Reserve’s policy rethink may be widening to include the part the central bank thought it had gotten right. Inflation keeps falling short of the Fed’s target, and that was the trigger for what’s supposed to be a months-long review of strategy. Now, policy makers are being drawn …

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• 15 April

  Trump slams Fed, says quantitative tightening is a killer

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump, renewing his attack on the Federal Reserve, claimed the stock market would be “5000 to 10,000” points higher had it not been for the actions of the US central bank. “If the Federal Reserve had done its job properly, which it has not, the Stock Market would have been up 5000 to 10,000 additional points,” the …

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• 15 April

  German growth picked up moderately: Bundesbank

  

  Bloomberg Germany’s economic growth picked up only moderately in the first quarter and the underlying pace of expansion remains subdued on the back of an industrial downturn, according to the Bundesbank. Orders in manufacturing have “literally collapsed” and the mood has “significantly deteriorated” in the industry that used to be the motor of export-heavy economy, the German central bank said …

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• 15 April

  No need for tiered rates to help banks

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s (ECB) negative interest-rate policy has been effective at stimulating the economy and there isn’t a need at this stage to mitigate the profit squeeze it’s caused commercial banks, according to Governing Council member Vitas Vasiliauskas. “I think it’s still a positive tool and at this stage, today, I don’t think that there is a need …

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• 15 April

  Cross-asset volatility won’t stay low for much longer, says Morgan Stanley

  

  Bloomberg A combination of low liquidity and high complacency mean cross-asset volatility won’t stay at historic lows for much longer, according to Morgan Stanley. “There are still two things that argue against the current levels of volatility being correct or sustainable,” cross-asset strategist Andrew Sheets said in an interview. “The first is that market liquidity is still not great. The …

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