October, 2019

• 9 October

  US loses top spot to S’pore in competitiveness rankings

  Bloomberg The US dropped from the top spot in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual competitiveness report, losing out to Singapore. Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Switzerland made up the rest of the top five, according to the WEF survey published on Wednesday. On the US, it noted growing uncertainty among business leaders. The forum focussed its report on continued ...

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• 9 October

  GE gaping pension deficit tiny part of companies’ $269b gap

  

  Bloomberg General Electric’s gaping pension deficit certainly stands out for its size. But the company is hardly the only one at risk of potentially shortchanging some of its employees come retirement. All across corporate America, underfunded pensions have become the norm. Even now, a decade after the financial crisis, the largest plans face a shortfall of $269 billion, right about ...

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• 9 October

  Credit Suisse mulls return to US private banking after exit

  

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is considering a return to US wealth management after a four-year absence as Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam seeks to boost growth in private banking. Talks have focussed on adding $15 billion of assets under management at a new base in Miami, mostly catering to wealthy Latin Americans, people familiar with the matter said. If ...

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• 9 October

  Hong Kong banks fall after Morgan Stanley downgrades outlook

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong banks declined after Morgan Stanley cut the sector’s outlook, saying the stocks will underperform as a slowing economy and falling rates hurt profitability. Bank of East Asia Ltd slumped 4.2%, while Hang Seng Bank Ltd lost 3.3%. The MSCI Hong Kong Index dropped 1.3% after briefly dipping below the 14,000 point level for the first time since ...

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• 9 October

  African bank hires HSBC, JPMorgan for London IPO

  

  Bloomberg The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) said it’s considering an initial public offering to help finance rapidly increasing trade flows on the continent. The Cairo-based lender hired JPMorgan Securities Plc and HSBC Bank Plc as joint global coordinators and bookrunners, and Exotix Partners LLP as co-lead manager, according to a statement. The bank said the offering of global depositary receipts ...

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• 9 October

  Singapore dollar set to weaken as central bank faces downturn

  

  Bloomberg Singapore’s dollar is set to weaken because the central bank is likely to scrap its appreciation bias at a policy meeting next week, according to a growing group of forecasters. Mizuho Bank Ltd and Societe Generale SA are defying consensus by predicting the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will adjust the slope of its nominal-effective-exchange-rate policy band to zero, ...

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• 9 October

  Bank of China leads way for Libor successor

  Bloomberg One of China’s biggest lenders is marketing a new dollar note linked to a Libor replacement, as borrowers across the globe move away from the scandal-ridden pricing benchmark. Bank of China Ltd’s Macau Branch is expected to price a floating-rate note tied to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. ...

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• 9 October

  Fabio Panetta awaits role as ECB’s next Italian after Draghi

  

  Bloomberg Fabio Panetta, Italy’s candidate for a board seat at the European Central Bank (ECB), got his first big career break one early morning in 1985. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the then-Bank of Italy chief and a future president of the republic, was already at his desk at dawn when he rang the switchboard at his research department for help with ...

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• 9 October

  Free trade is expanding, just not with the US

  

  New US tariffs on as much as $7.5 billion of exports from the European Union (EU) have brought another reminder of how trade wars and protectionism dominate the news. Yet in the last two years, countries accounting for more than one-third of global output have signed more than a dozen trade treaties. When historians look back, they may depict this ...

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• 9 October

  Investors are caught in a tug of war

  

  More than anything else, last week’s market gyrations illustrated the tug of war that has dominated US stocks in recent months and confined them in a range despite significant developments in the underlying dynamics. The intensifying tension between the two macro forces could lead to greater volatility and pose increasing challenges for investors. The first part of the week was ...

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