August, 2019

• 7 August

  Malaysia Bersih calls PM to set succession date

  

  Bloomberg Malaysian civil society groups are urging PM Mahathir Mohamad to set a date for when he will hand over power to former rival Anwar Ibrahim. And they want it to be between a year from now to May 2021. The groups include Bersih, or Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, which was behind one of the country’s biggest protests ...

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• 7 August

  Trump’s words not so different from El Paso shooter’s

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump has encouraged white supremacy to come out of the shadows, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden was expected to say, adding that there’s very little that distances Trump’s rhetoric from the anti-immigrant screeds of mass shooters like the suspect in the recent El Paso, Texas, attack. “How far is it from Trump’s saying this ‘is an invasion’ ...

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• 7 August

  US stocks rebound, bonds gain on dovish central-bank moves

  

  Bloomberg US equity futures extended a rebound and European stocks rallied as markets continued to recover from a brutal selloff at the start of the week. Caution was on display, however, as bonds gained while currencies were roiled by a series of dovish central-bank moves in Asia. Futures on all three major US benchmarks turned higher following a surge in ...

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• 7 August

  Canadian stocks on worst streak in ‘a year’

  

  Bloomberg Canadian stocks played catch up with a global rout following August 5’s holiday, with the nation’s benchmark falling the most this year before paring losses. The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.8 percent, extending its slump for a sixth straight session — its longest losing streak since September 10. Energy stocks were the biggest decliners on the benchmark as the ...

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• 7 August

  South Korea is world’s worst major equity market in ’19

  Bloomberg South Korean equities overtook those of Malaysia to become the world’s worst major equity market for the year as ongoing trade war with Japan and tensions between the US and China slashed the nation’s earnings outlook. The benchmark Kospi Index has dropped 6.1 percent year-to-date compared with 5.1 percent decline in the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index in Singapore. ...

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• 7 August

  Johnson’s Conservative party revolution plan

  

  When, how or if Britain gets an early general election is unclear, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has been on a snap-election footing since Day One. Whenever it comes, and whatever the state of Brexit at the time, the next election could dramatically redefine the battleground of British politics. One possibility is a vote of no confidence in Johnson’s ...

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• 7 August

  Elliott plays hardball again in Germany

  

  Elliott Management Corp. is resuming confrontational activism in Germany, potentially reviving fears that “locust” funds are back and up to no good. Investors are probably being too skeptical that Elliott will be able to force positive change. The activist hedge fund has lambasted managers at Scout24 AG, a Frankfurt-listed online real estate and car classifieds business capitalised at 5.4 billion ...

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• 7 August

  Indonesia’s growth sticks at 5% as trade war threatens

  Even the most promising national economies can get big stuff within their control basically right and still be blindsided by events utterly beyond their control. Like, ahem, the trade conflict and market tumult. That’s certainly the case with Indonesia, a sprawling country of more than 260 million people tipped to have one of the biggest economies by mid-century. President Joko“Jokowi” ...

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• 7 August

  Trump’s China yuan salvo is aimed at Fed

  The US Federal Reserve’s next meeting is still five weeks away, and President Donald Trump is already talking the economy into a recession in his campaign for lower interest rates. Markets shouldn’t take his latest salvo too seriously. The Treasury Department formally labelled China a currency manipulator for the first time since 1998 after Trump took to Twitter to castigate ...

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• 7 August

  UK, India nationalists will regret Brexit, Article 370

  

  Long on a roll, right-wing nationalists finally seem to be overreaching. Evidence came from two different sources this week: India and Britain. Brexit, advocated and promoted by mostly English nationalists, always threatened the breakup of Great Britain. With new Prime Minister Boris Johnson now vowing to leave the European Union on October 31 without a deal and regardless of the ...

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