July, 2019

• 8 July

  Asset managers calling for planet-friendliness

  Asset managers are increasingly using their financial clout to persuade companies to be friendlier to the planet, wielding a combination of the stick of disinvestment and the carrot of engagement. But can the financial world do more to ensure countries and their central banks are also meeting their environmental, social and governance responsibilities? Travel platform from AtoB.com scrutinised the 2018 ...

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• 8 July

  Trump’s latest picks may be what the Fed needs

  

  Before I offer thoughts on President Donald Trump’s latest two nominees to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors and the challenges they face, some full disclosures are in order. I interviewed for one of the open governor positions at the White House in late May. I have an unconventional background for a Fed governor as I don’t have a Ph.D. ...

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• 8 July

  Hong Kong’s property bubble is protest-proof

  

  It will take more than a few protests to cool Hong Kong’s real estate market. The latest round of social unrest has homeowners worried that the local economy, especially the property sector, will suffer. In fact, the market is only going to get hotter — if it can weather the current round of chaos. The city has been in turbulence ...

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• 8 July

  How India’s water ends up everywhere but India

  

  As a child in 1943, the Indian economist Amartya Sen watched one of the worst famines of the 20th century sweep through his native Bengal. Contrary to the popular image, the disaster didn’t manifest as a widespread shortage of food, he later wrote. The middle classes hadn’t “experienced the slightest problem during the entire famine,” which primarily affected ”landless rural ...

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• 8 July

  US stocks fall as Treasuries, dollar advance; gold retreats

  

  Bloomberg At the start of a week stuffed with central-bank activity, US equities fell and European stocks drifted following steep share declines in Asia. Treasuries advanced as investors greeted on Monday in a cautious mood. The S&P 500 fell for a second day after the blow-out jobs report altered market calculus for Federal Reserve rate cuts, though equities came off ...

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• 8 July

  Morgan Stanley says unloved stocks can beat ‘downturn’

  

  Bloomberg The status of the world’s least favourite asset has its benefits. Morgan Stanley, which just slashed global equities to underweight on growth concerns, believes that European stocks can outperform weaker markets. Although European equities have over the past 30 years tended to decline more than global markets during corrections, that relationship is changing, strategists led by Graham Secker said ...

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• 8 July

  Deutsche Bank CEO slashes 18,000 jobs

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG unveiled a radical overhaul that will see the lender exit its equities business, post a $3.1 billion second-quarter loss and cut the workforce by a fifth to reverse a slide in profitability. Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing will shelve the dividend this year and then take restructuring charges of 7.4 billion euros through 2022 to pay ...

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• 8 July

  Japan bank resumes overseas expansion

  

  Bloomberg One of Japan’s biggest regional banks is resuming an expansion overseas, 20 years after the country’s financial crisis forced it to retreat. Concordia Financial Group Ltd plans to expand in Asia to offer cash management services to its Japanese corporate clients and infrastructure loans to local entities, president Kenichi Kawamura said. It aims to hire specialists and double overseas ...

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• 8 July

  Australian bank ‘rally to fade’ over rate cuts

  

  Bloomberg Back-to-back interest-rate cuts — and the possibility of more to come — have Credit Suisse AG feeling gloomy about Australia’s banking sector. With interest rates at a record low of 1 percent, banks are reaching the limit on how much they can reduce rates on deposits, which they rely on to fund their loan books. Australia & New Zealand ...

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• 8 July

  Central banks’ gold rush gathers pace

  Bloomberg Central banks are going after gold in 2019, boosting holdings as economic growth slows, trade and geopolitical tensions rise, and some authorities seek to diversify their reserves away from the dollar. The People’s Bank of China said on Monday it raised reserves for a seventh month in June, adding 10.3 tons, following the inflow of almost 74 tons in ...

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