June, 2019

• 25 June

  Stocks slide as 10-year yield drops back below 2 percent

  

  Bloomberg US stocks fell while gains in Treasuries pushed the 10-year yield below 2 percent as simmering geopolitical tensions damped investor appetite for risk. Gold jumped. The S&P 500 dropped for a third-straight session, the longest since May 9, as US officials downplayed expectations of a resolution to the trade war ahead of highly-anticipated meeting between President Donald Trump and ...

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• 25 June

  Pound looks even worse than euro

  

  Bloomberg The pound will tumble to levels not seen since 2017 against the euro as Brexit turmoil outweighs a dovish European Central Bank, according to analysts. Sterling is likely to slide towards 92 pence per euro by year-end, about 3 percent below current levels and a rate not seen in 21 months, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. That pessimism ...

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• 25 June

  Fed sees lower long-run interest rate outlook as growth dims

  

  Bloomberg Federal Reserve policy makers are discovering they likely need to shift into an even lower gear if they are to speed up the US economy. Chairman Jerome Powell and colleagues last week estimated that the so-called neutral interest rate — the level which neither stimulates nor restricts growth — now sits around 2.5 percent, down from 2.75 percent in ...

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• 25 June

  Goldman expects Fed cutting rates this year

  

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now expects the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 25 basis points in both July and September and isn’t ruling out the possibility of a bigger move of 50 basis points “if the news flow disappoints.” The need to get ahead of the bond market could be another reason to push Fed officials towards ...

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• 25 June

  Libra gets warm welcome in Geneva

  

  Bloomberg Policy makers around the globe have been cool to the idea of Facebook Inc.’s planned Libra cryptocurrency. In Switzerland? They liked it so much, Facebook decided to set up shop there. Geneva is “excited” to work with Facebook, the canton’s economic development chief Pierre Maudet said last week after it emerged Facebook had picked the Swiss city as the ...

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• 25 June

  German lenders may face $695m hit on tax loophole

  

  Bloomberg German banks may face about 610 million euros ($695 million) of costs after helping investors take improper advantage of a loophole to reduce taxes on dividends, according to the country’s regulator. About 60 lenders were directly involved in so-called cum-cum trades that allowed foreign investors to profit from tax breaks meant for Germany-based shareholders, a BaFin spokesman said, citing ...

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• 25 June

  BOE acknowledges rising no-deal Brexit concerns

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) acknowledged rising concerns over a no deal Brexit as it kept interest rates on hold and cut its near-term economic growth forecast to zero. While officials, led by Governor Mark Carney, said they still see need for interest-rate hikes in coming years if their forecasts bear out, they also ackno-wledged that investors are tak- ...

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• 25 June

  Bank of Canada has plenty of scope to hold rates steady

  Bloomberg Canadian inflation quickened in May on increases across the board, giving the Bank of Canada plenty of scope to hold interest rates steady. The consumer price index jumped 2.4 percent from a year earlier, compared with 2 percent in April and versus a median economist forecast of 2.1 percent, Statistics Canada said from Ottawa. It was the highest annual ...

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• 25 June

  British online bank Monzo doubles valuation to $2.5b

  

  Bloomberg Online-only bank Monzo has closed a new funding round doubling the startup’s valuation to more than $2.5 billion, making it one of the UK’s most highly valued fintech companies. Monzo last raised funding late last year at a valuation of $1.25 billion. In this new round, the company will bring in 113 million pounds ($143 million) of fresh capital, ...

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• 25 June

  Garuda Indonesia plans to use 100 drones to ship goods

  

  Bloomberg Delivering cargo to the farthest reaches of the world’s biggest archipelago has forever been a challenge. Indonesia’s biggest airline sees a solution in drones. PT Garuda Indonesia plans to use 100 unmanned aerial vehicles procured from China’s Beihang UAS Technology to ship goods across the nation’s more than 18,000 islands, Director for Cargo and Business Development Mohammad Iqbal said, ...

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