April, 2019

• 14 April

  JPMorgan is bullish on the consumer

  

  The health of the US economy largely comes down to consumers’ attitude and spending. That’s why some investors were anxious about the contentious government shutdown that lasted into early 2019; any lingering concerns could dampen the outlook for future growth. Judging by JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s first-quarter earnings, that saga has barely been a blip. And that might just mean ...

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• 14 April

  China’s data boomlet can’t hide a longer slowdown

  China’s economy has come up for air, just a little. A bit of pep in recent Chinese numbers is encouraging. At least as important as the short-term bounce, though, is the long-term trajectory. The Middle Kingdom may lose its exceptionalism and start looking more like the US and Europe in ways that seemed barely conceivable during the 1990s and the ...

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• 14 April

  Derivatives still present threat to financial system

  Financial regulators have done a lot to reform the derivatives markets that helped turn the financial crisis of 2008 into a global disaster. But their work is unfinished — and there’s even a danger that, in one way, they might have made things worse. Derivatives are bets on the performance of something else, such as stocks, interest rates or creditworthiness. ...

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• 14 April

  India can’t replicate China’s path to power just by magic

  

  There’s one clear favourite in the world’s biggest election, which runs for six weeks: incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Buoyed by his personal popularity, Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party isn’t even pretending to offer dramatic new programs if it returns to power. Its election manifesto, released earlier this week, was a relatively uninspiring document — a few populist promises to ...

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• 14 April

  Now isn’t time for a Boeing-Airbus row

  

  On April 8, the Trump administration decided that now is the moment to ratchet up a longstanding trade dispute between Boeing Co. and Airbus SE. The US is threatening to impose $11 billion of punitive tariffs on a range of European products from aircraft to cheese. The dispute is unrelated to the crash of two Boeing 737 Max aircraft – ...

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• 14 April

  How populists can ruin a global growth recovery

  

  There is a strange sound of relief coming out of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF has slashed its global growth forecasts to the lowest level since the financial crisis, but it also believes policy makers may have stepped in just in time to avoid a turn for the worse. Central bankers deserve credit for pausing on their long ...

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• 14 April

  Wall Street’s most-hated stock trade nears dot com-era nadir

  

  Bloomberg For students of market history, the third month of the 21st century is infamous. March 2000 was when the Nasdaq Composite Index marked a peak in the dot-com bubble. By the end of the year, it fell by more than 50 percent, with more losses to follow. That month was one of the last times the world’s cheapest companies ...

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• 14 April

  Brexit delay leaves pound prospects in suspended state

  

  Bloomberg Pound analysts are struggling to find reasons to be optimistic even after the immediate threat of a no-deal Brexit was lifted. Sterling strengthened this week as the UK and European Union agreed to extend the divorce deadline to October 31, but its gains were well short of what strategists had previously predicted for such a scenario. The currency’s prospects ...

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• 14 April

  Global finance chiefs prepared to ‘act promptly’ on growth

  

  Bloomberg Global finance ministers and central bankers are prepared to “act promptly” to shore up growth in a world economy that faces downside risks including trade tensions, according to a statement. While growth is projected to firm up in 2020, “risks remain tilted to the downside,” according to a communique by the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the main advisory ...

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• 14 April

  Rate-hike path is data dependent, says BOC’s Poloz

  

  Bloomberg Bank of Canada (BOC) Governor Stephen Poloz said whether he’s done with hiking altogether is a “data-dependent question,” adding the economy continues to work through headwinds that warrant stimulative rates. Asked at a press briefing in Washington about investor expectations that the Canadian central bank’s rate normalisation has come to an end, Poloz said market pricing seems to be ...

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