March, 2019

• 27 March

  EU needs a plan to fight Putin’s trolls

  Europe is bracing for a Russian propaganda onslaught in the run-up to this May’s parliamentary elections. The European Commission predicts the Kremlin’s disinformation operations will be “systematic, well-resourced and on a different scale to other countries.” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal is to expand the Euroskeptic bloc in the next European Parliament in order to weaken EU cohesion and accommodate ...

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• 27 March

  PetroChina’s $45b can’t actually feed a dry well

  

  It’s remarkable what a little money can do. Faced with a declining reserve base and a government mandate to increase domestic production, PetroChina went on a spending splurge last year. Its 256 billion yuan ($38 billion) in capital expenditures in 2018 was more than was spent by BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips put together. It was also about 10 ...

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• 27 March

  Samsung’s profit warning is infact tech’s inverted yield curve

  

  Tougher times are ahead for the technology industry. A downturn sparked by excess inventories and weakened demand, signs of which were evident back in August, could drag on longer than expected. Samsung Electronics Co. said that first-quarter results will fall short of estimates. The rare profit warning came about a fortnight before the company was scheduled to give preliminary sales ...

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• 27 March

  Searching for meaning in Tesla’s stock price

  

  Tesla Inc.’s stock price has sunk below $260 for the first time since late October. What does that mean? Trying to discern meaning in the particular set of numbers next to the TSLA ticker on any given day is often futile. With a little context, however, that $260 level takes on some interesting dimensions. Most notably, it takes the stock ...

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• 27 March

  Stocks fall as Treasuries rally on global outlook

  

  Bloomberg The rally in bonds gained momentum as traders turned their focus to a worrying economic outlook. Stocks fell, while the dollar rose. Treasury 10-year yields slid below 2.4 percent and rates on benchmark German bunds sank deeper under zero after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said that an accommodative policy stance is still needed. Energy shares led losses ...

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• 27 March

  China’s stock traders pay most in decade for same banks

  

  Bloomberg China’s financial sector is dividing opinion across its borders in a way not seen since the global credit crisis. Traders on the mainland are paying the most in more than a decade for shares of Chinese banks, brokerages and insurers relative to their offshore-based counterparts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The same firm is now on average 54 ...

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• 27 March

  Central banks’ financial risk tool gets IMF endorsement

  

  Bloomberg In a world of persistently low inflation and slowing economic growth, central banks are finding a useful instrument in their toolboxes to curb financial risk. Macroprudential measures — such as limiting who gets a mortgage and adjusting banks’ reserve requirements — have gained traction with central banks since the global financial crisis, and are proving effective. The targeted tools ...

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• 27 March

  Moore calls for 50-point Fed interest rates cut

  Bloomberg Stephen Moore, who Donald Trump may nominate for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, told the New York Times in an interview that the central bank should immediately reverse course and lower interest rates by half a percentage point. That’s a contrast from language used by sitting board members in recent days. San Francisco President Mary Daly told ...

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• 27 March

  ‘ECB may need to soften impact of negative rates’

  

  Bloomberg Mario Draghi said the European Central Bank (ECB) is ready to soften the impact of negative interest rates if they are found to harm the transmission of its monetary policy. “If necessary, we need to reflect on possible measures that can preserve the favorable implications of negative rates for the economy, while mitigating the side effects, if any,” the ...

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• 27 March

  PBOC may turn less dovish in 2019

  

  Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is expected to ease policy less aggressively in 2019 compared with the previous year, while maintaining steady injections of liquidity, according to analysts. The PBOC will continue to reduce the amount of money lenders have to put aside as reserves, with the earliest cut taking place next quarter and two others in the ...

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