February, 2019

• 13 February

  Global tilt towards easing draws more succor in Asia

  India’s interest-rate surprise is looking more like a good one. In what may seem like an odd pairing outside cricket contests, New Zealand may have just validated the subcontinent’s contentious cut. Inflation figures showed an easing in the pace of India’s consumer-price increases in January. That’s what you want to see if you’re going to shock people with a reduction ...

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• 13 February

  No, France and Germany haven’t fallen out at all

  

  France and Germany’s recent cooperation agreement – in which the two nations promised to form join positions on all important European matters – appears to have withstood a difficult early test. The two powers have forged a compromise over the contentious issue of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia. The connection, which will run from Ust-Luga in Russia ...

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• 13 February

  Ryanair offers $112 million for a return flight

  

  By his own admission, the boss of Ryanair Holdings Plc hasn’t done a very good job lately. Over the past 18 months, a scheduling fiasco and labor revolt have forced the budget carrier to cancel thousands of flights, offer better pay and conditions to staff and recognize trade unions. To his credit, Michael O’Leary volunteered not to take a bonus ...

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• 13 February

  China’s 5G riches are a blocked number for investors

  

  How can investors profit from China’s race with the US for 5G supremacy? Finding the answer is as tricky as figuring out the geopolitics. The nation’s sleepy telecom stocks came back to life after Huawei Technologies Co. CFO Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada in early December. While the official charge was that the company had violated US sanctions on ...

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• 13 February

  Deutsche Bank to rebuild in Middle East after cost cutting

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG aims to rebuild in the Middle East after years of cost cutting and has hired executives to help win debt and advisory deals. “We have pivoted from a pure cost-control focus in 2018 to a controlled, disciplined growth phase in 2019,” Jamal Al Kishi, chief executive officer of the Middle East and Africa for the Frankfurt-based ...

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• 13 February

  RBNZ pushes out forecast for rate hike

  

  Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank pushed out its forecast for an interest-rate increase to early 2021, disappointing investors looking for signs of a policy easing later this year and sending the currency surging. Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr left the official cash rate at 1.75 percent on Wednesday in Wellington and said he expects to keep it there “through 2019 ...

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• 13 February

  Riksbank commits to rate hike plan, backs off currency lever

  

  Bloomberg Sweden’s central bank committed to a plan to raise interest rates this year and dropped a mandate that had allowed policy makers to intervene rapidly in the currency market to help drive inflation higher. The krona gained on the news, after many in the market had expected the Stockholm-based Riksbank to signal a more cautious stance. The bank left ...

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• 13 February

  BOJ reduces purchases of bonds to arrest yield slide

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) reduced purchases of bonds for the first time in two months, stepping in to arrest a decline in yields amid a global debt rally spurred by rising risks to growth worldwide. The central bank offered to buy 180 billion yen ($1.6 billion) of securities maturing in 10-to-25 years at regular operation, versus 200 billion ...

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• 13 February

  Compliance cost hits profit of ABN Amro

  

  Bloomberg ABN Amro Group NV missed fourth quarter profit estimates on increased anti-money laundering costs and an anticipated dividend increase failed to materialise. The Dutch lender kept its dividend at 1.45 euros for 2018, the same as the year before, missing analyst estimates of 1.54 euros. Fourth quarter net income was 316 million euros, this result includes 85 million euros ...

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• 13 February

  Santander feels bondholder heat after skipping CoCo call

  

  Bloomberg Banco Santander SA reminded investors that juicy bonds can come with nasty surprises. The Spanish lender rattled the bank Additional Tier 1 market by saying it will skip an option to call 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) of perpetual contingent-convertible notes next month, sending the bonds tumbling. The announcement came right at the deadline for a decision, after the ...

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