December, 2018

• 25 December

  Amazon flexes well-defined muscle on private labels

  

  In my medicine cabinet, I have a jar of petroleum jelly from Walgreens that looks like the iconic Vaseline container. You probably also own store-brand versions of familiar items — also called generics or “private label” products. The pull tends to be lower cost, but Walmart, Macy’s and other big retailers have been seeking to create private-label products with a ...

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• 25 December

  Nikkei enters bear market to extend global equity rout

  

  Bloomberg The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid into a bear market, as a global equity rout continued unabated in the last week of the year, with renewed turmoil in Washington rattling investors. The yen and Japanese bonds rose. The Japanese benchmark fell 5 percent on Tuesday, widening its drop to 21 percent from its October 2 peak, taking its cue ...

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• 25 December

  Dollar exposed to dysfunction in US

  

  Bloomberg Mounting political risks from Washington are adding to reasons for traders to be bearish about the dollar as the market hurtles towards the end of 2018. Most forecasters were already predicting that the greenback, which this month touched its strongest level in a year and a half, would be in for a rougher time in 2019. Much of that ...

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• 25 December

  Trump rips Fed as economy’s only problem

  

  Bloomberg US President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on the Federal Reserve, commenting publicly on the central bank for the first time following last week’s interest-rate hike and reports he has discussed firing Chairman Jerome Powell. “The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They don’t have a feel for the Market, they don’t understand necessary Trade Wars or ...

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• 25 December

  Currency strategists, traders differ on future of euro in 2019

  

  Bloomberg Currency strategists are convinced that 2019 will be the year of the euro. Money managers and traders aren’t buying it. Morgan Stanley, Credit Agricole SA and Toronto Dominion Bank are all calling for the common currency to surge next year as investors shift focus away from an overvalued dollar. That’s not a view shared by Janus Henderson Group Plc ...

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• 25 December

  Wells Fargo cuts estimates for stocks

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo cut estimates for stocks next year on concern the Federal Reserve is making a policy mistake that will throttle economic growth. Chris Harvey, head of equity strategy at the bank, cut his year-end target for the S&P 500 Index to 2,665 from 3,079. While new forecast represents a 10 percent gain from current levels, he replaced Michael ...

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• 25 December

  PBOC’s new lending facility echoes earlier programmes by ECB, BOJ

  

  Bloomberg China’s central bank reached into the toolkit of its peers around the world, announcing a new facility to encourage bank lending to companies that looks very similar to what others have done. The People’s Bank of China is trying to balance competing demands of a debt crackdown and ensuring that banks lend to support growth. The clampdown has made ...

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• 25 December

  Year-end inflation surge new headache for Russia

  Bloomberg The latest data on Russian inflation are sending up warning signals that the first few months of 2019 could be even more hazardous than most economists had predicted. The latest weekly numbers indicate that Russia might end up starting next year with price growth around the central bank’s worst-case forecast of 4.2 percent, according to economists at ING Groep ...

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• 25 December

  Holiday shopping roars to a close amid US shutdown

  

  Bloomberg “Sell” may be the chorus on Wall Street, but optimistic shoppers looking to fill the empty space under the country’s Christmas trees were out in full force during the season’s final shopping weekend. With Christmas, Americans streamed into brick-and-mortar stores on Saturday and Sunday looking for deals. The International Council of Shopping Centers predicted heading into the weekend that ...

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• 25 December

  Nike shares fall the most since October

  

  Bloomberg Nike Inc. shares fell the most in more than two months, erasing much of the gain that followed strong earnings results. The world’s biggest sports apparel and footwear company tumbled 5.9 percent to $68.10 in New York, the biggest loss since October 10. The drop was likely a product of the current market, where investors are making emotional decisions ...

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