December, 2018

• 12 December

  For Taiwan, ‘status quo’ is a delicate balancing act

  

  If you like betting on embattled underdogs, President Tsai Ing-wen is worth a look. She’s tempting the wrath of her powerful neighbour in mainland China by arguing that Taiwan must maintain its own open culture, democratic values and, yes, its sovereignty. Tsai is a petite woman, dressed in a plain black suit, who speaks the careful language of a Cornell-educated ...

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• 12 December

  RBI governor goes far too quietly

  

  People who know Urjit Patel, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, told me he would stay on and fight. That was in late October, when it became clear from his deputy’s speech that New Delhi was making a determined attempt to curtail the RBI’s authority as a banking regulator, and even to raid its capital. But after a November ...

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• 12 December

  Apple investors are finding a glimmer of hope in Taiwan

  

  Apple Inc. investors looking for any ray of hope may have found it in Taiwan. Shares of Apple have fallen more than a quarter since October on concern that iPhone sales are slowing, a prospect that’s been exacerbated by the threat of US tariffs on devices made in China. Revenue at the two main assemblers of iPhones showed growth that ...

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• 12 December

  UK’s May should admit that Brexit has failed

  Facing a historic defeat for her Brexit deal in Parliament, British Prime Minister Theresa May has, almost unbelievably, managed to make things worse. In a speech before the House of Commons on Monday, May postponed a vote on the deal and vowed to reopen talks with the European Union on the most contentious aspect of the whole undertaking, the Irish ...

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• 12 December

  As Brexit vote looms, who is the real Theresa May?

  

  British Prime Minister Theresa May is doing something politicians almost never do: She is charging into a battle she will almost certainly lose. Does she have a plan to survive and lead the aftermath or, like the Spartan Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae, will she sacrifice herself and her troops for a position she can’t hold? How the weeks ...

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• 12 December

  Japan’s SoftBank may be milking its cash cow dry

  

  Japanese investors salivating at the juicy 5.4% dividend yield available from the initial public offering (IPO) of SoftBank Group Corp.’s telecom unit should rein in their excitement. It won’t last. The $23.5 billion IPO of Softbank Group’s cash-cow wireless carrier, which will confusingly trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as SoftBank Corp., is a hit among Japan’s traditionally conservative investors, ...

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• 12 December

  Forecasts for 2019 will be wrong, random or worse

  

  This is the time of year for annual reckonings and predictions by strategists and analysts, illustrating little more than that they know what pleases their employers and that their powers of prognostication are non-existent. Yet, full of bravado and confidence, they explain what stocks to buy, when a recession will come along, what the Federal Reserve is going to do, ...

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• 12 December

  US stocks rally on renewed trade hopes; pound climbs

  

  Bloomberg US stocks joined a global rally as the outlook for trade took a positive turn and confidence grew that the British prime minister will defeat a challenge to her leadership. Chipmakers and energy producers led the S&P 500 Index higher following gains in Europe and Asia after the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co. was granted bail and ...

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• 12 December

  Asia stock traders hit ‘buy’ as US-China trade magic returns

  

  Bloomberg The power of news headlines is back, and a renewed dose of trade optimism is finally lifting Asian stocks from a six-week low. To be exact, the regional benchmark is heading for its biggest jump since December 3, when the market reacted to Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping’s dinner in Buenos Aires. Huawei Technologies Co.’s chief financial officer ...

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• 12 December

  Fed piles up $66 billion in paper losses

  

  Bloomberg The Federal Reserve is piling up unrealised losses on its $4.1 trillion bond portfolio, raising questions about its finances at a politically dicey moment for the independent central bank. The Fed had losses of $66.5 billion on its securities holdings on September 30, if it marked them to market, according to its latest quarterly financial report. That dwarfed its ...

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