November, 2018

• 14 November

  Malaysia’s market calm rests on sticky foundations

  

  Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has been lucky, so far. His country looks to have come out of this year’s emerging-markets rout largely unscathed. The ringgit has fallen only 3.4 percent against the dollar, while the MSCI Malaysia Index has dipped a mere 5.9 percent, compared with a 16 percent slump for the broader emerging-markets gauge. Beneath the calm is ...

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• 14 November

  Three-minute chat that wiped billions off stocks

  A three minute conversation on stage at UBS AG’s Global Technology Conference in San Francisco helped wipe more than $190 billion from global stocks. Lumentum Holdings Inc. makes lasers for 3D facial recognition used by major smartphone makers, with Apple Inc. its key client. On Monday, the company announced a 17 percent cut in its December-quarter revenue outlook. That triggered ...

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• 14 November

  India’s shadow banks may need to suffer some pain

  

  In India, crises move slowly. We’ve known for years that the state-controlled banks that dominate the financial sector were groaning under the weight of bad loans. For years, though, the government successfully kicked the can down the road. All those assets haven’t been accounted for yet, the banks haven’t been fully recapitalised, the bankruptcy process isn’t working to schedule, yet ...

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• 14 November

  Banks will pay for China’s ‘obsession’

  

  Chinese regulators have stepped back from imposing hard-and-fast rules on how much banks must lend to the cash-starved private sector. Their exhortation isn’t going away, though, and that means investors in shares of lenders should prepare for more pain. Authorities will refrain from imposing specific targets for each bank and are urging firms to conduct appropriate due diligence, according to ...

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• 14 November

  One of Facebook’s biggest fans is angry now

  

  Never before has one company’s failure had such a devastating effect on the world, wrote the technology journalist David Kirkpatrick. He continued: Racists, autocrats, and purveyors of hate and disorder have found Facebook the perfect medium for spewing poison, normalising it, and gaining adherents. … Societies around the world are reeling from the consequences. Politics and democracy are under duress. ...

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• 14 November

  US stocks pare gains on trade angst; crude rises

  

  Bloomberg US stocks pared an advance after a key Democrat called into question the revamped Nafta deal, rekindling concern over trade. Crude rebounded from the worst rout in three years. The S&P 500 looked for its first gain in five sessions, while technology shares all but erased a rise that topped 1 percent. Bill Pascrell, in line to chair the ...

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• 14 November

  Pound volatility soars as traders look ahead to next Brexit hurdle

  Bloomberg Volatility in the pound jumped as traders looked ahead to the next hurdle on the Brexit path even if a draft deal is signed off by Prime Minister Theresa May’s senior ministers. Overnight volatility in the pound against the dollar climbed to the highest level in more than a year. One-, two- and three-month measures also rose, suggesting that ...

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• 14 November

  Greek banks inch towards relief from $47bn bad loans

  

  Bloomberg Greek authorities are moving forward with two different plans to save their banks from a downward spiral. Some would-be investors think they’re too clever by half. To reduce non-performing loans, the Greek central bank is proposing a special-purpose vehicle created with the stricken lenders’ tax credits — themselves an accounting creation of the nation’s past debt restructuring. With those ...

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• 14 November

  Polish bank watchdog resigns after report of $10 million bribe

  

  Bloomberg Poland’s financial industry regulator quit after a newspaper reported that he made an improper offer to the owner of a troubled bank, triggering a government investigation. Financial Supervision Authority Chairman Marek Chrzanowski said allegations by Gazeta Wyborcza were a “dishonest and groundless” provocation, but that he must resign to ensure stability in the banking industry, he told Poland’s PAP ...

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• 14 November

  Danish PM feels ‘let down’ over banks’ performance

  

  Bloomberg Denmark’s prime minister says he feels “deceived” and “let down” after backing free-market policies that helped make life easier for a financial industry now mired in scandal. Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who leads a center-right coalition, told lawmakers in the Danish parliament that his country’s banks “didn’t behave at all,” leaving him feeling “completely let down.” Denmark is trying to ...

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