October, 2018

• 7 October

  All the nightmares for stock investors start in bond market

  

  Bloomberg If there’s one thing the prophets agree on, it’s that the end will come in the bond market. Even for stocks. Prophesies of doom are everywhere. There’s billionaire investor Stan Druckenmiller, who says our “massive debt problem” will ignite a crisis. Oaktree Capital’s Howard Marks warns that public and private debt will be “ground zero when things next go ...

  Read More »
• 7 October

  Municipal bond slide leaves test: Will key buyers flee in droves?

  

  Bloomberg Municipal bonds suffered their worst week since early February, but the real test of the market lies ahead: Will slow-to-react individual investors pull their money out in droves, as they have during previous downturns? Individuals, who own more than half of all state and local governments bonds directly or through mutual funds and don’t follow the minute-by-minute movement of ...

  Read More »
• 7 October

  Record-low rupee does not scare India as headwinds build

  

  Bloomberg India’s central bank stared down the rupee’s slide to a record low, opting to keep interest rates unchanged as it flagged risks to the economy from global monetary policy tightening, trade wars and surging oil prices. In a surprise decision, the monetary policy committee led by Governor Urjit Patel voted 5-1 to leave the repurchase rate at 6.5 percent. ...

  Read More »
• 7 October

  US scrutiny of Danske case changes everything for lender’s investors

  

  Bloomberg The Estonian laundromat scandal has been on Danske Bank A/S investors’ radar for more than a year. But last week, everything changed. News of a US Department of Justice investigation has caused panic. The bank’s shares were dumped and some bondholders are even wondering whether Danske might start having trouble making interest payments on its riskiest debt. At Swedish ...

  Read More »
• 7 October

  PBOC cuts reserve ratio for fourth time

  

  Bloomberg China’s central bank cut the amount of cash lenders must hold as reserves for the fourth time this year, as policy makers seek to shore up the economy amid a worsening trade war. The People’s Bank of China lowered the required reserve ratio for some lenders by 1 percentage point, effective from October 15, according to a statement on ...

  Read More »
• 7 October

  Italy bond turmoil far from over for HSBC

  

  Bloomberg Things are likely to get worse for Italian bonds before they get better. That’s the message from HSBC Holdings Plc after Italy’s government decided last week to set its 2019 budget deficit target at 2.4 percent, roiling markets. That has prompted Chris Attfield, a fixed-income strategist at the bank, to revise wider his year-end forecast for the yield spread ...

  Read More »
• 7 October

  Japan yields rise to levels when BOJ began negative-rate policy

  

  Bloomberg A global bond selloff has sent Japan’s benchmark yield to a level last seen when the central bank introduced its negative interest-rate policy in January 2016 to revive a weakening economy. The 10-year yield rose two basis points to 0.155 percent, after a rout in Treasuries that saw similar-maturity US yields jump to the highest level since 2011. The ...

  Read More »
• 7 October

  Mexico to test $13bn airport plan with vote, opinion polls

  

  Bloomberg Advisers to Mexico’s next president are starting to share a few details on this month’s public consultation on whether to proceed with the construction of a $13 billion airport for the nation’s capital. The unorthodox process will be carried out in two ways: a national face-to-face survey and a vote, Jesus Ramirez, spokesman for incoming president Andres Manuel Lopez ...

  Read More »
• 7 October

  Lockheed F-35 wins Pentagon nod for full combat testing

  

  Bloomberg Pentagon weapons buyer Ellen Lord has approved plans to begin full combat testing of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35, a major step toward full production of the fighter jet planned for next year. Lord, the under secretary for acquisition, “certified readiness to enter operational testing after concurring” with the F-35 program manager’s recommendation to start in mid-November, her spokesman, Air ...

  Read More »
• 7 October

  For JC Penney’s new chief, Christmas is coming too soon

  

  Bloomberg The all-important holiday season is fast approaching, and there’s very little JC Penney Co.’s incoming chief executive officer can do about it. The struggling department-store chain named its new CEO, retail veteran Jill Soltau, with less than three months of 2018 holiday shopping to go. JC Penney’s orders for the critical period were placed months ago, giving her little ...

  Read More »