January, 2017

• 15 January

  Emerging-market stocks little changed as Mexico’s peso climbs

    Bloomberg Emerging-market stocks and currencies were little changed after US economic data bolstered the case for higher interest rates that could dim investors’ appetite for riskier assets. Mexico’s peso and Turkey’s lira rose. Shares and currencies in emerging markets struggled to find direction as traders boosted wagers the Federal Reserve will raise borrowing costs by its March meeting. Bears ...

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• 15 January

  Banks in Scandinavia set to dominate bail-in bond issuance

  

    Bloomberg A substantial chunk of the bank bonds needed to comply with new rules designed to protect taxpayers may come from Scandinavia, according to calculations by Danske Bank A/S. In an extreme scenario, which assumes local regulators set the toughest criteria, the region’s lenders may need to find investors for more than $120 billion in notes to meet minimum ...

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• 15 January

  Mashreq launches ‘Virtual Corporate Card’

    Dubai / Emirates Business Mashreq, one of the leading financial institutions in the UAE, on Sunday became the first local bank to launch the Corporate Virtual Card, enhancing its comprehensive product suite for Commercial Payments. Mashreq Corporate Virtual Cards is a dynamic electronic payment platform, empowering corporates with real-time transaction security and control. This powerful tool, built on Mastercard’s ...

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• 15 January

  Wall Street banks hand off struggles to asset managers

  

    Bloomberg Wall Street’s biggest banks are in a bright spot after years of massive layoffs and pay cuts. The same cannot be said for the largest asset managers. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. reported generally positive fourth-quarter earnings, with debt-trading revenues surging amid volatility after Donald Trump’s election as next US president. BlackRock Inc., on ...

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• 15 January

  Shadow banking stretches its reach into leveraged loans

    Bloomberg Regulators are notorious for falling behind the financial industry, cracking down on risk in one area only to watch it move swiftly beyond their reach. This phenomenon has rearranged the competitive landscape in the nearly $1 trillion market for US leveraged loans. This week, Bloomberg News highlighted how private-equity firms have been winning a growing number of assignments ...

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• 15 January

  Bundesbank at 60 holds lessons for ECB in winning public respect

  

    Bloomberg As the Bundesbank turns 60 this year, it might have a message for the teenage European Central Bank: we’ve been there before. While the two Frankfurt-based institutions haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, the ties between them run deep. The ECB was deliberately infused with the spirit, and some of the staff, of the German central bank when it was ...

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• 15 January

  Ports weigh natural gas after marine emissions rules tighten

  

    Bloomberg The tightening of emissions limits for deep-water ships has some of North America’s busiest ports chasing a new opportunity. The UN’s International Maritime Organization last year cut limits on sulfur in marine fuels to 0.5 percent from 3.5 percent, starting in 2020. The target: So-called bunker fuel, a cheap, tar-like oil residue used by most ships. Now ports ...

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• 15 January

  Saudi’s Almarai Q4 net profit up to $130mn

  

    Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s Almarai, the Gulf’s largest dairy company, reported a 1 percent increase in fourth-quarter net profit on Sunday, broadly in line with analysts’ forecasts, and said cost controls would continue to be a priority. Almarai said net profit totalled 488.5 million riyals ($130 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, up from 483.7 million riyals in ...

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• 15 January

  Clean energy spending drops as China slows growth

  

    Bloomberg Global investments in renewable power dropped the most on record in 2016 as demand in China and Japan faltered. Worldwide spending on clean energy fell 18 percent from 2015’s record high to $287.5 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. It was the first decline since 2013 and comes as environmental policies face pressure from ...

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• 15 January

  German utilities face tough year as power rally set to stall

  

    Bloomberg German utilities from RWE AG to EON SE may struggle to convince investors they can adapt to the renewable energy revolution even after the industry’s unprecedented shakeup in 2016. Headwinds range from a power price rally that’s forecast to fade this year to a multi billion-euro nuclear clean-up bill. While planned spending curbs and thousands of job cuts ...

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