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Recession fears and volatility are rearing their heads again, which means investors may look for safe havens. One path traditionally leads them towards health care, which has often been relatively insulated when equities are shaky and the economy takes a downward turn. People don’t stop getting sick, and safety net programs smooth consumption. America’s aging population means that spending might ...

Eighteen banks coordinating to calibrate a market-driven rate — cynics could be forgiven for thinking that another Libor-rigging scandal is around the corner in China. Perversely, such an outcome would be a good sign for its financial system. Over the weekend, the People’s Bank of China made the loan prime rate, which banks offer to their best clients, the new ...

Negative mortgage rates in Denmark; sub-zero yields on 10-year corporate bonds from Nestle SA; A 100-year Austria bond trading at more than twice its face value; Record low yields on 30-year Treasuries — For fund managers trying to navigate the fixed-income universe, the bond market’s reaction to the prospect of a recession makes life more treacherous every day. Investors see ...

All major miners agree that copper has a bright future. The trouble is how to get at it. Take BHP Group, set to be the world’s biggest producer this year after Freeport-McMoRan Inc. sold down its stake in Indonesia’s Grasberg mine. Costs at BHP’s massive Escondida pit in Chile, which accounts for about one in 20 tons of copper mined ...

It’s generally accepted that one of the keys to a healthy economy is a robust banking system. For some reason, though, central banks seem intent on doing everything in their power to make it as hard as possible for banks around the world to thrive. And so now, as they embark on a fresh round of monetary policy easing to ...

Bloomberg US equity futures climbed with European stocks after a mixed session in Asia as investors assessed the latest news on trade and awaited more clues on monetary policy. Treasury yields ticked higher after retreating earlier. Contracts on the three main US equity gauges advanced a day after the S&P 500 Index closed lower as US President Donald Trump showed ...

Bloomberg Japan’s negative-yielding bonds were a surprise beneficiary of the collapse in global rates in July. Foreign investors more than doubled purchases of the nation’s debt last month to 2.88 trillion yen ($27 billion) from 1.28 trillion yen in June, according to data from Japan Securities Dealers Association. The bulk of purchases were in the two-to-five-year bracket, where the extra ...

Bloomberg At Wells Fargo & Co.’s town hall meetings, executives have fielded countless questions from employees about efforts to resolve scandals that erupted almost three years ago. One looming topic hasn’t come up recently: Who will run the bank? While the abrupt exit of Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan in March kicked off a succession hunt that’s captivated the industry, ...

Bloomberg Norway’s $1 trillion wealth fund ended a long-running bet on higher interest rates as market turmoil drove a quarter of its massive bond portfolio into yields below zero. After presenting second-quarter earnings in Oslo on Wednesday, Norges Bank Investment Management’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Trond Grande said the fund is now no longer short duration compared to its benchmark, ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists predict Federal Reserve officials will cut interest rates at each of their next two meetings — in part because of a desire to keep bond markets calm. Having lowered their benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 2-2.25% in July, policy makers will execute reductions of the same size in September and October with ...