Financial markets are wrongly discounting trade risks

US financial markets seem unfazed by a sequence of negative developments on the trade front. The May 17 date set by Paul Ryan, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, for Congress to approve a revised North American Free Trade Agreement has passed with no resolution. The European Union, a major US ally, resents the June 1 deadline President Donald ...

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Stocks retreat globally as dollar climbs with bonds

Bloomberg Stocks fell from Tokyo to New York as data cast doubts on growth prospects for the euro area while political tensions increased in North Korea, Turkey and the US Ten-year Treasury yields briefly dipped below 3 percent, while the dollar climbed. The S&P 500 Index dropped for a second day at the highest since March, while the Stoxx Europe ...

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Chinese stocks slide most in seven weeks as trade optimism fades

Bloomberg Chinese stocks slid in Hong Kong and Shanghai amid concern over trade talks with the US and government efforts to cap coal price gains. The yuan neared a four-month low against the greenback, while bonds gained. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slumped 2.1 percent at the close, its biggest retreat in seven weeks, while the Shanghai Composite Index ...

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US House approves overhaul of bank rules

Bloomberg The US House has approved a sweeping overhaul of bank regulations, sending to President Donald Trump a bill that will give him a chance to make good on his vow to “do a big number” on the Dodd-Frank Act. Lawmakers voted 258-to-159 to advance a measure that is the product of years of financial-industry lobbying to soften post-crisis rules ...

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Barclays explores merger with StanChart

Bloomberg Barclays Plc has been exploring a potential merger with rival banks including Standard Chartered Plc, as part of wide-ranging contingency plans being weighed by senior board members following pressure from an activist investor, the Financial Times reported. Chairman John McFarlane was at least theoretically keen on the idea of combining with Standard Chartered, and was supported by Deputy Chairman ...

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Canada’s CIBC reins in mortgage growth

Bloomberg Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is no longer an outlier on mortgages. CIBC has scaled back its rapid expansion of Canadian home loans, bringing it more in line with the industry and ending a two-year streak of outpacing the nation’s other big banks. Mortgage balances rose 6 percent to C$208.2 billion ($161.6 billion) in the fiscal second quarter from ...

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Wells Fargo cuts 22 jobs in currency trading

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co.’s foreign-exchange business cut 22 salespeople, according to a person briefed on the matter, the latest casualties of a slump in market activity. Affected employees worked in locations including St. Louis and Atlanta, where the bank is consolidating operations elsewhere, the person said. Some staff are being moved to other offices, while others leave the company, ...

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Kenya’s top buyer of banks looking ahead to profits

Bloomberg SBM Holdings Ltd., the Mauritius lender that bought two Kenyan banks within months of each other, expects the combined operations to make a profit within a year. The second-biggest lender in the Indian Ocean island-nation is expanding in East Africa’s largest economy to use it as a hub for the rest of the region as part of a broader ...

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United Air board faces a long to-do list, from chairman to jets

Bloomberg United Continental Holdings Inc. directors face a series of momentous decisions as the board gathers this week at the airline’s Chicago headquarters. The to-do list ranges from naming a new chairman to initiating a search for a new chief financial officer. There’s also the debate about long-range planes that will make up the company’s future fleet. The deliberations will ...

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MH370 search in peril as Malaysia PM Mahathir cuts costs

Bloomberg The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is in peril once again as new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad reins in government spending. After several extensions of what began as a three-month “no cure, no fee” contract signed by US exploration company Ocean Infinity in January, the government has given extra time until May 29 to wrap up the search ...

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