What the stock market tells you about Trump

President Donald Trump takes economic indicators seriously, except when he doesn’t. He’s boasted that recent stock market highs endorse his leadership; before the election, he said it was all a bubble. In the same way, before he took office, low unemployment was a phony number that meant nothing; now it’s a sure sign of success. In general, stock-market performance is ...

Read More »

How Trump’s war with Republicans could end

President Trump’s intensifying feud with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has led to speculation that this could be a prelude to a formal break with the Republican Party. I have no idea what’s going on in Trump’s mind. And it’s absolutely true that he’s constructed an inner circle in the White House that has very few connections to the Republican ...

Read More »

Why some banks recover and others don’t at all

Most experts debating bail-in and bail-out strategies agree that banks should build capital and shrink balance sheets as the best way to avoid a collapse and rebuild after one. But researchers are suggesting a more personalized version of that recipe that makes the difference between life and death for struggling firms. In a recent paper, Bank of Italy’s Emilia Bonaccorsi ...

Read More »

We need to put the patent trolls out of business

In a recent episode of HBO’s sitcom “Silicon Valley,” a lawyer tries to extort money from a struggling startup by threatening to sue it for patent infringement. The troll, who understands nothing about the underlying technology, owns a patent so broad as to be unenforceable, but knows that the victims of his perfectly legal extortion scheme lack the financial resources ...

Read More »

US stocks rise, dollar steady as investors await fed minutes

Bloomberg US stocks opened higher and the dollar and Treasuries were largely steady as investors held tight before the release of the latest Federal Reserve minutes. European stocks advanced amid growing optimism over the region’s economy. Oil headed for its first gain in three days and base metals railled. Markets are settling down after a tumultuous few days spurred by ...

Read More »

Egypt ends losing streak, Qatar down after data

DUBAI / Reuters Most Middle Eastern stock markets rose on Wednesday, with Egypt ending a six-day losing streak, but trading volumes were thin in the absence of major new catalysts for investors. The Dubai index rose 0.3 percent as GFH Financial , the most active stock, climbed 2.9 percent. It had plunged 12.9 percent over the previous two days as ...

Read More »

Morgan Stanley’s upbeat Turkey bank view defies 10-year trend

Bloomberg History suggests otherwise, but Morgan Stanley says Turkey’s peer-beating banks have room to rally further. Analysts including Samuel Goodacre increased share price targets for four of Turkey’s biggest lenders by an average 15 percent, saying a government credit guarantee facility will continue to underpin their earnings. Istanbul’s banks index is climbing even as the country’s borrowing costs rise to ...

Read More »

HSBC hires Goldman veterans for Asia equities

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has hired three executives from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as it seeks to bolster its equities business in the Asia-Pacific region, people familiar with the matter said. Michael Chandler, formerly Goldman Sachs’s co-head of Asia-Pacific research sales, has joined HSBC as head of equity sales for the region, the people said, asking not to be named ...

Read More »

PBOC chief Zhou’s proteges poised to take reform baton

Bloomberg As the retirement of People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan nears, his legacy of financial reform may yet live on through the advancing careers of people he’s helped guide to prominence. The latest examples of that phenomenon are five officials, associated with Zhou and seen as like-minded reformers, who were promoted since 2015 to key posts at the ...

Read More »

Egypt’s central bank holds interest rates

Reuters Egypt’s central bank is seen leaving key interest rates unchanged this month, a Reuters poll indicated, after it raised them by 200 basis points last month for the second time as inflation soared. Egypt has raised key interest rates by 7 percentage points since it floated the pound in November as part of a $12 billion International Monetary Fund ...

Read More »
Send this to a friend