Bloomberg Euro-area manufacturing expanded at the strongest pace in over six years as factories across the region took on more workers to deal with surging orders. A Purchasing Managers’ Index climbed to 57.4 in June, up from 57.0 in May and above a June 23 flash estimate, IHS Markit said on Monday. Growth rates improved in most of the surveyed ...
Read More »Is war between China, America inevitable?
Let’s imagine a Chinese ‘applied history’ project, similar to the one at Harvard’s Belfer Center that helped spawn Professor Graham Allison’s widely discussed book ‘Destined for War.’ Allison’s historical analysis led him to posit a ‘Thucydides Trap’ and the danger (if not inevitability) of war between a rising China and a dominant America, like the ancient conflict between Athens and ...
Read More »Bond investors have forgotten about their silver linings
It could be a bond market correction, or the start of a rout, or the seeds of a full-blown tantrum. But it’s none of these. In Europe, it’s just overdone. The fixed-income selloff has missed the fact that nothing fundamental has happened on the economic data front, or even politically — we’ve just been talked at by central bankers getting ...
Read More »â€˜Clean coal’ will always be a fantasy
Clean coal, always dubious as a concept and never proved as a reality, has now failed as business proposition. Southern Co. has decided to stop work on a process that would have captured carbon dioxide emissions from a coal plant in Mississippi. Giving up on the project, which was nearly $5 billion over budget and three years behind schedule, makes ...
Read More »How to clear the first Brexit hurdle
The first task for the Brexit negotiators is to agree on the rights of European Union citizens in Britain, and of UK citizens in the EU. In a rational world, this would be straightforward. In the real world, it will be a problem if one side or the other chooses to make it one. Roughly 3.2 million EU citizens live ...
Read More »Chinese companies can stand more sunlight
For all their national pride and natural boosterism, Chinese officials don’t seem to think much of their own companies. Regulators have sought to limit everything from high-speed trading to short-selling, arguing Chinese firms can’t yet handle the vagaries of modern financial markets. They’re particularly leery of greater transparency, for fear of what might be exposed. Only last week, the China ...
Read More »Silicon Valley must prove growth isn’t a mirage
I’m going to wade into the debate over how to value companies that are technology-ish. There are understandable questions about whether mattress startup Casper, home-delivered razor seller Dollar Shave Club or meal-kit company Blue Apron should be valued like their old-guard competitors (meaning cheap) or more like internet companies that are in the business of bytes rather than real-world merchandise. ...
Read More »Disruptors need sound business models too
Blue Apron is a company that claims to have “reimagined the traditional grocery business model.” Its recent disappointing initial public offering makes you wonder if investors are losing faith in such ‘reimaginings.’ Perhaps not, but it’s time to ask ourselves whether even some of Silicon Valley’s most vaunted attempts to rethink traditional business processes are sound, and what kind of ...
Read More »European stocks bounce as oil rises; dollar gains
Bloomberg European stocks started the week on a firm footing, rising for the first time in five days as oil and metal gains spurred energy companies and miners. The dollar strengthened against all of its G-10 peers. Banks also rallied as the Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced. Crude climbed for an eighth day running, the longest winning streak this year, ...
Read More »China stocks retreat as financial shares lead large caps lower
Bloomberg China’s large-cap stocks fell for a second day as a technical indicator signaled recent gains were overdone. Insurance companies led the retreat. The SSE 50 Index of some of China’s largest companies dropped 0.6 percent at the close. New China Life Insurance Co. slid the most in two weeks to lead insurers lower, while Kweichow Moutai Co. fell the ...
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