Category Archives: News

Dollar, global stocks firm as 2017 trading starts in earnest

Upbeat data from China helped lift global markets as 2017 trading started in earnest on Tuesday, with the dollar notching its biggest gain in three weeks, oil on a tear and European stocks setting a one-year high. Base metal prices and bond yields also advanced, as the better-than-expected factory growth in China dovetailed with higher […]

Italy Paves Way for a $21 Billion Aid Plan for Ailing Banks

The Italian government moved closer to a potential rescue of lenders including Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA by seeking permission from parliament to increase the nation’s public debt by as much as 20 billion euros ($21 billion). The plan is aimed at providing a backstop to the banking system “through public guarantees in […]

China leaders convene for key economic meeting: Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top leaders have started an annual meeting to map out economic and reform plans for 2017, state media reported on Wednesday. The annual Central Economic Work Conference is keenly watched by investors for clues on policy priorities and key economic targets for the year ahead. Xinhua news agency said the meeting […]

Asian shares, dollar wobble as investors brace for Fed outcome

Asian shares and the dollar were on tenterhooks on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve prepared to review rates later in the day, with financial markets focused on how the Fed steers monetary policy in the wake of Republican Donald Trump’s surprise election win last month. Crude oil prices pulled back after their surge to 18-month […]

Draghi Says ECB Can Do More as QE Heads for $2.4 Trillion

Mario Draghi warned that the European Central Bank’s newest stimulus push might not be the last as it strives to reach its inflation goal. “The intention of the monetary-policy decisions is to maintain the extraordinary degree of accommodation in place,” the ECB president told reporters in Frankfurt after the Governing Council agreed to add 540 […]

Record retreat; Oil slips; Retail bonanza

Stocks slide: Investors are coming back from the long weekend and they’re ready to sell. U.S. stock futures are pointing down and European markets are all declining in early trading, with some off by more than 1%. Oil is also moving to center stage: OPEC countries are racing to negotiate key details of a planned […]

Trump Is Bringing the 1990s Back to Markets

Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president is driving global markets to levels not seen in nearly two decades — but in completely different directions. And the “polarization’” of emerging and developed markets is all part of “Trump reflation,” argues Divya Devesh, a foreign-exchange strategist at Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore. In the post-Trump era, emerging […]

Euro zone nations turn to hedge funds to meet borrowing needs

LONDON (Reuters) – Euro zone governments are increasingly relying on hedge funds to help them meet their borrowing needs, which risks leaving them vulnerable to a debt market sell-off driven by a class of investors dubbed “fast money” for their speculative approach. With banks playing a less active part in the sovereign debt market because […]

Dollar climbs as U.S. yields spike; Asia shares divided

The U.S. dollar hit a nine-month peak in Asia on Monday as the risk of faster domestic inflation and wider budget deficits sent Treasury yields ever higher, a painful mix for assets in many emerging market countries. The reflation trade saw E-mini futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 add another 0.5 percent and spread betters […]

Trump Defeats Clinton in Stunning Upset That Rocks Markets

Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States in a stunning repudiation of the political establishment that jolted financial markets and likely will reorder the nation’s priorities and fundamentally alter America’s relationship with the world. The real-estate developer and reality-TV star, a Republican who has never held public office, defeated Democrat Hillary […]