Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 23 October 2015
Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.
Global
Oil’s Big Slump Looks Like the 1980s ‘Lost Decade’ (Bloomberg) Crude oil’s collapse is bringing back memories of the decade of low prices that started in 1985 when Saudi Arabia began targeting market share. Oil has dropped by almost half since last October when crude entered a bear market as the U.S. pumped near record rates and China’s economic growth slowed. Despite the longest decline in decades, some including Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden and Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc.’s Head of Emerging Markets Ruchir Sharma think there’s more pain to come.
U.S.
NYSE Pleads for Rules to Make Hedge Funds Reveal Short Positions (Bloomberg) NYSE wants the Securities and Exchange Commission to compel investors to identify the stocks they are betting will fall. The U.S. lacks such rules, leaving it behind the European Union, which obliges funds to publish short positions once they reach 0.5% of a company’s share capital.
Nurse quarantined over Ebola fears sues Gov. Chris Christie (Associated Press, MSN News) The health care worker who sharply criticized being quarantined at a New Jersey hospital last year because she had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa said in a lawsuit filed Thursday that Gov. Chris Christie and the state health department illegally held her against her will. Econintersect: Thin case.
Economy ‘caught in a vicious cycle’: Larry Summers (CNBC, Yahoo) In the continued absence of inflationary pressures in the economy, the Federal Reserve should be in no rush to increase interest rates for the first time in nine years, former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said Wednesday. He says there is not enough investment to create future growth because there is not enough personal income growth to increase demand for the production that would come from that investment.
Republicans Fail To Take Down Hillary Clinton After 11-Hour Benghazi Hearing (Huffington Post) A report from the left.
Hillary Clinton Admits She Broke U.S. Law in Benghazi (Breitbart News) A report from the right.
Pulitzer-Prize Winning Reporter Sy Hersh: Benghazi Is a HUGE Scandal … But Not For the Reason You Think (Washington’s Blog) Hat tip to Rob Carter. This 2012 story discusses the role of the U.S. and Turkey in Libya to move fallen dictator Gaddafi’s arsenals to jihadists in Syria in order to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. And why has this not been a topic of investigation in Congress? Both parties are complicit.
EU
What Draghi Said on QE, Policy Outlook, Global Risks and Inflation (Bloomberg) Tursday European Central Bank President Mario Draghi sent a clear signal that the ECB will add stimulus in December, leaving open the prospect of both expanding asset purchases and lowering the deposit rate further below zero.
Norway
1,200-year-old Viking sword discovered by hiker (CNN) Hat tip to Alun Hill. A hiker discovered an ancient wrought iron Viking sword under so rocks beside a popular mountain hiking trail about 150 milers west of Oslo. The wooden handle had long since decomposed but the blade was in excellent condition, already to be sharpened for another raid. Econintersect: Was the sword engraved “Ragnar Lothbrok“?
Syria
Islamic State: Putin says Assad ‘could work with rebels against IS’ (BBC News) The extracation process for Putin continues. He appears to be reaching out to the West.
India
FDI spurt not aligned with the spirit of the ‘Make in India’: Study (The Hindu) India remains far behind China in terms of ‘gross FDI inflows’ despite a recent spurt and funds are largely coming into the consumption space such as e-commerce and not in manufacturing, says a new study. Stating that the recent surge in FDI inflows may not give any boost to the government’s ambitious ‘Make in India’ campaign, the latest research report of leading brokerage firm Emkay Global said, it is the ‘net FDI’ that has come down in case of China due to higher investments abroad.
India remains less exposed to external risks, says Moody’s (Business Standard) Forecasting that India will clock the highest growth rate of 7-7.5% among G20 economies in 2015 and 2016, Moody’s Investors Service today said the country is less exposed to external shocks, and the positive rating outlook reflects resilient growth and reforms momentum. The report focuses on five Baa-rated sovereigns — Turkey, Brazil, South Africa, India and Indonesia. Econintersect: A new acronym: BIITS?
More foreign MFs on way out as Nomura plans to exit LIC (Business Standard) Japanese fund house Nomura may become the tenth foreign asset management company to exit the crowded Indian mutual fund (MF) market in the past seven years, if it calls off the five-year joint venture with state-run insurance giant LIC, as is widely speculated. With the exit of Goldman Sachs India AMC, which sold its business to Reliance Capital for Rs 243 crore on Wednesday, there are 43 MFs in India managing assets worth about Rs 13-lakh crore. The American fund house is the seventh to leave the country.
China
China Plans 2020 Deadline for Dismantling Capital Controls (Bloomberg) China’s leaders are poised to announce a 2020 deadline to dismantle currency controls that have kept the world’s second-largest economy from fully integrating with global financial markets. The proposal may expand committment to invest abroad “make the yuan convertible under the capital account“.
China continues to see forex settlement deficit (Xinhuanet) China continued to see a foreign exchange (forex) settlement deficit in September, indicating forex had flowed out of the country at the retail level. Chinese banks sold $232.1 billion worth of foreign currencies to individuals and institutions, and bought $122.9 billion from them, resulting in a net sale of $109.2 billion last month, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said on Thursday. The forex settlement deficit came in at $301.5 billion in the first three quarters of 2015.
China Home Prices Increase in More Cities on Looser Credit (Bloomberg) China’s home prices rose in September in more than half of the 70 major cities monitored by the government for the first time in 17 months, as home-purchase restrictions were loosened and interest rates cut. New-home prices rose in 39 cities, compared with 35 in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday. Prices dropped in 21 cities, fewer than the 25 in August, and were unchanged in 10. The recovery in prices last month extended to a larger number of smaller cities, underpinned by five rate cuts since November and easing of property curbs as the government is dealing with the slowest economic expansion since 2009. To further boost the recovery in less prosperous regions, China cut the deposit for first-time homebuyers in those cities for the first time in five years on Sept. 30, as it tries to revive property investment that’s been a drag on growth.
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