Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 02 November 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
Asian shares slide as soft China surveys, U.S. data sap risk appetite (Reuters) Asian stocks slid to their lowest level in nearly three weeks on Monday, as profit taking set in after soft Chinese factory surveys and U.S. consumer spending data raised concerns over the global economic outlook. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell as much as 0.7%, hitting its lowest level since Oct 14. Tokyo’s Nikkei .N225 retreated 2.1%. European shares are expected to open weaker, with spread-betters looking for Germany’s DAX .GDAXI to fall 0.8%, France’s CAC 40 .FCHI to drop 0.9%, and Britain’s FTSE .FTSE to start 0.6% down. Mainland China markets fell, with the main Shanghai index falling 1.2%,
Technology: Banks seek the key to blockchain (Financial Times) By providing a peer-to-peer service with minimum infrastructure and expensive controls, banks are hoping to retain profitable functions that will become faster, more efficient and require much less overhead. The general name for this technology is “blockchain”. Where did it come from? Bitcoin and other crypto-currency systems.
Crude Supertanker Rates Collapse As VLCC ‘Traffic’ To China Lowest In 13 Months (Zero Hedge) China has run out of places to store crude and shipments to Asia have collapsed.
U.S.
Kansas City Royals Win 2015 World Series (Huffington Post) No Miracle Mets in 2015 as the Royals win their first championship in 40 years. In fact it might be called the year of the Miracle Royals who closed out the series in come-from-behind wins the final two games. The final win had them overcome a 2-0 deficit in the ninth inning to tie and then win 7-2 in 12.
Who Still Doen’t Have Health Insurance? (The New York Times)
Click for large interactive map at The New York Times.
EU
New Linklaters report: European banks face major credit risks over bad loans (City A.M.) European banks are still holding onto an estimated €826 billion (£588 billion, $905 billion) of non-performing loans, despite increased oversight, according to a new report out today. Global law firm Linklaters estimated that since the European Central Bank (ECB) introduced its Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) last November, non-performing loan (NPL) volumes across European banks have remained high, reducing only marginally from €841 billion to €826 billion. Econintersect: Remember 10 and 20 years ago when westerners derided Japanese banks for failure to get bad loans off their books? Enlargement and the euro are two big mistakes that ruined Europe (Financial Times) Wolfgang Munchau:
I put it down to two catastrophic errors committed during the 1990s and at the beginning of this millennium. The first was the introduction of the euro; the second, the EU’s enlargement to 28 members from 15 a couple of decades ago. You might agree with one or other of these statements, or with neither of them. But few people will agree with both.
UK
Institute of Public Policy Research: Canada has lessons for Britain on migrants (City A.M.) Phoebe Griffith, associate director for migration, integration and communities, Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR):
“What Canada shows us is that more effort spent trying to make active citizens out of migrants pays dividends. We think that national and local government, universities and established communities all have roles to play in making newly arrived immigrants feel at home and want to participate fully in local community life.”
Iceland
Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not (The South African Civil Society Information Service) Hat tip to John L and Roger Erickson. This article is over four years old but has an update by Storm is Coming on Facebook. Econintersect: We have not verified the data presented in this infographic.
Turkey
Turkey’s lira strengthens against the dollar after election result (City A.M.) The return of President Erdogan’s AKP party to a mojority position after Turkey’s election yesterday has produced a 3% gain for the lira, now at the strongest level since mid-August.
Syria
As powerbrokers gather at last, Russia races against time to save Assad (The Conversation) Is Putin’s end game the currently convened conference table? If he fails here this article says Russia “will have to cope with both dire embarrassment and a tricky military situation“.
China
China Banks Enter Eye of Storm Adding Risky Debt to Wealth Funds (Bloomberg) Chinese retail money managers are reaching for yield. The wealth-management products that banks sell at branches across China are often considered as safe as deposits by customers. There are growing reasons to question that faith. The ability of Chinese lenders’ $2.4 trillion of WMPs to generate the returns they promise is being undermined as monetary easing has pushed corporate bond yields to a five-year low. Loath to lose market share by advertising weaker performance, managers of the funds have been adding leverage, extending maturities and buying higher-yielding notes that are rarely traded, according to consultancy CNBenefit and HSBC Holdings Plc.
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