Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 27 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.
Note: From now to 03 December there may be occasions where Early Bird appears at irregular times and may have some shorter than usual content because 1/2 of our limited staff is on vacation.
Global
Asia shares retreat, euro subdued on ECB stimulus bets (Reuters) Asian shares fell and the dollar held near an 8-1/2-month peak on Friday, while the euro hovered around seven-month lows on expectations of additional stimulus from the European Central Bank next week. The broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan slid 0.5%, extending losses for the week to 0.7%. Japan’s Nikkei .N225 reversed earlier gains to slip 0.3%, but was on track for a weekly gain of 0.2%. The Shanghai Composite index .SSEC retreated 0.6%, heading for a 0.5% drop for the week. The dollar index DXY against a basket of major currencies was little changed at 99.852, after scaling 100.170 earlier in the week, the highest since March. It is up 0.3% for the week.
Biggest Oil Buyers Pick Themselves as Winners From OPEC Meeting (Bloomberg) Oil buyers in Asia are sure of one thing as OPEC prepares to meet: They’ll emerge as winners from the group’s rift over production. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will gather Dec. 4 in Vienna, where Iran has said it will announce plans to boost production by 500,000 barrels a day. That may further lift the 12-member group’s output, which has exceeded its target for 17 months. The increase in volumes would exacerbate a global glut and benefit the biggest oil-consuming region’s refiners, which are seeking cheaper sources of petroleum.
Tension Between Russia and Turkey Eases (Bloomberg) Oil fell in New York for the first time this week as fears of Russian military retaliation against Turkey dissipated. Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country is ready to participate in a broad coalition against the Islamic State after meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Moscow. While announcing tighter controls on Turkish imports in response to the shooting down of a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border on Tuesday, Russia ruled out military action. The standoff between the two countries had raised tension in the Middle East, a region holding almost half the world’s oil reserves.
As US politicians protest, security officials brush off refugee ‘hysteria’ (Al Jazeera) While politicians rant and rave that it is too risky to roll out the welcome mats for those fleeing the armed group’s stronghold, military officials and security experts whose jobs it is to actually keep the homeland safe conspicuously disagree. Nowhere was that more apparent than at last weekend’s Halifax International Security Forum (HISF), an annual NATO-sponsored summit that is held on Canada’s eastern seaboard and happened to fall a week after the Paris attacks.
Pope says ‘catastrophic’ if interests derail climate talks (Associated Press) Pope Francis warned Thursday that it would be “catastrophic” for world leaders to let special interest groups get in the way of a global agreement to curb fossil fuel emissions as he brought his environmental message to the heart of Africa on the eve of crucial climate change talks in Paris.
U.S.
E. coli from Costco chicken salad traced to tainted celery (Reuters) A multi-state E. coli outbreak that has sickened at least 19 people who ate rotisserie chicken salad sold at Costco Wholesale Corp’s (COST.O) stores has been traced to a celery-and-onion mix used in the salad, prompting its California maker to recall the product. The recall notice, posted on Thursday on the website of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said a sample of the diced vegetable blend examined by Montana state health authorities tested positive for the E. coli O157:H7 strain behind the recent outbreak.
France
France’s Hollande, in Moscow, calls for anti-ISIL coalition (Al Jazeera) French president’s request follows calls from other international leaders to ramp up efforts against armed group .
Turkey
Turkish journalists charged with spying over weapons report (BBC News) Two prominent Turkish journalists have been charged with espionage after alleging that Turkey’s secret services sent arms to Islamist rebels in Syria. Can Dundar, the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet daily, and Erdem Gul, the paper’s Ankara bureau chief, face life imprisonment if found guilty. Their report and video footage attracted a political storm in Turkey and a lawsuit filed by the president. Turkey faces severe criticism over its press freedom record. The journalists, who deny the allegations against them, reported that trucks belonging to the Turkish intelligence agency MIT were used to carry weapons to Islamist opposition groups in Syria. Video footage published alongside their report purported to show Turkish police officers intercepting the trucks and discovering crates containing weapons and ammunition. The government claimed that the intelligence trucks were carrying aid to the Turkmen minority in Syria – a Turkic speaking ethnic group.
Russia
Putin says to keep cooperating with U.S.-led coalition over Syria (Reuters) Russia will keep cooperating with the United States and its partners to fight Islamic State in Syria, but that cooperation will be in jeopardy if there are any repeats of Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet, Russia’s Vladimir Putin said. Speaking after talks in the Kremlin with French President Francois Hollande, Putin voiced lingering anger at Turkey’s actions, saying he viewed the downing of the jet as an act of betrayal by a country Moscow had thought was its friend. But he said he would order Russia’s military to intensify cooperation with the French armed forces – including exchanges of information about targets – and viewed that as part of creating a broader international coalition bringing together Russia and Western states.
Japan
Japan’s Debt Trap Won’t Fix Itself (Noah Smith, Bloomberg) It looks as if tax hikes are the only way to bring the deficit down to sustainable levels. At some point — no one knows quite when — a primary deficit at current levels will lead either to a default or to direct monetary financing, with the central bank printing money to buy new government debt issues. Direct monetary financing will lead eventually to hyperinflation, which acts much like a total default on all public and private debts. Econintersect: There is total lack of recognition of Japan’s monetary sovereignty in this presentation. That “direct monetary financing will lead eventually to hyperinflation” is an unsubstantiated assumption and by a number of potential pathways would not occur.
China
China October industrial profits fall for fifth straight month (Reuters) Profits earned by Chinese industrial companies fell 4.6% in October from a year earlier, data from the statistics bureau showed on Friday, declining for the fifth consecutive month. Industrial profits – which cover large enterprises with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($3.13 million) from their main operations – fell 2.0% in the first 10 months of the year compared with the same period a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website. In September, profits fell 0.1% from a year earlier. Falling sales, rising costs and hits to profit in the oil, steel and coal industries all contributed to October’s disappointing industrial profits, the NBS said. The mining industry was the most hard hot with profits falling 56.3% in the first 10 months of the year from a year earlier, the NBS data showed.
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