Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 01 September 2016
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
Most Asia markets slip despite better-than-expected China PMI data (CNBC) Asia markets were mostly lower on September’s first trading day, with sentiment weighed by sharp overnight declines in oil prices and as traders shrugged off a better-than-expected reading on China’s manufacturing sector.
Hanjin Ships Get Stranded in High Seas, Roiling Supply Chain (Bloomberg) Hanjin Shipping Co.’s vessels are getting stranded at sea after the South Korean container mover filed for court protection, roiling the supply chain of televisions and consumer goods ahead of the holiday season. Hanjin is the world’s 7th largest shipper by volume, with 2.9% market share.
Investors miss out on $500 billion as global bond yields plunge, Fitch Rating says (CNBC) Investors have seen their interest income squeezed as global bond yields plunge. On the flipside, governments aren’t complaining. Relative to yields in 2011, global investors are foregoing more than $500 billion in annual income on roughly $38 trillion in sovereign debt that is outstanding, Fitch Ratings said in a report on Wednesday.
U.S.
Trump shuts down talk of softening on immigration (The Hill) Donald Trump laid out a 10-point, hard-line immigration plan in Phoenix Wednesday night that defied any expectation he would pivot from his position or soften his tone. Hours after giving subdued comments in Mexico City at a joint press appearance with Mexico’s president, Trump vowed to build his promised wall on the southern border and warned that no one in the country illegally would be exempt from deportation.
Trump just made Rudy Giuliani wear a “Make Mexico Great Again Also” hat (Vox) Hat tip to Michael Brokaw. Donald Trump might want to build a wall, but his campaign slogan knows no borders. Before Trump took the stage for his much-hyped immigration policy speech on Wednesday evening, former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani stood up in a hat that read – seriously – “MAKE MEXICO GREAT AGAIN ALSO.”
Who will win the presidency?​ (FiveThirtyEight) Trump is closing, up from 10% probability a couple of weeks ago.
UK
Pension or property: Which is the better option for your retirement? (City A.M.) Faced with an inhospitable savings environment, many have taken advantage of cheap mortgages to fund a buy-to-let investment. Between 2007 and 2016, buy-to-let doubled its share of the mortgage market from 8.5% to 17%. But is this a trend that UK retirees should buy in to, rather than investing in na pension? This article discusses the pros and cons.
Spain
Spain is facing a third election in just over 12 months after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy lost a parliamentary confidence vote (City A.M.) Spain is on the brink of a third election in just over 12 months after acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy lost a parliamentary confidence vote. Rajoy secured the backing of 170 representatives in Spain’s assembly of 350, leaving him just six seats short of a majority. Unless Rajoy, or another candidate can security the backing of the Spanish parliament by October, the country could head to a fresh election in December.
Iran
Exclusive: U.S., others agreed ‘secret’ exemptions for Iran after nuclear deal – report (Reuters) The United States and its negotiating partners agreed “in secret” to allow Iran to evade some restrictions in last year’s landmark nuclear agreement in order to meet the deadline for it to start getting relief from economic sanctions, according to a report reviewed by Reuters. The report is to be published on today (Thursday) by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said the think tank’s president David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and co-author of the report. It is based on information provided by several officials of governments involved in the negotiations, who Albright declined to identify.
One senior “knowledgeable” official was cited by the report as saying that if the joint commission had not acted to create these exemptions, some of Iran’s nuclear facilities would not have been in compliance with the deal by Jan. 16, the deadline for the beginning of the lifting of sanctions.
The U.S. administration has said that the world powers that negotiated the accord — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — made no secret arrangements.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the joint commission and its role were “not secret.” He did not address the report’s assertions of exemptions.
Diplomats at the United Nations for the other P5+1 countries did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the report.
Japan
Japan woos Russia with deeper economic ties in face of rising China (Reuters) Japan is hoping the lure of deeper economic ties with Russia will strengthen strategic relations in the face of a rising China, but skeptics question whether the approach will generate a breakthrough in a decades-old territorial dispute. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a business conference in Vladivostok to discuss, among other things, closer economic cooperation in such areas as energy and technology.
China
China’s Factory Gauge Unexpectedly Rises to Highest Since 2014 (Bloomberg) China’s official factory gauge unexpectedly rose last month to the highest level in almost two years, suggesting the economy’s stabilization remains intact and that a weakening in July was flood-related and temporary.
Manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 50.4 in August from July’s 49.9 and compared to the 49.8 median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Non-manufacturing PMI stood at 53.5 compared with 53.9 in July
Caixin Media and Markit Economics China August Manufacturing PMI fell to 50 from 50.6 in July and below 50.1 median estimate
Numbers above 50 indicate improving conditions.
Canada
Why Canada’s economy was so ‘ugly’ in the second quarter (The Toronto Star) Statistics Canada says real gross domestic product fell at an annualized rate of 1.6%. Alberta’s wildfires are taking much of the blame for the poorest quarterly performance since the Great Recession. The story behind the headline number was largely due to the 16.7% annualized drop in exports, a big part of that being the decline in oil output and exports. Production in Canada’s oilsands was halted after forest fires ravaged Fort McMurray, Alta. in May.
Mexico
Mexican president contradicts Trump on who’ll pay for border wall (The Hill) Donald Trump on Wednesday said he declined to discuss with the Mexican president whether Mexico would pay for the border wall that has become a centerpiece of Trump’s presidential campaign. But while Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto didn’t contradict that claim during the joint press conference, he tweeted Wednesday night that he told the GOP presidential hopeful his country would not be on the hook for the wall. The Mexican President wrote:
“At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall. From there, the conversation addressed other subjects and developed in a respectful manner.”
Mexican president defends NAFTA to Trump (The Hill) Donald Trump stood by his negative assessment of the North American Free Trade Agreement during a Wednesday press conference with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City. Peña Nieto said the North American region as a whole must become more competitive, underlining that 6 million U.S. jobs depend directly on exports to Mexico. He said:
“My conviction is that NAFTA has been very good both for the United States and for Mexico. I don’t believe trade should be considered a zero-sum game in which for one to win, the other must lose.”