Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 28 February 2019
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, published Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.
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​Global
- South Korean stocks and won sell off after Trump-Kim summit is cut short without agreement (CNBC) Shares in South Korea plummeted, while the Korean won also slipped, after the White House announced that the ongoing Vietnam summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday had been cut short with no agreement reached. (More below under North Korea.) The U.S. dollar index was up slightly at 96.136 after touching lows below 95.9 yesterday. Brent crude futures contract slipped 0.59% to $66.00 per barrel. U.S. crude futures were lower by 0.35% at $56.74 per barrel. As of 0340 GMT, spot gold and the U.S. gold futures were down 0.1% at $1,318.50 and $1,320.10 per ounce respectively.
U.S.
- Live coverage: Cohen clashes with GOP over Trump allegations (The Hill) President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen delivered explosive public testimony about his former employer Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Cohen described Trump as a “racist,” a “conman” and a “cheat” in his opening remarks, and also claimed that Trump knew his longtime ally Roger Stone had communicated with WikiLeaks about releases of hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign. See next article.
- Transcript of Michael Cohen’s Opening Staement to Congress (The New York Times) Hat tip to Sig Silber. Click title to read the transcript.
- House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings refereed after two members, a Democrat and a Republican, began arguing about racism during Cohen’s testimony (CNN) Here is a rundown of events during the Michael Cohen hearing.
- Trump blasts Cohen, but ‘impressed’ with collusion comments (The Hill) President Trump on Thursday blasted Michael Cohen’s explosive testimony before Congress but said he was “a little impressed” his former personal lawyer claimed there was “no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election. At a news conference in Vietnam following his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which produced no deal, Trump said Cohen “lied a lot” at the “fake hearing” on Capitol Hill.
- Why Pelosi is unlikely to try to impeach Trump (The Hill) Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) will soon have to make one of the biggest decisions of her political career: whether to impeach President Trump. Starting impeachment proceedings seems unlikely to end in a Senate conviction given the two-thirds majority needed in a body Republicans control with a 53-47 majority
UK
- Theresa May gains two weeks’ Brexit reprieve from British lawmakers (Reuters) Prime Minister Theresa May won a two week reprieve on Wednesday from British lawmakers, who postponed a threatened rebellion aimed at blocking a no-deal Brexit after she agreed to a possible delay to Britain’s departure from the EU.
Germany
- German Housing Boom Continues (Twitter)
Spain
- Can Spain Lead Europe to Greater Economic Freedom? (BBN Times) Daniel Lacalle writes that Spain can lead Europe to economic freedom. This poaper starts:
The 2019 edition of the annual Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom[1] shows moderate slippage in the rankings of some eurozone economies. This is a concern, especially as this trend coincides with the peak of the largest monetary stimulus in European Union history, the goal of which was to provide EU economies with opportunities to modernize and to implement important structural reforms aimed at delivering more robust growth, more sustainable job creation, and the generation of higher-quality job openings.
In the midst of this decline in Europe, Spain’s 2019 economic freedom score has demonstrated encouraging improvement.
Russia
- Kremlin dismisses talk of possible U.S. move to probe Putin’s wealth (Reuters) The Kremlin on Thursday dismissed talk of potential U.S. sanctions targeting President Vladimir Putin’s wealth and called draft sanctions legislation an example of anti-Russian sentiment that should not be taken seriously.
India
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have room to ease tensions with arch rival Pakistan, if his counterpart offered certain concessions such as the return of a captured pilot, a political analyst said Thursday.
- Tensions between the two nuclear powers spiraled this week, after military planes from both sides carried out tit-for-tat air strikes in each other’s territories.
- Modi, who is heading into a parliamentary election this year in order to stay on as prime minister, is under pressure to respond in a way that would appeal to his base but also prevent the outbreak of war.
Japan
- Japan Markets Don’t Buy the Hype (Bloomberg) Hat tip to Holger Zschaepitz, @Schuldensuehner. Japanbese investors don’t believe the stock market hype. They have sold global stocks for 7 straight weeks despite the rally.
North Korea
- Trump says he walked from deal with North Korea’s Kim over sanction demands (Reuters) U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had walked away from a nuclear deal at his summit with Kim Jong Un because of unacceptable demands from the North Korean leader to lift punishing U.S.-led sanctions.
- Trump: I ‘trust’ Kim’s promise he won’t resume nuclear, missile tests (The Hill) President Trump said Thursday he trusts North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will not resume testing missile and nuclear warheads despite their failure to reach a denuclearization agreement at their second summit. Trump said during a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam:
“One of the things, importantly that Chairman Kim promised me last night is regardless he’s not going to do testing of rockets and nuclear. Not going to do testing. So I trust him, and I take him at his word. I hope that’s true.”
South Korea
- Stocks Drop as Trump-Kim Summit Ends; Havens Climb: Markets Wrap (Bloomberg) South Korea’s stocks crater more than 5.6% as the Trump – Kim talks ended with no agreement.
China
- China Manufacturing Sector is Shrinking (Twitter)
- Trump, Lighthizer dispute may result in ‘inadequate’ and ‘weak’ US-China trade deal, expert says (CNBC)
- Strains have shown up in the relationship between the U.S. President Donald Trump and his Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
- Niall Ferguson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, expressed his concerns that Trump would overrule Lighthizer and settle for an “inadequate” and “weak” deal with China.
- A Tale of Two Economies (Twitter) Is the post-manufacturing era beginning for China?
- Here’s what’s ‘more disturbing’ to Larry Fink about the future of US-China trade than anything else (CNBC)
- The trade war and ongoing negotiations between the world’s two largest economies is a looming danger, Larry Fink says – but not for its immediate impact on markets or growth.
- The threat the CEO says we are not talking about is the long-term impact of the U.S.-China trade war on U.S. Treasury bonds.
- China, the largest holder of U.S. sovereign debt, has cut its Treasury holdings to $1.123 trillion as of last December, down from $1.184 trillion in the same month of 2017, according to U.S. Treasury Department data.
Venezuela
- Exclusive: Meeting Maduro – Inside a U.S. businessman’s oil deal with Venezuela (Reuters) In November 2017, Harry Sargeant III, a wealthy American businessman, flew to Venezuela to see about buying some oil. THis gives the inside story of what happened.
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