LONDON (Reuters) – Investors plowed a record $12.3 billion into investment grade bond funds and ditched equities over the past week, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday, as worries over trade tensions and the world economy reinforced a run for safe-ha... More »
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudanese forces entered the site of a sit-in in central Khartoum early on Monday amid gunfire, witnesses and Arab television stations said, in what activists described as an attempt to disperse protesters demanding civilian rule. A medical... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian businesses reported a decent increase in profits for the first three months of the year, supported by surging iron ore prices while higher wages and inventories may have also helped prop up momentum in the slowing economy. Data fr... More »
BENGALURU, (Reuters) – India’s manufacturing sector expanded at its quickest pace in three months in May on improved output and new orders, according to a private business survey which also showed a pick up in hiring. The survey found increased optimism about ... More »
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s exports likely contracted 4.5% in May from a year earlier, logging a seventh straight month of decline, according to a median forecast of 11 analysts polled by Reuters. Taiwan’s April exports had dropped 3.3% from a year earlier, in... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Great Recession ended a decade ago this month, but for the U.S. Federal Reserve the fallout has posed an era-defining choice: Either jolt Americans to expect higher inflation, or keep the printing press ready for the next economic sl... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors have added to their global equity holdings for the first time in 2-1/2 months and continued to pile into bonds, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday, as worries about the U.S.-China trade spat sent shudders through financia... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar held near a one-month high on Wednesday after minutes from the May Federal Open Market Committee meeting showed officials agreed that their current patient approach to setting monetary policy could remain in place “for some... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors are neither extremely bullish nor bearish, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s gauge of market sentiment, as they weigh the impact of trade tensions between the United States and China. Investors pulled $19.5 billion out o... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s export earnings are booming as resource prices surge but a statistical quirk means tens of billions of dollars go missing from main measures of growth, making the economy seem weaker than it actually is. The cash is still coursin... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Global equities have seen outflows of $20.5 billion in the past week as “trade deal trauma” pushed more money into bonds, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday, the latest sign of how growing global trade tensions are roiling financia... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s economy expanded more slowly than expected in the first quarter of this year, as investment dropped ahead of elections and campaign spending failed to sustain growth momentum. Southeast Asia’s largest economy grew 5.07 percent i... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Federal Reserve policymakers have no reason to change U.S. interest rates anytime soon but will startle global markets by resuming rate hikes rather than pivoting to cuts, according to a leading Wall Street money manager. Scott Minerd, who... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s central bank will keep interest rates on hold on Thursday, a Reuters poll showed, though some economists say a rate cut to bolster economic growth is coming – and one sees a possible trim next month. All 23 analysts in the poll ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – It looks like something has to give in global markets. Stocks and bonds around the world have rallied atypically together since the start of the year, rewarding investors both bullish and bearish on the direction of global growth. The main... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Short positioning on European equities was the “most crowded trade” for the second straight month in April, a survey of fund managers by Bank of America Merrill Lynch found. Investors called bearish positions on Europe a crowded trade once a... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said on Monday it was understandable for markets to be nervous when the yield curve flattened, though he was still confident about the U.S. economic growth outlook. In what many see as ... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s core inflation rate eased to a nine-month low in February, reinforcing expectations that the central bank will keep monetary policy unchanged when it meets next month. The core inflation rate was 1.5 percent on a year-on-year ... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s central bank is likely to maintain interest rates at its meeting on Thursday, a Reuters poll showed on Monday, although some analysts predicted a cut ahead of expected fuel price increases this summer. Eight out of 12 economists polle... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – With downside risks looming and uncertainties rife, the U.S. Federal Reserve is prudent to wait for more economic data before deciding whether its next move will be to raise rates, or cut them, Chicago Fed Bank President Charles Evans sai... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Global equity funds saw massive outflows this week, a sharp reversal from last week’s inflows as pessimism over economic growth gripped investors once again, driving them instead to search for yield in credit and buy safer assets like bonds.... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Fund managers have named bearish bets in European equities as the “most crowded” trade in Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s survey for the first time in its history, suggesting sentiment for one of the world’s most shunned markets may rise fro... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors plowed $14.2 billion into global equity funds this week, the largest amount in a year as investors jumped on to 2019’s stock market rally, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday, citing flow data provider EPFR. An index of gl... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The Turkish economy contracted a sharper than expected 3.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, its worse performance in nearly a decade, in the clearest sign yet that last year’s currency crisis is tipping it into recession. Turkey, a m... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A $10 billion wipeout over the last week has compounded the worst start to a year for equity flows since 2008, Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists said on Friday. Citing data from flow-tracker EPFR, BAML’s analysts calculated that just... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank changed tack on its tightening plan on Thursday, pushing out the timing of its first post-crisis rate hike until 2020 at the earliest and offering banks a new round of cheap loans to help revive the euro zone eco... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, on Monday recommended investors hold more U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) as the Federal Reserve is expected to refrain from raising short-term interest rates in the coming ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Two months after ending its massive stimulus scheme, the European Central Bank faces growing pressure to address how it will protect the euro zone economy from a protracted slowdown. Thursday’s policy meeting, news conference, and updated ec... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday the central bank would debate and communicate at an appropriate timing an exit plan from its ultra-loose monetary policy. Speaking at the upper house budget committee, Kuroda also undersco... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. personal income fell for the first time in more than three years in January and consumer spending dropped by the most since 2009 in December, putting the economy on a weak growth path early in the first quarter. The economic outlook... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell worked hard to strengthen ties with Congress during his first year as head of the U.S. central bank, doubling the pace of meetings with lawmakers over his predecessors and courting Democrats and Rep... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone headline consumer inflation slowed slightly in January because of a sharp deceleration of energy price growth, but core inflation watched closely by the European Central Bank in policy decisions edged slightly higher, data showed... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors pumped record high volumes of cash into emerging markets shares and bonds in the past week, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) said on Friday amid expectations U.S. monetary policy could lead to a weaker U.S. dollar. Flows into b... More »
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader and self-declared president Juan Guaido has asked British authorities to stop President Nicolas Maduro gaining access to gold reserves held in the Bank of England, according to letters released by his party on S... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Earnings at China’s industrial firms shrank for a second straight month in December, putting pressure on policymakers to support industries hurt by slowing prices and weak factory activity amid a protracted U.S.-Sino trade war. The downbeat... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The Australian dollar and kiwi dollar, gauges of global risk appetite, fell on Monday on fears of a slowdown in China’s economy prompted by a contraction in Chinese exports. Market sentiment swung negative after data showed that China’s Dece... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Global investors plowed money back into stocks and bonds this week as they regained their appetite for risk, boosted by dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Equity funds drew inflows of $6.2 billion, their biggest in ... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Uncertainties about the global economy mean Sweden’s central bank needs to move cautiously in tightening policy after its first hike in more than seven years, minutes of its December meeting published on Wednesday showed. Last month, the ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Inflation in Germany’s most populous regions slowed in December, just as the European Central Bank ended a crisis-fighting bond purchase scheme after four years and as global markets slumped. The annual inflation rate in Germany’s most popul... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Federal Reserve faces no risk of losing his job and President Donald Trump is happy with his Treasury secretary, a White House official said in an apparent attempt to calm Wall Street nerves frayed by Trump’s critici... More »
(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. 1/ CURVE-BALLS With major parts of the U.S. economy visibly slowing, the Treasury market has reacted in a... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors pulled billions from bonds and stocks this week as U.S. bond movements triggered fears over global growth and a trade tussle between the United States and China heated up, strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc’s (BLK.N) Rick Rieder is buying longer-term bonds because softening inflation could force the U.S. Federal Reserve to pause interest rate hikes, the top fixed-income investor told Reuters this week. Rieder, who is chief inves... More »
(Reuters) – The Bank of Canada will next raise interest rates early next year, and twice again by the end of 2019, according to economists polled by Reuters who say the central bank needs to be careful with the pace of tightening. As recently as late October t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress’s Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday has been postponed and will be rescheduled at a later date, the committee said Monday. Powell was slated to discuss the economic outlo... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – European drugmakers Roche, Bayer and Merck KGaA became the latest companies to freeze prices in the United States for the rest of 2018 following criticism by President Donald Trump over the cost of medicine. Roche did boost U.S. prices for n... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The dollar strengthened broadly on Monday and neared a six-month high against the Japanese yen as investors bought riskier assets, encouraged by signs that trade tensions have yet to hurt economic momentum. As the second-quarter corporate ea... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan appointed his son-in-law as Turkey’s finance minister on Monday hours after he was sworn in with sweeping new executive powers, promising a “strong government and a strong Turkey”. The lira TRYTOM=D3, which has lost ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. job growth increased more than expected in June as manufacturers stepped up hiring, but steady wage gains pointed to moderate inflation pressures that should keep the Federal Reserve on a path of gradual interest rate increases. Non... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar fell on Friday after data showed the U.S. economy created more jobs than expected in June, but a closely-watched inflation gauge — wage growth — rose less than forecast, while the unemployment rate increased. Nonfarm payrolls ad... More »
TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s dollar will climb over the coming year, a Reuters poll showed, but forecasters are less bullish than they were a month ago as escalating trade uncertainty competes with expected Bank of Canada interest rate hikes. The poll of more ... More »
SAN MIGUEL, Argentina (Reuters) – At an abandoned train station in Buenos Aires’ working-class suburb of San Miguel, hundreds of Argentines gather with bags of clothes, rice, flour and sugar to trade. Most are women, some accompanied by children. Cardboard sig... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Business confidence among Japan’s big manufacturers worsened for a second straight quarter in the three months to June, a Bank of Japan survey showed, with the outlook clouded by U.S. trade protectionism and rising input costs. It was the fir... More »
SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria aims to join the EU’s banking union on the same day it enters the “waiting room” for euro zone membership, where it must spend at least two years before joining the single currency, its prime minister said on Friday. Boyko Borissov s... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Equity funds suffered their second-largest weekly outflows ever this week, with $29.7 billion pulled out of risky assets, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) strategists said on Friday as fears about rising U.S. protectionism continue to we... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel exchanged views with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Monday, her spokesman said, as part of her regular informal meetings with leaders of European institutions. Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seib... More »
LONDON/BEIJING (Reuters) – Factory growth in major manufacturing hubs showed signs of cooling last month as companies braced for potential damage from rising global trade tensions while also grappling with accelerating inflation and a strong dollar. U.S. Presi... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – May was a manic month for markets but brace yourself for June. An unprecedented summit between North Korea and the United States is back on the agenda, and there are other events on the radar to potentially convulse world markets — from Turk... More »
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela warned businesses on Monday not to slow operations during next week’s monetary overhaul to remove three zeros from the hyperinflationary economy’s prices, a measure critics say could create chaos because it is being implemented so... More »
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro won a new six-year term on Sunday, but his main rivals disavowed the election alleging massive irregularities in a process critics decried as a farce propping up a dictatorship. Victory f... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan said he plans to take greater control of the economy after presidential elections next month and the central bank will have to take note of what the president says and act accordingly. His comments helped pushed the... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Damaging revelations of widespread misconduct in Australia’s banking sector could hurt house price growth and household spending, the country’s central bank said on Tuesday in a fresh signal that rates will stay at record lows for some time.... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A resurgent dollar and higher borrowing costs are smashing through Argentina and Turkey’s currencies like a wrecking ball and raising the likelihood more broadly that emerging markets’ three-year long interest rate cutting cycle is at an end... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s central bank is expected to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a policy meeting on Thursday, a day after the country holds a general election, a Reuters poll showed. Eleven economists polled by Reuters were unani... More »
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina likely stopped a run on the peso with a massive rate hike and lower fiscal deficit target on Friday, though high inflation and large amounts of debt are lingering risks, economists said. Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne told... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate the thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them. WHAT’S THE PRICE 1/The Federal Reserve has acknowledged U.S. inflation has perked up, adding t... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The dollar held steady against a basket of currencies on Friday, having retreated from four-month highs on profit-taking, with the focus on whether U.S. jobs data will provide the spark for another push higher. The dollar has erased all i... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – To deal with a familiar combination of falling currencies and uncertainty about economic growth, Asian central banks are reverting to their classic policy playbook. They are intervening in currency markets while concurrently injecting cas... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. job growth likely accelerated in April after a weather-related slowdown in the previous month, with the unemployment rate expected to drop to near a 17-1/2-year low of 4.0 percent. The Labor Department’s closely watched employment r... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Lending to euro zone households and companies accelerated in March while a broader indicator of money circulating in the currency bloc, which often foreshadows future activity, slowed sharply, data from the European Central Bank showed on... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Business is coming in so fast and workers are in such high demand at AOW Associates Inc, an Albany, New York-based construction firm, that its chief financial officer hired a guy six weeks ago for a job that didn’t exist. “We keep our pr... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s central bank kept policy steady on Friday but ditched a timeframe it had set for hitting an inflation target, in a surprise move analysts say is aimed at keeping market expectations for more stimulus in check. The Bank of Japan at its... More »
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asia’s most externally vulnerable economies – India, Indonesia and the Philippines – have just taken a one-two punch. U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yields US10YT=RR hit 3 percent this week, a level long touted as one to watch for p... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Growth in China’s vast manufacturing sector is expected to have eased slightly in April, as factory-gate prices stayed subdued in a possible sign of slowing domestic demand, while a simmering Sino-U.S. trade row heightened risks for the ind... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks slipped on Monday ahead of a blizzard of earnings from the world’s biggest firms and as wary investors watched U.S. bond yields approach peaks that have triggered market spasms in the past. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries U... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s efforts to reduce its reliance on debt and find a more sustainable route to grow its economy may be derailed by the simmering trade dispute with the United States, economists warn. This was the year that Beijing was expected to step... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Business activity across the euro zone was still growing as the second quarter began, but at a more modest rate than around the turn of the year, a survey showed on Monday. The euro zone unexpectedly was one of the best-performing major econ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The ECB meets on Thursday against a backdrop of concern about a global trade spat and a softening in euro zone economic data that could potentially hamper the central bank’s plans to unwind its extraordinary monetary stimulus. In March, the ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The massive tax cuts signed into law in December, which Republicans said would pay for themselves, will balloon the U.S. deficit in years ahead, the Congressional Budget Office said on Monday, possibly hobbling President Donald Trump’s f... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank should be “cautious” and avoid tightening its ultra-loose monetary policy too fast to avoid derailing a rebound in euro zone inflation, the ECB’s outgoing vice president Vitor Constancio said on Monday. “Inflatio... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Euro zone inflation appears to have disconnected from growth and remains subdued even as the currency bloc’s economy expands rapidly, European Central Bank chief economist Peter Praet said. “However, the ongoing economic expansion is expe... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese business sentiment worsened for the first time in two years in the three months to March, a closely watched central bank survey showed on Monday, as rising raw materials and labor costs weigh on an otherwise steady economic recovery.... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – European investors have raised their bond allocations in March while keeping their equity exposure at six-month lows, in a month marked by a sharp tech sector selloff and brewing trade tensions that threatened to dent world economic growth. ... More »
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi holds a news conference at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, March 7, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank dropped a long-standing pledge on Thursday to increa... More »
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi and Vice President Vitor Constancio arrive for a news conference at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, March 7, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski FRANKFURT, (Reuters) – The European Central Bank dropped a ... More »
Masazumi Wakatabe and Masayoshi Amamiya, the government’s nominees for next Bank of Japan deputy governors, attend a confirmation hearing in the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Japan, March 5, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan mu... More »
FILE PHOTO: Gold bars at the Austrian Gold and Silver Separating Plant ‘Oegussa’ in Vienna, Austria, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo LONDON (Reuters) – Rising inflation has put gold back on the radar for investors looking to protect themselv... More »
Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda attends a lower house budget committee session at the parliament in Tokyo, Japan, February 13, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s central bank chief said on Friday it would consider ending ultra-loos... More »
FILE PHOTO: A woman shops in a supermarket in London, Britain April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo LONDON (Reuters) – British households’ gloom about their finances deepened this month, and most now expect borrowing costs to rise again within six month... More »
FILE PHOTO: The sign for Sweden’s central bank is pictured in Stockholm, Sweden, August 12, 2016. REUTERS/Violette Goarant STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – One of the Swedish central bank’s most hawkish rate-setters, Deputy Governor Martin Floden, has had his mandate ext... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – In late 2017, several well-known hedge funds made bets on companies selling goods considered non-essential by consumers and on companies processing raw materials, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission publis... More »
Long-dated bonds "represent a significant risk" as investors focus on signs inflation is rising, a top portfolio manager with BlackRock Inc said on Wednesday. More »
Newly hired employees take a break from training to pose for a group photo at the chain’s soon-to-open 54th outlet in Oakland, California ,U.S., January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Ann Saphir OAKLAND, Calif./CANTON, N.Y./WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The kind of pay raises for... More »
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi holds a news conference following the governing council’s interest rate decision at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, January 25, 2018. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The euro’s recent... More »
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi holds a news conference following the governing council’s interest rate decision at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, January 25, 2018. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Central ... More »
Buildings are seen as vehicles pass through the financial district of Makati city, metro Manila, Philippines November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines’ economy was expected to have ended 2017 on a solid footing with growth in t... More »
FILE PHOTO: A man collects recyclables from an alley as smoke billows from the chimney of a factory in rural Gaoyi county, known for its ceramics production, near Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, China December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo BEIJING (Re... More »
Shoppers and tourists walk along Oxford Street during the sales in central London, Britain, December 28, 2017. REUTERS/Russell Boyce LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s economy looks set for an underwhelming 2018, according to a major survey on Wednesday that showed ... More »
FILE PHOTO: A container ship is seen at the shipping terminal Eurokai in the Port of Hamburg, Germany November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Euro zone factories ended 2017 growing at their fastest pace in more than two ... More »
Atsushi Miyanoya, Bank of Japan (BOJ) Executive Director, speaks during an interview with Reuters at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, December 22, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato TOKYO (Reuters) – Prolonged ultra-easy monetary policy is weighing heavily on Japan... More »
