BENGALURU (Reuters) – Funds recommended equity holdings be trimmed to the lowest in over four years in August, despite record-breaking gains by world stocks, as the pandemic drags on and new data suggest the nascent economic rebound is stalling, Reuters polls ... More »
1/WALL STREET WATCHES WASHINGTON U.S. lawmakers negotiating a fresh dose of stimulus have reached an impasse. Trillions of dollars injected by the Federal Reserve and huge government spending increases have stemmed coronavirus-linked economic damage, fuelling ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States should implement another support package to ensure workers can stay safely at home while the novel coronavirus continues to spread, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said in an interview with CBS News released on Sunday... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors pumped money into riskier bonds and equity funds, BofA’s weekly fund flow statistics showed on Friday, as unprecedented stimulus measures helped offset worries about rising COVID-19 case numbers in the United States. The policy sup... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A growth spurt in the balance sheets of the world’s biggest central banks has crested in recent weeks, drawing warnings from investors that any signs of backpedaling on stimulus will jolt financial markets and strangle economic recovery. The... More »
(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s promise in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic to flood the U.S. economy with trillions of dollars seemed like the proverbial central bank bazooka. It has been more of a trickle in practice, with activity outside the U.... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – BlackRock’s Investment Institute said on Tuesday it was “warming up” to European assets following what it called the eurozone’s “impressive” efforts to tackle the coronavirus. The research arm of the world’s biggest fund manager said two fac... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve said on Monday it had opened registration for lenders interested in participating in its Main Street Lending Program, launching arguably the most complex program undertaken yet by the U.S. central bank to help keep the ... More »
(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve on Monday launched its latest life raft for U.S. businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. Administered by the Boston Fed, the Main Street Lending Program will offer up to $600 billion in loans through participating lenders t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve announced Monday it was resuming its normal bank examination activities, after easing back at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. The Fed announced in March it was reducing some exam activities and focusing o... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – G7 government bonds? Check. Gold? Check. But that may not be enough as the coronavirus crisis accelerates a hunt for a wider pool of assets to better balance investment portfolios during stressful times. Corporate and Chinese government debt... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese investors have clipped the wings of a resurgent U.S. dollar as they position for the likelihood that the U.S. Federal Reserve will take steps to flatten the Treasury yield curve. Ahead of the Fed’s two-day policy meeting that ends on... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The European Central Bank beefed up its bond-buying programme on Thursday in its latest effort to support a euro zone economy pummelled by more than two months of shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic. HIGHLIGHTS: ** ECB increases size o... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The coronavirus crisis may have dealt a lethal blow to the idea that the euro could one day replace the dollar as the world’s preferred currency, by exposing euro zone frailties and cementing the U.S. Fed’s role as global lender of last reso... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors are bearish on stocks, especially riskier assets, and expect a slower economic recovery as the risk of a second wave of infections from the novel coronavirus persists, a BofA fund manager survey showed. World stocks have bounced ba... More »
TOKYO/FRANKFURT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After years of applying plenty of stick to commercial lenders unhappy with negative interest rate policies, central bankers in the euro zone and Japan are experimenting with some carrot, too. With the coronavirus pandemic... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s handling of its massive economic response to the coronavirus pandemic will come under scrutiny on Tuesday as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testify before the Senate Bankin... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Dollar borrowing costs in the foreign exchange swap markets retreated further on Monday, with swap rates against the euro and pound falling to their lowest levels in more than a decade. These moves indicate recent emergency actions by global... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top official at the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Sunday the $2.3 trillion economic relief bill approved by Congress was appropriately sized and that a further relief effort may not be needed if support efforts are well executed. “I fel... More »
(Reuters) – Bond investor and DoubleLine Capital Chief Executive Jeffrey Gundlach said on Tuesday he believes the coronavirus sell-off is not over yet and that the lows stocks hit in March will be surpassed in April due to uncertainty over the outbreak. “I thi... More »
BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve has offered more than $3 trillion in loans and asset purchases in recent weeks to stop the U.S. financial system from seizing up, but it has not yet directly helped large swaths of the real economy: companies, ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank slashed its forecast for Germany’s economy on the coronavirus fallout, saying it now expected the euro zone’s largest economy to contract between 4-5% in 2020 while industrial production could shrink by 10%. “Within days lockdo... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Borrowing costs in the United States, euro zone, Britain and Japan surged on Wednesday after two days in which governments across the globe announced trillions of dollars of spending to support locked-down economies frozen by the coronavirus... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve and its global counterparts moved aggressively with sweeping emergency rate cuts and offers of cheap dollars to help combat the coronavirus pandemic that has jolted markets and paralyzed large parts of the world econ... More »
(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve unexpectedly cut interest rates on Sunday for the second time in less than two weeks, an emergency move to help shore up the U.S. economy as a coronavirus pandemic spreads worldwide. In a statement, the central bank said it was ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors pulled out of most asset classes, with stocks and bond funds seeing a combined $36 billion of outflows in the week to Wednesday, BofA said, amid fears of economic damage from the coronavirus epidemic. Stock markets have been sellin... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Kristin Tassi bought her house in Chicago two years ago, she was disappointed to get an interest rate of 4% on her mortgage. All of her friends had lower rates. Experts said rates were on the way up from that point forward, but Tassi ... More »
RIYADH/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Central bankers from the United States, Japan and the euro zone meeting in the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia this weekend had their own shifting sands to cross – those of elusive inflation. The problem facing all three is that pr... More »
(Reuters) – 1/CHINA ON SICK LEAVE A leap in coronavirus cases in Hubei gave markets pause, for all of 24 hours. Then attention shifted back to the global case-count and the rally resumed. But while investors are focused on containment, the world’s second-bigge... More »
(Reuters) – The $2.2 trillion repurchase agreement market – part of the inner workings of the U.S. financial system – is facing what could be another strain as the year comes to a close. That could have wider implications than just Wall Street. WHAT IS THE WOR... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – 1/AFTER PHASE ONE COMES PHASE TWO U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese officials have agreed to a “phase one” trade deal that includes cutting U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Washington has agreed to suspend tariffs on $160 billion in Chin... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar’s next big move will be lower, which could lead to a significant fall in U.S. bond prices and a slew of downgrades, Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of DoubleLine Capital said on Tuesday. Gundlach, who oversees around $147... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Google, Alibaba and other “Big Tech” companies could be forced to share data on financial services customers with banks and financial technology firms to prevent unfair competition. As Facebook’s plan for its Libra “stablecoin” faces scrutin... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Friday’s booming U.S. jobs report should give the Federal Reserve all it needs to stick to its plan not to cut interest rates further in the near future, so when U.S. central bankers meet this week, most of the focus will be on their out... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – UBS Wealth Management said on Friday it still expects the UK government to ask for an extension to the deadline for exiting the European Union and to hold a general election, though it acknowledged that chances of a Brexit deal have increase... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury yields rose on Wednesday, a day that saw a flood of supply and on optimism for progress in U.S.-China trade negotiations that begin in Washington on Thursday. On Wednesday, the market absorbed a $24 billion reopening of 10-ye... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Boston Federal Reserve officials have a pretty good idea what helped the ailing industrial town of Lawrence, Massachusetts, start to make a turnaround, including a state takeover of the public school system and a focused effort to lift job o... More »
DENVER (Reuters) – Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George on Sunday rejected the notion that the U.S. central bank should cut interest rates to try to boost low inflation, which she said is largely a result of global forces that U.S. monetary... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday it still sees a 50% chance that Britain will leave the European Union without a deal by the end of the year following a general election, but said there’s a 20% chance of a “surprise” agreement later this mont... More »
(Reuters) – Global regulators will question Facebook on Monday about its Libra cryptocurrency, amid concerns from European Union governments over the threat the digital currency poses to financial stability, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Officials fr... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The European Central Bank’s move to cut interest rates and restart a larger stimulus program drew fast reaction from the White House on Thursday, with President Donald Trump saying the ECB was undercutting the value of its currency and “... More »
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A decline in economic activity in the U.S. Midwest, apparent in a little-noticed report on Friday from the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, adds to evidence of slowing growth in factory-heavy corners of the country key to next... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday its market sentiment indicator has fallen to a level so bearish it has triggered a “contrarian” buy signal for assets considered more risky, such as equities, for the first time since January. The... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. interest rates futures rose on Friday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will do what it can to preserve the longest U.S. economic expansion on record, supporting bets on a further decline in key borrowing co... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. interest rates futures rallied on Friday as rising trade tensions between China and the United States revived bets the Federal Reserve may lower key borrowing costs by a bold half-point next month. Earlier Friday, Beijing said it will... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. interest rates futures rose on Friday, erasing their earlier losses after China announced retaliatory tariffs on about $75 billion of U.S. imports, rekindling bets the trade war between the world’s biggest economies would not end soon... More »
(Reuters) – The bond market is in a “bubble,” particularly sovereign debt, Guggenheim Partners global chief investment officer Scott Minerd warned on Thursday, and he said that efforts by the Federal Reserve to head off a recession by cutting interest rates wi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and top White House officials dismissed concerns that economic growth may be faltering, saying on Sunday they saw little risk of recession despite a volatile week on global bond markets, and insisting their tr... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators have circulated a new draft of the “Volcker Rule” that would further ease its requirements and scrap a proposed new test that had been met with fierce resistance from Wall Street, according to two people with knowledge of... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It has become a jarring and frequent contradiction. President Donald Trump blames the Federal Reserve for putting the U.S. economy at risk while data shows an economy in “reasonably good” shape, as the head of the central bank recently s... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China is unlikely to face serious consequences from the Trump administration’s decision to label it a currency manipulator given the apparent lack of G7 and IMF support for the move, former and current U.S. and G7 officials said. The U.S... More »
(Reuters) – Traders and analysts are considering whether U.S. bond yields would fall below zero as a record amount around the world sank into negative territory this week. The question has become a talking point, and less hypothetical, this week as the U.S. 30... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Surprisingly upbeat economic soundings from China lifted the global markets mood on Monday, pushing world shares toward an 18-month high and steering the Aussie dollar and copper upwards. Investors were waiting for a torrent of second-quarte... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors pumped money into bonds and equities in the week to Wednesday with U.S. stock funds adding $1.7 billion, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday, as markets tried to weigh hopes for major central bank stimulus against economic... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve will likely reduce key U.S. borrowing costs by a quarter point at its upcoming July 30-31 policy meeting with the chance of a 50 basis-point decrease, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts said on Wednesday. The U.S. c... More »
DALIAN, China (Reuters) – China’s economy is likely to hit its growth target this year provided a bitter trade dispute with the United States does not worsen, and hence will not need “very big” stimulus measures to prop up growth, a central bank adviser said o... More »
LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) – Stocks rallied and bonds retreated on Monday as the United States and China agreed to restart trade talks, leading investors to pare wagers on aggressive policy easing by the major central banks. The dollar firmed on the safe-haven ye... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ news program that he has the power to demote Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell but has not threatened to do so. “I didn’t ever threaten to demote him,” Trump said.... More »
(Reuters) – Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of DoubleLine Capital and the most widely followed bond investor, said the Federal Reserve’s dovish turn in its policy statement on Wednesday took its lead from the bond market. The Fed is doing “what the bond mark... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – After almost three years of successfully predicting a global economic revival, world bond markets are furiously flagging the risk of yet another recession, as well as low inflation for a generation. Spooked by the escalating U.S.-China trade... More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
(Reuters) – The major drivers of high U.S. corporate profit margins are unsustainable and “now under threat”, which will eventually result in much lower equity prices, Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, said on Wednesday in a report. “Over... 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 »
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) – 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 »
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 has downplayed a global slowdown for months, but it will finally take a tentative step next week to prop up the euro zone economy, signaling fresh stimulus to keep banks lending. With a global trade war already b... 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 »
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 »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. central bankers are done raising domestic interest rates amid signals from Asia and Europe that global economic growth is sputtering, according to RBC Wealth Management’s lead fixed-income strategist. America’s nearly 10-year domestic... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ebbing global growth and shaky financial markets threw the U.S. Federal Reserve off course in early 2016, and it took nearly a year for officials to regain confidence growth would continue and convince investors they would again raise in... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Barclays economists said on Wednesday they reduced their outlook on U.S. economic growth in the first quarter to an annualized rate of 2.5 percent from an earlier projection of 3.0 percent as a result of the historically long partial feder... 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 »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Worried by prospects of a pause in the U.S. interest rate hike cycle, the Bank of Japan is shifting focus towards a risk that it may be forced to deploy more stimulus this year to stop sharp yen rises from derailing an economic recovery, sour... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Most financial market credit officers surveyed by the Federal Reserve in November said their big clients were exposed to emerging markets but were scaling back bets emerging market assets would rise in value, the U.S. central bank said o... 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 »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. fund investors battered bond markets with the biggest withdrawals in seven weeks and snatched the most cash from foreign stocks since mid-2015 as the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates, Investment Company Institute (ICI) data showed... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Bloomberg reported on Saturday, citing sources. Trump’s frustration with the U.S. central bank chief intensified after this week’s interest rate increase... 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 »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Americans’ demand for credit declined over the previous year as expected, as mortgage interest rates rose, while the percentage of approved applications also ticked lower compared to a year ago, a survey from the New York Federal Reserve s... 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 »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Top BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) bond investor Rick Rieder halved exposure in recent months to a once-major bet in his portfolios on emerging markets on concerns including that the dollar could move higher, he told Reuters on Friday. “I still wou... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The U.S. and euro zone economies remain a world apart and growth data due in the coming days will only highlight the widening gap, suggesting that monetary policy will continue to move in opposing directions on the two sides of the Atlant... More »
(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. Nonfarm payrol... 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 »
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 »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The 35 largest U.S. banks are poised to put more money toward dividends, share buybacks and business investments, after clearing the first stage of an annual regulatory stress test on Thursday, showing they have enough capital to withsta... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve board will hold a public vote on whether to lift growth restrictions on scandal-hit Wells Fargo following pressure from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts lawmaker said on Friday. The Fed’s policy ... More »
AMELIA ISLAND, Florida (Reuters) – Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision Randal Quarles said the central bank is in the early stages of studying how the expanding use of machine learning in the financial sector may change its regulatory approach, but that... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – As speculation about interest rate rises and policy ‘normalization’ in the euro zone, Japan, Britain and China falls away rapidly, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s now lonely monetary tightening has suddenly supercharged the dollar. The revival of... 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 »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The recent widening of the spread between the three-month London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) and three-month overnight index swap rate (OIS) would add a total of $16 billion in borrowing costs for businesses and families, J.P. Morgan an... More »
