Hong Kong real estate developers seek to raise property sales because of credit-restriction in the country, reports Barclays Capital. The number of loans available in Hong Kong was also impacted by withdrawal of many European banks from the market. Essential contraction in credit availability forces property developers to boost sales in order to sustain the cash flow.
Italian premier Mario Monti may push French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to relieve euro zone budget targets and help stimulating growth. Monti is going to present his vision of way how to tackle debt crisis in today's talks in Strasbourg. Italian PM has emphasized that economic growth is one of the main determinants to stop expansion of debt woe.
Gold futures for December delivery decreased by 0.4% to $1,695.90 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The yellow metal's appeal as safer investment option has declined showing quite strong positive correlation with stocks and other commodities. Investors risk-aversion increased pushing the demand down after failed German auction impacting both US stock and gold market.
The Japanese Yen appreciated against most of its 16 major peers ahead of German report which is likely to show sharp drop in business confidence for fifth month in a row indicating Japanese Yen as safe haven. On Thursday morning trade Japanese currency increased 0.3% against US dollar reaching ВҐ77.09. In yesterday's New York trade the Yen strengthened against the Euro from ВҐ103.15 to
The decline in China's PMI might have overstated the real manufacturing slowdown in the country even taking into account weaker domestic demand since September, said Credit Suisse analysts. Special government-sponsored PMI that more evaluates situation in large-state companies is likely to indicate less drastic fall than reported on Wednesday, added Dong Tao, Credit Suisse analyst.
Australian 10-year government bonds extended gains as drops in German notes boosted concern that debt crisis may hit also region's biggest economy. Australian 3-year yield declined by 83 bp reaching 3.05%, the biggest drop since 2008 while 10-year borrowing rate plunged to 3.806%. Matthew Johnson, UBS AG's strategist in Sydney said, investors are interested in diversifying their investments amid European uncertainty and Australian bonds are good option.
China plans to allow foreign investors to access its bond market and advised China's companies to expand their bond issuance overseas, said a senior central bank official. China tries to open up its bond market to internationalize yuan and decrease the country's dependence on the USD. At the moment there are more than 30 overseas investors who provided over 10 billion yuan to the China's
David Miles, policy maker at the Bank of England, suggests the uncertainty whether all 17-euro member countries will keep the common currency is constantly increasing. Euro area's crisis has damaged economic outlook for UK, Miles added. He also pointed out difficulty to predict any developments not only 6 months but also few days ahead as large number of risks are involved.
Shares of HTC, well-known Taiwan-based smartphone producer, decreased by 7% after the company announced cut in the growth forecast. Revenue decrease was caused by increased competition and weaker demand, reports HTC. In October HTC announced a decline in revenues to T$ 125bn as compared to T$ 135.8bn in three previous moths. The company expects no growth compared to 2010.
Europeans biggest economy's business confidence probably dropped in October, reaching 20-month record low, as deepening debt crisis may push Germany into recession. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect confidence index to fall from 106.4 to 105.2, the lowest level in 20 months. The Ifo institute will release a report today in Munich.
China's navy is going to participate in exercises in the Pacific Ocean in the next few days. The navy exercises caused concerns in the rest of the region - in Vietnam and Philippines that have had some clashes with China recently. Moreover, some experts consider it is a China's response to the US announcement regarding location of its navy forces in Australia. However, China
US stock-markets have been falling for six weeks already. On Wednesday S&P 500 index moved beyond its support level of 1,192 to 1,162 while Dow Jones lost 60-points. Europe dives into crisis impacting investors' confidence. Pre-Christmas time usually implies fund managers window-dressing; however, this year companies shock public by reporting massive layoffs thus undermining foundations of business. Changes are needed as otherwise stock markets may collapse.
A strike in Portugal that has already lasted 24 hours has stopped public and air transportation. People expressed their protest against austerity measures as the government is going to reduce spending on public services drastically. Hundreds of people are going to join the strike today making it one of the biggest in country's history. Two major labor unions representing about a million of workers also
So far Two out of three leading rating agencies have decided to keep US rating unchanged despite the super committee's inability to approve deficit cuts. On Wednesday Moody's announced it will keep nation's Aaa rating. Standard & Poors already on Monday confirmed it will preserve AA-plus. Fitch ratings agency is expected to report its decision next Thursday.
According to lawyers following the court process, Citigroup Inc. might be required to compensate more than it proposed earlier in agreement with US regulators. Last month Citigroup, the third-largest US bank agreed to accept Securities and Exchange Commission's claim that it misinformed investors about $1 billion CDOs linked to mortgage securities. As result, investors lost more than $700 m. Current agreement implies $285 m settlement on
According to Japanese Prime minister's administration, Standard and Poor's may reduce country's credit rating in nearest future. Takahira Ogawa, executive of sovereign credit ratings at S&P in Singapore told that Japanese financial situation is worsening every day. He confirmed that Japan is close to downgrade but did not predict when the actual rating cut could take place. Currently Japan is AA- rated by Standard and Poor's.
Most of Asian stock markets opened lower on Thursday, but during day recovered and closed higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index edged up 0.5%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index advanced 0.2% whereas Shanghai Composite Index and South Korea's Kospi each added 0.3% and 0.6% respectively. Only Japanese equities extended losses as investors returned from holiday and share prices reflected yesterday's global developments.
On Wednesday US market indexes closed at about 2% lower as weak German bond auction increased European yields. S&P 500 Index fell 2.2% or 26.25 to 1,161.79, Nasdaq Composite lost 2.4% or 61.2 points to 2,460.08 while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 2.1% or 236.17 reaching 11,257.55. Phil Orlando, Federated Investors' strategist claims that investors' confidence of Europe's ability to tackle debt affliction is ruined.
Dmitry Medvedev, President of Russian Federation, required the military to be ready to "abolish" command ability of US missile defense system in the European region. Medvedev claimed country may also place strike missiles across its western and southern flanks as well as position them in Kaliningrad. Russia warned US that ignoring its objections may initiate new arms competition between both countries.
As debt turmoil in Eurozone is being endured, discussions about alternative solutions start to spread. The latest of them offers to use gold for collateral. Jeffrey Nichols, American Precious Metals Advisors' manager reminded that countries in the past already have used gilt as collateral. Eurozone's banks currently hold about 64% of world's gold assets.
Consumer spending increased by 0.1% while disposable income rose by 0.4% indicating the decrease in proportion put aside as savings, reported the Commerce Department. The forecast made by Marketwatch was an increase in spending by 0.3% while income was estimated to grow by 0.2%. The savings rate decreased by 4.1% in Q3 as compared to an advancement of 5.1% in Q2.
Indian stocks reached their lowest value in two years amid investors' worries about struggling global economy and falling Rupee that could harm earnings. Indian benchmark Sensitive Index lost 2.3% in Mumbai trade today, while Rupee fell to record low the day before. Indian most valuable enterprise, Reliance Industries Ltd, experienced a decline of 2.3% on Wednesday.
European Commission announced its plan to implement jointly-guaranteed euro bonds aimed at struggling with debt crisis. Proposal is strongly opposed by Germany. The joint issuance of bond will allow deeper integration and will bring promising results in future, said Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission President. However, the strategy is not able to solve the problem and has to be accompanied with stricter economic governance, he
The number of jobless claims in the US is higher than reported earlier, announced the Labor Department. The claims increased by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 393,000 while last week it was reported that the number of claims fell to 388,000. Experts predict that the number of unemployment-insurance benefits will continue to fluctuate near 400,000 until there will be an essential increase in hiring.