1) Tokyo Races Against Quake That Will Shake the World on 'X' Day
(Bloomberg) -- There's nothing comical about this manga comic: office building windows shatter, trains derail and cars plunge from buckling bridges. It all happens at 4:35 p.m. on a day dubbed "Tokyo's X Day." This catastrophic scenario is depicted in a 300-page book on earthquake preparedness published by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The book, which includes tips on how to make fly traps to rid evacuation centers of the pests, begins with a ...
2) Foreigners Piled Into China's Bond Market at Just the Wrong Time
(Bloomberg) -- Foreign investors who jumped into China's $6.5 trillion bond market last month may have bought at the peak. Overseas holdings of Chinese debt rose 2.4 percent to 680 billion yuan ($105 billion) in March, only the second increase in eight months, after the authorities eased restrictions on foreign purchases in the interbank bond market and the yuan rallied against the dollar. Since then, government and corporate securities have tumbled, with the five-year ...
3) China Ratings Downgrade Wave Seen as Next Driver of Bond Slump
(Bloomberg) -- China's slumping onshore bond market is braced for rating cuts, as companies report weaker earnings and prepare for unprecedented debt maturities. China Securities Co. and HFT Investment Management Co. predict downgrades will surge as a slumping economy makes financial reports due by April 30 a gloomy read. Companies in China must repay 547 billion yuan ($86 billion) of onshore notes in May, the most in any month ever, data compiled by Bloomberg ...
4) Aussie Inflation Bets Rise Even as Robust Price Gains Elude RBA
(Bloomberg) -- The worst of Australia's disinflationary pressures may be behind it if the bond market is to be believed, but robust price gains remain a distant prospect. With commodities and global fixed-income yields rebounding, bond traders' expectations for the annual rate of consumer price increases over the next five years climbed to 1.9 percent as of 9 a.m. on Wednesday in Sydney, 30 basis points above the 15- month closing low reached in February, based on ...
5) RBNZ Rate Call Anyone's Guess as Wheeler Baffles Economists
(Bloomberg) -- New Zealand's central bank is becoming harder to predict amid growing frustration with its communication. Markets are almost evenly divided over whether the Reserve Bank will hold or lower its official cash rate Thursday following last month's surprise cut to a record-low 2.25 percent. That move prompted economists to round on Governor Graeme Wheeler, who they accused of steering them in the wrong direction. "If the market's on the fence, it ...
6) Ex-Soros CIO Bishop a China Bull Betting Billionaire Wrong
(Bloomberg) -- Bob Bishop, who once ran investments for billionaire George Soros, is betting his former boss is wrong about China. The world's second-biggest economy has had its hard landing and is on its way up, according to Bishop. Rising infrastructure spending, steel production and demand for metal and heavy-duty trucks are signs of improvement for the nation's industrial and manufacturing sectors, said Bishop, a former chief investment officer at ...
7) Abe Confidant Delivers a Don't Rush Message to BOJ's Kuroda
(Bloomberg) -- On the eve of this week's highly anticipated Bank of Japan gathering, an influential former policy maker cautioned his successors against rushing to make changes in an environment they can't control. Nobuyuki Nakahara, an intellectual father of the BOJ's first stab at quantitative easing in 2001 when he was on the board, recommended against adding stimulus now. He said the central bank should take more time to gaugethe impact of the ...
8) Standard Chartered CEO Sees Revenue Challenge in Volatile Year
(Bloomberg) -- Standard Chartered Plc Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters expects erratic swings in global markets to continue for at least the rest of this year, complicating his efforts to reinvigorate earnings and restore the Asia-focused lender's dividend. Reviving "depressed" revenue in the face of a sluggish economy and a slump in commodities prices is "the big challenge," Winters said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Francine Lacqua eight months ...
9) Aberdeen Favors Korea Stocks as Foreign Funds Look Past Politics
(Bloomberg) -- An election upset, rising joblessness, a slowing economy. Global funds say it will take more than that to keep them away from South Korea's rallying stocks. Overseas investors including Aberdeen Asset Management Plc are snapping up shares at the fastest pace in almost a year, sending the Kospi index 10 percent higher since mid-February. Rebounding commodities and higher demand in China are outweighing political upheaval in Korea. Meanwhile, ...
10) Negative Rates Seen Saving Japan $7 Billion as Quake Aid Mulled
(Bloomberg) -- The Bank of Japan's negative-rate policy is saving money for the government just as it needs cash to reinvigorate the economy and rebuild after deadly earthquakes. The finance ministry is not only being paid to borrow money when it auctions debt at minus rates, it is also saving on interest payments because all sovereign bond yields are now below 0.4 percent. London-based brokerage Mint Partners estimates the government can save about 800 ...
11) Rupee Bulls See Volatility Damped as Oil Enters Goldilocks Phase
(Bloomberg) -- Global funds returning to buy Indian bonds can take comfort in signs the rupee will stabilize in coming months, as oil settles in a range that benefits both government finances and the appetite for emerging markets. A gauge of expected currency swings in the options market has slumped 161 basis points from a February high and reached the lowest level in almost four months last week, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Brent crude prices have averaged $36.8 a barrel ...
12) Dollar Reigns Supreme as Saudi Threat to Unload Is Deemed Hollow
(Bloomberg) -- There's one big problem with Saudi Arabia's threat to unload its holdings of U.S. Treasuries: There are no alternatives. The kingdom, with the world's third-biggest currency reserves, has warned it would start selling U.S. holdings if Congress enacts a bill allowing Saudi Arabia to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That amounts to as much as $750 billion of Treasuries and other U.S. assets, the ...
13) BlackRock Says Local Bonds Sweetest Spot in Emerging Markets
(Bloomberg) -- Looking for a way to get even more out of the rally in emerging markets? The world's biggest money manager is betting on local-currency bonds. BlackRock Inc., which oversees $4.6 trillion in assets worldwide, said the prospect of central bank rate cuts in countries like Brazil and Indonesia will help extend the biggest surge in the debt in at least 13 years. London-based rival Schroders Plc is also recommending buying emerging local bonds, ...
14) Italy's Empire-Builder Bazoli Bows Out at Intesa, Ending Era
(Bloomberg) -- When the shareholders of Intesa Sanpaolo SpA gather in the bank's glass tower in Turin on Wednesday, they'll turn the page on an era in Italian finance by bidding farewell to one of the country's most prominent bankers. Giovanni Bazoli, 83, a law professor turned dealmaker who transformed an institution wracked by scandal into Italy's most valuable lender through a series of acquisitions, will retire Wednesday as chairman of ...
15) In World Where Steel Is Money Loser, Russian Mills Find a Profit
(Bloomberg) -- As steel mills across Europe lose money and shed workers, business is booming in Russia. The ruble's plunge to a record low this year has helped alter the economics of making the alloy in Russia. The country exports about half its output for euros or dollars, which reduce the cost of labor and materials paid for with the weaker currency. At a time when the world has a surplus of cheap steel, Russian companies like Severstal PJSC remain profitable because ...
16) Berlin Boosts Funds to Find Next Zalando, Widen Lead Over London
(Bloomberg) -- Berlin has already surpassed London as Europe's top venture capital destination. A pair of VC firms are poised to extend the lead. The city eclipsed London last year, with 3.1 billion euros pumped ($3.39 billion) into German startups, about five times as much as in 2013. About 70 percent of that total went to companies in Berlin, home of Europe's biggest startup factory, Rocket Internet SE. Now, two VC firms there, founded by alumni of Rocket and ...
17) Why Wells Fargo Finally Joined the Bond World's Most Select Club
(Bloomberg) -- At a time when Wall Street banks say they're running out of reasons to trade with the U.S. government, Wells Fargo & Co. is jumping into the market. For Wells Fargo, though, it's not so much about dealing with the U.S. itself as it is about the other major clients that can be won over once a bank has earned its primary-dealer credentials. The world's central banks, a growing force in bond markets everywhere, prefer to trade with ...
18) Andre Esteves Returns to Bank That's a Shadow of Former Empire
(Bloomberg) -- Hours after Brazil's Supreme Court freed him from house arrest, a smiling Andre Esteves addressed employees in an auditorium at Grupo BTG Pactual's headquarters. He wanted to let them know he's back -- though in what capacity isn't clear. The billionaire didn't say what he'll be doing at the bank now that he's not confined to his Sao Paulo mansion, according to three people with knowledge of the impromptu ...
19) GPIF Head Sees No Need for Knee-Jerk Reaction to Negative Rates
(Bloomberg) -- Stocks tumbled, the yen strengthened and bond yields melted away after Japan moved to negative interest rates, but the head of the country's giant pension fund is far from fazed. The Government Pension Investment Fund is still assessing whether rates below zero will be effective in bolstering the economy, and time may be needed to see the positive impact, Norihiro Takahashi said in an interview in Tokyo. Takahashi became president of GPIF ...
20) Brevan Howard Said to Get $1.4 Billion Redemption Requests
(Bloomberg) -- Investors in Brevan Howard Asset Management have asked to pull about $1.4 billion from the firm's main hedge fund, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, as investors flee the industry at the fastest pace since the financial crisis. The Brevan Howard Master Fund, which bets on macroeconomic trends to invest across asset classes, will have to meet the redemption requests by the end of June, said the people, who asked not to ...
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