Asia enters an age of increasing uncertainty

Kurt Campbell

January 30, 2014

Asia enters an age of increasing uncertainty

Long regarded as a region of unbounded promise and rising prosperity, Asia has been sometimes the lone bright spot on a global balance sheet that featured turmoil in the Middle East, torpor in Europe and tilting at windmills in the US. There have been Asian uncertainties and occasional tensions, historic and regional rivalries, but these have been largely muted, generally, for well over a generation as investment, innovation and manufacturing on the continent shifted into overdrive. Read more of this post

he safari lover poached for China’s credit rating charge; Mauro Alfonso hopes Dagong will rival S&P, Fitch and Moody’s

January 29, 2014 5:02 pm

The safari lover poached for China’s credit rating charge

By Christopher Thompson

Mauro Alfonso is a curious choice to help lead China’s transition from low-cost manufacturing to global high finance. The Italian safari enthusiast, who did not speak Mandarin, left a comfortable directorship at one of the world’s big credit rating agencies for a then unknown Chinese start-up in 2012. Read more of this post

Shadow banking: China’s wobbly house of cards

Shadow banking: China’s wobbly house of cards

January 29, 2014: 11:47 AM ET

The prospect of the first major default connected with the Chinese shadow banking system sent shock waves through the financial markets of emerging economies. Expect more close calls to come.

By Minxin Pei

FORTUNE — Investors around the world have been wondering for a long time when China’s shadow banking sector will collapse. This week, they almost got their answer. Read more of this post

Distrust of China’s Trusts; Growth of a shadow banking system creates moral hazard

Distrust of China’s Trusts

Growth of a shadow banking system creates moral hazard.

Updated Jan. 29, 2014 3:54 p.m. ET

The lunar new year holiday on Friday will usher in the year of the wood horse in the Chinese zodiac. And yes, Chinese are well aware of what they call the “wooden horse strategem.” But if there’s a nasty surprise in 2014, it’s likely to come from within China’s own financial system. Read more of this post

Jamba Juice tries something new: Serious juicing; Whether consumers will kale up to the bar is another matter. Will enough consumers choose to spend $5 to $7 for a feel-good jolt?

Jamba Juice tries something new: Serious juicing

January 29, 2014: 11:38 AM ET

Whether consumers will kale up to the bar is another matter.

By Beth Kowitt, writer

FORTUNE — There’s one major juice-related trend that Jamba Juice (JMBA) has missed over the past half-decade or so — and that’s serious juicing. Now, the $230 million-a-year purveyor of fruit smoothies says it’s pushing hard into the pulverization business. Read more of this post

Chinese internet groups see taxi apps as driver for growth

January 29, 2014 6:27 pm

Chinese internet groups see taxi apps as driver for growth

By Sarah Mishkin in San Francisco

Two of China’s biggest internet companies –Alibaba and Tencent – are fighting a proxy war over the lucrative mobile payments market by backing rival taxi-hailing apps.

Alibaba has invested in Kuaidi Dache (“Fast Taxi”), while Hong Kong-listed Tencent, the company behind chat app WeChat, backs Didi Dache, whose name translates to “Beep Beep Call a Cab”. Taxi apps have become massively popular in China, where traffic congestion on some routes in its sprawling megacities can be so bad that taxi drivers refuse fares to those areas. Tencent and Alibaba executives see an opportunity to use apps that ease rush-hour pain to expand their respective payment networks. Read more of this post

Xi Jinping’s security commission to also tackle financial industry; Fears speculative foreign capital could threaten domestic stability one reason for top-level division within new National Security Commission

Xi Jinping’s security commission to also tackle financial industry

Tuesday, 28 January, 2014, 4:30am

George Chen and Teddy Ng

Fears speculative foreign capital could threaten domestic stability one reason for top-level division within new National Security Commission

Beijing will create a ministerial-level division dedicated to financial industry security within the new National Security Commission to be chaired by President Xi Jinping [1]. Read more of this post

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will expand his role in product innovation and digital retailing as part of a shuffling of senior executives aimed largely at adjusting to technology-driven shifts in its industry

Starbucks CEO to Expand Role as Part of a Shuffling of Senior Executives

Troy Alstead Becomes Chief Operating Officer and Scott Maw Named as CFO

JULIE JARGON

Updated Jan. 29, 2014 6:04 p.m. ET

Starbucks Corp. SBUX -3.15% said Chief Executive Howard Schultz will expand his role in product innovation and digital retailing as part of a shuffling of senior executives aimed largely at adjusting to technology-driven shifts in its industry. Read more of this post

Investors put too much faith in a Modi turnround; It is not clear that the politician could do for India’s economy what he did for Gujarat

January 29, 2014 5:43 pm

Investors put too much faith in a Modi turnround

By David Pilling

It is not clear that the politician could do for India’s economy what he did for Gujarat

Narendra Modi, the most talked-about politician in a country where talking is a national sport, is a polarising figure. Lauded and vilified in equal measure, he is an authoritarian thug to some and India’s saviour-in-waiting to others. To his supporters, he is a man of integrity who can get things done. To his detractors, he will forever be tainted by association with the 2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujarat, where, as the state’s chief minister, he was accused – though he was later formally cleared – of standing by while hundreds of revenge killings took place. Read more of this post

Ringfencing will make it harder to wind up failing banks; Reform proposal undercuts direction of global regulation

January 29, 2014 4:03 pm

Ringfencing will make it harder to wind up failing banks

By Patrick Jenkins in London

Reform proposal undercuts direction of global regulation

The world has come along way since the G20 summit of September 2009, when political leaders sealed an unprecedented collaborative effort to make the global banking system safer. Capital levels today are much higher. Leverage is a bit lower. And liquid funding cushions are reassuringly plump. Read more of this post

Investors Shed Dividend-Paying Stock Funds

Investors Shed Dividend-Paying Stock Funds

URRAY COLEMAN

Jan. 29, 2014 3:44 p.m. ET

As the U.S. Federal Reserve trims its purchases of bonds and expectations of higher interest rates grow, investors are pulling billions of dollars from funds focused on dividend-paying stocks. Read more of this post

Banks have failed to exorcise their technical gremlins

January 29, 2014 5:05 pm

Banks have failed to exorcise their technical gremlins

By Martin Taylor

The systems architecture of the typical lender is like a gothic house of horror, says Martin Taylor

Ido not know why Lloyds Bank’s computer systems crashed at the weekend. I do not know why Royal Bank of Scotland’s systems crashed last year. I do not know much – anything – about computers, frankly. So why am I writing this piece? Because I do not entirely believe the simple story that it is all about under-investment, and that the banks are useless at IT. Read more of this post

“A Funny Old World” – The EM Carry Trade Collapse ‘Deja Vu, All Over Again’ From Citigroup

“A Funny Old World” – The EM Carry Trade Collapse ‘Deja Vu, All Over Again’ From Citigroup

Tyler Durden on 01/29/2014 12:11 -0500

Spot the similarities.

From CitiFX Technicals: It’s a funny old World

1989-1991: Housing and savings and loan crisis: Fed eases aggressively as economy enters deep recession Read more of this post