Economists fear that a strengthening US currency spells calamity once again for emerging markets

January 12, 2014 5:14 pm

Investment: Dollar disruptions

By Robin Wigglesworth

Economists fear that a strengthening US currency spells calamity once again for emerging markets

For a brief moment in 2007 Gisele Bündchen became the fetching face of dollar doomsayers, when her agent revealed that the Brazilian supermodel would prefer to be paid in euros rather than the struggling US currency. Read more of this post

Detroit automakers face test of leadership in 2014

Detroit automakers face test of leadership in 2014

7:50pm EST

By Deepa Seetharaman and Ben Klayman

DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co (GM.N: Quote,Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) named a new chief executive, Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research,Stock Buzz) kept its old leader and Chrysler Group LLC’s CEO averted a divisive public offering. And that was just in the last 30 days. Read more of this post

Crisis Hangover Traps Best-Rated Euro Nation as Jobs Disappear

Crisis Hangover Traps Best-Rated Euro Nation as Jobs Disappear

As the euro area surfaces from its worst crisis on record, the bloc’s best-rated member and a key proponent of austerity is losing jobs and gaining debt.

The challenges facing Finland — a stable AAA rated economy — are “historic,” Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said Jan. 10 in Helsinki. “I would like to promise that the euro crisis will end this year, that Finnish structural change in industry will stop and government-debt growth will halt. Unfortunately, I can’t.” Read more of this post

Boring bond markets wait for evolution

January 12, 2014 7:23 am

Boring bond markets wait for evolution

By Paul Read

Providing income is a challenge at the moment, writes Paul Read

Bond markets have become quite boring. For several months, the chief interest of the market has been the US Federal Reserve’s programme of quantitative easing. But the questions investors have been trying to answer are when the Fed would begin to wind down its asset purchases and at what pace. Read more of this post

Did Soros just predict an economic crash in China?

Did Soros just predict an economic crash in China?

BY WILLIAM PESEK

JAN 11, 2014

George Soros probably shouldn’t expect any warm invitations to Beijing — not with the much-reviled short seller warning of a giant Chinese crash.

The billionaire first shook a major government in September 1992, when he led an attack on the British pound. For his role in humiliating London and forcing John Major’s government to exit the European exchange-rate mechanism — essentially the euro — Soros reportedly netted $2 billion. Soros made a bundle off America’s subprime debt crisis as well. Here in Asia, his legend has loomed large since 1997, when Malaysia’s then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused him, bizarrely, of heading a Jewish conspiracy to spark an Asian crisis. Read more of this post

The days of retail chains like Tesco and M&S dominating are over

The days of retail chains like Tesco and M&S dominating are over

Poor Christmas results from Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Morrisons show how online retailing is revolutionising the industry

By Graham Ruddick, Retail Correspondent

11:24AM GMT 09 Jan 2014

“Big business has changed,” Philip Clarke, the boss of Tesco, said after his company posted a 2.4pc drop in like-for-like sales. “Big doesn’t mean better. Better means better.” The slide in sales for Tesco, Marks & Spencer, and Morrisons in the run-up to Christmas shows the pressure on the biggest retail names in the country. Read more of this post

Yergin: The Global Impact of US Shale

DANIEL YERGIN

JAN 8, 2014

The Global Impact of US Shale

WASHINGTON, DC – The biggest innovation in energy so far this century has been the development of shale gas and the associated resource known as “tight oil.” Shale energy ranks at the top not only because of its abundance in the United States, but also because of its profound global impact – as events in 2014 will continue to demonstrate. Read more of this post

The billionaire founder of Ineos says the shale revolution is making the U.S. a world-beater again. It would be ‘unbeatable’ with a lower corporate tax rate

Why This European Is Bullish on America

The billionaire founder of Ineos says the shale revolution is making the U.S. a world-beater again. It would be ‘unbeatable’ with a lower corporate tax rate.

BRIAN M. CARNEYJim Ratcliffe By

Jan. 10, 2014 6:28 p.m. ET

America’s energy boom is spurring a new British invasion, this one headed by Jim Ratcliffe, chairman and CEO of Ineos Group Holdings, the multinational petrochemical giant he founded in 1998. “The United States from our point of view,” Mr. Ratcliffe says, “presents lots of opportunities for investment and growth.” Read more of this post

Calls to Drop 1970s-Era U.S. Oil Export Ban Stir Fight

Calls to Drop 1970s-Era U.S. Oil Export Ban Stir Fight

Almost four decades after the Arab oil embargo, political leaders are beginning to contemplate what was once unthinkable: lifting restrictions on the export of U.S. crude oil. Read more of this post

The rise and rise of Domino’s Pizza

The rise and rise of Domino’s Pizza

As the UK has got fatter, one company’s found its food being ordered into homes across the country on Saturday nights …

The Guardian, Thursday 9 January 2014

Ever-longer working hours, shrinking real incomes and the rise of the internet have made couch potatoes of many of us after a day’s work – and that has been very good news for the pizza delivery business. Read more of this post

Prada Said to Be Under Investigation for Tax Evasion

Prada Said to Be Under Investigation for Tax Evasion

(Corrects to remove reference to Prada SpA in first paragraph, add reference to Prada Holding in third.)

Prada is being investigated by Italian prosecutors for possible tax evasion after the luxury-goods company disclosed undeclared taxable income, a person with knowledge of the probe said. Read more of this post

Nestlé in Biotech Deal to Test Foods on Human Cells

Nestlé in Biotech Deal to Test Foods on Human Cells

JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF and JOHN REVILL

Updated Jan. 7, 2014 7:36 p.m. ET

Nestlé SA, NESN.VX -0.15% the maker of Gerber baby food and Nescafé instant coffee, is deepening its research into the link between diet and disease with an unusual biotechnology partnership that it hopes will help it develop more profitable products. Read more of this post

Innovation made us strong in India; optimistic on ’14: Rado

Jan 11, 2014, 05.56 PM IST

Innovation made us strong in India; optimistic on ’14: Rado

Matthias Breschan, CEO, Rado says the luxury watch brands that are suffering today were doing rather well quite a few years ago. But they increased their prices without having altered the substance, the value that is inside the product. Read more of this post

Bud And Bud Light Are In Freefall — And Now Their Parent Company Is Making A Change

Bud And Bud Light Are In Freefall — And Now Their Parent Company Is Making A Change

AARON TAUBE

JAN. 10, 2014, 4:34 PM 2,626 7

Budweiser lost 4.3% of its share of the U.S. beer market between 1999 and 2012. The rise of craft beer and hard liquor in America has taken a bite out of sales for the world’s biggest brewers, and one that has been hit hard is Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Belgian-Brazilian company that owns Budweiser and Bud Light, among other brands.  Read more of this post

Audi Joins Mercedes to Lure Mainstream With Cheaper Cars

Audi Joins Mercedes to Lure Mainstream With Cheaper Cars

Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW are rolling out cheaper models in the U.S. to woo customers from mass-market rivals like Ford Motor Co. (F)

Audi, which will present the A3 sedan at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit next week, will offer the car for $29,900 when it goes on sale in the spring. That would match the price of the Mercedes CLA sedan, which has been on sale since September, as the German brands push models that cost less than half their flagship cars. Read more of this post

Will All-Aluminum Cars Drive Metals Industry? Companies Prep for Biggest Shift Since Beer Cans Stopped Using Steel

Will All-Aluminum Cars Drive Metals Industry?

Companies Prep for Biggest Shift Since Beer Cans Stopped Using Steel

JOHN W. MILLER and MIKE RAMSEY

Jan. 10, 2014 8:44 p.m. ET

OSWEGO, N.Y.— Ford Motor Co. F +1.45% ‘s new F-150 pickup, the first high-volume vehicle to be built with an all-aluminum body, is becoming the best news for a troubled metals industry since beer cans were converted from steel in the 1970s. Read more of this post

Silver Inventory Reaches 16-Year High After Worst Rout Since ’81

Silver Inventory Reaches 16-Year High After Worst Rout Since ’81

Exchange-monitored U.S. inventories of silver jumped to a 16-year high after prices in 2013 tumbled the most in more than three decades. Stockpiles on the Comex in New York touched 176.28 million ounces today, the highest since since July 1997. Inventories have climbed for seven straight sessions, the longest stretch since February. The supplies rose for a third year in 2013, the longest span of annual gains in a decade. Read more of this post

How the Big Guns Are Playing Gold Mining Stocks

How the Big Guns Are Playing Gold Mining Stocks

You could argue only fools would buy gold mining stocks today. If that’s the case, there may be a lot of idiot savants out there.

The Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3x Shares (NUGT) exchange-traded fund, which uses leverage to amp up exposure to mining stocks, is down more than 90 percent over 12 months, yet assets have risen from $460 million to $642 million. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX), down 51 percent, has seen assets jump from $2.5 billion to $6.7 billion. Gold bullion, meanwhile, is down 25 percent. Read more of this post

A Rusty Outlook for Iron-Ore Prices

A Rusty Outlook for Iron-Ore Prices

Slowing Growth in China and the Opening of New Mines in Australia Threaten to Drag Down Prices

RHIANNON HOYLE

Jan. 8, 2014 5:09 a.m. ET

SYDNEY—Iron ore may have outperformed other commodities last year with record exports from Australia, but the price of the metal used to make steel looks set to decline this year as China’s growth slows. Read more of this post

L’Oréal Pulls Garnier Brand From China; French Cosmetics Firm’s Mass-Market Brand Fails to Gain Traction in Key Emerging Market

L’Oréal Pulls Garnier Brand From China

French Cosmetics Firm’s Mass-Market Brand Fails to Gain Traction in Key Emerging Market

NADYA MASIDLOVER And LAURIE BURKITT

Updated Jan. 8, 2014 10:19 a.m. ET

French cosmetics maker L’Oréal SA said Wednesday it is pulling its Garnier brand from the Chinese market, citing slowing sales, the second beauty company to pare exposure to the country in the past week. Read more of this post

Where the WMP things are in China; “Default probabilities from next year may rise because more and more Chinese companies depend on new borrowings to repay old debt.”

Where the WMP things are

David Keohane | Jan 08 09:36 | 6 comments | Share

Consider this from Standard Chartered’s Stephen Green et al: [Wealth Management Products’] yields tend to move with interbank rates, since WMP funds reflect the banks’ marginal cost of funds. Current yields are well in excess of the 3M deposit rate. WMP yields also rise and fall with the interbank 3M repo rate (Figure 3). These higher WMP rates are not only attractive to households, but increasingly to corporates too – as we recently discovered, CFOs are increasingly buyers. The larger the rate differential between deposit and WMP yields, the faster the migration from deposits to WMPs, especially if chunky corporate deposits are also on the move. As a result, the current interbank tightness (owing, we believe, to a central bank anxious to begin deleveraging the economy and wanting banks to prepare for rate liberalisation) will likely result in even faster migration of funds to WMPs in H1-2014.

Read more of this post

When China’s ‘tuhao’ flaunt their wealth, it could be a bluff

When China’s ‘tuhao’ flaunt their wealth, it could be a bluff

Staff Reporter

2014-01-08

A gold limousine parked in front of a hotel in Chongqing. (Photo/CNS)

A number of billionaire entrepreneurs in China have embraced the derisive “tuhao” label — a new word loosely translated as “nouveau riche” or uncouth wealthy people — after habitually flashing their wealth publicly, but their companies may in fact be steeped in debt, reports the Guangzhou-based South Reviews magazine. Read more of this post

VW Passes GM in China for First Time in Nine Years

VW Passes GM in China for First Time in Nine Years

Volkswagen AG (VOW) outsold General Motors Co. (GM) in China for the first time in nine years to recapture the lead among foreign automakers in the world’s largest car market. Read more of this post

To Conserve Water, China Raises Prices for Top Users

To Conserve Water, China Raises Prices for Top Users

BRIAN SPEGELE and WILLIAM KAZER

Updated Jan. 8, 2014 9:10 a.m. ET

BEIJING—China will roll out wide-reaching reforms in how it prices water by the end of next year, the government said Friday, charging higher prices for the heaviest urban consumers to conserve diminishing resources and spur investment. Read more of this post

On this street in southern China, you can visit Starbucks Coffee – or rather, ‘Sffcccks Coffee’

On this street in southern China, you can visit Starbucks Coffee – or rather, ‘Sffcccks Coffee’

Thursday, 09 January, 2014, 7:08pm

Jeremy Blum jeremy.blum@scmp.com

A “street of fakes” in Wuxi has drawn ridicule and condemnation from Chinese netizens

A “street of fakes” has sprouted up in the southern Chinese city of Wuxi, featuring signs that flaunt modified names of famous international stores like Starbucks and Zara. Read more of this post

Michael Pettis Warns China Bulls “It Is Almost Impossible For Growth To Remain This High”

Michael Pettis Warns China Bulls “It Is Almost Impossible For Growth To Remain This High”

Tyler Durden on 01/07/2014 19:45 -0500

With manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs disappointing, and the nation’s banking system still stuck in the thralls of a liquidity crisis (each time the PBOC removes the punchbowl), Michael Pettis’ warnings are becoming increasingly likely (even though consensus remains that China will save the world somehow – as it transitions ‘smoothly’ to a consumer-based economy). Read more of this post

LGFV credit risk and the rate wall of China

LGFV credit risk and the rate wall of China

David Keohane

| Jan 09 12:37 | Comment | Share

Have a chart from BofAML who, like many others, see financial conditions in China remaining tight as the PBoC tries to delever the economy and an inelastic, potentially spirally, demand for credit dominates. Basically, it shows one of the problems that occurs when interest rates are jacked-up. As we’ve written before, there’s probably a reason Chinese companies have been rushing to issue in dollars. Read more of this post

How the Great Rare-Earth Metals Crisis Vanished; China’s attempt to control the market for materials essential to the tech industry is turning to dust

How the Great Rare-Earth Metals Crisis Vanished

China’s attempt to control the market for materials essential to the tech industry is turning to dust.

Joseph Sternberg

Jan. 8, 2014 6:44 p.m. ET

There was a time, not so long ago, when the world feared China was going to use its dominance of the global rare-earth-element industry to crush Western economies and militaries in a strategic vise. Those were the days. Recent developments highlight how wrong those alarmist predictions were. Read more of this post

How has Wang Ti conned Beijing elite over three years of about 60 million yuan (S$12.5 million) by selling them houses and cars?

She cons Beijing elite

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 – 06:00

The New Paper

How has she conned the high and the mighty over three years of about 60 million yuan (S$12.5 million) by selling them houses and cars? Read more of this post

Global Companies Rethink M&A Deals in China

Global Companies Rethink M&A Deals in China

CYNTHIA KOONS

Jan. 8, 2014 8:11 a.m. ET

While Chinese acquisitions of overseas companies hit a record high in 2013, the value of inbound deals has stagnated in recent years. That’s because China’s regulatory regime has become tougher, while a just-ended moratorium on initial public offerings made it harder to determine exactly what Chinese companies were worth. Read more of this post