Warren Buffett’s annual letter: What investors will be looking for

Warren Buffett’s annual letter: What investors will be looking for

Josh Funk, Associated Press | February 28, 2014 5:29 AM ET
OMAHA, Neb. — Berkshire Hathaway Inc. investors will be looking for details of how the conglomerate performed and the best advice CEO Warren Buffett has to offer in his annual letter this Saturday. Read more of this post

China Currency Plunges Most In Over 5 Years, Biggest Weekly Loss Ever: Yuan Carry Traders Crushed

China Currency Plunges Most In Over 5 Years, Biggest Weekly Loss Ever: Yuan Carry Traders Crushed

Tyler Durden on 02/27/2014 23:18 -0500

And just like that the Chinese yuan devaluation has shifted away from the merely “orderly.”

In the past few hours of trading, China, which as we reported two days ago has started intervening aggressively in the Yuan market (for the reasons why, read this), has seen its currency crash by nearly 0.9%, which may not seem like much, but is in fact the largest drop since December of 2008, and at last check was trading at around 6.18, even as the PBOC fixed the CNY reference rate 0.02% higher from the last official close to 6.1214, erasing pivot support point at 6.1346 and 6.1408.  Naturally this means that the obverse, the CNYUSD, has crashed to as low as 0.1620. Should this move sustain without reverting, this will be the biggest weekly loss ever! Read more of this post

Loss-saddled Sony to sell its Tokyo birthplace

Updated: Friday February 28, 2014 MYT 5:32:46 PM

Loss-saddled Sony to sell its Tokyo birthplace

TOKYO: Sony will sell properties at a prestigious Tokyo site where it had its headquarters for six decades, as the once world-beating firm struggles to improve its bottom line, reports said Friday. Read more of this post

Asset theft is top economic crime in China

Asset theft is top economic crime in China

Friday, February 28, 2014 – 10:07

China Daily/Asia News Network

CHINA – China’s economic crime rate may be lower than that of the world, but many companies in the Chinese mainland are extremely concerned about bribery, corruption and procurement fraud, according to a PwC survey released on Thursday. Read more of this post

Pimco’s Gross Defends Competitive Culture

Pimco’s Gross Defends Competitive Culture

Allianz is ‘Very Happy’ with Pimco’s New Management Structure

GREGORY ZUCKERMAN and KIRSTEN GRIND

Feb. 27, 2014 8:20 p.m. ET

Bill Gross isn’t changing his style—and his bosses say they are fine with that.

The co-founder of bond behemoth Pacific Investment Management Co. on Thursday defended its competitive culture, saying in an interview that the trading floor can’t thrive on “sweet talking” alone but that the firm is still a family of sorts. Read more of this post

South Korea’s Growth Model; Seoul pushes domestic deregulation over export promotion

South Korea’s Growth Model

Seoul pushes domestic deregulation over export promotion.

Updated Feb. 27, 2014 6:01 p.m. ET

Japan’s Abenomics may be struggling, but at least economic reform isn’t dead in Asia. Witness South Korea, where President Park Geun-hye is proposing a reform package that could be a model for the region and many other parts of the world. Read more of this post

Lego Looks to Build in China; Danish Toy Maker Looks to Replicate Success Enjoyed in West

Lego Looks to Build in China

Danish Toy Maker Looks to Replicate Success Enjoyed in West

NICLAS ROLANDER

Feb. 27, 2014 5:34 a.m. ET

Lego A/S, pressured by stagnant toy demand in mature markets, is sharpening its focus on emerging economies, where hundreds of millions of potential customers have yet to buy the company’s interlocking bricks. Read more of this post

Is China Set For A Japan-Style Lost-Decade?

Is China Set For A Japan-Style Lost-Decade?

Tyler Durden on 02/26/2014 22:00 -0500

“The extent of unproductive investment in China today is much greater than was the case for Japan at a comparable phase of development,” warns Deutsche’s EM strategist John-Paul Smith, and one glance at the chart below suggests China is tracing an ominous path towards the same “lost-decade” that un-inspired Japan since the mid-80s. While the PBOC is less interested in goosing its own stock market (since ownership is so low), Chinese stocks (down 60% from 2007 highs) “seem to be saying that there is a significant risk of a major slowdown.” Read more of this post

One in Three Audits Fail, PCAOB Chief Auditor Says

January 24, 2014, 3:12 PM ET

One in Three Audits Fail, PCAOB Chief Auditor Says

By EMILY CHASAN

Senior Editor

More than one in three audits inspected by the U.S. government’s audit watchdog were so deficient the auditors shouldn’t have signed off, an official said this week. Read more of this post

How China Snares Tigers, Swats Flies on Path to Reform

Feb 27, 2014

How China Snares Tigers, Swats Flies on Path to Reform

China’s Communist Party chief Xi Jinping has spent much of his first year in office cracking down on “tigers and flies” in an anticorruption drive just as he pushes ahead with some serious economic reforms. Read more of this post

China banks lobby to cap online financial product yields

China banks lobby to cap online financial product yields – sources

4:35am EST

* Interbank deposits currently not subject to rate cap

* Banks want online products treated as retail deposits

* Huge outflow of bank deposits as savers move online

* PBOC would have to approve regulatory change

By Heng Xie and Gabriel Wildau

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Feb 27 (Reuters) – The China Banking Association is lobbying regulators to cap the yields on online money market funds, two bankers told Reuters on Thursday, in the boldest effort yet by banks to answer the threat from online financial products. Read more of this post

So Who Stops a Run on Yu E Bao Accounts? Regulatory responsibility over the wildly popular e-investment product has never been established, an oversight that raises many questions

02.27.2014 18:51

Closer Look: So Who Stops a Run on Yu E Bao Accounts?

Regulatory responsibility over the wildly popular e-investment product has never been established, an oversight that raises many questions Read more of this post

Samsonite trumps LVMH as China retail moves downmarket

Samsonite trumps LVMH as China retail moves downmarket

12:19am EST

By Clare Baldwin

HONG KONG (Reuters) – The world’s biggest luxury brands are slowing their expansion in China as more consumers shop abroad, leaving mall operators holding the bag. Read more of this post

Korea’s top court upheld a four-year jail sentence against the head of the country’s third-largest conglomerate, SK Group, for embezzling company funds

2014-02-27 10:56

Court upholds 4-yr prison term of SK Group chief for embezzlement

The nation’s top court on Thursday upheld a four-year jail sentence against the head of the country’s third-largest conglomerate, SK Group, for embezzling company funds. Read more of this post

Many big US corporations pay very little in taxes

Updated: Wednesday February 26, 2014 MYT 12:50:30 PM

Many big US corporations pay very little in taxes

NEW YORK: Many of the most profitable U.S. corporations paid little or no federal income tax from 2008 to 2012, according to a five-year study issued on Tuesday by a left-leaning tax activist group. Read more of this post

Beware the lure of go-go growth stocks; Rewards for successful investors are high, but hard to reach

February 26, 2014 5:02 pm

Beware the lure of go-go growth stocks

By John Authers

Rewards for successful investors are high, but hard to reach

US stocks’ long rally has lasted almost exactly five years. The S&P 500 has again hit all-time highs this week. Even the Nasdaq index is showing signs that it might be able to regain its high from 2000. Read more of this post

Hedge funds should not be the only activist investors

Last updated: February 26, 2014 7:08 pm

Hedge funds should not be the only activist investors

By John Gapper

The danger is that directors talk to the loudest voices but spurn contact with anyone else

At 78, Carl Icahn shows little sign of retiring, or of becoming more polite. After finally prodding Forest Labs into a $25bn takeover by Actavis, he renewed his attack on eBay this week, accusing John Donahoe, its chief executive, of being “completely asleep or, even worse, either naive or wilfully blind”. Read more of this post

China pollution: Trouble in the air; Roused by public protests and air-quality tweets from the US embassy, China has vowed to challenge its growth model

February 26, 2014 7:27 pm

China pollution: Trouble in the air

By Lucy Hornby

Roused by public protests and air-quality tweets from the US embassy, China has vowed to challenge its growth model

“440. Hazardous. Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects, please avoid physical exertion and outdoor activities.” 
Tweet from US embassy air pollution monitor, Beijing, Tuesday Feb 25 2014 Read more of this post

Thai Builders Face Tough Times as Crisis Drags On

Thai Builders Face Tough Times as Crisis Drags On

By Khettiya Jittapong on 9:44 pm February 26, 2014.

Bangkok. Political unrest and an over-supplied $20 billion real estate market in Thailand are the latest challenges threatening developers who are canceling new launches in the hopes of staving off a bubble. Read more of this post

South Korea Reform Plan Resembles Japan’s Abenomics

February 27, 2014, 12:07 PM

South Korea Reform Plan Resembles Japan’s Abenomics

By Michael S. Arnold

In its swift rise out of poverty over the past half-century, South Korea borrowed heavily from Japan’s post-World War II playbook, riding the strength of huge and diversified conglomerates to become a leading exporter of cars, ships, steel and electronics. Read more of this post

Asia Is Finding Ways to Cope With Tapering

Asia Is Finding Ways to Cope With Tapering

Old financing models were growing less viable anyway. Fortunately change is afoot.

DAVID MORTON

Feb. 26, 2014 11:28 a.m. ET

The past seven months have seen several moments of market turmoil in Asia, with investors worrying about the potential for destabilizing capital flight out of the region as central bankers in the U.S. wind down quantitative easing and interest rates start returning to normal. While monetary tapering will have an effect on Asia, that effect has been exaggerated—not least because the region’s financial markets are evolving in ways that make them far more resilient in the face of developments elsewhere. Read more of this post

In Two-Child China, a New Dilemma

Feb 26, 2014

In Two-Child China, a New Dilemma

Beijing recently became the fifth region in China to official implement a long-awaitedloosening of the country’s family planning rules, announcing last week that resident couples will now be allowed to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. Read more of this post

Shanghai Bans Taxi Apps During Rush Hour

Feb 26, 2014

Shanghai Bans Taxi Apps During Rush Hour

COLUM MURPHY

Taxi-hailing apps just got a little less useful in Shanghai.

The city on late Wednesday announced new rules to curb the use of such apps at peak times. The Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority said in a notice on its website that such apps will be banned during rush hour, defined as between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Read more of this post

Singles in Japan are suing saying they invested in love when buying property

Singles in Japan are suing saying they invested in love when buying property

15 HOURS AGO FEBRUARY 27, 2014 1:34AM

A GROUP of singletons in Japan who claim they were tricked into buying apartments by real estate agents feigning a romantic interest in them have launched legal action.

Two men and 10 women, all aged in their 30s or early 40s, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against 14 firms, including real estate agencies and loan companies, demanding a total of 200 million yen ($1.95 million) in compensation. Read more of this post

Beyond Mt. Gox, bitcoin believers keep the faith, see more robust system

Beyond Mt. Gox, bitcoin believers keep the faith, see more robust system

7:19am EST

By Jeremy Wagstaff

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The apparent collapse of Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox isn’t bothering Anthony Hope and others who have ditched steady careers in government and finance to build bitcoin companies – and who stand to lose money they have in Mt. Gox. Read more of this post