Financial Times (April 14)
“Momentum in economies including the US and India has been picking up in recent months, helping stoke optimism that global growth in 2024 will modestly outpace last year’s reading…. providing a bright spot amid a largely lacklustre global economic backdrop .”
Tags: 2024, Bright spot, Economies, Global growth, India, Momentum, Optimism, Outpace, U.S.
Washington Post (April 14)
Farmers in Europe are revolting. They are hopping “mad about high costs and low prices, about the prospect of free trade deals, about the constraints of climate regulations, about what they say is a failure of political elites to understand what it means to grow wheat or raise sheep.” In addition to “reshaping European policy,” their revolt “may foretell a sharp right shift,” including the major U.S. election.
Tags: Climate regulations, Constraints, Election, Europe, Farmers, Free trade deals, High costs, Low prices, Political elites, Revolting, Sheep, U.S., Wheat
New York Times (April 12)
“More economists are paring their bets that the Fed will cut rates after the latest Consumer Price Index report.” The new consensus of “higher-for-longer inflation… has hit the U.S. housing market like a thunderbolt. Home prices and mortgage rates are climbing again, dashing hopes that financing costs would fall this year and adding another economic question that could hang over the presidential election campaign.”
Tags: CPI, Economists, Fed, Financing costs, Home prices, Housing market, Inflation, Mortgage rates, Rates, U.S.
Reuters (April 12)
“Hong Kong isn’t back to its free-wheeling former self. On the stock market, the benchmark Hang Seng Index is nearly 50% below a 2021 high, and there is no end in sight to an IPO drought that has left investment bankers twiddling their thumbs. Meanwhile, executives are scrutinising Article 23, a strict and wide-ranging national security law introduced in March.”
Tags: National-security law
Barron’s (April 11)
“China’s economy appears to have turned a corner in the first quarter, but a new batch of indicators from the independent research firm China Beige Book shows that the momentum needed for a sustained rebound has yet to develop.”
Tags: Rebound
Bloomberg (April 10)
“Global funds have turned optimistic on Japanese stocks over the past year, on expectation shareholder returns will improve.” Despite the booming Japan market, “Japanese startups have been turning to the US where institutional investors are more willing to bet on innovative technologies.” So it is no surprise that the NYSE “is actively engaged with a pipeline of Japanese companies, some of which may consider a US listing over the next 18 months.”
Tags: Booming, Expectation, Global funds, Innovative technologies, Institutional investors, Japan, NYSE, Optimistic, Shareholder returns, Startups, Stocks, U.S.
Hong Kong Standard (April 10)
“The share price of Tianrui (1252), China’s ninth largest cement manufacturer, “slumped 99 percent in the 15 minutes before the market closed yesterday,” creating a penny stock. The “free fall…also slashed the company’s market capitalization to just HK$141 million from HK$14.6 billion – meaning HK$1 billion evaporated every minute.”
Tags: Cement manufacturer, China, Free fall, Market, Market-cap, Penny stock, Share price, Slashed, Slumped, Tianrui
Wall Street Journal (April 8)
“Japan knows the Ukraine stakes.” In contrast, U.S. critics, especially Republican members of Congress are wavering on Ukraine aid, suggesting “the war in Europe is a distraction from more serious threats in Asia.” Tokyo realizes “a Russian victory may encourage Chinese imperialism.” Hopefully, during his visit next week, Prime Minister Kishida “can disabuse” Republicans of their errant notion. His government’s foreign policy “reflects the seriousness of the current geopolitical moment. Japan recognizes that the threat to the well-being of free nations is global.”
Tags: Aid, Asia, China, Congress, Critics, Europe, Free nations, Japan, Kishida, Republican, Russia, Stakes, Threats, U.S., Ukraine, War, Wavering, Well-being
Washington Post (April 7)
Numerous conflicts are “pitting the environment against, well, the environment. Solar plants and wind farms, transmission lines and carbon-capture projects face opposition from conservationists and other environmental groups asking courts to stop new infrastructure from encroaching on wetlands, forests and other ecosystems.” Trade-offs like these “generally lean against developers,” but they were “written in an era before those developers included promoters of the green power that humanity needs to stave off climate change.” Things need fixing. We should not “let environmentalism sabotage green energy.”
Tags: Carbon capture, Climate change, Conservationists, Ecosystems, Environmentalism, Forests, Green power, Opposition, Solar, Trade-offs, Transmission lines, Wetlands, Wind
The Guardian (April 6)
“An unprecedented leap of 38.5C in the coldest place on Earth is a harbinger of a disaster for humans and the local ecosystem.” The record-setting leap at documented Concordia research station, along with other “events have raised fears that the Antarctic, once thought to be too cold to experience the early impacts of global warming, is now succumbing dramatically and rapidly to the swelling levels of greenhouse gases that humans continue to pump into the atmosphere.”
Tags: 38.5C, Antarctic, Atmosphere, Coldest, Concordia, Disaster, Earth, Ecosystem, GHG, Global warming, Harbinger, Humans, Impacts, Succumbing, Unprecedented
