Financial Times (February 1)
“Mounting losses from banks in the US, Asia and Europe have rekindled concerns about weakness in the US commercial property market, a sector that has been under pressure from lower occupancy levels and higher interest rates.” This week New York Community Bancorp, Aozora Bank and Deutsche Bank each warned of related risks or recognized losses, which “mark the latest fallout from the… dual problems of fewer people working in offices since the pandemic and more expensive borrowing costs.”
Tags: Aozora Bank, Asia, Banks, Commercial property, Concerns, Deutsche Bank, Europe, Fallout, Interest rates, Losses, Occupancy, Offices, Pandemic, Pressure, Risks, U.S., Weakness
Bloomberg (January 11)
“Years of harrowing losses have left Chinese stocks with a diminished standing in global portfolios.” The trend is “likely to accelerate as some of the world’s biggest funds distance themselves from the risk-ridden market.” Furthermore, what began “as a performance-driven exodus now risks becoming a structural shift due to a toxic combination of doubts over Beijing’s long-term economic agenda, a prolonged property crisis and strategic competition with the US.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Competition, Diminished, Funds, Global portfolios, Harrowing, Losses, Property crisis, Risk, Stocks, Structural, Toxic
Wall Street Journal (August 8)
“July’s gains left hedge funds closing out so-called short positions and cutting risk at the fastest pace in years.” As they race to cover their shorts, they are “providing yet another tailwind for stocks, which have rallied this summer on optimism that a strong economy can withstand higher interest rates.” The rally caught many “short sellers off guard,” and as they “buy the shares back at a high price to limit further losses,” additional demand can drive “prices go even higher.”
Tags: Cutting risk, Gains, Hedge funds, Interest rates, July, Losses, Optimism, Rally, Shares, Short positions, Stocks, Tailwind
Markets Insider (June 27)
“The banking crisis that unfolded earlier this year isn’t over, and banks could be hit with losses akin to what was seen in 2008 if the Federal Reserve doesn’t get inflation under control.” In its annual report, the Bank for International Settlements called attention to the “lasting ramifications of 2023’s bank failures, starting with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in early March.”
Tags: 2008, 2023, Annual report, Banking crisis, BIS, Collapse, Failures, Fed, Inflation, Losses, Ramifications, SVB, Unfolded
Reuters (December 16)
“The euro zone will soon have to pay for a decade of European Central Bank largesse. Rising interest rates are turning the ECB’s portfolio of bonds acquired since 2014 into a money-losing machine. The question of how those losses are shared could become a major source of tension between member states.”
Tags: 2014, Bonds, ECB, Euro zone, Interest rates, Largesse, Losses, Money-losing, Portfolio, Rising
Bloomberg (October 6)
“Even after $100 billion, self-driving cars are going nowhere. They were supposed to be the future,” but “the losses get bigger.” Several decades in, there remain few actual self-driving vehicles, mostly “confined to a handful of places in the Sun Belt, because they still can’t handle weather patterns trickier than Partly Cloudy. State-of-the-art robot cars also struggle with construction, animals, traffic cones, crossing guards, and … left turns.”
Tags: $100 billion, Animals, Construction, Crossing guards, Going nowhere, Left turns, Losses, Self-driving cars, Sun Belt, Traffic cones, Weather
New York Times (June 23)
“First pineapples, now fish.” China is flexing its “economic muscle” with import bans that “pressure Taiwan.” The pineapple industry bounced back when public support rallied domestic consumption, but “Taiwan’s lucrative grouper industry is bracing for heavy losses after China’s recent ban on imports of the fish from the island.”
Tags: China, Domestic consumption, Economic muscle, Fish, Flexing, Grouper, Import bans, Losses, Lucrative, Pineapples, Taiwan
New York Times (December 7)
“Stocks have swung wildly since the Omicron variant of the coronavirus emerged, once again raising concerns about the pandemic’s potential to damage the global economy.” In two years of “market upheaval,” a pattern has emerged. “Each bout of pandemic-driven volatility in the stock market since February 2020 has been shorter than the one before, and followed by a recovery to a new high. “
Tags: Coronavirus, Global economy, Losses, Market upheaval, Omicron, Pandemic, Peak, Recovery, S&P 500, Stocks, Volatility
Australian Financial Review (October 25)
“Inflation will be the key issue for financial markets in coming years, with investors set to reap massive profits or suffer swingeing losses, depending on whether they make the right call on the stickiness of price pressures.” Astute investors are now figuring out strategies, like shortening bond maturities within their portfolio, to help “insulate their investment portfolios from the threat of rising inflation.”
Tags: Bond maturities, Financial markets, Inflation, Investors, Losses, Portfolio, Price pressures, Profits, Shortening, Stickiness, Strategies, Threat
Bloomberg (October 13)
“The vital question for many investors has been whether the problems for speculative real estate will cause broader contagion, either through cascading losses in the financial system or through economic weakness.” The former remains unlikely, but “the second — an economic slowdown of which Evergrande is both a cause and a symptom — grows more likely with time.”
Tags: Cascading, Contagion, Economic weakness, Evergrande, Financial system, Investors, Losses, Real estate, Slowdown, Speculative, Vital