South China Morning Post (May 25)
Several factors help explain “the outperformance of Japanese shares.” Improved corporate governance and the end of deflation are important, but “the explanation with the most resonance for investors is Japan’s role as a safe haven in an increasingly risky world. This has taken on added significance because of concerns about the deepening geopolitical rift between the US and China, as well as economic and regulatory risks in China itself.” Japan boasts “the only market in Asia big and liquid enough to offer an alternative to China while still providing exposure to the reopening of its economy.”
Tags: Big, China, Corporate governance, Deflation, Economic, Exposure, Factors, Geopolitical rift, Investors, Japan, Liquid, Outperformance, Regulatory risks, Reopening, Risky world, Safe haven, Shares, US
LNG Industry (January 6)
“The world’s two largest economies–the US and Mainland China–are poised to be the world’s top export and import markets for LNG in 2022.” In 2021, the US placed third, behind Australia and Qatar, but “was the largest source of LNG supply growth in 2021.” China overtook Japan in 2021, marking “the first time since the early 1970s that Japan has not been the world’s largest LNG importer.”
Tags: 1970s, 2021, 2022, Australia, China, Export, Import, Japan, LNG, Markets, Qatar, Supply growth, Top, US
Financial Times (November 16)
“The US economy is facing an accelerating surge in coronavirus cases and harsh new restrictions on business activity without the cushion of meaningful fiscal support, raising fears of a blow to the recovery.” The market has rallied on vaccine advances, but “the deteriorating health situation across the country presents an imminent threat to the US economy as the winter months approach.”
Tags: Accelerating, Advances, Coronavirus, Deteriorating, Economy, Fears, Fiscal, Rallied, Recovery, Restrictions, Support, Surge, US, Vaccine
Financial Times (September 4)
“The US manufacturing sector has contracted for the first time in three years as the US-China trade war weighted on the industrial economy and added to fears over slowing domestic growth.” While one quarters manufacturing results do not necessarily lead to a US recession, “the details of yesterday’s ISM report were ugly, with new orders, production and employment sub-indices all contracting.”
Tags: China, Contracted, Fears, Growth, Industrial economy, ISM, Manufacturing, Orders, Recession, Slowing, Trade war, US
South China Morning Post (June 3)
“US President Donald Trump’s trade wars have ‘progressed’ beyond the stage of simple tariff punches (painful though these can be) to attacks on the central nervous system of global technology trade networks—and that is going to be far more damaging to all concerned, including the US.”
Tags: Attacks, Damaging, Tariffs, Technology, Trade networks, Trade wars, Trump, US
CNN (October 25)
“Donald Trump’s unconventional diplomacy is pushing China and Japan closer together…. Still, despite the US hostility” moving the countries “closer together, the two countries’ long and fractious history makes an easy and lasting rapprochement difficult.”
Tags: China, Diplomacy, Hostility. History, Japan, Rapprochement, Trump, Unconventional, US
Fund Strategy (June 1)
“European sceptics are being forced to acknowledge the recovery in a region that they have failed to understand politically, as the eurozone enjoys positive PMIs and employment figures while rejecting populist politics…. April saw the fifth largest allocation shift from US to European equities since the start of the eurozone in 1999.”
Tags: Allocation, Employment, Equities, Europe, eurozone, PMIs, Populist, Positive, Recovery, Sceptics, US
Euromoney (January Issue)
“US claims that Germany’s external surpluses are hindering global recovery are inaccurate and unjustified…. The complex reality is that Germany’s relative export success is not built on beggar-thy-neighbour policies or on the imposition of unnecessary austerity on its neighbours. It is founded domestically on higher productivity, better investment and substantial labour market reforms.”
Tags: Austerity, Beggar-thy-neighbour, Exports, Germany, Investment, Labour, Market reforms, Productivity, Recovery, Surpluses, US
