Reuters (July 21)
“Worries over a global slowdown are casting a shadow over Asia’s recovery prospects with factory activity growth slowing in Japan and Australia, keeping pressure on policymakers to support their economies while tightening monetary policy to combat inflation.”
Tags: Asia, Australia, Factory activity, Global slowdown, Inflation, Japan, Monetary policy, Policymakers, Recovery, Slowing, Support, Tightening, Worries
Washington Post (July 21)
“While summertime is bound to be hot, the trend toward increasingly severe and long-duration heat events bears the fingerprint of human-induced climate change.” On Thursday, the U.S. heat wave peaked with over “100 million people in the Lower 48 states” under alerts “amid relentlessly sweltering temperatures that have soared as high as 115 degrees in recent days.”
Tags: 115 degrees
Bloomberg (July 20)
There seems to be a split “forming between a growing number of bearish yen watchers in Tokyo and their more positive foreign counterparts.” With the yen at a 24-year nadir, “strategists are debating whether one of the year’s hottest macro trades—sell the yen—is overdone.” In Japan, many think “there’s still plenty of time to pile on shorts,” but overseas “analysts from Sydney to Geneva… say time is nearly up on the trade as the yen slips further toward the key psychological level of 140 per dollar.”
Tags: 140 per dollar, Analysts, Bearish, Foreign, Japan, Macro trades, Nadir, Overdone, Overseas, Shorts, Split, Strategists, Tokyo, Yen
BBC (July 20)
“Heat records tumbled and firefighters faced new blazes as much of Western Europe baked in a gruelling heatwave.” The UK “saw temperatures of more than 40C (104F) for the first time.” Germany had “its hottest day of the year,” as did the Netherlands, while in France “37,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes” due to wildfires. In the past week, Portugal alone has recorded “more than 1,000 heatwave-related deaths.”
Tags: Blazes, Deaths, Firefighters, France, Germany, Gruelling, Heat, Heatwave, Netherlands, Portugal, Records, Temperatures, UK, Western Europe, Wildfires
Nikkei Asia (July 19)
“A Chinese startup this month became the first in the world to mass-produce large, bendable perovskite solar panels, based on technology initially developed by researchers in Japan.” The revolutionary “technology is seen as a candidate to win a Nobel Prize” and holds tremendous commercial potential, but “Japanese companies have little capacity to make new investments, allowing China to take the lead in large-scale perovskite panels.”
Tags: Bendable, China, Commercial potential, Investments, Japan, Mass-produce, Nobel prize, Perovskite, Solar panels, Startup, Technology
Institutional Investor (July 18)
“Private equity investors have little to fear from a recession, as the best returns come after these periods.” A recent report by Bain Consulting shows, for example, that “following the bursting of the dot-com bubble, buyout funds generated a median IRR of 25 percent in 2001, 40 percent in 2002, and 47 percent in 2003. In 2009, after the Global Financial Crisis, they posted a 24 percent IRR.” In the near future, however, “private equity firms still face a bumpy road ahead, despite the potentially short duration of the market downturn.”
Tags: Bain Consulting, Bumpy, Buyout funds, Dot-com bubble, Fear, Investors, IRR, Market downturn, Private equity, Recession, Returns
Australian Financial Review (July 17)
“Oil has begun to drop back down this week to pre-invasion levels as traders brace for a sharp drop-off in consumption. But food price inflation remains stubbornly high.” Nevertheless, food prices remain largely off the radar. “The dramatic spikes in oil and mineral prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have distracted investors from the long-lasting and more dangerous impact of food inflation.” This has led BlackRock founder Larry Fink to sound the alarm on food inflation which also has profound geopolitical impacts.
Tags: BlackRock, Consumption, Dangerous, Distracted, Drop-off, Food, Impact, Inflation, Invasion, Investors, Larry Fink, Mineral, Oil, Pre-invasion, Russia, Spikes, Traders, Ukraine
Washington Post (July 16)
The extreme heat events “should not be viewed in isolation.” They are “virtually impossible” to explain except for human-caused climate change. “Slashing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning to a greener economy at the scale and pace needed would require creativity, innovation and political courage. But the cost if we fail is far more daunting: a future in which climate disasters, and all the damage and instability that come with them, become the new normal everywhere.”
Tags: Climate change, Climate disasters, Cost, Creativity, Daunting, Extreme heat, Fail, GHG emissions, Greener economy, Innovation, Isolation, Pace, Political courage, Scale, Transitioning
Investment Week (July 14)
“For the first time in over a decade, listed stocks and bonds are positively correlated. Combined with geopolitical tensions, record inflation and monetary policy shifts, investors are having to look further afield to achieve returns.” That has some investors looking at alternatives as “an effective diversifier that can be worked into a full portfolio.”
Tags: Alternatives, Bonds, Decade, Diversifier, Geopolitical tensions, Inflation, Investors, Monetary policy, Positively correlated, Returns, Stocks
New York Times (July 14)
President Biden is in the Middle East hoping production may be increased, “but the oil crunch may already be easing. A report yesterday from the International Energy Agency suggests that the worst of the supply crisis may be over.” The IEA slashed its demand forecasts “for this year and next, pointing to high prices that would reduce consumption and slow the global economy.”
Tags: Biden, Consumption, Demand, Easing, Forecasts, Global economy, High prices, IEA, Middle East, Oil crunch, Production, Supply crisis
