Bloomberg (April 10)
“Hong Kong is set to overtake Japan as the world’s third-largest stock market, spurred on by surging Chinese demand for shares in the former British colony.” At $5 trillion, Japan’s listed market cap is still a hair above Hong Kong’s $4.9 trillion, but “turnover in Hong Kong surpassed Japan on both Wednesday and Thursday.”
Institutional Investor (May 15)
Voting in India took five weeks and the results won’t be announced until tomorrow, but the stock market has already rallied, which “suggests investors anticipate a solid victory” for Narendra Modi’s business-friendly National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Exit poll projections are notoriously unreliable and this year “several factors heighten the uncertainty,” especially the fact that “of India’s electorate of 814 million, fully 150 million were eligible to vote for the first time.”
Tags: Electorate, Exit poll, India, Investors, Narendra Modi, National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Projections, Rally, Results, Stock market, Uncertainty, Victory, Voting
Financial Times (January 6, 2014)
After spectacular performance in 2012, some fear the U.S. stock market is set for a correction. “For now, these worries are probably overstated. The current outlook has little in common with the rampant overconfidence that accompanied the great speculative excesses of the past. But there are reasons to believe that the preconditions for a bubble are in place.”
Tags: Bubble, Excess, Outlook, Overconfidence, Performance, Stock market, U.S., Worries
Wall Street Journal (December 26, 2013)
“The Nikkei’s strong performance this year hasn’t dented the enthusiasm of international fund managers.” In the first 11 months of 2012 foreign investors brought inflows of 830 billion yen into Japan’s stock market. In 2013, inflows from foreign investors soared to 14.8 trillion during the same period.
Tags: 2012, Enthusiasm, Foreign investors, Fund managers, International, Japan, Nikkei, Performance, Stock market
The Economist (September 21)
“Nine of the world’s ten most valuable firms are American.” A rising stock market and the euro crisis are partly responsible, but the reasons go deeper. “First, America’s mix of resilience and renewal. Three of its nine biggest firms have their roots in a 16-year period in the late 19th century—Exxon, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson. Their durability reflects their powerful corporate cultures. But the country still does creative destruction, too. IBM and Intel have slid down the rankings to be replaced by Apple and Google. Chevron, an energy firm, has gone from a laggard to a world-beater. Success has been anything but parochial. Six of the nine biggest firms sell more abroad than at home.”
Tags: Apple, Chevron, Corporate culture, Creative destruction, Durability, Euro crisis, Exxon, General electric, Google, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Rankings, Stock market, Success, U.S., Value
Institutional Investor (October)
“China is making it easier for more foreign institutions to buy domestic securities in a fresh attempt to deepen institutional presence in the country’s lackluster stock markets.” The Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) program is being nearly tripled to $80 billion from $30 billion. In addition, the minimum requirement for international investors to directly purchase locally listed securities has been lowered to managed assets of $500 million from $5 billion.
Tags: China, Institutional investors, QFII, Requirements, Stock market
New York Times (July 18)
Continuing reports that “big investors systematically receive early word of important company developments” is an unwelcome development for everybody. “The result will be a less robust market, a less robust economy and a less wealthy society, as individuals are unable to mass the sums needed for retirement. But until the stock markets are restored to health — with rules and protections that are clearly understood and enforced — individual investors have reason to be wary.”
The New York Times (May 12)
“What could be worse than a 20-minute, 1,000-point drop in the stock market?” The newspaper answers “a 20-minute, 1,000-point drop that defies explanation.” Neither regulators nor stock exchange officials have been able to identify what caused the “Crash of 2:45.” The New York Times urges Congress to keep looking for answers and strengthen the regulatory framework in light of high-speed automated trading, which now accounts for the majority of trades.
“What could be worse than a 20-minute, 1,000-point drop in the stock market?” The newspaper answers “a 20-minute, 1,000-point drop that defies explanation.” Neither regulators nor stock exchange officials have been able to identify what caused the “Crash of 2:45.” The New York Times urges Congress to keep looking for answers and strengthen the regulatory framework in light of high-speed automated trading, which now accounts for the majority of trades.
Tags: Congress, High-speed trading, Stock market
