Market Watch (June 27)
“Stock futures are inching higher at the start of the week as investors seemingly cling to newfound optimism that a bond rout is ending, and the Fed’s rate-hike plans will get pruned due to a global slowdown.” There are, of course, no shortage of issues like surging inflation, but Brynne Kelly suspects “the next black swan for markets could be failing power grids and electricity shortages.” These could prove “catastrophic” as we move into the “height of the summer cooling season amid rising temperatures.”
Tags: Black swan, Bond rout, Catastrophic, Electricity, Fed, Inflation, Investors, Kelly, Markets, Optimism, Power grids, Rate hike, Shortages, Slowdown, Stock futures, Summer
Reuters (June 13)
Despite tensions with the North, things are “upbeat” in Seoul. “Compared to pre-pandemic times, the capital city feels richer and more vibrant. A recent boom in local stocks, cryptocurrencies and real estate have spurred the city’s elite, unable to travel, to flex their wealth at home…. Luxury sales topped $14 billion in 2021, making South Korea one of the few markets worldwide to surpass 2019 levels.”
Tags: Boom, Cryptocurrencies, Elite, Luxury sales, Markets, North Korea, Pre-pandemic, Real estate, Richer, Seoul, Stocks, Tensions, Travel, Upbeat, Vibrant, Wealth
The Economist (May 28)
Signs suggest “America’s markets are entering a new, more worrying phase.” Falling share prices could initially be attributed to the Federal Reserve’s policy moves, but “in recent weeks share prices have kept falling, even as bond yields have dropped back,” a combination suggesting recession. “Indeed, the mix of Fed tightening, slowing gdp and rising production costs has the ominous feel of the later stages of a business cycle. The expansion is barely two years old. Yet investors are already worried that corporate profits are under threat.”
Tags: Bond yields, Business cycle, Expansion, Falling, Fed, GDP, Investors, Markets, Ominous, Production costs, Profits, Recession, Share prices, Signs, Tightening, U.S., Worried, Worrying
Financial Times (May 9)
To increase market access and streamline operations, “many of the world’s largest financial exchanges are transforming the way they run global capital markets” by adopting cloud computing technologies. CME Group “will move its IT infrastructure and markets to the cloud” through a partnership with Google while “Nasdaq and Amazon Web Services announced a similar collaboration” to transfer Nasdaq’s “North America-based markets to a cloud computing environment.” As the transition progresses, AI and quantum computing look poised to play more integral roles.
Tags: AI, AWS, Capital markets, Cloud computing, CME Group, Collaboration, Financial exchanges, Global, Google, IT infrastructure, Market access, Markets, Nasdaq, Operations, Streamline, Transforming
Bloomberg (May 5)
“The collective sigh of relief in markets after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pushed back against super-sized hike speculation may be short lived.” The strategists “who fear inflation” suspect this is a “false dawn.”
Tags: Collective, Fed, Hike, Inflation, Markets, Powell, Relief, Short lived, Speculation, Strategists, Suspect
The Guardian (February 28)
“Moscow is bracing for economic panic when markets open on Monday morning, with the value of the rouble expected to plummet at least 25% after the US and European Union announced unprecedented sanctions over the weekend.” The resulting economic turbulence “will mark a key moment when the gravity of the crisis in Ukraine hits home for many ordinary Russians.”
Tags: Bracing, Crisis, Economic panic, EU, Gravity, Markets, Moscow, Ordinary Russians, Plummet, Rouble, Sanctions, Turbulence, U.S., Ukraine, Unprecedented
Market Watch (January 29)
“Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is giving investors another six weeks to envision a future where interest rates start to climb and its balance sheet dramatically shrinks. Expect a lot of swings in markets until then.”
Tags: Balance sheet, Climb, Envision, Federal Reserve, Future, Interest rates, Investors, Markets, Powell, Shrinks, Swing
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
Reuters (December 28)
“Vulture funds will need to stretch their wings. Corporate defaults are falling, despite the surprising endurance of the pandemic. Investors that specialise in buying distressed debt like Oaktree will have to look beyond the mainstay of public debt markets.”
Tags: Corporate defaults, Distressed debt, Falling, Investors, Markets, Oaktree, Pandemic, Vulture funds
Reuters (April 1)
“Global equity markets surged on Thursday, with U.S. and European benchmark indexes hitting record highs, as the strongest manufacturing data around the world in decades and a drop in bond yields drove investor optimism.” Support is strong with “multiple tailwinds— stimulus, expectations of record earnings, vaccines—driving stocks higher.”
Tags: Benchmark, Bond yields, Earnings, Equity, Europe, Global, Indexes, Investor, Manufacturing, Markets, Optimism, Stimulus, Surged, Tailwinds, U.S.
