Bloomberg (December 8)
“Foreign investors are storming into Japan’s once-placid government bond market, exposing the world’s second-largest pool of sovereign debt to bouts of volatility sparked by traders thousands of miles away.” Overseas investors are “on course to scoop up more Japanese government bonds this year than in any period since records began in 2005” and currently “account for roughly 65% of monthly cash JGB transactions, up from 12% in 2009.” Welcomed by some, this “increased foreign involvement also raises the risk of a rapid or unruly retreat.”
Tags: 2005, 65%, Bond market, Foreign investors, Japan, JGB transactions, Overseas, Retreat, Risk, Sovereign debt, Traders, Volatility
The Guardian (November 19)
“The Home Office has announced another set of measures designed to signal ever more ferocious intent to control the nation’s borders.” This is a mistake, apparently to appease “the irate chorus that fulminates against perceived inundation by foreigners.” It overlooks the reality of declining migration and logical outcomes. “With migration patterns simply following the current [downward] trajectory,” undesirable consequences need to be addressed. Who will provide social care when the already “struggling sector” is facing “a mounting recruitment crisis”? Without students from overseas, “many universities… will be pushed over the brink.” On top of it all, the contracting ratio of working-age adults will make growth ”harder to achieve” and decrease “Treasury revenues… with painful fiscal consequences.”
Tags: Borders, Consequences, Control, Ferocious, Foreigners, Home Office, Migration, Overseas, Recruitment crisis, Revenues, Social care, Students, Treasury, Universities, Working-age
Men’s Journal (July 1)
“For years, the U.S. has issued cautionary travel advisories to citizens heading overseas. But in a surprising twist, the roles have flipped. Several countries, including longtime allies like Australia, Canada, and the U.K., are now warning their citizens about traveling to the United States.” The warnings cite violence, mass shootings, detention, and other items. “Germany, France, Denmark, and Finland all issued warnings about new U.S. gender marker policies that may affect travelers who use ‘X’ or nonbinary identifiers.” Due in part to these warnings, the World Travel & Tourism Council is projecting a “$12.5 billion decline in international tourism revenue to the U.S. in 2025.”
Tags: $12.5 billion, Allies, Australia, Canada, Citizens, Denmark, Detention, Finland, France, Gender, Germany, Mass shootings, Nonbinary, Overseas, Travel advisories, U.K., U.S., Violence, Warnings
Wall Street Journal (September 18)
“The Federal Reserve’s rate cut Wednesday sounded the all-clear for overseas central banks that are also concerned about their domestic economic growth.” Some major central banks like the BoE and ECB, already beat the Fed in cutting rates, but “there are a number of others, including in India, South Korea and South Africa, that have held back. And the Fed’s move could encourage them to take the plunge.”
Tags: All-clear, BOE, Central banks, ECB, Economic growth, Encourage, Fed, India, Overseas, Plunge, Rate cut, South Africa, South Korea
Washington Post (October 1)
“Offices in many of the world’s major cities are struggling to find workers to occupy them.” In contrast, during 2023 “Tokyo will add some 1.26 million square meters… of new office space, with little trouble occupying it…. Foreign investors, some of whom are dumping properties overseas, are snapping up buildings.” While Tokyo’s post-COVID recovery “has been more circuitous…it may be more complete than global peers.”
Tags: 2023, Buildings, Circuitous, Foreign investors, Major cities, Office space, Overseas, Post-Covid, Properties, Recovery, Struggling, Tokyo, Workers
Wall Street Journal (September 24)
“America’s billionaires love Japanese stocks. Why don’t the Japanese?” Despite enthusiasm from overseas, “there are few signs its estimated 125 million residents share in the excitement. Burned by dismal returns since the bursting of Japan’s asset bubble in the late 1980s and early 1990s, generations of families here have stashed most of their money in low-yielding savings accounts rather than trying to increase their wealth through the stock market.”
Tags: 1980s, 1990s, Asset bubble, Billionaires, Dismal returns, Enthusiasm, Excitement, Japan, Low-yielding, Money, Overseas, Residents, Savings accounts, Stashed, Stock market, Stocks, U.S.
Financial Times (June 6)
“The world’s trading system needs to ditch its paper trail.” The current global trading system “is suffocating under a mountain of billions of paper documents.” A recent survey “found 35 per cent of UK companies trading internationally say bureaucracy is a barrier to their business overseas. At the same time, 65 per cent said they will remove paper as soon as laws enable them to do so.” Estimates show that removing paper barriers to trade in the Commonwealth alone, “would deliver $1.2tn in economic growth by 2026. It would also reduce trade transaction costs by 80 per cent and enable more SMEs to participate. If combined with customs digitalisation, this number increases to $2tn.”
Tags: $1.2tn, Barrier, Bureaucracy, Commonwealth, Customs digitalization, Economic growth, Global, Laws, Overseas, Paper documents, Suffocating, Trading system, Transaction costs, UK companies
Reuters (May 2)
“Diversifying abroad looks attractive to many Japanese companies given weak home markets” as demonstrated by Astellas recent $5.9 billion acquisition of Iveric Bio. “For the $28 billion drugmaker, which already earns the bulk of its revenue from overseas, exceptionally low borrowing costs at home may have boosted its offshore appetite even more.”
Tags: Acquisition, Astellas, Attractive, Borrowing costs, Diversifying, Drugmaker, Home markets, Iveric Bio, Japanese, Offshore appetite, Overseas, Revenue, Weak
South China Morning Post (February 17)
“China’s regulators have unblocked the path for companies to list overseas, reopening the avenue of fundraising after a 20-month obstruction to enable businesses to recapitalise for growth in the post-Covid period.” Applications must be vetted by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) while the issuer must adhere to rules established by industry regulators in “disclosures of customers’ data and anything that could be construed as state secret.”
Tags: China, CSRC, Customers’ data, Disclosures, Fundraising, Growth, Industry regulators, Issuer, Overseas, Post-Covid, Recapitalise, Regulators, Reopening, State secrets, Vetted
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
