Reuters (February 9)
“Sanae Takaichi has curb-stomped the competition. Her Liberal Democratic Party took 316 out of 465 seats…delivering the arch-conservative prime minister her country’s first post-war single-party supermajority.” While “investors may hope the ruling party’s historic comeback relieves pressure to cooperate with a fiscally profligate opposition,” that is unlikely. Her desire to revive “the heavily indebted $4 trillion economy” and return to fiscal stimulus will prove costly. Her “desire for a regular army makes expensive militarisation look more certain.” All of these “stated ambitions” augur “more turmoil for markets.”
Tags: Army, Conservative, Curb-stomped, Economy, Expensive, Fiscal stimulus, Hope, Indebted, Investors, Japan, LDP, Militarisation, Prime minister, Supermajority, Takaichi, Turmoil
Time (March 15)
“Amid widespread economic turmoil, the price of gold has soared to levels never seen before,” with Gold futures exceeding $3,000 per troy ounce. Prices for this safe haven investment “are spiking higher now as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have kicked off an international trade war that has roiled financial markets and threatened to reignite inflation for families and businesses alike.”
Tags: 000 oz t, 3%, Economic, Gold, Inflation, Investment, Markets, Price, Roiled, Safe haven, Soared, Spiking, Tariff policies, Trade war, Trump, Turmoil, U.S., Widespread
Financial Times (March 10)
“Policymakers at the Bank of Japan are tackling a series of thorny policy debates as they confront the practicalities of raising interest rates for the first time since the summer of 2006.” Despite signaling the “unprecedented era of cheap money” could end with a rate increase as early as March, the BoJ “still faces a number of challenging decisions about how to leave negative rates behind without causing turmoil for global markets and Japanese lenders.”
Tags: 2006, BOJ, Cheap money, Confront, Global markets, Japan, Lenders, March, Negative rates, Policy debates, Policymakers, Practicalities, Thorny, Turmoil, Unprecedented era
Wall Street Journal (November 13)
“Foreclosures are surging in an opaque and risky corner of commercial real-estate finance, offering one of the starkest signs yet that turmoil in the property market is worsening.” Through just October, the Journal found notices for “mezzanine loans and other high-risk loans” had already more than doubled the number for all of 2022 and likely reached “the highest total ever for a single year, as higher interest rates and rising vacancies punish the property sector.”
Tags: Commercial, Finance, Foreclosures, Highest, Interest rates, Mezzanine loans, Property market, Real estate, Risky, Surging, Turmoil, Worsening
Investment Week (April 21)
“Following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other US regional banks, as well as the turmoil around Credit Suisse, the banking sector has sat on wobbly ground in investors’ minds.” Depositors have “moved into treasuries and money market funds to avoid the risk that their bank could be next to fall.” As a result, the S&P Banks Select Industry index dropped 22.5% during March.
Tags: Banking sector, Collapse, Credit Suisse, Depositors, Investors, Money market funds, Regional banks, Risk, SVB, Treasuries, Turmoil, U.S., Wobbly
Financial Times (October 20)
“In just six weeks, Truss cratered the Conservative party’s poll ratings and unleashed turmoil on financial markets. She was forced into a U-turn on her “mini” Budget involving £45bn of unfunded tax cuts, sacked her chancellor and ousted her home secretary.” After vowing to fight on, she then delivered “one of the shortest and bleakest resignation statements in modern British history: she was quitting after only 44 days in office.”
Tags: Bleakest, Budget, Conservative Party, Cratered, Financial markets, Ratings, Resignation, Shortest, Tax cuts, Truss, Turmoil, U-turn
The Guardian (September 27)
“Turmoil in financial markets which saw the pound fall to a record low against the dollar dominates today’s front pages. The currency tumbled as investors lost confidence in the UK’s public finances after last Friday’s mini-budget.”
Tags: Confidence, Currency, Dollar, Dominates, Financial markets, Investors, Pound, Public finances, Record low, Tumbled, Turmoil, UK
New York Times (November 29)
“The recent market turmoil shows how dependent the economy is on the path of the pandemic, and how quickly sentiment can change with every twist and turn in our understanding of the virus.”
Tags: Change, Dependent, Economy, Market, Pandemic, Recent, Sentiment, Turmoil, Twist and turn, Virus
Reuters (March 9)
Two black swans have collided. “Financial markets have been thrown into turmoil following Saudi Arabia’s response to the collapse of OPEC+ talks and concerns about the global spread of the coronavirus.”
Tags: Black swans, Collapse, Collided, Financial markets, OPEC, Saudi Arabia, Turmoil
Time (November 15)
“This has been one of the darkest weeks in the Hong Kong protest movement…. With the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Brexit paralysis continuing in Britain, and turmoil in the Middle East, the attritional protests in Hong Kong could easily end up neglected and forgotten. But now more than ever, Hongkongers need our solidarity.”
Tags: Brexit, Hong Kong, Impeachment, Middle East, Neglected, Protest movement, Solidarity, Trump, Turmoil, UK
