China: Europe’s debt troubles may derail global recovery May 31, 2010 CHINA yesterday issued a stark warning to world leaders, cautioning that the burgeoning sovereign debt crisis in Europe could lead to a double-dip recession across the globe. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, addressing business leaders during an official visit to Japan, issued his warnings a day after France admitted it will struggle to keep its top [...]
Travel and tourism is a global money-spinner May 31, 2010 YOU might not know it, but travel and tourism is one of the world’s most important sectors. Despite the downturn, it employs 235m people, which is equivalent to 8.2 per cent of all employment globally. Last year will go down in history books as the worst year ever for air travel demand, yet, that year, [...]
Markets boosted as China reassures on Eurozone assets May 27, 2010 THE euro staged a broad rally andUS stocks jumped about three per ceyesterday after China said Europe remains a key investment market for its foreign-exchange reserves. The People’s Bank of China said a Financial Times report that Beijing was concerned about its Eurozone bond holdings due to the European debt crisis was groundless. The report [...]
Don’t be caught unawares by bank volatility May 26, 2010 FEARS of sovereign debt contagion within the Eurozone have quickly turned into concerns about a European banking crisis. As if investors needed any further confirmation about the fragility of European banks, regional Spanish bank CajaSur was seized last weekend by the Bank of Spain after it had been crippled by property loan defaults. Plenty of [...]
Rollercoaster forex markets are here to stay May 25, 2010 IN THE current environment it can be difficult to judge where the financial markets are going even one month ahead let alone 10 years, but that is just what UBS, the investment bank, has done. It published its FX mega trends 2010-2020 report earlier this week, and the overriding theme is volatility. The bank notes [...]
BROKEN EURO TROUBLE FOR CHINA AND US May 25, 2010 BORIS SCHLOSSBERG DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT WITH the yuan up nearly 15 per cent against the euro this year, there was some speculation in the market last week that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) was a major buyer of the currency as Chinese monetary officials tried to slow the chaotic sell-off. A drop [...]
THE TIPSTER May 25, 2010 THE yen has been appreciating steadily against the greenback since the start of May. There have been some suggestions that the yen is seen as a safe haven but the fundamentals coming out of Japan still all too often make for difficult reading. For example, public debt is extremely high at 180 per cent of [...]
FORK IN THE ROAD FOR THE PRICE OF OIL May 24, 2010 DAVID MORRISON CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT GLOBAL equities have taken a hammering over the past month. A whole host of issues which had been simmering on the back-burner have begun to boil over. The European sovereign debt crisis, concerns over the effects of tighter financial regulation and the continuing withdrawal of liquidity by the Chinese [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 23, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES PRINCE ANDREW’S TRADE ROLE DEFENDED Buckingham Palace defended Prince Andrew’s globetrotting role promoting British business on Sunday after a newspaper sting appeared to show his former wife selling access to him for £500,000, offered by a reporter posing as a tycoon. Both the royal household and the government said the Duke of York’s [...]
The heat is on for the steel price this year May 19, 2010 THE price of industrial metals has been hit during the recent bout of market turbulence. But against this backdrop pressures have been building that could drive the price of steel higher again. The industrial metal, widely used for the production of infrastructure, is being bolstered by several factors. The first is supply and demand. Supply [...]