First there was plain old commodity inventory.
Then “in-the-ground” inventory — funded by pre-pay deals — started to make an appearance. Most recently, there’s even been the tendency towards “just-in-time” inventory in energy markets. Read more
The thesis that the Asian boom is past its best is not new, but when we come across a particularly well-argued note on the topic, we like to share.
We’ve already given you a snippet from George Magnus’ latest on the topic — with regards to the role of technology in this shift — but we’d like to present the extended argument too. Read more
George Magnus of UBS has a 29-pager out on Monday questioning if the Asian miracle may finally be over? FT Alphaville is still poring through the details, but couldn’t wait to bring you a substantial chunk of the note which is dedicated to the role of technology and its impact on Asian market dynamics.
We’ve noted on more than one occasion that economists may be missing a trick when it comes to how technology is changing the global economy. More so, that developments like 3D printing, could even pose a black-swan risk for Asia in their own right. Read more
Many banks in the eurozone have a significant international presence. The diversification is a positive if the home market is suffering disproportionately. That being the case, perhaps one could expect further investment in less sickly markets abroad?
Maybe. Read more
Looking for supply headwinds in obscure commodity markets?
Then look no further than the global palm oil market. Read more
European stocks followed Asian peers lower after China cut its growth target and a survey showed the eurozone’s private sector contracted in February, the FT reports. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.9 per cent following a 0.9 drop for the Asia-Pacific region. S&P 500 futures suggested Wall Street would shed 0.6 per cent later in the day. The “risk-off” theme left the FTSE All-World index lower by 0.5 per cent, with most gauges behaving in the manner expected under such a scenario. The dollar index, for example, was exhibiting its usual inverse correlation to risk appetite, rising 0.1 per cent, and the euro was trading at $1.3172 against Friday’s close of $1.3201. Commodities weakened as the session progressed, and supposed fixed-income havens, which were initially seeing little demand, started attracting funds; the yield on US 10-year notes was down 1 basis point to 1.97 per cent. Read more
Nearly half of Asia’s larger companies are planning to make a significant acquisition in Europe over the next year, drawn by the availability of cheap assets amid the eurozone crisis, according to a survey by FTI Consulting, the FT reports. Some 45 per cent of Asian businesses quizzed in a poll of 800 companies around the world, all with at least 250 employees, said they were now looking to make strategic acquisitions in the region, as the eurozone’s problems have taken their toll on the valuation of businesses, particularly in the financial services sector. Lord Malloch-Brown, chairman of the European arm of FTI, said there was still unlikely to be a “rush to buy distressed Europe”, with continued nervousness among potential investors over the eurozone’s problems and timing and manner of any resolution of them. Reflecting those jitters, nearly a third of respondents in the FTI poll thought the euro would not survive 2012 intact.
A particular grade of Asian fuel oil has, for want of another word, skyrocketed in price over the last few weeks.
The grade in question is called 380-centistoke, and its cash differential (versus the benchmark grade) has performed as follows: Read more
Billionaire owners of “ultra prime” homes have watched the values of their properties soar through the global economic turmoil, particularly in the emerging financial centres of Mumbai and Singapore, the FT reports. The spike in value of these properties – defined as homes worth in excess of £10m ($15.7m) – has been far less marked, however, in the western cities that have traditionally played host to the world’s wealthy elite. According to new research from Savills, the estate agent, billionaire homeowners in Mumbai and Singapore have seen the value of their properties increase by 138 per cent and 144 per cent, respectively, during the past five years. By contrast, the value of ultra-prime homes in London and New York have appreciated by less than 40 per cent during the same period. The property market in each of the cities – in terms of both pricing and style of living – examined in the Savills report, is driven by a multitude of factors. Read more
Chinese premier Wen Jaibao threw some shade on the eurozone on Wednesday, and the US too — insisting they get their own fiscal and monetary houses in order and recognise China as a market economy if they really want to see some investment.
His own house didn’t look so great, either, when the Asian Development Bank challenged the likelihood of a much hoped-for Chinese soft landing with its updated outlook. It raised the inflation forecast for China, while cutting growth forecasts (hmm… stagflation, anyone?). Read more
Gold has powered to a fresh record, revelling in investors’ fears of a sharp global economic slowdown that have laid waste to growth-focused assets, the FT reports. The bullion was up 2.3 per cent to $1,865 an ounce, having earlier touched $1,867; a surge that was also predicated on worries over the fiscal difficulties of developed nations and in particular how this was being expressed in the financial system of the eurozone. The same concerns were boosting perceived haven bonds, with German, US and UK yields sitting near record or multi-decade lows. The yield on the US 10-year note, which on Thursday breached 2 per cent for the first time since 1950 before paring its move, was down 2 basis points to 2.04 per cent. In contrast, the FTSE All-World equity index was down 1.6 per cent, taking its losses since May’s cyclical peak to more than 19 per cent. Asia has fallen 3.2 per cent, with South Korea’s Kospi bearing the brunt with a 6.2 per cent stumble, despite the authorities in Seoul suspending programme trading in an attempt to slow the slide. Read more
If Asia’s equity and bond markets are any guide, then investors seem pretty sanguine about the risks of the US Treasury running out of cash or the eurozone debt crisis spinning out of control, says the FT. There’s scant evidence of worry so far: Asian stocks have risen in recent weeks, with the All-World Asia Pacific excluding Japan index 3 per cent higher than at the start of the year. The
iTraxx Asia ex-Japan index – a measure of credit risk – remains well below its average levels of 2010. The relatively illiquid US CDS market is less sanguine, with insurance costs against a US default hitting a record on Wednesday, according to the FT. FT Alphaville had more on US CDS, including its inversion, a couple of days ago.
Millionaires across the world are now richer than they were before the financial crisis, the latest sign that the wealthy have weathered the downturn far better than other groups, writes the FT. Global wealth among individuals with $1m of investable assets or more rose to $42,700bn in 2010, up from $40,700bn in 2007, according to the Merrill Lynch Cap Gemini World Wealth Report. Rising equity markets and Asian growth helped expand the fortunes of the global elite, with the number of Asian millionaires now exceeding that of Europe. Read more
Tracking the causes of the commodities crash is starting to feel like peeling an onion.
One layer gets pulled back only to reveal another, and then another — and then you start to cry. Last week we had UBS analysts blaming “extreme positioning short the dollar and long commodities.” Read more
In the sober world of debt investing, few products are racier than perpetual bonds. With no maturity date, they allow the issuing company to pay the money back any time it wants. And now, few sectors come with more danger signs than Chinese property, as Beijing clamps down on the market to curb soaring house prices, writes the FT. So many bond investors were stunned last week when Sino-Ocean Land, a Chinese property developer with no credit rating, raised $400m from a dollar-denominated perpetual bond at a coupon of 10.25 per cent. “It’s a risky industry and a risky structure,” says Guy Stear, Hong Kong-based credit analyst at Société Générale. Read more
Chinese companies have this year embarked on an unprecedented borrowing spree in international bond markets, a trend driven by property developers starved of credit by state-owned banks, the FT reports. Mainland groups have already borrowed $12.2bn from international investors so far in 2011 – more than five times the amount they had secured by the same point last year, according to data provider Dealogic. Dealmakers calculate that within a couple of months the total will break the record $15.8bn that Chinese companies raised from offshore bond sales during the whole of 2010. ”It’s been a phenomenal start to the year for the China market,” said Terence Chia, of Citigroup’s Asian debt syndication team. “We expect this trend to continue.” Half of the offshore bond issuance this year has come from privately-owned property companies – such as Evergrande, Country Garden and Longfor Properties – that have seen funding channels dry up on the mainland. Read more
Most of the world’s focus is on Libya-related contagion spreading into other Middle Eastern countries and kingdoms.
But, suggests a report from Standard & Poor’s research arm on Tuesday, it may be time to start looking a little further afield. Read more
As oil prices spiral higher amid turmoil in Libya, developing countries across Asia are taking evasive action, shoring up their strategic petroleum reserves against the risk of a prolonged supply shock, reports the FT. Their actions could propel crude even higher. The Philippines, citing events in the Middle East, announced on Wednesday that it would require oil companies in the country to maintain 15 days of reserves, and refineries to keep enough oil to last for 30 days. Read more
Stocks were back within 1 per cent of last month’s cyclical highs as the market once again showed its fortitude, swiftly absorbing Mideast turmoil and rising inflationary pressures, the FT’s global market review reports. The FTSE All-World equity index was up 0.4 per cent to 227.6. The benchmark hit a post credit crunch high of 229 just seven days ago on hopes the global economic recovery was gathering steam, and those convictions clearly remained intact. S&P 500 futures were up 0.5 per cent. Manufacturing surveys out of China and India show the sector continued to expand, though tighter monetary conditions in the former appear to have reduced the pace of activity to a six-month low. This has has led to some selling of industrial metals during the Asian trading session on concerns that demand from the Middle Kingdom may ease. The surveys also showed surging input prices as higher raw materials prices feed into the supply chain. Read more
The tidal wave of analysis centring on Libya-related concerns about the soaring oil price has become an overnight growth-industry, fuelling further jitters about the fall-out from Middle East turmoil on everything from Korean construction stocks to transport companies.
In geographic terms, Italy, with its heavy exposure to Libya, “looks set to bear the brunt of a fall-out if Libya descends further into chaos”, as BreakingViews put it. Read more
Standing amid the shoppers thronging Asia’s capitals it looks very much as though the region’s V-shaped recovery is steaming ahead. India and China aside, though, a disconcerting slowdown is taking hold, writes the FT. The region seems to be buzzing. Restaurants are full and exports and tourist arrivals are up. Memories of the brief recession of 2009 are obscured by a 9 per cent increase in gross domestic product for Asia excluding Japan in the 15 months to June. Yet a slew of GDP figures for the third quarter tell a different tale: GDP contracted on a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, where it also fell in the first quarter. On the same basis, growth was flat in Taiwan, and only weakly positive in South Korea, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Even Australia rose just 0.2 per cent, compared with 1.1 per cent in the second quarter, as a rise in the commodity-fuelled local dollar hit exports. Read more
One other encouraging sign from the Asian data: export orders are up around the region, mostly by several points. Not surprisingly perhaps, Japan is the one exception.
One less encouraging sign from Asia: input prices are up just about everywhere, typically by several points. Read more
Asian stocks continued to retreat a day after Pyongyang bombarded a South Korean island in the dictatorship’s bloodiest assault on civilian targets in more than two decades, the FT reports. The FTSE Asia-Pacific index fell 0.4 per cent on Wednesday following a 1.1 per cent drop in the previous session. South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.6 per cent at noon in Seoul, having dipped as much as 2.4 per cent in morning trading. The won slid 1 per cent to 1,149.30 per dollar. Japan’s Nikkei 225, which was shut on Tuesday for a holiday, fell 0.8 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.6 per cent after tumbling 2.7 per cent the day before. Read more
Tesco has pledged to quadruple annual sales in China over the next five years to about $6.36bn as it steps up its expansion efforts in Asia, the FT reports. Tesco, the world’s third-biggest supermarket group by sales after Walmart and Carrefour, revealed its plans to build 50 shopping malls in China over the next five years and develop a further 30 during an investor and analyst trip to China and South Korea. The acceleration of expansion in Asia comes as Tesco struggles to break into the US where its Fresh & Easy stores continue to rack up losses. It is also facing increasing competition in its home market, Britain. Read more
Econbrowser recently posted an interesting guest article by Willem Thorbecke, a research fellow at the Asian Development Bank Institute.
Thorbecke argues that the US shouldn’t ignore the exchange rates of other East Asian countries as it pressures China to let the RMB appreciate. Read more
Asia is drawing a growing number of Swiss wealth managers as traditional business from mature European markets stagnates or declines, notes the FT. Strong economic growth and rising incomes in key Asian countries have created a new customer base for foreign fund managers. At the same time, in Europe, bankers fear that recent planned tax deals between Switzerland and the UK and Germany will further erode traditional business from within the region. Read more
Industrial output in both Japan and South Korea declined last month, signalling that Asia’s rebound from the global downturn may be losing steam, reports the FT. The seasonally adjusted, month-on-month declines in part reflect slowing growth in exports for two of Asia’s most advanced economies due to tepid western demand as well as the tapering off of domestic stimulus measures but Tokyo and Seoul also face distinct challenges. Japan is struggling with stagnant domestic demand which prompted the government this week to begin planning a supplementary budget of up to $55bn while the Bank of Japan is thought to be considering adopting additional easing measures when it meets next week. In Seoul, by contrast, the finance ministry is confident in the Korean economic recovery and the Bank of Korea is seen as potentially raising rates as early as October to curb rising inflationary pressure. Read more
Stocks in Europe were moving higher, helped by solid gains in Asia, as investors became more optimistic about the economic recovery following supportive data out of the US, reports the FT. US equity futures were up 0.1 per cent. However, with core bond yields a touch lower and industrial commodity prices falling back, appetite for risk appeared selective. The FTSE All-World equity index was up 0.4 per cent to a near six-month high, taking its advance during September to more than 9 per cent. The global benchmark has climbed 14 per cent this quarter, powered by record peaks in some emerging markets – such as Indonesia and the Philippines – and an 11.5 per cent rise for the S&P 500 in New York as investors became convinced that the US Federal Reserve stood poised to take supportive action should evidence of an economic relapse cause riskier assets to falter. Read more
Asian carmakers enjoyed sharp increases in domestic sales in August, data from across the region showed on Tuesday, though a slowing global economic recovery and the end of government incentives in Japan clouded the outlook for the coming months, reports the FT. In Japan, car sales jumped 46.7 per cent from a year earlier to 290,789 units, the 13th straight monthly increase and the largest rise for August, as buyers hurried to take advantage of tax breaks on the sale of lower-emission vehicles that are set to expire at the end of this month. Domestic sales at Toyota, whose Prius petrol-electric hybrid has been the top- selling car in Japan since the tax breaks were introduced last year, rose 43.3 per cent, while Honda’s sales climbed 61.3 per cent and Nissan’s increased by 44.6 per cent. In South Korea, the two largest carmakers, Hyundai and Kia, also reported strong results. Hyundai reported a 17 per cent jump in sales to 288,313 units, while Kia lifted sales by 55 per cent to 150,541 vehicles. Read more
Older entries
1Bernanke weighs in on robot wars; brings Keynes for backup
2Secret liquidity and Scottish independence
3Spain's awful unemployment
4Pump up, debase
5S&P 2,100, by Goldman Sachs
Show more6Buyback to enrich
7Collateral crunch-counting gets sophisticated
8Everlasting credit, the long view
9Apple Operations International, facts (?) du jour
10In which the FTSE puts the crisis behind it
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