Bloomberg Business -Commodities: Brent rose 2.2 percent to $48.88 a barrel at 8:35 a.m. in New York, reaching the highest since November, after Friday’s 0.5 percent loss. China’s refineries processed crude at record rates in April, helping ease a supply glut as the number of active rigs in the U.S. declines. West Texas Intermediate climbed....
Bloomberg Business -Fed minutes fallout: Minutes of the April 26-27 Federal Open Market Committee meeting released yesterday showed that central bank officials want to raise rates in June, provided the U.S. economy shows signs that the slowdown in the first quarter was a blip rather than a trend. The reaction in the bond market was....
Bloomberg Business -Europe’s big weekend: Political developments moved apace in Europe over the weekend. In a vote on Sunday the Greek parliament approved additional austerity measures that will help the country unlock further loans from the euro area. Greece’s creditors are preparing to disburse €11 billion ($12.3 billion) once the country successfully completes a review....
Bloomberg Business -Greece deal reached: Another Eurogroup meeting that ran into the early hours of the morning, another deal reached on Greece. This one paves the way for a €10.3 billion ($11.5 billion) aid payment to Athens. Significantly, the International Monetary Fund dropped its push for ‘up front’ debt burden reduction ahead of any further....
Bloomberg Business -Yellen’s conversation: Traders hoping to get away early for their Memorial Day weekend will have to hang around a little longer than they might like today as Fed Chair Janet Yellen is due to give a speech at an event in Massachusetts at 1:15 p.m. ET. The event, billed as a conversation with....
Bloomberg Business -ECB day: The European Central Bank, meeting in Vienna, is due to announce its latest monetary policy decision at 7:45 a.m ET this morning. Every economist surveyed by Bloomberg expects there to be no change in interest rates, with investors likely to focus on ECB President Mario Draghi’s press conference beginning at 8:30....
Bloomberg Business -Yellen’s hawkish/dovish speech: In her last speech ahead of next week’s FOMC meeting, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen managed to walk a line between hawkishness — saying «the federal funds rate will probably need to rise gradually» — and dovishness by not giving any guide as to when that rate rise would come.....
Bloomberg Business -Buy anything: Even if emerging-market stocks are dipping most risk assets, including commodities, developed-market stocks, and emerging-market currencies are making multi-month highs, while haven assets such as gold and government bonds are doing the same. The blame for this apparent market disconnect from the weak global outlook (we’re not even a week past....
Bloomberg Business -Central banks: The Federal Reserve held rates unchanged yesterday, the Bank of Japan held rates unchanged overnight, the Swiss National Bank held rates unchanged this morning. While all of this sounds very boring, markets are moving this morning on the comments that accompanied the decisions, particularly those made by Fed chair Janet Yellen....
Bloomberg Business -Markets surge: The week is starting with a huge rally in equity markets globally. In Asia the MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 1.8 percent after a poll showed a swing towards ‘remain’ in the U.K. referendum on European Union membership. Japan’s Topix index closed 2.3 percent higher as the yen weakened. In Europe,....
Bloomberg Business -U.K. voting: Polls in the U.K.’s referendum on membership of the European Union opened at 2 a.m. ET and will close at 5 p.m. ET. Counting of the votes will begin soon after, with the first results expected to start to come in after 7 pm ET. While full view of the likely....
Bloomberg Business -Markets, pound rise: After taking a pounding over the last two trading sessions, global markets and sterling are recovering somewhat this morning. Overnight, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index was little changed, having traded 1.2 percent lower earlier in the session. Japan’s Topix index closed 0.1 percent lower with optimism over further stimulus increasing....
Bloomberg Business -Stress test results: JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and 27 other firms with major U.S. operations passed the Federal Reserve’s stress tests, allowing those banks to boost shareholder payouts. Morgan Stanley got conditional approval, while the U.S. units of Deutsche Bank AG and Banco Santander SA failed. Shares....
Bloomberg Business -Stocks: The Stoxx 600 slipped 0.6 percent, after posting is biggest four-day rally since February. The volume of shares changing hands was about 23 percent lower than the 30-day average, with the U.S. market closed for the Independence Day holiday. S&P 500 Index futures gained 0.1 percent. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose....
Bloomberg Business -Pull up the gates: Three – count ‘em three – asset managers have frozen withdrawals from real-estate funds with almost 9.1 billion pounds ($12 billion) worth of assets following a flurry of redemptions post-Brexit. M&G Investments became the third property fund to pull up the gates, following similar moves by Aviva Investors and....