GLOBAL NEWS-
U.S. President Donald Trump and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell dined at the White House on Monday in their first meeting after months in which Trump lambasted the central bank for raising interest rates and, in the president’s view, endangering the economy’s growth.The dinner, which included Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Vice chair Richard Clarida, follows a Fed meeting last week at which the central bank said, in fact, that further rate hikes were on hold for now - a step Powell and others said was based on recent economic developments, not the president’s public tirades against the Fed.
Australian bank shares surged the most in a decade on Tuesday after a long-awaited report on finance-sector misconduct recommended dozens of rule changes but spared the “Big Four” lenders any serious threat to their market dominance.In a report released by the government on Monday, the retired judge who led a public inquiry into financial-sector misconduct last year referred 24 cases to regulators for possible prosecution.
And Australia’s central bank holds its first policy meeting of the year facing a world re-shaped, and not for the better.Unwelcome economic news at home and abroad are challenging the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) dogged optimism on growth and its oft-repeated insistence the next move in interest rates will be up.Investors have already veered to price in a real chance of a rate reduction this year and are well aware that past easing rounds have never stopped at just one cut.
Germany is facing a budget shortfall of around 25 billion euros ($29 billion) by 2023 as an economic slowdown means tax revenues will come in below previous estimates, a Finance Ministry document obtained by Reuters showed.Global trade tensions and concern about Brexit have already prompted Germany to slash its growth forecast for this year to 1 percent from 1.8 percent previously as a decade-long boom in Europe’s economic powerhouse draws to a close.
The ministry document, prepared for Finance Minister Olaf Scholz to present to cabinet colleagues, pointed to annual budget shortfalls of 5 billion euros through to and including 2022. This is a wake-up call to colleagues that the times of constantly making demands without having covered cheques are over. Now it’s time for budget discipline.
Asian stocks extended their gains on Tuesday as overnight strength on Wall Street and the Federal Reserve’s dovish turn underpinned risk appetite, while the dollar held firm on last week’s upbeat U.S. data. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced 0.4 percent and hovered near its four-month high marked on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei average was flat on the day but at its highest level in seven weeks.On Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained, with technology and industrials the biggest winners as investors braced for another big week of fourth-quarter corporate earnings reports.
Russia’s state statistics service said the economy grew at the fastest pace in six years in 2018, outstripping estimates from economists, who voiced skepticism about the accuracy of the data.Growth accelerated to 2.3 percent after construction and the services industry got a boost from the start of natural gas project in Siberia and the World Cup, according to a first estimate published Monday. That was above the highest forecast in a Bloomberg survey and well beyond the 1.9 percent that the median expected.
Analysts, including the chief economist at Russia’s state development bank, questioned the accuracy of the data, which would bring the economy closer to ambitious growth targets set out by President Vladimir Putin. Once the life-blood of the Russian economy, consumers are still struggling with stagnant incomes following a nearly two-year recession.
Venezuela’s government-in-waiting intends to scrap requirements that state-owned oil giant PDVSA keep a controlling stake in joint ventures as it seeks to revive the oil sector and encourage private investment, National Assembly leader Juan Guaido’s representative to the U.S. said.
The move is part of a broader plan by Guaido, who was declared interim president by the assembly last month, to revive Venezuela’s shattered economy by focusing on boosting oil output as soon as possible, said Carlos Vecchio, Guaido’s envoy in the U.S. We want to go to an open economy, we want to increase oil production,” Vecchio said in an interview.
Gold prices on Tuesday held near one-week lows touched in the previous session, pressured by a firmer dollar and as investor appetite for riskier assets improved in the wake of strong U.S. economic data.Spot gold was steady at $1,313.95 per ounce. Prices in the last session fell to their lowest since Jan. 29 at $1,308.20.U.S. gold futures dipped 0.1 percent to $1,318.40 an ounce.Trading was muted in Asia with many markets closed for much of the week for Lunar New Year holidays. Domestic gold opens flat at 33,472 rupees per 10 grams.
U.S. oil prices inched up on Tuesday, buoyed by expectations of tightening global supply due to U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and production cuts led by OPEC.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $54.77 per barrel, up 21 cents or 0.4 percent. They closed down 1.3 percent on Monday, after earlier touching their highest since Nov. 21 at $55.75 a barrel.International Brent crude oil futures were at $62.72 a barrel, also up 21 cents or 0.4 percent, after closing down 0.4 percent in the previous session.
The sanctions will sharply limit oil transactions between Venezuela and other countries and are similar to but slightly less extensive than those imposed on Iran last year, experts said on Friday after looking at details posted by the Treasury Department.