GLOBAL NEWS-
Russia’s central bank is getting an unexpected boost in its fight against inflation this year from weak consumer demand that’s kept retailers from passing on a New Year’s tax increase.Executives at supermarket giant Magnit PJSC say they don’t plan to shift any of the tax hike onto consumers already suffering from a slump in disposable incomes. Other companies will probably raise prices eventually, but the process will be gradual, according to Oleg Vyugin, a former senior central bank official who is now chairman of the Moscow Exchange.
The central bank warned when it pushed through two preemptive rate hikes late last year that inflation could spike to 6 percent or even higher after the increase in value-added tax to 20 percent. But now that those worries don’t seem to be materializing, hopes are growing that the regulator will hold rates steady this month before returning to cuts later in the year.
Italy’s biggest retail bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, is in talks to sell about 10 billion euros ($11 billion) in unlikely-to-pay property loans to a unit of U.S. fund Davidson Kempner, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Intesa was not immediately available for comment.
China’s decision to increase its budget deficit ratio to 2.8 percent this year from 2.6 percent in 2018 is appropriate for the economy, and leaves room for policymakers to manoeuvre, Finance Minister Liu Kun said on Thursday.But a proactive fiscal policy does not mean China will open the floodgates for stimulus, Liu said at a news conference on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary meeting in Beijing, reiterating past government pledges of restraint.Global investors are closely watching how forcefully Beijing will support the economy after growth in 2018 slowed to a near 30-year low. A key market focus is how policymakers will balance the need for growth against the threat of a further flare-up in financial risks and debt.“We will not spend a penny that is not supposed to be spent, and we’ll strive to guarantee the money that is supposed to be spent.
China won’t make big concessions to the U.S. in order to seal a trade deal, former finance minister Lou Jiwei said in Beijing on Wednesday, calling some U.S. demands for change "unreasonable."“China’s concessions probably won’t be very big because a lot of their demands are what we already plan to reform,” Lou, who was finance minister until 2016 and now runs the social security fund, said in an interview on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress. Some U.S. demands are “just nitpicking," he said. China and the U.S. are nearing the finish line on a trade deal that could be signed by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping as early as this month, though there is still a risk either side could walk away. The U.S. wants China follow through on pledges ranging from better protecting intellectual-property rights to buying more American products before Trump removes additional tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.
The Bank of England doesn’t need to rush to raise interest rates until the uncertainty of Brexit lifts, according to policy maker Michael Saunders.In a speech in London Wednesday, Saunders, considered one of the most hawkish members of the Monetary Policy Committee, said that tame inflation and a slowdown in growth meant officials could adopt a wait-and-see approach as Brexit plays out.BOE officials voted unanimously last month to hold interest rates at 0.75 percent, but Saunders’s comments may damp some speculation that he’s a candidate to dissent against that view before the U.K.’s future is clearer.Still, Saunders indicated he’s not entirely in line with all his colleagues. He said that he was “genuinely unsure” on the path ahead for policy after a no-deal Brexit in contrast to his colleague Gertjan Vlieghe, who last month indicated he thought a rate cut would be more likely in such a scenario. Saunders said he was “more agnostic” about the correct response.
The European Central Bank will slash growth forecasts on Thursday and is likely to provide its strongest signal yet that fresh stimulus is coming in the form of more cheap loans, hoping to stop an unexpected slowdown from becoming a downturn.With a global trade war and Brexit uncertainty scarring the euro zone economy, business confidence has turned negative, raising the risk that recession fears become self-fulfilling and spread from Germany and Italy to the rest of the bloc.That leaves the ECB with the familiar role of having to prop up sentiment and President Mario Draghi will oblige, albeit with small steps initially.Such a move is certain to be seen as a policy reversal. The ECB only ended quantitative easing, its biggest stimulus scheme to date in December, and has signalled an interest rate hike for later this year.
The U.S. goods trade deficit surged to a record high in 2018 as strong domestic demand fueled by lower taxes pulled in imports, despite the Trump administration’s “America First” policies, including tariffs, aimed at shrinking the trade gap.President Donald Trump is pursuing a protectionist trade agenda to shield U.S. manufacturing from what he says is unfair foreign competition. Trump, who has dubbed himself “the tariff man,” pledged on both the campaign trail and as president to reduce the deficit by shutting out more unfairly traded imports and renegotiating free trade agreements.The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that a 12.4 percent jump in the goods deficit in December had contributed to the record $891.3 billion goods trade shortfall last year. The overall trade deficit surged 12.5 percent to $621.0 billion in 2018, the largest since 2008.Also the US trade balance for December showed that exports dropped 1.9% in December, while imports climbed 2.1%
Malaysian palm oil futures dropped on Thursday, in line for a second straight day of declines, on weaker related edible oils and bearish market outlook on palm prices and inventory levels.The benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery 1FCPOc3 on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.4 percent at 2,148 ringgit ($526.21) a tonne at midday break.
Weaker edible oils on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange and overnight soyoil on the U.S. Chicago Board of Trade weighed on palm prices, a Kuala Lumpur-based trader said.Recent price forecasts at an industry conference were not very bullish, while inventory levels were not declining as much as expected, another trader said."For now, we cannot see how stocks will fall," said the trader, adding that Malaysian inventories are not dropping as much as expected."I don't know what the situation will be like if they don't fall in the next two months.
Gold prices steadied on Thursday as lacklustre appetite for riskier assets offered some support to the safe-haven metal, while firm dollar limited gains ahead of European Central Bank’s (ECB) policy meeting due later in the day. Spot gold was steady at $1,286.49 per ounce, as of 0341 GMT. U.S. gold futures were down 0.1 percent at $1,287.The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against major currencies, was holding near its more than two-week high posted earlier in the week.
Prices of major cryptocurrencies moved upward on Thursday morning in Asia to hit a peak this week despite a lack of obvious price catalysts. climbed to a one-week high to $3,878.3, up 0.92%, by 10:18 PM ET (03:18 AM?GMT). The digital coin bounced from a mid-week dive to around $3,700 and has been gaining steam since.Other cryptocurrencies are also riding the upwards momentum. went up 2.28% to $138.38, traded 1.51% higher to $0.31678 and added 6.61% to $56.294 over the past 24 hours.The crypto market cap got larger to $133.8 billion, adding $7 billion from the beginning of this week.
Oil edged up on Thursday amid ongoing OPEC-led supply cuts and U.S. sanctions against exporters Venezuela and Iran, although prices were prevented from rising further by record U.S. crude output and rising commercial fuel inventories..S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at $56.45 per barrel at 0234 GMT, up 23 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last settlement.Brent crude futures were at $66.36 per barrel, up 37 cents, or 0.6 percent.Prices are being supported by efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other countries - a grouping known as ‘OPEC+’ - to withhold around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), a strategy designed to tighten markets.