GLOBA FX-
Earnings at China’s industrial firms shrank for a second straight month in December on slowing prices and sluggish factory activity, piling more pressure on an economy in the grips of its slowest growth in nearly three decades.The downbeat data points to more troubles ahead for the country’s vast manufacturing sector already struggling with a decline in orders, job layoffs and factory closures amid a bitter trade dispute with the United States.
China’s economic growth slipped to 6.6 percent last year, the weakest expansion in 28 years, stoking fears of a sharper slowdown if the current U.S.-Sino trade talks fail to stop further tariffs from being implemented after a 90-day truce.Profits in December fell 1.9 percent from a year earlier to 680.8 billion yuan ($100.9 billion), weighed down by weak factory-gate prices and soft demand. This is on top of a decline of 1.8 percent in November - the first contraction in profits in nearly three years.
Bank of Japan policymakers disagreed over the appropriate level of bond yields, minutes from the central bank’s meeting last month showed in a sign of the strain on the BOJ’s monetary framework as the global economy weakens.One member said long-term yields should be allowed to temporarily turn negative, according to minutes of the central bank’s Dec. 19-20 meeting released on Monday. The minutes do not identify the board members by name.Another member agreed, saying yields have fallen due to worries about the U.S.-Sino trade war and that conducting market operations to raise yields would tighten monetary policy.Yet another member said the BOJ should strengthen policy to reach its 2 percent inflation target.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday lifted sanctions on aluminum giant Rusal and other Russian firms linked to oligarch Oleg Deripaska, defying a Democratic-led push in the U.S. Congress to maintain the restrictions. Earlier this month, 11 of Trump’s fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate joined Democrats in a failed effort to keep the sanctions on Rusal, its parent, En+ Group Plc, and power firm JSC EuroSibEnergo.
But that was not enough to overcome opposition from Trump and most of his fellow Republicans.Advocates for keeping the sanctions had argued that Deripaska, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, retained too much control over the companies to lift sanctions imposed in April to punish Russia for actions including its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, efforts to interfere in U.S. elections and support for Syria’s government in its civil war.
The Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion cut tax package appeared to have no major impact on businesses’ capital investment or hiring plans, according to a survey released a year after the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in more than 30 years.
Asian stocks advanced on Monday as Wall Street rallied after a deal was announced to reopen the U.S. government following a prolonged shutdown that had shaken investor sentiment.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.2 percent.South Korea’s KOSPI edged up 0.2 percent, New Zealand stocks were up a touch, while Japan’s Nikkei bucked the trends and eased 0.2 percent. Australian financial markets were shut for their ‘Australia Day’ holiday.Facing mounting pressure, U.S. President Donald Trump agreed on Friday to temporarily end a 35-day-old partial U.S. government shutdown without getting the $5.7 billion he had demanded from Congress for a border wall.
British businesses implored politicians on Monday to stop quarrelling over Brexit and agree an orderly exit from the European Union, as some big firms set up emergency situations rooms to cope with the possible tumult of a no-deal divorce.With less than nine weeks until the United Kingdom is due by law to leave the European Union on March 29, there is no agreement yet in London on how and even whether to leave the world’s biggest trading bloc.Parliament rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement, which includes a nearly two-year transition period to help minimise economic disruption, earlier this month. That has left the UK on course to leave without a deal, a step that could snarl up ports, fracture supply chains and send shockwaves through financial markets.
Germany’s ruling coalition is unified on the need to implement the recommendations of a government-appointed commission for exiting coal by 2038, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told German broadcaster ARD on Sunday.Altmaier, a conservative, said he was in close touch with Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, about the issue, and some money had already been earmarked in the 2019 budget to get started with various measures.The government’s commission on Saturday proposed shutting down the last of Germany’s coal-fired power plants by 2038 at the latest, and providing at least 40 billion euros ($45.7 billion) in aid to regions affected by the phase-out.
Saudi Arabia aims to attract private sector investments worth 1.6 trillion riyals ($427 billion) over the next decade through an industrial development program aimed at diversifying the economy, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Saturday.Investments will be made through the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP), one of the programs set out under Vision 2030, a wider reform strategy led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and intended to wean the economy off hydrocarbons and create jobs for Saudis.Falih said the kingdom would on Monday announce projects worth 70 billion riyals that are "ready for negotiations" under the NIDLP to boost industry, mining, energy and logistics.
Gold prices held steady on Monday, near a seven-month peak scaled in previous session, on hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged during its two-day policy meeting later in the week.Spot gold was firm at $1,302.58 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures climbed 0.3 percent to $1,301.90 per ounce.The Federal Open Market Committee meets between Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, and Chairman Jerome Powell is widely expected to acknowledge growing risks to the U.S. economy as global momentum weakens.Gold is having a very positive macro stance in the sense the U.S. Fed is going to be more accommodative along with the European Central Bank, which is seeing downside risks to the economy.
Oil prices fell on Monday after U.S. energy firms added rigs for the first time this year in a sign that crude production there may rise further, and as China, the world’s second-largest oil user.U.S. crude oil futures were at $53.43 per barrel, down 26 cents, or 0.5 percent, from their last settlement.International Brent crude oil futures were at $61.50 a barrel, down 14 cents, or 0.2 percent.High U.S. crude oil production , which rose to a record 11.9 million barrels per day (bpd) late last year, has been weighing on oil markets, traders said.In a sign that output could rise further, U.S. energy firms last week raised the number of rigs looking for new oil for the first time in 2019 to 862, an additional 10 rigs, Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its weekly report.