The Chinese yuan slid to its lowest in more than a year on Friday, further undermining global sentiment and stoking worries Beijing’s currency management could be the next flash point in a trade dispute with the United States. The yuan slid as low as 6.8128 to the dollar in the onshore market after the central bank set a weaker fixing for the currency for the seventh straight session, forcing a volatile session in Asian stocks. After falling 0.4 percent, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ended the day 0.6 ...

Investors pulled about $3 billion from hedge funds in the second quarter, the first quarterly outflow since early 2017. Macro hedge funds led net outflows in the period, with $2.8 billion leaving the strategy, according to a report Thursday from Hedge Fund Research Inc. The outflows were offset by equity hedge funds, which saw inflows of $2.4 billion. Investors are redeeming from funds that bet on economic trends as global trade tensions rise. By comparison, equity funds are benefiting as clients move toward strategies that are less sensitive to such ...

An escalating trade war between the U.S. and China shouldn’t scare long-term investors in the region because economies tend to adjust to such tensions, according to BlackRock Inc. executives. “It’s that adjustment that’s painful,” Mark Wiseman, global head of active equities, said Wednesday at a press briefing in New York. “If you take a 10-year view on the Chinese economy, from an economic perspective it will smooth itself out.” President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on an additional $200 billion of Chinese goods. If the administration sees it ...

Foreigners withdrew money from Asian bond markets for the third consecutive month in June amid concerns that increasing trade frictions between the United States and China will disrupt the region’s economic growth. Data from central banks and bond market associations showed foreigners sold a total of $1.9 billion of bonds from India, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia in the last month. This year, the United States has announced tariffs on steel and aluminium imports and an initial $34 billion of Chinese imports. It is also threatening another round of ...

The dollar stayed strong but metal markets buckled badly on Thursday, as signs that China was resorting to credit-fuelled stimulus again and trade jitters helped drive its currency to a one-year low. Asian shares had struggled following the moves and Europe’s bourses were also in the red as traders banked some of the recent gains that had hoisted the STOXX 600 <.STOXX>, the DAX <.GDAXI> and the CAC40 <.FCHI> to 1-month highs. [.EU] Britain’s Brexit-bruised pound <GBP=> was still suffering, falling below $1.30 for the first time in ten months, ...

Fund managers haven’t been this aligned on the market’s biggest tail risk in six years. A trade war now clearly dominates as the largest-known unknown source of potential downside for investors worldwide, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s July global fund manager survey. The firm polled those with $542 billion combined. Sixty percent of respondents deemed a protectionist showdown to be the biggest threat for markets, up from 31 percent in June. “This month, trade war remains the biggest ‘tail risk’ for fund manager survey investors with conviction the ...

World stocks hit a one-month high on Wednesday as a bullish outlook from the head of the U.S. central bank and rising company earnings buoyed the mood, lifted the dollar and sent safe-haven gold to a one-year trough. Wall Street’s jump back above the psychologically significant 2,600-point mark [.N] was also keeping Europe’s spirits up ahead of another packed day of earnings and data in the United States. London’s FTSE rose 0.5 percent as the pound continued to suffer the Brexit blues, while Germany’s DAX climbed to a one-month high ...

The global growth story has taken another hit. For the first time since the China-inspired market turmoil of early 2016, a clear majority of the fund managers surveyed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch don’t expect global growth to accelerate over the next 12 months. Confidence in global economic growth propelled markets through last year and supported key benchmarks into 2018, despite concerns over trade and wider geopolitics. In the BAML survey, trade was a key concern, with 60% of investors saying a possible trade war poses the greatest risk ...

Fund managers have cut equity allocations to the lowest level since November 2016, with 60 percent of investors seeing a trade war as the biggest risk for markets, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s (BAML) latest monthly poll showed. The bank’s July 6-12 survey of funds managing $663 billion worldwide showed a 14 percentage point cut in equity exposure to a net 19 percent overweight, the lowest level since the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. BAML said investor conviction of a trade war being the biggest ...

The world’s major stock markets were mostly firmer on Wednesday as a bullish outlook from the head of the U.S. central bank buoyed the dollar, lifted bond yields and sent safe-haven gold to a one-year trough. Wall Street’s jump back above the 2,600 points mark overnight [.N] was also still lifting spirits early on in Europe. London’s FTSE made 0.5 percent as the pound continued to suffer the Brexit blues, while Germany’s Dax surged to a one-month high on hopes the European Union and United States could cut a deal ...

Headlines like “Trump Tariff Barrage Pushes China Feud to Point of No Return,” and “China Vows Retaliation Against $200 Billion Trade Threat” are just the latest portents of global investing in peril. Everyone from BlackRock, the largest public money manager, to Harvard University economist Carmen Reinhart seems to be issuing warnings about investing in emerging-market economies, which appear to be in worse shape now than they were during the 2008 financial crisis. Except they’re not. Even as tariff threats escalate and money flees from emerging markets at the fastest rate ...

Global shares edged down Tuesday, ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s Senate testimony and the latest earnings report from Goldman Sachs. The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.2% in early European trade, and futures pointed to a 0.2% opening loss for the S&P 500. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average closed up 0.4%, helped by a weak yen, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite were down 1.3% and 0.6%, respectively. Oil prices continued to dip after sharp falls Monday, buffeted by expectations of supply increases from Libya, ...

Cancel out the trade-war noise and there’s still plenty to be optimistic about on Asian stocks as valuations are now “very reasonable,” according to J.P. Morgan Asset Management. A full-blown trade conflict is unlikely and the global economic cycle still appears normal, Richard Titherington, who oversees $123 billion as the chief investment officer for emerging markets Asia Pacific, said in an email interview. Given its exposure to the global economy, South Korea has become particularly cheap on the back of the trade war, while Singapore is “oversold” and the city-state’s ...

European stock markets struggled on Monday as expectations for a flurry of bumper corporate earnings and merger speculation fought with fears about the escalating trade conflict between Beijing and Washington. Data showing China’s economy and factory production growth had slowed sent Asian markets lower at the start of the week, as investors fret an escalating trade battle between China and the United States may soon start to damage the real economy . European shares, which have rallied off three-month lows in July, mostly opened higher although the gains were limited ...

European stock markets inched higher on Monday as expectations for a flurry of bumper corporate earnings and merger speculation outweighed fears about the escalating trade conflict between Beijing and Washington. Data showing China’s economy and factory production growth had slowed hurt Asian markets at the start of the week, as investors fret an escalating trade battle between China and the United States may soon start to hurt the real economy. But European shares mostly opened higher, although the gains were marginal. Germany’s DAX <.GDAXI> was the biggest riser, up half ...