High-frequency traders are a threat to markets as they “know the price of everything and the value of nothing,” according to Goldman Sachs, quoting Oscar Wilde. Computers are prized for their ability to process massive amounts of data better than humans. But it’s their relative inability to process a complex world that might lead machines to worry that humans know something they don’t when markets go haywire — and exit a situation in which they don’t have the upper hand, wrote strategists led by co-Chief Markets Economist Charles Himmelberg in ...

The prospective antiestablishment government of Italy has shocked markets, with bond yields jumping higher on the potential for anti-euro policy positions and a burst of new government spending. The gap between Italy and Germany’s government bond yields climbed to 1.92 percentage points early Wednesday, the highest in nearly a year. During the last week that spread. a common measure of the perceived risk to holding Italian debt, has increased more quickly than at any time in the last five years. That puts investors who have funneled gobs of money betting ...

European high-yield debt was the world’s best-performing market in the decade that followed the financial crisis, surviving bailouts, crashes, and Brexit to deliver returns of 100 percent. Italian populists may turn out to be its greatest test. One fifth of the market is concentrated in the nation via companies like Telecom Italia SpA and Moby SpA, and the prevailing political wind presents a looming threat, according to UBS Group AG strategists. They’ve downgraded their recommendation for euro high-yield to neutral from overweight, citing political “uncertainties.” The average yield paid by ...

The U.S. dollar’s rally is having an unusual effect on the commodities market. Gold prices have fallen as expected, while crude oil has rallied to its highest level in years. Oppenheimer’s Ari Wald says this setup is bullish for the broader market. “When the value of the dollar rises, it typically costs less to buy commodities that are priced in the dollar. So it’s no surprise that we’ve seen [the] U.S. dollar reverse its year-long downtrend — it has strengthened — and against that backdrop the price of gold has ...

Investors sold equities on Wednesday and raced to buy Japanese yen and government bonds from the United States and Germany on fears that setbacks to U.S-China trade talks would undermine increasingly fragile-looking world growth. The yen rose more than 1 percent against the dollar, U.S. bond yields , which move inversely to price, fell to eight-day lows. World shares meanwhile slipped half a percent to a two-week low as weak euro zone data added to negative sentiment following U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments on the crucial trade talks. Investors were ...

Investors sold equities on Wednesday and raced to buy yen and government bonds from the United States and Germany on fears that setbacks to U.S-China trade talks would undermine increasingly fragile-looking world growth. The yen <JPY=D3> rose 1 percent against the dollar, U.S. bond yields <US10YT=RR> fell to eight-day lows and world shares <.MIWD00000PUS> slipped half a percent from one-week highs as weak euro zone data added to negative sentiment after U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments on the crucial trade talks. Investors were also watching Turkey and Italy, with the ...

European shares inched towards four-month highs on Tuesday, as an easing of pressure on Italy’s debt markets coincided with China’s latest move to open up its giant economy to the rest of the world. A pause in the dollar’s recent rally also meant respite for some battered emerging markets — though still not Turkey — while signs of better U.S. and China trade relations had Wall Street futures pointing higher. Early European trading saw Italian government bond yields come off 14-month highs, after six days of heavy selling on concerns ...

The long-awaited link between stock exchanges in London and Shanghai is close to becoming a reality, according to a London Stock Exchange Group Plc presentation, another step in China’s efforts to integrate with the international financial system. The London-Shanghai Stock Connect will start later this year, allowing companies from China to sell global depository receipts in the U.K. and enabling London-traded firms to list similar securities in Shanghai, according to the LSE presentation seen by Bloomberg News. The securities issued by Chinese companies will appear on what LSE calls the ...

Stocks, oil prices and the dollar were on the rise on Monday after the U.S.-China trade war was declared “on hold” while in Europe, Italy’s borrowing costs climbed and the Milan bourse fell as two anti-establishment parties got closer to power. European stocks opened higher with the pan-European STOXX 600 <.STOXX> up 0.3 percent, while U.S. S&P mini futures rose 0.5 percent following a positive session in Asia led by strong gains in greater China. “There’s certainly a ‘feel-good’ sentiment on risky assets” due to the U.S. trade announcement, said ...

As oil proves resilient around 2014 highs, experts warn that a sustained uptick in energy prices could upset market sentiment in Asia. Higher oil prices combined with rising U.S. interest rates could prove “a double whammy,” for the region, “adding about a trillion dollars a year to the import bill across Asia,” Richard Martin of advisory firm IMA Asia told CNBC on Friday. That hefty tab is set to grow this year beyond the $1 trillion mark, according to analysis from Thomson Reuters, which shows that the Asia-Pacific region already ...

In credit markets, it’s America first no longer. A wave of foreign selling of U.S. corporate bonds threatens to unhinge global debt markets from their bullish moorings, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. After a multi-year binge, the largest owners of America Inc.’s debt — overseas investors — are paring their exposures as higher short-term U.S. rates drive up hedging costs, especially for Europeans. The accompanying pressure on the biggest corporate bond market risks hobbling credit bulls around the world. “Our analysis of foreign investors in U.S. dollar and euro suggests ...

Private equity firms, armed with a record $1 trillion in cash, are investing more in public companies than at any time since the financial crisis, buying those left behind in Wall Street’s nine-year bull market. It is a bet that buyout firms can spot listed companies’ potential that the stock market has been missing, and a sign of confidence in their ability to turn them around even as some of their shareholders have lost patience or faith in them. “There are quite a few public companies that are maybe a ...

European stocks stalled Friday after three sessions of gains, weighed down by renewed volatility in Italian markets and a handful of lackluster earnings reports. The Stoxx Europe 600 edged down 0.2% midday, while Asian markets registered small gains. S&P 500 futures were up 0.2% led by a 4% rise for toy maker Mattel in premarket trading. Italian stocks and bonds remained under pressure Friday after 5 Star Movement and the League, two antiestablishment parties seeking to form a governing coalition, agreed on a common government program to slash taxes and ...

Despite overnight declines in U.S. stocks on trade worries, major Asian markets finished mostly higher Friday, though gains in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, Japan’s Nikkei, South Korea’s Kospi and Australia’s S&P 200 were capped at less than 0.5%. Leading the way higher, China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.5%. MSCI ‘s Asia-Pacific Index excluding Japan fell 0.5% as it headed for a 1% drop this week, its biggest weekly decline in two months, after last week’s 2.4% rise. Investors were sitting tight, awaiting cues from the trade negotiations that began Thursday ...

Energy has been the world’s best-performing sector this year. Still, investors have been slow in catching up with the pace of analysts’ upgrades. The MSCI World Energy Sector Index is up 16 percent since oil started rallying in March, yet on a price-to-estimated earnings basis, the sector’s valuation is near its lowest level since 2015. “Energy stocks score quite favorably on price momentum and especially earnings revisions,” said Max Kettner, a cross asset strategist at Commerzbank AG. “They are still relatively cheap.” The reason why P/E ratios haven’t taken off ...