A solid start from Europe kept world stocks at a three-week high on Tuesday after Asia was knocked back by a shock profit warning from tech giant Samsung and a tick-up in borrowing costs. Hopes that Washington and Beijing may be moving towards a trade deal also helped the mood again and gave the dollar a lift in the currency markets after its weak start to the year. That rise, along with the alarm from South Korea’s Samsung that it would badly miss its earnings forecasts caused a swoon in ...

For the European bond investors who survived a bruising 2018, there may be bad news in the year ahead. Higher government spending and political uncertainty threaten rising debt yields in Italy and France, which could spill over elsewhere. Markets don’t expect the European Central Bank to raise interest rates given slowing growth and trade risks, making a sell-off in Germany’s haven bunds look unlikely. “The ECB’s exit plan will be put to the test, at a time when the Fed is done after the U.S. curve inverts, Britain barely averts ...

After a decade of extraordinary gains, the American stock market has come unhinged in recent weeks, with the technology sector leading the rapid decline. American tech giants are down on average 25 per cent from recent peaks, and it appears the big global bubble of the 2010s is bursting. The question on everyone’s mind is what comes next. One answer, in any transition period like this one, is to look to anti-bubbles. Bubbles are driven by hype about the hot new thing and defined by mania, including unusually heavy trading ...

Strong employment data in the United States, decisive action from the Chinese central bank and dovish messages from U.S. Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell steadied markets on Monday, pushing an index of world stocks to a 2-1/2 week high. The resumption of talks between the United States and China on tariffs also helped restore some optimism to a market battered in recent weeks by trade tensions and a weakening global growth outlook. Though European shares were in the red on Monday, they were still close to three-week highs after Friday’s ...

European shares edged lower following a strong session in Asia on Monday, after U.S. stocks surged in the previous session on fresh signs of economic strength and the Federal Reserve said it would be flexible with its interest-rate policy. The pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.1% in opening trade. Germany’s Xetra DAX, France’s CAC 40 and the U.K. FTSE 100 were all down 0.1%. U.S. stock futures pointed to opening gains of 0.5% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite. S&P 500 futures were 0.4% higher. The yield ...

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s “Bull & Bear” gauge of market sentiment has fallen to 1.8, a level the U.S. bank’s strategists describe as “extreme bear” territory that has triggered a “buy” signal for equities. This is the first time the “buy” signal for risk assets has been triggered since June 2016 when the Brexit vote sent global markets spiralling lower, the strategists said on Friday, adding it was “time to buy”. The note came as markets rallied strongly after blowout employment figures from the United States lifted some investors’ ...

There’s plenty of drama in Washington, D.C., but arguably the most important political risks for investors in 2019 originate on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I’m talking, of course, about Brexit, specifically the notion of a “hard Brexit” that is looking increasingly likely. This is the scenario in which the United Kingdom leaves the single market of the European Union without a replacement to cooperate closely with the continent via economic and regulatory coordination. To nationalists who think any departure from the E.U. is categorically about sovereignty, a ...

Welcome to 2019, the second year of the U.S.-China trade war. Judging by the attitude of China market watchers, 2020 will be the third. “We expect the China trade war to become more entrenched in 2019,” says Cailin Birch, global economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit. For China investors, the trade war has led to significant stock market losses. Late in the third quarter, some investors were building positions in China in hopes of a truce. They got the truce. The market rallied. It lasted less than 24 hours. China’s ...

World stock markets rallied on Friday after China’s central bank moved to support its slowing economy, Chinese services data pointed to positive growth, and Beijing announced a new round of trade talks with Washington. Markets were buoyed by the resumption of trade talks between China and the United States and by encouraging surveys of China’s services sector. A slew of weak data had showed China’s economy was losing steam. China’s central bank said on Friday it was cutting the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves for the ...

Global stocks climbed Friday, staging a partial rebound from Thursday’s steep losses after China confirmed a two-day meeting with U.S. representatives to work to resolve the countries’ trade dispute. The Stoxx Europe 600 climbed 0.9% in opening trading, buoyed by its natural resources and energy sectors, up 2% and 1.7%, respectively. Natural resources stocks have been among those worst hit by ongoing trade disputes between the U.S. and China. Meanwhile, oil prices continued the rise that began earlier this week when production cuts from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting ...

Futures for Canada’s main stock index pointed to a lower opening on Thursday, following a broad selloff in Asian and European markets after Apple cut its sales forecast of its first fiscal quarter. March futures on the S&P/TSX index were down 0.91 percent at 7:00 a.m. ET. Investors sought safety in bonds and less risky assets amid renewed concerns about slowing global economic and corporate growth. Apple Inc on Wednesday cut its sales forecast for its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 2018, with Chief Executive Tim Cook blaming slowing iPhone ...

Industrial profit growth in China contracted by 1.8 per cent year-on-year in November. A recent survey of chief financial officers (CFOs) operating in China showed a rapid decline in economic confidence. Yet, heading into the Year of the Pig, perhaps investors will be drawn to a more positive China investment narrative. That’s not to deny there are problems. As Hong Kong-based analysts at Japan’s Nomura Bank pointed out on December 27, the minus 1.8 per cent reading for profit growth in China in November was a seventh consecutive monthly decline. ...

A rare revenue warning from smartphone giant Apple triggered a new wave of selling in UK shares on Thursday as investors’ fears of slowing global growth were confirmed though fashion retailer Next provided some post-festive cheer. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.5 percent lower and FTSE 250 <.FTMC> was down 0.1 by 1013 GMT, outperforming European peers thanks to a strong Christmas update by Next which helped sentiment. Trading volume for FTSE 100 remained low, just 13 percent of the 90-day average daily turnover changed hands in the first two hours ...

New year, same old weakening Chinese economic data. What’s Happening The China Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 49.7 in December, according to data released Wednesday. That is the first time the sector has been in contraction territory–below 50–since May 2017. The government’s official purchasing manager’s index for manufacturing, released Monday, was even worse, falling in December to its weakest level since February 2016. Official figures suggest the sector is shrinking for the first time in 2 1/2 years. The portion of the index covering new export orders showed ...

Fearing his country’s pay-as-you-go pension scheme is unsustainable, a 40-year old French engineer – let’s call him Jean Dupont – makes a New Year resolution. Hoping the introduction of the euro the next day will mark a new era of prosperity for the European economy, Dupont decides to invest in the bloc’s banking sector every single trading day for the next two decades. His strategy is simple: buying and holding on what he believes is the best proxy to play the region’s dynamic economy. And why not? Europe is expanding ...