Global Market News

Discussion in 'Wall St. News' started by wrbtrader, Jan 6, 2022.

  1. wrbtrader

    wrbtrader

    European markets slide at open, down 1.4% following U.S. sell-off

    Key Points
    • European stocks opened sharply lower on Thursday following losses stateside Wednesday that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average notching its first decline of 2022.
    • The Stoxx 600 index was down 1.4% after the open.
    LONDON — European stocks opened lower on Thursday following losses stateside Wednesday that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average notching its first decline of 2022.

    The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 1.4% after the open with all sectors and major bourses in negative territory. Tech stocks led the losses, down nearly 3%, amid growing concern about forthcoming U.S. interest rate rises. The future earnings of tech stocks are seen to be less attractive to investors when bond yields are higher — and tend to be vulnerable when rates rise.

    European markets followed their Asia-Pacific counterparts lower Thursday, following losses in the U.S. during Wednesday’s trading session.

    The declines came after minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s December meeting showed officials are ready to aggressively dial back the central bank’s pandemic-era easy monetary policy.

    The Fed’s plan to reduce the number of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities it holds comes as it is already tapering its bond purchases and is set to hike interest rates after the taper concludes.

    Major indexes on Wall Street fell sharply following the release of the minutes, with the S&P 500 dropping 1.94% to 4,700.58. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 392.54 points to 36,407.11 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plunged 3.34% to 15,100.17. U.S. stock futures were muted in overnight trading Wednesday.

    Data releases in Europe on Thursday include German industrial orders for November and euro zone producer prices for the same month.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/06/european-markets-react-to-us-sell-off.html

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    wrbtrader
     
  2. qwerty11

    qwerty11

    Big sell-off with DOW at ATH...
     
  3. wrbtrader

    wrbtrader

    Global-Food-Costs-Near-Record.png

    Food Costs Ease From Near Record, Offering Inflation Respite

    (Bloomberg) -- Global food prices declined from near a record high at the end of last year, offering some respite to consumers and governments facing a wave of inflationary pressures.

    A United Nations index tracking everything from grains to meat fell 0.9% in December, potentially helping to ease the run-up in prices of grocery store products. Still, the gauge remains near 2011’s all-time high and average prices jumped about 28% in 2021, the most in 14 years.

    Prices have surged on the back of harvest setbacks and high freight rates, as well as labor shortages and an energy crisis that hit supply chains. Those issues will remain at the fore as farmers face uncertain weather and the prospect of fertilizer shortages in the months ahead. The costs have trickled through to supermarkets, piling pressure on officials and household budgets and worsening hunger, particularly in poor nations.

    Food costs are unlikely to stabilize for a while yet, according to Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

    “Nothing fundamentally changed over the last two to three months to make us feel any degree of optimism that the food market is going to resettle at more steady or even lower prices,” he said. “All of the uncertainties are right there, they haven’t disappeared, which means that anything is still possible.”

    Global-Food-Costs-Near-Record-1.png


    The fall in food prices prices last month was mainly driven by vegetable oils and sugar, the FAO said Thursday.

    Anger over inflation recently led to violent protests in Kazakhstan, while Sri Lanka unveiled a $1 billion package to temper concerns over pricey food and medical items. Countries including Ukraine, Russia and Argentina have also taken steps to keep food costs in check.

    Weather worries still abound across major crop suppliers, as the La Nina weather pattern disrupts typical growing conditions. Dryness in parts of Brazil and Argentina is trimming expectations for bountiful soy and corn harvests. In Malaysia, recent floods have inundated some palm-oil plantations. And Australia faced a November deluge that curbed the quality of its wheat.

    The recent energy crunch has sent fertilizer prices higher too, threatening to further add to food-production costs. There are already signs that farmers are cutting back on nutrient purchases or shifting from grains to less fertilizer-intensive crops.

    Inflation is also contributing to the world’s hunger crisis, with higher prices for everything from fuel to housing cutting into what people can spend on food. Roughly a 10th of the global population was undernourished in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit -- and food costs have jumped much more since then.

    In other moves to combat rising prices or tight supplies, Thailand this week imposed a ban on hog exports until early April. U.S. President Joe Biden promised to “fight for fairer prices” for farmers and consumers in a bid to tackle meat-price inflation, while purchase limits have been reintroduced in hundreds of Australian supermarkets as cases of the omicron virus strain hobble supply chains.

    https://www.bloombergquint.com/glob...m-near-record-offering-some-inflation-respite

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  4. wrbtrader

    wrbtrader

    Russia’s Ukraine invasion could be a global economic ‘game changer’

    Soaring gas prices and rapidly shifting trade decisions suggest events of the past two weeks will be felt everywhere for years


    By David J. Lynch
    Yesterday at 7:00 a.m. EST
    Wall-Street-News.png


    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the financial reckoning imposed on Moscow in response are proof that the triumphant globalization campaign that began more than 30 years ago has reached a dead end.

    Fallout from the fighting in Ukraine will take a meaningful bite out of the global economic recovery this year, with the greatest impact in Europe, economists said. A spike in oil prices to more than $110 per barrel and renewed supply chain disruptions — including fresh headaches for the auto industry — also are likely to aggravate U.S. inflation, already at a 40-year high.

    But the war’s long-term consequences could be more profound. Even before Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tanks and missiles hurtling toward Ukraine, years of deteriorating U.S.-China relations and failed global trade talks had stalled the tighter integration of finance and trade flows that had been anticipated during globalization’s heyday.

    Historic sanctions on Russia had roots in emotional appeal from Zelensky

    What comes next is unlikely to mirror the Cold War’s distinct blocs. Even as the global economic order fractures, no rival ideologies compete for supremacy. And China’s harsh authoritarian turn under President Xi Jinping co-exists with extensive commercial ties to the United States, Europe and Japan. But governments, corporations and investors all are adjusting to a new reality.

    “It’s the end of one era and the beginning of another, which is a less complete form of globalization than we had ambitions for in the immediate post-Cold War era,” said Michael Smart, managing director of Rock Creek Global Advisors. “We have to think differently about what we mean by the global trading system. There are certain requirements that, if you don’t meet them, you’re not part of it. You can’t be in the club.”

    With the United States, Europe, Canada, Britain and Japan uniting to punish Russia with unprecedented financial sanctions, the war has triggered a “major geopolitical realignment” akin to the aftershocks from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to Citibank analysts.

    Virtually overnight, most major Russian banks were blocked from moving money across borders. Moscow’s stock market has been closed for a week. Russian customers are cut off from much of the world’s most advanced technologies.

    On Friday, Russia’s isolation deepened as the country’s communications regulator blocked access to Facebook, one of the few sources of information that the government already did not control, saying it had discriminated against Russia media.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/05/global-economy-russia-ukraine/

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    wrbtrader