Americas markets wrap: Stocks fall after German short-selling ban
Latin American markets tumbled with global markets on Tuesday as a sharp drop in the euro led a fresh round of risk aversion. The late-afternoon slump came after Germany moved to temporarily ban naked shorting of certain stocks.
Trading rice for hamburgers
Rice or hamburgers? As the global economic crisis unfolded, that was the question that many food executives were asking themselves about the future of emerging countries’ eating habits. Over the last ten decades, the diets in nations from China to India have become more similar to those in western countries, paving the way for a large increase in the profitability of global food companies. But in previous crisis, diets have reverted to traditional staples – the fear was a repetition of history.
No one has a better watchtower over global food and agriculture than Cargill, the big US agribusiness. And Gregory Page, its chief executive, told the Financial Times in a rare interview that the appetite of emerging markets for processed food, meat and dairy products has confounded fears of a big drop in demand in the wake of the financial crisis.
Ask the expert: Commodity volatility
Wondering about the recent return to volatility in commodity markets amid debt fears and risk aversion? FT.com’s markets team is collecting questions for Nicolas Clavel, chief investment officer at Scipion Capital. He’ll examine the outlook for commodity markets and also take questions on commodities trading in Africa.
Submit your questions and check back for Mr Clavel’s answers on Monday, May 24.
Walmart’s American customers may be tightening their belts, but international shoppers are spending more, helping the discount retailer overcome slowing US sales.
The company posted $3.3bn in first-quarter profit – a 10 per cent boost – on the back of strong sales in Mexico, Canada, Brazil and China. International sales surged 8.9 per cent to $22.5bn, excluding the impact of local currency appreciation against the dollar. That’s compared with a 1.1 per cent rise at US stores and a 4.6 per cent increase in sales at Sam’s Club.
Thailand update: government and protestors split over talks bid
An attempt by anti-government protesters to engage the government in peace talks has been stymied as the government announced that it welcomed talks, but only on condition that the protests cease, something the red-shirts have firmly rejected. Meanwhile, fighting continues in the streets as thousands of troops closing in on protesters as tourists and investors leave the country in large numbers, and schools and businesses are shut down, according to Reuters.
Istanbul stock exchange faces struggle in IPO campaign
Istanbul’s stock exchange is trying to fix what it sees as a long-standing shortcoming in Turkey’s economic development – a dearth of publicly listed companies. It is making a new push on the back of a (very) modest rush to market, with two companies floating in the past month and a third due this Friday.
But it will a long slog: just 12 per cent of Turkey’s top 1,000 companies are listed – and the families that largely control Turkish business seem to like it that way.
As Mrs Watanabe ages, Japan turns to Mrs Wang and her credit card
Japan is getting older. The older it gets, the more it relies on demand from emerging market consumers.
That’s why Japan has decided to make a shopping holiday a little bit easier.
The Japanese foreign ministry on Tuesday announced it will in July ease its requirements for tourist visas for individual Chinese, a step that national broadcaster NHK reckons could help raise the number of visitors from Asia’s fastest rising economic power roughly sixfold to 6m by 2016.
The zloty’s loss is Poland’s gain as exports surge
Poland’s zloty is doing even worse than the euro on international markets, as financial investors continue to flee what they see as potential risk.
But there is an upside for Poland. A cheaper currency should continue to boost the country’s exports, and will continue to lure foreign direct investment.
The ideological divide between Latin America’s liberal/social democratic countries and hard-left/populist republics is as wide as ever – but when it comes to dishing up lessons to Europe’s crisis-hit southern periphery, there is plenty of common ground.
At this week’s European Union-Latin America summit in Madrid, neither the left nor the right of Latin America was backward in coming forward.
Few corporate bidders invoke Shakespeare, a prom queen with too many dates and a dead kangaroo dried in the sun, but Noble Group did just that when its assets-for-shares deal with Australia’s Macarthur Coal was threatened by rival suitors.
Now investors and observers alike are wondering whether Noble will once again wax lyrical after the latest turn of events today – the Australian miner rejected an A$3.8bn takeover by Peabody.
CEE snapshot: markets slightly higher, currencies gain
At 12:45 BST:
Poland’s WiG20 up 0.6 per cent, the zloty higher against the euro by 0.6 per cent.
Russia’s RTS Standard up 0.1 per cent, Micex down 0.1 per cent. The rouble higher against the dollar by 0.7 per cent.
The Czech market higher by 1 per cent. The koruna higher against the euro by 0.4 per cent.
Hungary’s BSE higher by 0.8 per cent. Forint higher against the euro by 0.6 per cent.
The Romanian market up 2.3 per cent.
China’s richest man, jailed for 14 years, had money but few connections
Huang Guangyu, once China’s richest man, has learnt the hard way that in the Middle Kingdom it’s not who you are but who you know that matters. Huang, who was jailed today for 14 years for insider dealing, bribery and illegal business dealings, stood out in the ranks of China’s billionaires as a man without serious political connections. It is a distinction that may have cost him dear.
New York headlines
Asia markets wrap: China, Thailand higher
Chinese markets regained their poise today after falling sharply on Monday. Investors bought banks on speculation that the European debt crisis could force the government to delay measures to cool the economy.
In Thailand the government reopened talks with protestors in the hope of ending the political crisis that has left many dead in violent clashes in downtown Bangkok. That helped Thai stocks and the baht to gain, while bonds fell.
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