Fraga: Brazil should frontload tightening cycle
Not everyone gets the same introduction to central banking as Arminio Fraga.
When Fraga, who now runs a private equity and hedge fund manager, Gávea Investimentos, took over as president of Brazil’s central bank in 1999, one of his first acts was to increase interest rates by 600 basis points. Continue reading »
Americas markets wrap: Bovespa gains as oil breaches $100
Most Latin American markets fell further on Wednesday as the unrest in Libya boosted oil above $100 a barrel, raising fears about inflation and curbing risk appetite around the world.
In Brazil, however, rising crude prices lifted oil producers, pushing the Bovespa index 0.7 per cent higher for the day and offsetting falls among steelmakers and airlines. Continue reading »
From the Dominican Republic with love
Pinewood Studios, that venerable name in British cinema and home to the James Bond and Harry Potter films, is going tropical: on Wednesday, it announced that it had an agreement with Indomina Group to construct a film studio in the Dominican Republic.
The new studio, which will be constructed and funded by Indomina, an investment managed by asset-management company Vicini, will occupy 35 acres, including an eight-acre water-effects facility. Continue reading »
CEE markets wrap: Istanbul leads falls
Turkey led falls for central and eastern European stocks on Wednesday, as Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi vowed to continue fighting the uprising against him.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that extremism may spread in the Middle East. “It is quite possible that complicated events will take place including fanatics coming to power,” he told a security meeting today in the city of Vladikavkaz. “It will mean fires for decades and a further spread of extremism.” Continue reading »
Egypt jitters rise as market stays shut
When Egypt’s stock market finally reopens, nobody doubts what will happen: prices will tumble. That’s probably why the day of reckoning got postponed again on Wednesday, when the Cairo stock exchange delayed its reopening for the umpteenth time until next week.
The longer the market is closed, the more jittery and frustrated some investors get – although others seem glad to defer the pain. For neighbouring stock markets, however, the impact of Egypt’s closure has been inescapable. Continue reading »
[Snap] Brent crude through $110 as half of Libyan production shuts down
The price of Brent crude for April delivery rose through $110 a barrel on Wednesday afternoon in London as fears of shortages loomed ever larger in an information vacuum. The FT’s Jack Farchy and Javier Blas report industry executives saying that at least half of Libya’s 1.6m barrels a day oil output had been closed down. They cautioned, however, that they could only estimate the total outage since they did not have direct knowledge of production at their competitors’ oilfields.
Brazil’s World Cup legacy at risk
By Andrew Downie
Anyone who’s ever caught a flight in Brazil knows the country’s airports are a mess. And those with an eye on the 2014 World Cup know that today’s overstretched infrastructure, combined with Brazil’s notorious inability to plan ahead, make for an ominous future. Continue reading »
Puffed up: China’s cigar lovers
Cigars seem to be the latest object of desire for the growing number of wealthy Chinese, according to Habanos, Cuba’s premium cigar distributor. The company said this week that China has now replaced Germany as the world’s third biggest cigar importer.
It’s the latest example of several things: the growth of conspicuous consumption in China; the Chinese interest in foreign luxury brands; and the importance of Chinese growth to foreign manufacturers, which needs it to offset the effects of weakening demand in the developed world. Continue reading »
Jasmine Revolution heading south?
Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and now … Cameroon? Unrest has spread quickly across the Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East and north Africa. But if it reaches south of the Sahara to the rest of Africa that will signal it has a resonance much stronger than previously thought.
Opposition groups in the west African cocoa producer are planning their own “Day of Rage” on Wednesday in a bid to end the 29-year rule of president Paul Biya (pictured with his wife), as CNN reports. Continue reading »
The spike in Saudi debt insurance
The cost of insuring against a default on Saudi Arabian debt spiked sharply as Egypt’s Jasmine Revolution got underway in late January and has since climbed even higher (see chart after the break). Does this suggest investors believe trouble could spread to the world’s biggest oil-producing nation?
Probably not. As Marios Maratheftis, head of research at Standard Chartered in Dubai, told beyondbrics, it suggests instead that they are expressing concern over recent events in one of the few ways open to them – and this fails to reflect Saudi moves to address some of the structural problems fuelling unrest elsewhere. Continue reading »
Taiwan set for more Chinese tourists
‘Explosive’ and ‘phenomenal’ are the sort of adjectives that best describe the growth of Chinese tourism to Taiwan over the past two years. From having no regular direct cross-Strait flights before 2008 and just 100,000 tourists that year, China became the biggest source of tourists for Taiwan with over a million visitors last year.
Yet an even bigger transformation may be in store this year, as China appears to have finally agreed to allow travelers to visit Taiwan individually rather than as part of a big tour groups. Continue reading »
Asia markets wrap: equities fall on oil
Asian stocks mostly fell on Wednesday, as intensifying unrest in Libya triggered a sharp rise in oil prices. Asian currencies rose modestly against the dollar.
“The world economic outlook is becoming more uncertain,” said Hiroichi Nishi, an equities manager in Tokyo at Nikko Cordial Securities. “Investors are becoming more concerned about inflation in emerging markets and higher corporate costs because of rising oil prices.” Continue reading »
New York headlines
* Defiant Gaddafi vows fight to death
* Erdogan on course to win June poll
* Suitors lining up for Bank Danamon
* ‘Jasmine revolutionaries’ call for weekly China protests
* India back on pre-recession growth path: World Bank Continue reading »
Turks in Libya: fleeing Gaddafi
Thousands of Turkish expatriates spent days sheltering in a football stadium in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi, listening to echoing gunshots as they waited for a means of escape from the violence engulfing the country.
Until this week, Turks had watched the protests unfolding across the Arab world with a sense of detachment – and a certain pride in their relative wealth and more developed democracy. But the uprising in Libya has struck closer to home. Continue reading »
Asian markets: ‘exporter’ trade over?
By Josh Noble and Robin Kwong
For Asian market watchers, there’s been a pretty clear divergence across emerging markets in the past few months. Known either as the ‘north-over-south’ trade, or the exporter trade, investors shifted their money out of domestically driven southeast Asia, and into the export markets of South Korea and Taiwan.
But, if the past few days are anything to go by, the trade may already be reversing. Continue reading »
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