Austria on Wednesday became the first euro zone country to price a public sale of debt below the European Central Bank’s deposit rate, as expectations of more ECB stimulus and worries over the global economy push yields in the bloc to new lows. Source: Reuters
Economics
Canada’s bank regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, on Tuesday raised the capital requirement level for ‘systemically important’ banks in the country by 25 basis points, to 2%. Source: Reuters
- U.S. industrial production fell in April, dragged by a big drop in factory output as production of autos and auto parts continued to slide.
- The Federal Reserve says industrial output — reflecting total production at factories, utilities and mines — dropped 0.5% in April.
- Industrial production also fell 0.5% in February.
“The main installations have been completed, the shut-off valves have been installed, so we can assume that the project will be completed by the end of 2019,” said project spokesman Jens Müller. Source: The Local Deutschland
Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom will start filling the Power of Siberia (Sila Sibiri) natural gas pipeline that connects Russia to China from September 1, Gazprom Transgaz Tomsk said in its corporate magazine on March 14, as cited by Prime. Source: Intellinews
Index provider MSCI Inc. said it would quadruple the contribution of mainland Chinese companies’ to its benchmarks, a move that makes shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen all but unignorable for many international investors. Source: MarketWatch
Japan’s industrial output contracted in November and partially reversed the previous month’s gain, while retail sales slowed sharply as increasing global risks drag on demand and threaten the country’s export-reliant economy. Source: Reuters
Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy’s hard-right League party, said on Thursday he would be willing to patch up his coalition with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement if it adopts a more constructive attitude to the League’s policies. Source Reuters
Slovenia has begun work on an additional stretch of fence along its southern border with Croatia with which it aims to keep out a rising number of migrants entering the country illegally. Source Reuters
Russia’s readmission to the Group of Seven nations depends on progress in Ukraine peace talks, a French diplomatic source said, responding to comments by U.S. President Donald Trump that Moscow should be allowed to rejoin the group. Source Reuters
Tensions are expected to heighten again in the Eastern Mediterranean after Turkey issued another navigational telex (Navtex) Wednesday reserving areas within Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for renewed exploratory activities by its Barbaros seismic vessel. Source Ekathimerini
The struggles of an automaker dubbed China’s answer to Tesla cast a shadow over the outlook for the country’s electric vehicle industry. The company, established in 2014, listed on the New York Stock Exchange last September. The restructuring came amid a steep decline in sales. Nio moved only about 4,000 units of its mainstay ES8 sport utility vehicle in the January-March quarter and 3,000 in April through June, down from around 8,000 in the last three months of 2018. Source Asian Review
The owner of a British-flagged tanker detained in Iran has met the country’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to make the case for the ship and its crew to be released. Source Reuters
The United States will take every action it can to prevent an Iranian tanker from delivering oil to Syria in contravention of U.S. sanctions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned. Source Reuters
A US MQ-9 drone was shot down over Yemen on Tuesday by a surface-to-air missile, a US official tells CNN. The US believes the missile was provided to Houthi rebels by Iran, said the official, who added that it was not immediately clear if the drone was being operated by the US military or the intelligence community. Source CNN
The UK Foreign Office has expressed concern over reports that a Hong Kong consulate employee has been detained at the Chinese border. Media reports say Simon Cheng, who is thought to be from Hong Kong, is believed to have gone missing on 8 August while on a business trip. Source BBC
An Italian prosecutor ordered to seize the Open Arms ship that has been stranded at sea by the Italian island of Lampedusa for the past 19 days with almost 100 migrants aboard, the prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday. Source Reuters
A meeting between Bosnia’s Muslim, Serb and Croat leaders ended without an agreement because the Bosnian Serb member of the presidency was against a package that would also include adopting a plan that would move Bosniacloser to NATO membership. Source TRT
Singapore has a message for Elon Musk, taking mass transit is a better climate-change solution than tooling around in one of his Tesla Inc’s electric vehicles. The city-state, which has said its efforts to cope with climate change are as crucial as military defence, has prioritised greater use of its trains and buses, Masagos Zulkifli, minister for environment and water resources, said in an interview Wednesday. Source Free Malaysia Today
Saudi oil giant Aramco has chosen to work with Lazard and Moelis as advisors for the initial public offering (IPO) of the world’s largest oil firm, people with knowledge of the plans told Bloomberg on Tuesday. Moelis and Lazard are set to have key roles in the listing, including picking the venues and underwriters, and trying to meet valuation expectations, Bloomberg’s sources said. Source Oil Price
- High-end hotels and others all struggling as occupancy rates plummet
- Staff say they are being forced to take leave in what is normally peak season Souce CNBC
- Saudi Aramco asks several banks to bid for roles in its initial public offering, people familiar with the matter tell CNBC on Monday.
- The state-owned oil company would be the world’s biggest IPO.
- The debt offering gives the Saudi officials confidence the IPO could happen as soon as 2020, the people tell CNBC. Source CNBC
Russia’s Rosneft (ROSN.MM), one of the world’s top oil producers and exporters, has notified customers that future tender contracts for oil products will be denominated in euros not dollars, five trading sources told Reuters.Source Reuters
President Donald Trump on Tuesday expressed his support for reinstating Russia into the G7, and French President Emmanuel Macron has agreed with the President that Russia should be invited to the G7 conference in 2020, according to a senior administration official. Source CNN
Germany sold 30-year bonds with a negative yield for the first time at an auction on Wednesday, a milestone for a fixed-income market where the entire curve now yields less than zero. The euro zone’s benchmark bond issuer sold 824 million euros of the new long-dated bonds against a target of 2 billion euros, with an average yield of -0.11%. The coupon on the bond was set at 0% earlier this week. Source Reuters
The US State Department on Tuesday called on Turkish authorities to cease immediately any “unlawful activities” in Cyprus’ territorial sea and remove its drillship, Yavuz. Source Ekathimerini
Taiwan’s export orders may have fallen 5.9% year on year in July, according to a survey, widening from June’s 4.5% decline. Source: Reuters
The Bundesbank has warned that a slump in the German economy could have continued over the summer. It cited the US-China trade war as one factor weighing on German exports. Source Deutsche Welle
President Donald Trump raised his demands Monday on the Federal Reserve, calling for the central bank to cut interest rates by a full percentage point and to restart its crisis-era money-printing program. Source CNBC
