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Chinese Art Auctions Fall to $7.9 Billion as Speculators Flee
- (www.bloomberg.com) Auction sales of Chinese art and antiques
worldwide fell 7 percent to $7.9 billion in 2014, hampered by the country’s
economic slowdown, government anti-corruption measures and fleeing speculators,
according to a report. Sales are down 31 percent from the Chinese art market
peak in 2011, according to the third annual report published Wednesday by
art researcher and database Artnet and
the China Association of Auctioneers. Auctions in mainland China accounted for
most of last year’s decline, falling 9.3 percent from 2013. China’s art market
rout contributed to a drop in global art sales, which fell 5.8 percent to
$8.1 billion during the first half of 2015 from the same period in 2014, New
York-based Artnet said in July. “Although it is impossible to disentangle the
extent of the influence of speculative activity and graft on the market’s boom
up to 2011, most experts agree it made some impact, the lack of which is now
keeping growth more subdued,” Clare McAndrew, a cultural economist, wrote in
the report.
Dutch Commodity Trading Firm Suffers Massive Loss, Blames It On "Rogue Trader" - (www.zerohedge.com) Oe of the most surprising developments in recent months has been the relative scarcity of any high-profile commodity blow-ups or trader snafus, despite the tumbling commodity prices. That changed today when Dutch grain-trading firm, Nidera BV (whose name is an acronym consisting of the countries in which it operates: Netherlands, India, Deutschland, England, Russia, Argentina) has suffered a crushing blow as a result of a "rogue trader" whose actions led to "significant losses" in the company's biofuels business. Nidera CEO Ton van der Laan said the grain-trading house has since exited the biofuels business and closed all the deals linked to the losses. "There is a significant loss."
Mexico Moves to Support Peso For Third Day as Currency Tumbles
- (www.bloomberg.com) Mexico’s central bank held an extraordinary
dollar auction for a third consecutive day to support the peso as the local
currency tumbled to the lowest level in a month amid an emerging-market
selloff. Policy makers sold an extra $200 million today, following
similarly-sized auctions Monday and Tuesday. Still, the peso fell 1.3 percent
to 17.1113 per dollar, reaching what would be the lowest closing level since
Aug. 25. The most-traded emerging-market currency in the world followed the
Brazilian real as the world’s worst performers in a basket of 16 major
currencies tracked by Bloomberg. Investors sold emerging-market assets and oil
prices tumbled as weak manufacturing data in China spurred concern about the outlook
for global economic growth.
Debt Relief for Students Snarls Market for Their Loans - (online.wsj.com) As
more borrowers postpone payments, the bonds backed by those loans are more
likely to default. Federal programs
designed to ease the burden of college loans are causing snarls in the bond
market and raising concerns that banks may soon ratchet back lending. The
programs, which let struggling borrowers scale back their repayments, have made
student loans more affordable at a time when millions of Americans are falling
behind on their student debts. But that slowing stream of money is having a
knock-on effect in the market for bonds backed by that debt. Investors who own
the bonds are beginning to worry that they may not get repaid on time, and they
are balking at buying new bonds being offered by financial institutions. Without
that revenue from selling off the student loans into bonds, banks have less
capital to turn into new loans.
Energy Lending Caught in a Squeeze - (online.wsj.com) Banks are clashing with regulators over loan
reviews that could crimp the flow of new credit to the oil patch. The dispute
is focused on the relatively narrow issue of loans secured by oil and gas
companies’ reserves, but it highlights the much broader point of how postcrisis
regulation of the financial industry is affecting sectors far from Wall Street.
On one side are the bankers who have been grappling with the plunge in oil
prices and the need to shore up billions of dollars in credit extended to the
energy industry. On the other are regulators eager to prevent another financial
crisis while not knowing what it might be. Caught in the middle are the small-
and medium-size exploration and production companies that rely on credit lines
that use their energy reserves as collateral. Banks are now beginning their
fall reviews of the quality of that collateral and worry regulators could ding
them for making loans the banks think are prudent.
US oil settles down 4.1%, at $44.48 a barrel - (www.cnbc.com)
U.S. factory activity stuck at near two-year low in September: Markit - (www.reuters.com)
Draghi Says Time Needed to Judge If More Stimulus Necessary - (www.bloomberg.com)
ECB's Nowotny Says He's Wary of Expanding Bond-Buying Program - (www.bloomberg.com)
Surge in U.S. Stock Buybacks Gains Support From Idle Factories - (www.bloomberg.com)
Deeper China downturn, weak Europe dents global growth outlook - (www.reuters.com)
Citigroup Strategist: Central Banks Will Try to Monetize Government Debt When the Next - (www.bloomberg.com)
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