Falling
Bank Deposits Add to China Economy Warning Sign - (www.bloomberg.com) Chinese bank
depositsdropped
following a crackdown on lenders manipulating their numbers and “illicit” means
of attracting money, threatening to weigh on credit growth and hinder efforts
to reignite the economy. Four of the five biggest banks, led by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (601398), posted a drop in deposits as they reported
third-quarter earnings this week. Central bank data showed it was the first
quarterly decline for the nation’s banking industry since at least 1999.
Shale
Boom Redraws Oil Routes as Alaskans Ship to Korea - (www.bloomberg.com) For
signs of how the U.S. shale boom is transforming the global flow of oil, look
halfway across the world at South Korea. The Asian nation, which relies on the Middle
East for about 86 percent of its oil imports, is benefiting as new output from Texas to North Dakota displaces the crudes that fed U.S.
refineries for decades. South Korea received this month a shipment of Alaskan
oil for the first time in at least eight years and may buy more, the importing
company said. The country was one of the first to receive a cargo of the
ultralight U.S. oil known as condensate after export rules were eased.
Oil
Rout Seen Diluting Price Appeal of U.S. LNG Exports - (www.bloomberg.com) Oil’s
collapse is eroding the appeal of potential U.S. LNG exports toAsia as it cuts the cost of competing supplies
linked to the price of crude. Brent’s 22 percent drop this year outpaced the
8.9 percent decline in natural gas at Henry Hub, the benchmark for U.S.
liquefied natural gas shipments that are scheduled to begin in 2015. When the
cost of processing and shipping American supplies to Asia is taken into
account, the price advantage over oil-linked cargoes from producers such as
Qatar has more than halved, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Central
Banker Hero Becomes Face of Failure in Swedish Tale - (www.bloomberg.com) Stefan
Ingves, the governor of Sweden’s central bank, was held up as an example of how
to expand the monetary tool box just three years ago. Back then he was fighting
asset bubbles that economists including Nobel LaureateRobert Shillerwarned were
coming. Now, Ingves’s name is associated with a failure to preventdeflation through
policies dubbed “sadomonetarist” by another Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman. Through it all, one man has been warning that
this is exactly how things would turn out. Lars E. O. Svensson, an old
Princeton University colleague of Krugman’s and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, says Ingves is personally responsible for the
deflationary slope Sweden is now sliding down. Svensson stepped down from the
Riksbank’s six-person board last year in protest at its policies.
U.S.
Homeownership Rate Falls to Lowest Since Early 1995 - (www.bloomberg.com) The
homeownership rate in the U.S. fell to the lowest in more than 19 years as the
market shifted toward renting and tight credit blocked some potential buyers. The
share of Americans who own their homes
was 64.4 percent in the third quarter, down from 64.7 percent in the previous
three months, the Census Bureau said in a report today. The rate was at the
lowest level since the first quarter of 1995. Entry-level buyers have been held
back by stringent mortgage standards and slow wage growth. The share of
first-time buyers was 29 percent in September for the third straight month,
compared with about 40 percent historically, according to the National
Association of Realtors said. “The homeownership rate hasn’t bottomed yet,” Paul Diggle, U.S. property economist for Capital Economics
Ltd. in London,
said in a telephone interview. “Something like 64 percent seems like a
reasonable floor. But that floor is now in sight.”
Ex-UBS
Trader Defense Could Be Threat to U.S. Forex Cases - (www.bloomberg.com)
Kuroda’s Easing in Japan Seen Adding to Pressure on Korea’s Lee - (www.bloomberg.com)
Kuroda’s Easing in Japan Seen Adding to Pressure on Korea’s Lee - (www.bloomberg.com)
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