Monday, May 18, 2015

Tuesday May 19 Housing and Economic stories


Violent bond moves signal tectonic shifts in global markets – (www.telegraph.co.uk) 'It is absolute pandemonium in the fixed income markets. Everybody has been trying to get out at the same time but the door is getting smaller,' says RBS. A wave of turmoil is sweeping through sovereign bond markets, setting off the most dramatic gyrations seen in recent years and threatening to spill over into over-heated equity markets. Yields on German 10-year Bunds spiked violently by almost 20 basis points to 0.78pc in early trading on Thursday as funds scrambled to unwind the so-called “QE trade” in Europe, with powerful ripple effects reaching Japan, Australia, Brazil and even US Treasuries. “It is absolute pandemonium in the fixed income markets,” said Andrew Roberts, head of European credit at RBS. “Everybody has been trying to get out of long-duration positions at the same time but the door is getting smaller.” German yields fell back just as fast to 0.58pc later, as bargain-hunters came back into the European debt markets, but are still unrecognisable from the historic lows of 0.07pc two weeks ago.

The disconnect in the US stock market just keeps getting bigger - (www.businessinsider.com) The big disconnect in the US stock market just keeps getting bigger. A new Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey published Thursday finds that US investors have pulled $99 billion out of equities year-to-date — including net outflows in 11 of the past 12 weeks — despite stock prices continuing to break record highs. This week also saw the biggest outflows from equity ($17.2 billion) and high-yield bond funds ($2.6 billion) this year. This data follows a similar report from BAML last month that showed investors pulled $79 billion from the stock market this year and nine of 10 weeks to that point. As this imbalance grows, Bank of America writes, so does the risk of something we haven't seen in the market in years: a correction.

Chinese Stocks Suffer Biggest Weekly Loss In 5 Years - (www.nasdaq.com) The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index though up 2.3% for the day, lost 5.3% for the week, its worst performance since May 2010. Most other stock markets in the region also crept higher to claw back some of the losses from earlier in the week. Asia's markets have been caught up in the wild fluctuations around the world. Some of the biggest action has been in Germany, where government debt suffered a sudden and sharp selloff this week before recovering in late trading yesterday. But Asia's economic fundamentals are intact, most investors say, despite slowing economies across the region. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average finished up 0.5% at 19,379.19, as some of the country's biggest companies reported improved profits. Game maker Nintendo's shares surged more than 7% after the company released better-than-expected results, including its first annual operating profit in four years.

14% of Zappos' staff quit after CEO ultimatum - (www.businessinsider.com) Zappos, the Amazon-owned online retailer, confirmed with the Las Vegas Sun that 210 of its 1,503 employees — nearly 14% of the company — took a buyout deal after CEO Tony Hsieh announced the company was completely ridding itself of manager roles and job titles. The company, well known for its experiments involving corporate culture, has been transitioning to a self-management organizational structure known as Holacracy since the beginning of 2013. Entering this year, about 85% of the company had made the transition. Hsieh sent a nearly 5,000-word company-wide memo in late March that explained that any employee who was not satisfied with the transformation by April 30 could leave with three months' severance.

The $364 Billion Real Estate Threat Inside China’s Biggest Banks - (www.bloomberg.comFitch Ratings has called real estate the “biggest threat” to Chinese banks as surging loans tied to properties coincide with defaults and falling sales. Corporate loans backed by buildings have grown almost fivefold since 2008 and residential mortgages have more than tripled in the period among lenders rated by Fitch, the company said Friday. That’s seen property loans held by China’s four biggest lenders soar to a total 2.26 trillion yuan ($364 billion), according to their annual reports. “Collateral is supposed to reduce bank risk -- but the rise of property collateral in corporate loans may actually increase the chance of bank failure,” Fitch analysts Jack Yuan and Grace Wu said in the report. “This is because the widespread use of such collateral has lowered the perceived risks of lending, fueling China’s credit build-up and spreading real-estate risk to other sectors of the economy.”




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