Tuesday September 8 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

From Venezuela to Iraq to Russia, Oil Price Drops Raise Fears of Unrest - (www.nytimes.com) Oil, the lifeblood of many countries that produce and sell it, appears to be rapidly turning into an ever-cheaper economic curse. A year ago, the international price per barrel of oil was about $103. By Monday, the price was about $42, roughly 6 percent lower than on Friday. In oil-endowed Iraq, where an Islamic State insurgency and fractious sectarian politics are growing threats, a new source of instability erupted this month with violent protests over the government’s failure to provide reliable electricity and explain what has been done with all the promised petroleum money. In Russia, a leading oil producer, consumers are now paying far more for imports, largely because of their currency’s plummeting value. In Nigeria and Venezuela, which rely almost completely on oil exports, fears of unrest and economic instability are building. In Ecuador, where oil revenue has fallen by nearly half since last year, tens of thousands of demonstrators pour into the streets every week, angered by the government’s economic policies.

World Leaders Have No Words of Wisdom on Rout Spooking Investors - (www.bloomberg.com) It’s wiped out more than $8 trillion in the value of global equities, leaving virtually no market unaffected, yet reaction from world leaders so far has ranged from muted to dismissive. Since Aug. 11, when China set off the panic with its decision to devalue the yuan, President Barack Obama has kept quiet on Martha’s Vineyard. German German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was sure China would make it right. French President Francois Hollande didn’t think it was a big deal. “Market movements, we know them -- and we can’t adjust our positions just to market indexes,” Hollande said in Berlin on Monday alongside Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. “The global economy is solid enough not to have its growth outlook tied only to China’s situation.” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had a message for investors: Stock market corrections aren’t unusual and “it’s important that people don’t hyperventilate about these things.”

S&P Bulls Are Betrayed By Their Most Loved Stocks - (www.bloomberg.com) Why have investors been pulling money from U.S. equities at the fastest rate ever? Maybe it’s because the stocks they love the most are the ones giving them the most heartache. From Apple Inc. to Alcoa Inc. to General Electric Co., the 50 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index with the highest share volume were down 5.7 percent over the three months through July, five times as much as the broader market. That’s the worst underperformance since 2011 and came right before American stocks staged their biggest selloff in four years, data compiled by Bank of America Corp. and Bloomberg show. While heavily traded shares are usually losers in routs, what’s notable now is that they’ve been falling in a market that hasn’t moved much in 2015 even with last week’s plunge. It was pain below a surface of placidity, with losses concentrated in the companies that individuals pay the most attention to.

In China, a ghost town points to shifting fortunes - (www.washingtonpost.com)  Giant skyscrapers tower unfinished and abandoned around a lake that forms the centerpiece of this new town. The wind blows through the empty hulk of what was supposed to be a multistory hotel and restaurant complex. A salesman insists that people have moved into one of the few housing complexes to be completed around the shore, but as dusk falls, only a handful of lights blink on. He offers to throw in a free car with every apartment purchased. This is Shenfu New Town in the northeastern province of Liao­ning, built to handle the overflow from the once-booming industrial cities of Shenyang and Fushun. “Build it and they will come,” the saying goes. But here, in China’s industrial heartland, people are leaving instead of coming. For much of the past decade, this was China’s fastest-growing region, the home of the heavy industry that powered the nation’s rise and rode on the coattails of a construction boom unparalleled in history.

Saudi Arabia Is Seeking Advice on Cutting Billions From Its Budget in the Wake of the Oil Crash - (www.bloomberg.com) Saudi Arabia is seeking advice on how to cut billions of dollars from next year’s budget because of the slump in crude prices, according to two people familiar with the matter. The government is working with advisers on a review of capital spending plans and may delay or shrink some infrastructure projects to save money, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The government is in the early stages of the review and could look at cutting investment spending, estimated to be about 382 billion riyals ($102 billion) this year, by about 10 percent or more, the people said. Current spending on areas such as public sector salaries wouldn’t be affected, the people said.

OTHER STORIES:

S&P 500 Futures Rise After Steepest Two-Day Slump Since 2008 - (www.bloomberg.com)
Yen Falls First Time in Five Days as Official Says Rally Abrupt - (www.bloomberg.com)
S&P 500 Index Falls Into Correction Amid Global Equities Rout - (www.bloomberg.com)
Biggest Day in Years for Currencies as Investors Flee Risk - (www.bloomberg.com)

Credit Risk Surges for Global Company Debt on Growth Concerns - (www.bloomberg.com)
Traders are More Bearish on Yuan Than They Are on Argentine Peso - (www.bloomberg.com)
Latin American Currencies Sink to 22-Year Low as Stocks Tumble  - (www.bloomberg.com)
Colombian peso closes down 4.43 percent, sharpest fall since 2008 - (www.reuters.com)
Oil tumbles up to 6 percent to new lows as China fears intensify rout - (www.reuters.com)