Wednesday November 25 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Bye Bye Merkel Doctrine: German Foreign Policy Shifts Focus to Refugees - (www.spiegel.de)  With the refugee crisis showing no signs of abating, Germany is rapidly changing its foreign and security policy focus. Gone are the days of democracy promotion. Now the primary goal is that of preventing people from migrating to Europe. On the last Friday in October, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen found herself in a government jet flying just outside of Syrian airspace. She was on the way to an international security conference in Bahrain for several meetings. Her mission: crisis diplomacy. Meanwhile, diplomats from around the world were gathered in Vienna to discuss possible ways in which the Syrian civil war could be brought to an end -- a conflict that is the primary cause for the enormous wave of refugees currently crashing over Germany and the rest of Europe. While still in the air, Von der Leyen was receiving hourly updates from the Vienna gathering. She was hopeful that a breakthrough could be reached so that she could continue the search for a solution in Bahrain.

Emerging-Market Rout Worsens as China Lending Signals Slowdown - (www.bloomberg.com) Emerging-market stocks posted the biggest weekly drop since September and currencies slid as the worsening commodities rout and slowing credit growth in China undermined the outlook for global economic expansion and trade. The Colombian peso slumped to a six-week low, leading currencies lower. Equity gauges in Taiwan, South Africa and Colombia led losses this week as the MSCI Emerging Markets Index pierced through the 50-day moving average for the first time since May. Energy companies paced weekly declines among 10 industry groups as Brent crude traded below $45 a barrel amid a bigger-than-expected U.S. glut. Russia’s ruble had its worst weekly drop in more than two months, while the currency of net-oil-importer Turkey advanced the most among peers. China stock-index futures slid after the country doubled margin requirements for stocks trading.

IEA Says Record 3 Billion-Barrel Oil Stocks May Deepen Rout  - (www.bloomberg.com) Oil stockpiles have swollen to a record of almost 3 billion barrels because of strong production in OPEC and elsewhere, potentially deepening the rout in prices, according to the International Energy Agency. This “massive cushion has inflated” on record supplies from Iraq, Russia and Saudi Arabia, even as world fuel demand grows at the fastest pace in five years, the agency said. Still, the IEA predicts that supplies outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will decline next year by the most since 1992 as low crude prices take their toll on the U.S. shale oil industry. “Brimming crude oil stocks” offer “an unprecedented buffer against geopolitical shocks or unexpected supply disruptions,” the Paris-based agency said in its monthly market report. With supplies of winter fuels also plentiful, “oil-market bears may choose not to hibernate.”

Money Managers Are Stuffed With Corporate Bonds - (www.bloomberg.com) Money managers' allocation to corporate bonds is close to reaching a record, according to fresh survey data. The latest Stone McCarthy survey of senior money managers showed allocations to corporate debt rose to 35.3 percent this week. That's not far from a record 35.4 percent level reached in early March, 2014. Higher allocations of bonds in buy-side portfolios could be a byproduct of the corporate push to sell new debt before the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates next month, according to Bloomberg strategist Robert Elson. Some $33 billion worth of new investment-grade bonds were sold into the market just last week by companies seeking to lock-in lower interest rates or finance a bevy of big M&A deals. Another $24 billion worth of the debt has been sold in the past couple of days. 

Young women are now living at home more than they were in the 1940s – (www.businessinsider.com)  So much for an empty nest. According to a new analysis by the Pew Research Center, a larger share of young women are now living at home with their parents or relatives than at any time in the past 70 years. Looking at new data from the US Census Bureau, Pew researcher Richard Fry found a sharp rise in the percentage of young adults aged 18-34 moving back in with their parents in 2000, after decades of a slow rise.  But it was highest among one group in particular: Women. The rate of men moving back in with parents and other relatives is also on an upward trend, with about 42.8% of men ages 18-34 moving home as of 2014 (compared with 47.5% in 1940), but only the rate for women (36.4% in 2014) has eclipsed its 1940s figure of 36.2%. 

OTHER STORIES:

Asian Futures Show Stocks to Fall Amid Oil Slump, Fed Commentary - (www.bloomberg.com)
Fed's Fischer Says Waiting to Raise Helped Offset Dollar Harm - (www.bloomberg.com)
Big Corporate-Bond Trades Wane as Liquidity Ebbs, Says Barclays - (www.bloomberg.com)
Several Fed Officials Say They Are Ready to Raise Rates - (www.nytimes.com)

U.S. bombers flew near China-built island in South China Sea: Pentagon - (www.reuters.com)

China's Stocks Drop Most in Week as Technology Companies Slump - (www.bloomberg.com)
Emerging-Market Currencies Retreat Amid Fed Countdown Jitters - (www.bloomberg.com)
Glencore Shares Drop Below a Pound for First Time in a Month - (www.bloomberg.com)