Wednesday March 9 2016 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Miami’s Epic Condo Boom Turns into Glut - (www.wolfstreet.com)  Home prices overall are still rising in Miami and surrounding cities. The median price jumped 11.6% in January from a year ago, to $240,000. But according to real estate broker Redfin: unit sales plunged 11.9% from a year ago. The fourth month in a row of declines. It wasn’t because the market was low on inventory: after an enormous and ongoing construction boom, 6,000 new listings hit the market in January, based on data on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This pushed inventory up to the highest level recorded in “at least” two years.

Arab States Face $94 Billion Debt Crunch on Oil Slump, HSBC Says - (www.bloomberg.com)  Gulf Cooperation Council countries may struggle to refinance $94 billion of debt in the next two years as the region faces slowing growth, rising rates and rating downgrades, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. Oil-rich GCC states have to refinance $52 billion of bonds and $42 billion of syndicated loans, mostly in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, HSBC said in an e-mailed report. The countries also face a fiscal and current account deficit of $395 billion over the period, it said. Expectations that these funding gaps "will be part financed through the sale of sovereign U.S. dollar debt will complicate efforts to refinance existing paper that matures over 2016 and 2017," Simon Williams, HSBC’s chief economist for the Middle East, said in the report. "With the Gulf acting as a single credit market, the refinancing challenge will likely be much more broadly felt" and "compounded by tightening regional liquidity, rising rates and recent downgrades," he said.

Walgreens looks to cut ties with Theranos - (www.ft.com)  Walgreens, the US pharmacy chain, is seeking ways to terminate its relationship with Theranos after growing impatient with the blood-testing start-up’s mounting regulatory woes, according to people familiar with the matter. The group has asked lawyers to examine its contract with Theranos, to see whether there is a way of forcing the group led by Elizabeth Holmes to close the roughly 40 blood-testing clinics it has set up in the company’s Arizona drugstores, the people said. The move represents an escalation in the stand-off between the two companies, after the pharmacy wrote to Theranos earlier this month giving it a 30-day deadline to resolve problems at its California laboratory.

London mayor Boris Johnson urges UK cabinet to back Brexit, defying PM Cameron - (www.reuters.com) London Mayor Boris Johnson urged British government ministers to join the campaign to leave the European Union in a newspaper interview on Saturday, again defying Prime Minister and fellow Conservative David Cameron. A political showman who is widely thought to be keen to succeed Cameron, Johnson said he wanted to change the minds of the majority of cabinet ministers who favor voting to remain in the EU in a June 23 referendum on the issue. "People should look at the arguments. I have huge respect for what the Prime Minister is saying. But people I think should think about the arguments," Johnson told the Telegraph.

Investors pull more than $60bn from mutual funds in January - (www.ft.com)  Investors pulled more than $60bn from mutual funds globally in January, marking the worst month of outflows since the height of the financial crisis. The outflows were most acute for European mutual funds, with investors redeeming €42.6bn ($47bn), according to Thompson Reuters Lipper, the data provider. January marked the worst start to a year for markets in at least two decades. More than $2.3tn was wiped off global stocks in the first week alone, amid fears about China’s slowing economy and currency depreciations. Amin Rajan, chief executive of Create Research, the consultancy, said: “Investors have become ultra jittery about market contagion. They ran for the hills after the meltdown in Chinese markets at the start of 2016.”

OTHER STORIES:

More yawns than yuan in China's late-night forex trade - (www.reuters.com)
G20 to say world needs to look beyond ultra-easy policy for growth - (www.reuters.com)
G-20 Wants Governments Doing More, and Central Banks Less - (www.bloomberg.com)
G-20, Rejecting Major Policy Shifts, Plays Up Basic Strengths - (www.nytimes.com)

Japan, Not China, Emerges as Currency Worry at G-20 Meeting - (www.bloomberg.com)
Schaeuble Hints Germany May Be Ready to Give Greece Some Leeway - (www.bloomberg.com)
ASEAN says seriously concerned about rising South China Sea tensions - (www.reuters.com)