Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Wednesday December 28 2016 Housing and Economic stories


Companies Face Delays Getting Cash Out of China - (www.wsj.com) French construction-materials company Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA, is finding it harder to take its money out of China. The conglomerate—like all multinationals operating there—faces new delays in recent weeks as Chinese regulators impose tougher restrictions on the movement of capital out of the country to slow the yuan’s decline. “The process of authorization is going to become longer now,” said Javier Gimeno, who heads Saint-Gobain’s China operations. “The procedures will be controlled more strictly.” Nearly 7% of Saint-Gobain’s world-wide group sales come from Asia and Oceania, a large part of that from China. The new rules are adding confusion and anxiety to a process that had been getting much easier over the past year, he said. The shift could cause some multinationals to rethink future investments in a country where once-sure payoffs are suddenly facing an uncertain return, analysts say.

China Must Curb Speculation Amid Bubble, Top Official Says - (www.bloomberg.com) China must do more to deflate a property bubble that expanded this year by "strictly" controlling speculation while also stepping up the fight to rein in excessive corporate borrowing, a top economic official said a day after leaders announced plans for next year. "We need to give a higher priority to preventing and controlling financial risks," Yang Weimin, deputy director of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs, said Saturday at a forum in Beijing. "We need to defuse a flurry of risks, contain asset bubbles, and improve oversight to ensure there won’t be a systemic financial risk."

Young Americans Piled Into Some Horrendous ETF Trades Right After the Election  - (www.bloomberg.com) Mimicking President-elect Donald Trump — who has called himself "the king of debt" — risk-loving millennials used exchange-traded funds that employed leverage to juice their returns in the wake of the real-estate mogul's election victory. That didn't work out so well for them. With preferences for gold and volatility, however, they were largely in line with what the consensus called for in the event of a Trump victory —  in other words, far off the mark. "From triple X leveraged products to Vanguard, Millennials have shown they favor the extremes in terms of their growing ETF usage," said Bloomberg Intelligence ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas. "However, when it comes to calling the Trump rally, they weren't alone in getting it wrong — every generation thought gold would rally."

Protests, looting break out in Venezuela after 100-Bolivar note eliminated – (www.reuters.com) Protests and looting broke out in parts of Venezuela on Friday due to a lack of cash after the socialist government suddenly pulled the nation's largest banknote from circulation in the midst of a brutal economic crisis. An opposition legislator said there were three deaths amid violent scenes in the southern mining town of Callao - but there was no confirmation of that from the government. Waving the now-worthless 100-bolivar bills, pockets of demonstrators blocked roads, demanded that stores accept the cash, and cursed President Nicolas Maduro in a string of towns and cities around Venezuela, witnesses said. Dozens of shops were looted in various places. Last weekend, Maduro gave Venezuelans three days to ditch the 100-bolivar bills, arguing that the measure was needed to combat mafias on the Colombia border despite warnings from some economists that it risked sparking chaos.

Italy seeks up to €20bn to prop up fragile lenders - (www.ft.com) Parliamentary approval sought to protect banks as possible state rescue of MPS nears. The Italian government has asked parliament to authorise up to €20bn to prop up the country’s most fragile banks, as it prepares to mount a possible state rescue of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, its third-largest lender, by the end of the week. After a cabinet meeting late on Monday, Pier Carlo Padoan, the finance minister, said that the funds could be used to ensure liquidity and to reinforce capital for Italian banks. “Should it be activated, this measure to protect savings would have an impact on the debt,” Mr Padoan said. “The nature of this measure is that it would be temporary,” he added.


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