Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese trade myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. China’s exports fell sharply in dollar terms in March as lower prices for Chinese goods hit producers in the world’s second-largest economy. The value of China’s exports dropped 7.5 per cent in March against a
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK economy grew for the second month in a row in February, driven by expansion in manufacturing, raising hopes the UK may be emerging from a technical recession. Gross domestic product rose 0.1 per
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. When millennials first emerged, blinking, into the adult world in the 2010s, they quickly bonded over shared adversity. First scarred by a rocky labour market in the aftermath of the financial crisis, they then realised
When Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli military recruits this week, he delivered a typically gung-ho speech about the “historic significance” of its war against Hamas in Gaza. “We are, in effect, defending the existence of our state,” he told the young soldiers. Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would move ahead with its offensive on Rafah, the southern
Chinese President Xi Jinping has dispatched a senior official to Pyongyang to reassert China’s “deep friendship” with North Korea, as concern rises in Beijing and Washington over Kim Jong Un’s blossoming alliance with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The visit by Zhao Leji, the third-ranking member of the Chinese Communist party’s leadership group, the politburo standing
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The US has proposed raising tens of billions of euros in debt for Ukraine secured against the future profits generated by Russian state assets that have been frozen by western countries. The G7 group
Wall Street stocks rose on Thursday, marking a sharp reversal from the previous session as shares in Big Tech companies led the march higher. The benchmark S&P 500 gauge closed up 0.7 per cent, after a drop of almost 1 per cent on Wednesday triggered by a hotter than expected US inflation reading for March. The Nasdaq
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Three more US regulators have opened investigations into how Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division handles potentially risky clients, according to a person familiar with the matter. The business, which has been central to the bank’s
Municipals were mixed Thursday in secondary trading as focus shifted to California’s nearly $1.5 billion of tax-exempt and taxable general obligation bond deals in the competitive market while U.S. Treasuries were weaker out long after Wednesday’s short-end selloff and equities were in the black at the close. Triple-A yield curves saw a mix of bumps
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s upcoming meeting of its board of directors April 17-18 will focus discussion on its many rule proposals underway. The board will review the public comments they received as part of the request for information on small firms, which saw 22 different firms and groups submit responses. They will also discuss
S&P Global Ratings lowered Dunkirk, New York’s general obligation bonds by three notches to BBB-minus from A-minus and withdrew the rating. S&P removed the rating from negative CreditWatch where it had been placed on March 4. The outlook on the credit is negative. The GOs had been secured by the city’s faith-and-credit pledge. “We lowered
An increase in trading activity and the number of pre-trade pricing quotes in the municipal securities market is leading to improved pricing, a research report from the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board detailed. The report, released Thursday, looked at the number of live quotes and trades on two ATS platforms from three month periods in 2021
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US interest rates myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. These are treacherous times for bond traders. A couple of months ago, the market consensus was that the US Federal Reserve would cut interest rates six times this year, starting imminently. By Wednesday, however, investors
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Activists in Switzerland have triggered a referendum on proposals that would end the country’s harsh economic sanctions on Russia and rule out any punitive restrictions on trade with China. A delegation for the “Neutrality Initiative”
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK interest rates myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Rishi Sunak’s hopes of going into a general election on the back of lower taxes and cheaper mortgages suffered a blow on Thursday as traders scaled back expectations of interest rate cuts in 2024.
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The European Central Bank sent a strong signal that it would consider cutting interest rates at its next meeting in June after holding them at all-time highs on Thursday. The ECB said after its governing
John Miller, a veteran municipal bond investment banker and financial advisor, has been hired by Build America Mutual as a senior advisor. In his role, he will focus on boosting the primary market’s use of bond insurance for sizable infrastructure and public power projects. Miller was most recently a director at American Public Infrastructure, a
Celebrating Ohio’s “highest possible credit rating,” Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday delivered his State of the State address to the General Assembly at the statehouse in Columbus. DeWine centered his speech around the children of the state, on whom he said the future depends. He gestured to his new great-granddaughter, Betty Jane, up in the
Easterly Asset Management acquired two municipal investment mutual funds and hired two managers, including the former co-head of municipals at OppenheimerFunds Rochester, to run them. Easterly, a Massachusetts-based asset manager with $3 billion under management, added PSP High Income Municipal Bond Mutual Fund and the PSP Short-Term Municipal Fund, which have a combined $600 million
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. In February, Rishi Sunak posed for photos beside Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman at the groundbreaking ceremony for the private equity giant’s new European headquarters in London. Shovel in hand, the UK prime minister pointed to
A slew of mega deals helped push issuance in the first quarter of 2024 to over $100 billion, buoyed by favorable market conditions and a resurgence in refunding outstanding Build America Bonds, leading some firms to reconsider total issuance expectations for the year. Sixteen deals topped $1 billion in the first quarter of 2024, double