- Ukraine Names New Ground Forces Head as Eastern Death Toll Rises. Ukraine should postpone a May 25 presidential election until it changes its constitution, Russia said, as the government in Kiev continued a deadly military push to stamp out separatists in the country’s east and south. Ukraine’s acting President Oleksandr Turchynov named a new commander of ground forces following fighting that killed four government servicemen and more than 30 rebels. In Vienna, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and European Union officials discussed a new meeting following the unraveling of a deal aimed at solving the crisis agreed to in Geneva last month. In their worst standoff with Russia since the Cold War, the U.S. and EU have slapped sanctions on people and companies close to President Vladimir Putin and say he’s supporting separatism in Ukraine ahead of the presidential ballot. French President Francois Hollande warned Putin that Europe would continue to pressure him to allow the vote happen, because thwarting it would produce “chaos and a risk of war.”
- China Property Slump Adds Danger to Local Finances. China’s weakening property market poses an increasing danger to local governments, threatening to strain their finances and intensify an economic slowdown. Land sales in 20 major cities fell 5 percent in March from a year earlier, the biggest drop in at least a year, according to China Real Estate Information Corp. data compiled by Bloomberg. The value of land sales in third-tier cities declined 27 percent last month, according to SouFun Holdings Ltd., the nation’s biggest real-estate website owner. Failure to find other revenue sources increases the risk of defaults and financial turmoil that curb economic expansion already projected this year at the slowest pace since 1990.
- China’s PBOC to Boost Property, LGFV Credit Supervision. China will strengthen monitoring of credit extended to local government financing vehicles, real estate developers and industries facing overcapacity, the nation’s central bank said. The People’s Bank of China is taking steps to minimize potential contagion to the entire financial system from risks in those areas, according to a quarterly monetary-policy report posted on its website yesterday. China will also strictly control lending to high-emission industries and those with overcapacity,the PBOC said in yesterday’s report.
- OECD Trims Global Growth Forecast as Emerging Markets Cool. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cut its global growth forecast as expansions in China and other emerging markets slow. The world economy will expand 3.4 percent this year instead of the 3.6 percent predicted in November, the Paris-based organization said in a semi-annual report today. China will grow 7.4 percent, down from a previous projection of 8.2 percent.
- European Stocks Drop for Third Day as Barclays Retreats. European stocks fell for a third day, the longest streak since March, with Barclays Plc (BARC) helping push shares lower, while tension in Ukraine escalated. Barclays fell the most since July after reporting that pretax profit dropped. Balfour Beatty Plc sank 20 percent after its chief executive officer quit and the company cut its earnings forecast. Deutsche Lufthansa AG rose 3 percent after saying its first-quarter loss narrowed. PostNL NV rallied the most since October. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.3 percent to 336.04 at the close of trading, after earlier gaining as much as 0.3 percent.
- Junk Bonds Pricier Than Stocks Mean High-Yield Getting Expensive. Get ready to pay more to earn less relative to stocks if you’re looking to jump into the high-yield debt market. Junk-bond investors are accepting yields that are 0.74 percentage point lower than the earnings yield on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, a measure of profit as a percentage of equity prices. Historically, debt rated below investment grade has yielded an average 4.2 percentage points more than stocks since March 1995. That relationship has been turned on its head. Does this mean stocks are cheap or bonds too expensive? Junk debt may be the loser here.
- Deadly Ukraine Fire Likely Sparked by Rebels, Government Says. Rebels Accidentally Dropped Molotov Cocktails on Roof, According to Preliminary Investigation. A horrific fire that killed dozens in a hulking Odessa building where pro-Russian protesters had taken cover was likely sparked by rebels on the roof who accidentally dropped Molotov cocktails, according to a preliminary investigation by the government.
- Crisis in Ukraine. Streaming Coverage:
- China’s Property Bubble Has Already Popped, Report Says. China’s great real-estate bust has begun, says Nomura. A combination of a huge oversupply of housing and a shortage of developer financing is producing a housing market downturn that could drive China’s GDP to less than 6% this year.
- Einhorn on quizzing Bernanke: Answers weren’t any better than I thought they would be. (video) On Bloomberg Television, he regaled what went down in a recent dinner he had with the former Federal Reserve chairman — and the hedge-fund manager didn’t come away impressed. “The answers weren’t any better than I thought they would be,” Einhorn said. First, he was unsettled by Bernanke’s conviction that there would not be hyperinflation as a result of quantitative easing.
ZeroHedge:
Business Insider:
Washington Post:
- U.S. officials say Syria is using remaining chemical weapons stockpile as leverage. The months-long effort to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons program has ground to a halt because Syria is holding on to 27 tons of sarin precursor chemicals as leverage in a dispute with the international community over the future of facilities used to store the deadly agents, according to U.S. officials.
BBC:
@MiddleEast_BRK:
No comments:
Post a Comment