Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
  • Hanjin Fall Is Lehman Moment for Shipping, Seaspan CEO Says. (video) The fall of South Korea’s biggest container line Hanjin Shipping Co. is similar to the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and has materially impacted the shipping industry, Seaspan Corp. Chief Executive Officer Gerry Wang said. Seaspan, the Hong Kong-based container-ship leasing company that has three vessels chartered to the distressed line, is evaluating all options and examining systemic risks resulting from Hanjin’s bankruptcy filing, Wang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. In June, Wang had rejected Hanjin’s requests for charter-rate cuts before the shipping line filed for court receivership last month. “The fallout of Hanjin Shipping is like Lehman Brothers to the financial markets,” Wang said. “It’s a huge, huge nuclear bomb. It shakes up the supply chain, the cornerstone of globalization.”
  • Top Steel Producer China Revs Up Output After Prices Advance. China’s steel output rebounded in August after prices rallied, delivering an early warning to world leaders who earlier this month pledged to tackle a global glut of the metal. Crude steel production in the top supplier rose to 68.57 million metric tons in August, up 3 percent from a year earlier and 2.6 percent higher than July, according to the National Statistics Bureau. In the first eight months, output of 536.32 million tons was just 0.1 percent shy of last year’s pace. The figures showing the bounce in August’s output came after the Group of 20 leaders’ meeting in China, which wrapped up Sept. 5 with a plan to to establish a global forum to deal with oversupply. Chinese mills, which make about half the world’s steel, have boosted output amid resurgent prices, with steel reinforcement bar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rising to its highest monthly average since December 2014.
  • Negative Rates May Do More Harm Than Good, Expert Says. (video) The negative interest rate strategy that Japan and Europe’s central banks have embraced may do more harm than good, according to John Taylor, the creator of an eponymous rule for guiding monetary policy. “What we are learning is that, in my view, negative rates may not have helped and may have hurt,” Taylor, a professor at Stanford University in California, said in a telephone interview this week. “It could be counterproductive, no question.” 
  • China’s H Shares Post Steepest Two-Day Decline in Seven Months. (video) Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong posted their biggest two-day loss since February on reduced chances of economic stimulus and as the suspension of buying through a cross-border equity link took a key investor bloc out of the market. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index retreated 0.9 percent, taking a two-day decline to 4.8 percent. The gauge, which surged earlier in the day on optimism that the Federal Reserve will desist from increasing interest rates this month, slipped into the red after official data showed China’s industrial production, investment and retail sales all exceeded economist estimates. Tuesday’s reversal came also as the buying of Hong Kong shares through the Shanghai connect was halted ahead of a two-day holiday on the mainland.
  • Emerging Markets Fall as Oil Price Outlook Offsets Fed Optimism. (video) The MSCI Emerging Markets Index dropped 0.7 percent to 883.66 at 12:06 p.m. in New York. The real weakened 1.9 percent, falling for the third time in four days. That was followed by losses of more than 1 percent for Mexico’s peso and the South African rand.
  • European Stock Gains Collapse to Usher In Fourth Day of Losses. (video) An early advance in European stocks evaporated as declines in miners and energy producers helped extend the lowest level for equities in more than a month. Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost at least 2.6 percent, following crude lower. Anglo Commodity producers fell for a fourth day, their longest losing stretch since June. Ocado Group Plc plunged 14 percent after the online grocer said it sees no respite from sustained margin pressure in the short term. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 1 percent at the close, reversing a gain of as much as 0.6 percent after U.S. markets opened. The benchmark capped its biggest four-day slump in two months, down 3.4 percent, as investors fret central banks may be less willing to use monetary policy to stimulate growth.
  • IEA Changes View on Oil Glut, Sees Surplus Enduring in 2017. (video) The surplus in global oil markets will last for longer than previously thought, persisting into late 2017 as demand growth slumps and supply proves resilient, the International Energy Agency said. World oil stockpiles will continue to accumulate through 2017, a fourth consecutive year of oversupply, according to the IEA. Consumption growth sagged to a two-year low in the third quarter as demand faltered in China and India, while record output from OPEC’s Gulf members is compounding the glut, it said. Just last month the agency predicted the market would return to equilibrium this year. 
  • IEA's Parry: China, Europe, India Lead Oil Demand Decline. (video) 
  • Hunt for Yield Lives on as Investors Flock to Junk Energy Bonds. Credit market jitters have done little to deter yield-hungry investors from buying new junk bonds to get their fix. Consider PDC Energy Inc., an oil explorer with ratings that are four levels below investment grade. Investors were so enthusiastic for the company’s $400 million bond sale on Monday that they put in $1.5 billion of orders, according to people with knowledge of the matter. PDC isn’t the only energy issuer trying its luck. Despite Tuesday’s plunge in crude, Callon Petroleum Co. and Great Western Petroleum are planning to raise $650 million of debt this week, said the people, who asked not to be named because the deals are private.
  • Confidence Waning in Central Banks’ Ability, Rogoff Says. (video) Markets are losing confidence in the ability of central banks to boost inflation and there is a limit to how much quantitative easing programs can accomplish, Harvard University Professor of Economics Kenneth Rogoff said. Central banks -- notably the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan -- have enacted sovereign bond-buying programs in a bid to boost anemic price pressures. Yet the euro area’s 1.7 trillion-euro ($1.9 trillion) quantitative easing program has so far failed to push inflation materially closer to the central bank’s target.
  • Jim Chanos Calls Merged Tesla(TSLA)-SolarCity(SCTY) a ‘Walking Insolvency’. Short-seller Jim Chanos said an announced $2.6 billion merger with SolarCity Corp. will make Tesla Motors Inc. a "walking insolvency." “The synergies are questionable at best," Chanos, who founded hedge fund firm Kynikos Associates, said at the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha Conference on Tuesday in New York. He estimated that the combined company, which will depend on access to the capital market, could have a cash burn of roughly $1 billion per quarter. In May, Chanos told CNBC that he was betting against the stocks of both companies. He is best known for predicting the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001.
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