• MTS Economic News_20181009

    9 Oct 2018 | Economic News

• The euro fell to a seven-week low against the dollar on Monday on a spat between Italy and the European Union over Rome’s budget plans, while the yuan weakened as Beijing’s move to spur more lending failed to ease concern about economic growth.

Sterling retreated as traders booked profits on recent gains tied to optimism about a Brexit deal.

The greenback’s gain was limited by a third day of losses on Wall Street, which was stoked by anxiety about the U.S.-China trade tension and rising U.S. bond yields.

An index that tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies was up 0.13 at 95.744.

The U.S. bond market was closed for the Columbus Day holiday. On Friday, the 10-year yield touched a seven-year peak of 3.248 percent.

The Chinese currency ended at its lowest official close in seven weeks at 6.9315 yuan per dollar despite the latest attempt from Beijing to calm investor worries about the trade war between China and the United States.

The single currency fell 0.26 percent against the dollar to $1.14900 and not far from a more-than one-year low of $1.1355 hit in mid-August.

On Monday, Italian 10-year bond yield increased nearly 20 basis points to 3.60 percent, the highest level in 4-1/2 years, while the country’s stock market fell to its weakest since April2017.

• Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, speaking at a media conference with French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, denounced European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici as enemies of Europe.

Salvini referred to Juncker's austerity measures as to why Europe is facing fear and job insecurity.

Both Salvini and Le Pen predicted that the European Parliament elections in May 2019 will bring about a dramatic change in the European political landscape with the populist vote. Both countries are dealing with high unemployment and migration and want to see these two problems rectified with more jobs, less austerity, and less open borders

• Matteo Salvini, Italy’s far-Right interior minister, has threatened to close the country’s airports to block the rumoured repatriation of migrants on charter flights from Germany.

In a move likely to anger Berlin, Mr Salvini, the head of the anti-immigrant League Party and deputy prime minister, on Sunday said he would shut the airports in the same way he defied EU laws and closed Italy’s ports to prevent migrant arrivals.

The minister was responding to reports that Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, was preparing to send the first group of 40 migrants back to Italy on two flights scheduled to land in Rome this week.

• Reports in Italian media say up to 40,000 migrants could be repatriated from Germany to Italy as Mrs Merkel comes under greater pressure ahead of Bavarian elections next week, but the Italian government has denied there is any agreement to step up migrant returns.

However, a spokesman for the German Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, told the Italian news agency, Ansa: "No repatriation flights to Italy were being planned in the coming days."

• The U.S. Federal Reserve will not need to raise interest rates much more to keep inflation under control, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Monday.

• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday hailed “significant progress” in talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the weekend and said the sides were “pretty close” to agreeing details for a second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump.

• British consumers turned more cautious about their spending in September after going on a summer spree, two surveys showed on Tuesday, suggesting the overall economy can no longer cope on them quite as much to soften the drag of Brexit.

• The International Monetary Fund has cut its global growth forecasts as trade tensions between the U.S. and trading partners have started to hit economic activity worldwide.

The IMF said the global economy is now expected to grow at 3.7 percent this year and next year — down 0.2 percentage points from an earlier forecast, according to the fund's latest World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday.

And the two economies in the center of the ongoing tariff fight — the U.S. and China — are also expected to grow slower than initially projected. The IMF maintained that the U.S. and China will grow by 2.9 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively, this year but said both would slow more than expected to 2.5 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, in 2019.

• Oil prices almost fully recovered from a sharp drop on Monday, paring losses as investors bet China’s economic stimulus moves would lift crude demand in the world’s No. 2economy.

Traders sent global benchmark Brent crude tumbling below $83 per barrel early in the session after China’s central bank on Sunday slashed lenders’ reserve requirements, a signal Beijing is working to maintain economic growth.

Brent crude LCOc1 hit a session low of $82.66 but settled just 25 cents lower at $83.91 per barrel. Brent hit a four-year high of $86.74 last week.

U.S. crude CLc1 had fallen to a session low of $73.07 per barrel but climbed back up to settle at $74.29, just 5 cents lower.

• Two Indian oil companies have placed orders to import Iranian crude next month, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Monday, defying a call from President Donald Trump's administration for countries to completely cut-off the Islamic republic.

U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's crude oil exports come into force from November 4, with Washington ratcheting up the pressure on governments and companies around the world to slash their Iranian oil imports to zero.


Reference: Reuters, The Telegraph, Euro News, CNBC

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