WORLDWIDE: HEADLINES
Trading In Shares Of China Evergrande, Units Halted – Hkex
Share of embattled property developer China Evergrande Group (3333.HK) were suspended from trading on Monday, a filing from the Hong Kong stock exchange showed.
Trading was also halted in shares of its property services unit, Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd (6666.HK), and electric vehicle unit, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd (0708.HK), exchange filings showed.
The filings gave no further details.
Evergrande, the world’s most indebted developer with over $300 billion in liabilities, has been struggling to repay its suppliers and creditors and complete projects and homes.
Its flagship unit Hengda Real Estate Group Co Ltd secured approval from its onshore bondholders over the weekend to delay a coupon payment due last September to September 2022, according to the company lawyer’s filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Sunday.
Hengda held a meeting with creditors of the 4 billion yuan ($629 million) 2025 bond on March 18-19 to approve the payment of interests incurred between September 2020 to September 2021 to be made in September 2023.
Evergrande has so far avoided technical bond defaults onshore, though it has missed payments on some offshore bonds.
Evergrande shares traded at HK$1.65 before the suspension. They have gained 3.8% this year after plunging 89% in 2021.
Full coverage: REUTERS
Australia To Make Big Tech Hand Over Misinformation Data
Australia’s media regulator will be able to force internet companies to provide internal data about how they have handled misinformation and disinformation, the latest measure by the country’s government to crack down on Big Tech.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will also be able to enforce an internet industry code on uncooperative platforms, the federal government said on Monday, joining governments around the world seeking to reduce the spread of harmful falsehoods online.
The planned laws are a response to an ACMA report that found four-fifths of Australian adults had experienced misinformation about COVID-19 and 76% thought online platforms should do more to cut the amount of false and misleading content shared online.
The laws broadly align with efforts by Europe to curb damaging online content, which are due to take effect by the end of 2022, although the European Union has said it wants even tougher measures to stop disinformation given some claims by Russian state-owned media during the invasion of Ukraine.
The crackdown also comes as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison faces what is expected to be a tight federal election next month, with his conservative Liberal Party-led coalition currently lagging the main opposition Labor Party in the polls.
“Digital platforms must take responsibility for what is on their sites and take action when harmful or misleading content appears,” Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said in a statement.
Australians were most likely to see misinformation on larger services like Meta Platforms’s Facebook (FB.O) and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), the ACMA report said. False narratives typically started with “highly emotive and engaging posts within small online conspiracy groups” and were “amplified by international influencers, local public figures, and by coverage in the media”, it added.
The report also noted disinformation, which involves intentionally spreading false information to influence politics or sow discord, was continuing to target Australians. Facebook had removed four disinformation campaigns in Australia from 2019 to 2020, it said.
Full coverage: REUTERS
WORLDWIDE: FINANCE/BUSINESS
Asia In Cautious Mood, Yen Near Six-year Low
Asian share markets started the week in a cautious mood on Monday as investors clung to hopes for an eventual peace deal in Ukraine, but the fighting raged on with no sign of stopping.
Turkey’s foreign minister said on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine were nearing agreement on “critical” issues and he was hopeful for a ceasefire.
Investors were also anxiously waiting to see if Russia would meet interest repayments this week. It must pay $615 million in coupons this month while on April 4, a $2 billion bond comes due.
Most share markets rallied last week in anticipation of an eventual peace deal on Ukraine, but it could take actual progress to justify further gains.
BofA’s global fund manager survey had a bearish tinge with cash levels the highest since April 2020 and global growth expectations since the financial crisis of 2008.
Long oil and commodities were the most crowded trade, and vulnerable to a pullback.
Trade was sluggish with Japan on holiday, leaving S&P 500 stock futures and Nasdaq futures little changed. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was also flat.
Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) was shut, but futures traded around 300 points above the cash close.
Bond markets were braced for more hawkish language from the Federal Reserve with Chair Jerome Powell speaking on Monday, and at least half a dozen other members through the week.
Policy makers have flagged a string of hikes ahead to take the funds rate to anywhere from 1.75% to 3.0% by year end. The market implies a 50-50 chance of a half point hike in May and an even greater chance by June.
“In balancing the near-term upside risks to inflation with the downside risks to growth, central banks are sending a clear and strong signal that policy is on a path to normalise,” said JPMorgan chief economist Bruce Kasman.
“However, a sustained cut-off of Russian energy supply would push inflation substantially higher, magnifying an already severe squeeze on U.S. consumer purchasing power,” he warned, adding it would likely throw the Euro area into recession.
“Under this scenario, policy normalisation would come to a halt across the world.”
Full coverage: REUTERS
Yen Kicks Off Another Week Under Pressure, With Central Bank Policy In Focus
The Japanese yen continued its slide on Monday morning, while the aussie and kiwi remained bid, with traders eying a string of public remarks by global central bank policy makers this week, including Fed chair Jay Powell later Monday.
The dollar climbed slightly on the yen to as much as 119.3 yen challenging the six-year peak of 119.39 touched on Friday. The dollar finished last week 1.6% higher versus the Japanese currency.
Analysts at CBA said they thought moves in the pair could slow this week, but they predict the dollar will climb further on the yen in the coming months as the gap between U.S. and Japanese interest rates widens.
“Japan’s inflation dynamic is very different to that experienced in other major economies we monitor, As a result, an exit from the ultra-easy monetary policy by the Bank of Japan remains a long way off in our view,” they said.
In contrast, the U.S. Federal Reserves raised its key interest rate by 25 basis points last week for the first time since the pandemic.
Traders’ focus is now firmly on the speed and size of future rate hikes and the height of their eventual peak, as policy makers try to curb soaring inflation.
A series of speeches by Fed policy makers this week, kicked off by remarks by Powell on Monday, could provide some clues.
Markets anticipate further rate increases at the Fed’s subsequent meetings, with pricing indicating nearly a 90% chance of at least 75 basis points of increases across the Fed’s May and June meetings, according to the CME’s Fedwatch tool.
Such high expectations helped the dollar climb steadily in the early part of this year, but with many Fed increases already priced in, it could struggle to gain much more further, analysts say.
“Given already-hawkish market expectations of Fed tightening, it is hard to foresee USD strength persisting beyond the near term,” said analysts at Barclays.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six peers, was steady at 98.270.
The yen was also at a four-year low against the rampant Australian dollar, which has benefited from rising commodity prices.
Full coverage: REUTERS
Oil Climbs On Pressure From Ukraine Conflict, Tight Market
Oil prices jumped $2 on Monday as Ukrainian forces dug in against heavy Russian attacks, while major oil producers reported they are struggling to produce their allotted quotas under a supply agreement.
Brent crude futures climbed $1.96, or 1.8%, to $109.89 a barrel at 0039 GMT, adding to a 1.2% rise last Friday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $2.09, or 2%, to $106.79, extending a 1.7% jump last Friday.
Prices moved higher after Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vershchuk said early on Monday there was no chance that the country’s forces would surrender in the besieged eastern port city of Mariupol.
With little sign of the conflict easing, the focus returned to whether the market would be able to replace Russian barrels hit by sanctions.
“The market continues to fret about supply disruptions, with data suggesting they are already impacting,” ANZ analysts said in a note.
The latest report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, together called OPEC+, showed some producers are still falling short of their agreed supply quotas.
OPEC+ missed its production target by more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in February, three sources told Reuters, under their pact to boost output by 400,000 bpd each month as they wind back sharp cuts made in 2020.
The two OPEC countries that have the capacity to instantly raise output, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have so far resisted calls from major consuming nations to step up production faster to help drive down oil prices.
The poor supply outlook and high prices prompted the International Energy Agency on Friday to outline ways to cut oil use by 2.7 million bpd within four months – including car-pooling, lower speed limits and cheaper public transport.
That would help offset the 3 million bpd of Russian crude and products that the IEA estimated would be off the market by April.
Full coverage: REUTERS
