China’s passenger-car sales growth slowed in June as inflation accelerated, reducing consumers’ spending power in the world’s largest auto market. Sales of cars, sport-utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles rose 10.9 percent from a year earlier to 839,228 last month, the China Automotive Technology & Research Center said today. That compares with 34 percent growth in April and 25 [...]

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The U.S. has supplanted China and Brazil as the most attractive market for investors as confidence in the global economic recovery wanes in the wake of the Greek debt crisis. Investors are putting their money on President Barack Obama’s stewardship of the U.S. economy even as his job-approval rating has declined, according to a global quarterly [...]

bonds, China, Euro, investments, oil, stock market, US Hide

European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithnerdiverged on prescriptions to sustain growth, with Europe set to tighten budgets and the U.S. seeking stronger domestic demand. The impact of narrower budget gaps “on growth could not be considered negative because it would improve confidence,” Trichet told reporters yesterday after meeting with Group [...]

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Asian stocks and the won plunged to 10-month lows after a report that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il ordered his military to prepare for combat last week. The euro weakened and commodities declined on concern Europe’s debt crisis will spread. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 3.1 percent to 109.24 a 1:30 p.m. in Tokyo, set for [...]

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Investor Jim Rogers said Europe’s bailout of indebted nations to overcome the sovereign-debt crisis is just “another nail in the coffin” for the euro as higher spending increases the region’s debt. The 16-nation currency weakened for a second day against the dollar after rallying as much as 2.7 percent on May 10, when the governments of [...]

China, currency, debt, economic growth, Euro, forex, global markets, inflation, stock market Hide

Europe’s spreading debt crisis—combined with an overdue stock pullback and the prospect of the Federal Reserve withdrawing its economic support—added up to one thing Tuesday: Fear. As the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled more than 200 points and safe-haven moves for US Treasurys escalated, investors sought protection with the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s Volatility Index[VIX  23.84   3.65  (+18.08%)   ], which [...]

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Investor Marc Faber said China’s economy will slow and possibly “crash” within a year as declines in stock and commodity prices signal the nation’s property bubble is set to burst. The Shanghai Composite Index has failed to regain its 2009 high while industrial commodities and shares of Australian resource exporters are acting “heavy,” Faber said. The opening [...]

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Have you ever wondered why Chinese monetary policy always increases rates by 18 or 27 bps? An article by Bloomberg in May 2007 clears the air on this. The People’s Bank of China today raised its one-year benchmark lending rate by 0.18 percentage point and its one-year depositrate by 0.27 percentage point. Why 18 or 27 [...]

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March 29 (Bloomberg) — China’s banking regulator ordered lenders to take more care when making real-estate loans, widening efforts to prevent property speculators from causing asset bubbles and bad debt. Banks should not lend to developers found by state agencies to have held land without building houses, the government said in a statement posted online late on [...]

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WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Thursday issued a fresh call to China to embrace a “market oriented” exchange rate for the yuan, saying such a move would help rebalance the global economy. Obama made his latest foray into the delicate US-China relationship in a major speech on trade, saying the world needed to rebalance [...]

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