Argentina: Macri imposes currency controls as peso spirals - DW (English)

In an effort to prop up the peso, authorities ordered exporters and citizens to seek permission from the Central Bank of Argentina before purchasing foreign currency or making transfers abroad, according to a decree published in the Official Bulletin on Sunday.

In the wording of Sunday's decree, the temporary measures would "regulate more intensely the currency exchange regime and strengthen the normal functioning of the economy."

Individuals seeking to buy dollars now face a monthly limit of $10,000 (€9,100). All these new measures will remain in place until December 31.

'Challenging times'

Argentina fell into recession under President Mauricio Macri in 2018. The country faces rising unemployment and one of the world's highest inflation rates — running at over 55%. Fearing a default, some Argentines withdrew their savings from banks at the end of August.

Read more: Brazil threatens Mercosur exit if Argentina opposition wins presidency

On Sunday, a spokesperson said the staff of the International Monetary Fund would analyze the details of Argentina's "capital flow management measures."

The IMF spokesperson added that "staff will remain in close contact with the authorities in the period ahead and the fund will continue to stand with Argentina during these challenging times."

Markets plummeted in August after the Peronist Alberto Fernandez, who has selected former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as his running mate, won 47.8% of the presidential primary vote, with the neoliberal Macri garnering roughly 32%. The runoff will be held October 27.

mkg/cmk (EFE, Reuters, AFP, AP)

DW's editors send out a selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here.

from Business - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2HBHmeE
via IFTTT
September 02, 2019 at 07:14AM

U.S. Stock Futures Drop as Trade-Talk Doubts Swirl: Markets Wrap - Yahoo Canada Finance

(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.

U.S. equity futures fell as Chinese and American officials struggled to schedule a planned meeting this month to continue trade talks. The pound slumped with the U.K. facing a showdown in Parliament over delaying Brexit again.

Contracts on the three main U.S. indexes extended their declines after Bloomberg reported the difficulties the two countries were having in arranging the talks, following Washington’s rejection of Beijing’s request to delay tariffs that took effect over the weekend. Stocks in Shanghai rose earlier as authorities vowed to support liquidity and growth. Elsewhere in Asia, equities in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia declined in thin volumes. The Stoxx Europe 600 advanced for a third straight session, led by financial services shares.

Cash markets for both U.S. stocks and bonds are closed for the Labor Day holiday. Treasury 10-year futures erased a decline while a gauge of the dollar increased for the sixth consecutive day. In the U.K., the pound headed for its biggest one-day drop in three weeks and gilts rose as Parliament looked set to seek a vote that would delay Brexit by three months unless there’s a new accord with the European Union by mid-October. Prime Minister Boris Johnson today responded that he would not delay under any circumstances. Johnson will tell rebels that if they defy him tomorrow he will on Wednesday ask parliament to call a general election for Oct. 14, according to a senior government official.

“The risks of an early election and the increasing political uncertainty, I think, is really weighing on investors minds” in the U.K., Jeremy Stretch, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce head of G-10 FX Strategy, said on Bloomberg TV.

Investors are still reeling from a volatile August that saw a collapse in Treasury yields and declines for equities globally. Crude oil continued slipping after completing its first monthly drop since May amid fears that the fading global economic growth will hurt fuel demand. In China, a drop in the official purchasing managers’ index on Saturday highlighted pressures facing the world’s second-largest economy from escalating trade tensions with the U.S.

Elsewhere, Hurricane Dorian, tied in ranking as the most powerful storm to hit land along U.S. Atlantic shores, slowed to a crawl over the Bahamas and while the National Weather Center said it is still “dangerously close” to the Florida shoreline a direct hit seemed less likely.

Argentina’s government is imposing currency controls to halt the flight of dollars out of the country as it teeters on the brink of default. Turkey’s lira jumped after data showed the economy shrank less than expected in the second quarter.

Here are some key events coming up:

Australia sets monetary policy on Tuesday.Fed speakers include New York Fed’s John Williams on Wednesday and Fed chair Jerome Powell on Friday.The U.S. jobs report on Friday is projected to show nonfarm payrolls rose by 158,000 in August, slightly above the month prior. Estimates of the employment situation are for unemployment to be steady at 3.7% and the average hourly earnings rate of increase to slow to 3.0%.

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

Futures on the S&P 500 Index declined 0.9% as of 2:18 p.m. New York time.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.3%.Germany’s DAX Index advanced 0.1%.The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index increased 1%.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.3%.

Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.2%.The euro dipped 0.1% to $1.0971.The British pound dipped 0.8% to $1.2063.The Japanese yen climbed 0.1% to 106.16 per dollar.The Hong Kong dollar was little changed at 7.843 per U.S. dollar.The Turkish lira strengthened 0.4% to 5.8088 per dollar.

Bonds

Germany’s 10-year yield was little-changed at -0.703%.Britain’s 10-year yield decreased six basis points to 0.415%.

Commodities

Gold increased 0.6% to $1,529.53 an ounce.Brent crude dipped 1% to $58.66 a barrel.

--With assistance from Katherine Chiglinsky, Adam Haigh, Andreea Papuc, Sebastian Boyd and Robert Hutton.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Curtis in London at lcurtis7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at spotter33@bloomberg.net, Todd White

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

from Business - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2HFTKtZ
via IFTTT
September 02, 2019 at 11:11PM

Air Canada flight to Vancouver from Shanghai diverted after cracked window pane - CP24 Toronto's Breaking News

VANCOUVER - Air Canada says a flight from Shanghai to Vancouver was diverted to Tokyo's Narita International Airport after a crack developed in one of the pilot's windows.

The airline says the windows are double-paned and the diversion was essentially a precautionary measure.

The plane was a Boeing 787 carrying 287 passengers.

Air Canada says the passengers are staying in hotels while the aircraft is repaired.

It says the plane is set to leave Tokyo for Vancouver on Monday.

A spokesperson for the airline did not share any information about the cause of the crack.

from Business - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/32piy14
via IFTTT
September 02, 2019 at 10:23AM

Amid Brexit chaos, the pound is plunging again after Britain's economy just posted 'shocking' manufacturi.. - Business Insider

Stefan Wermuth / REUTERS

• Among the chaos caused by Brexit, Britain's manufacturing plummeted, with data showing the biggest drop in seven years. 
• The pound dropped 0.9% against the dollar on Monday afternoon, as the global economic slowdown and Brexit weighed on the British economy.
• One analyst said, "confidence is on the floor, with manufacturers as pessimistic as they have ever been."
• Watch the pound trade live.
• View Markets Insider's homepage for more stories. 

---

The UK's economy just posted a massive red flag as manufacturing posted its lowest PMI reading in seven years. 

August's figure for PMI hit 47.4, the lowest figure since July 2012. IHS Markit said that "the high levels of economic and political uncertainty pervasive across domestic and global markets continued to weigh heavily on the performance of UK manufacturing during August." 

Orders for British products also contracted at the fastest pace in over seven years according to IHS Markit, signaling the weight political uncertainty and Brexit is having on the economy. 

The pound fell 0.9% against the dollar on Monday afternoon, and 0.5% against the euro. 

IHS Markit

"Although traders have trimmed their net short positions a tad last week, there's already a lot of negativity around the pound and the fear is that the economy starts to contract before we leave the EU," said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com. 

"The manufacturing PMI data is simply shocking," said Wilson adding "confidence is on the floor, with manufacturers as pessimistic as they have ever been."

The past week has been one of the most tumultuous weeks for Brexit after the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, made the decision to suspend Parliament for a month starting next week — a move that would help him push through a "no-deal" Brexit come an October deadline. 

Johnson's actions sent the pound tumbling. The pound fell 0.7% against the dollar and 0.6% against the euro last Wednesday as markets feared that Britain would leave the EU without a deal. 

But Wilson said this time, the global slowdown taking much of the blame. 

"The data for the UK economy may well now get worse before it gets better," said Wilson.

This week the UK parliament will sit for one week to discuss Brexit, and anxious traders are waiting to gauge sentiment. 

Markets Insider

See More: A 'no-deal' Brexit would hammer the Irish economy and wipe billions from its GDP.

from Business - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2PzeQAE
via IFTTT
September 02, 2019 at 07:16PM

Why Saudi Arabia Split Up Its Energy Ministry | OilPrice.com - OilPrice.com

Saudi Arabia will split its Energy, Industry, and Mining Ministry, with the current minister, Khalid al-Falih, remaining at the helm of energy policies. Industry and mining will be the prerogative of a new minister, to head a new ministry.

The new industry and mining minister will be Bandar Alkhorayef, a businessman, and will take office starting in January of next year, Reuters reports.

Bloomberg notes that the reshuffle comes amid Saudi Arabia’s continued efforts to prop up oil prices as they continue to trade substantially below its breakeven price, which calculations have pegged at above US$80 a barrel, despite the Kingdom having some of the lowest production costs.

With the U.S.-China trade war raging on and no deal in sight, worry about global oil demand has become chronic now, keeping a lid on prices. Surging shale production in the United States has also been a major headache for OPEC and its partners, and relief from this headache has been hard to come by.

Commenting on the government reshuffle news and its implications for price control, Daniel Gerber, chief executive of PetroLogistics, told Oilprice.com, “Saudi Arabia has strategically reduced exports to the USA in a bid to reign in U.S. inventories, which the market watches closely as a barometer of global supply and demand.”

However, Gerber added, “Reducing exports further would cut off supplies to long-standing Saudi customers. Therefore, Saudi Arabia has a limited ability to increase prices from current levels materially. But they indeed maintain the ability to increase production, meaning that they retain massive influence on marketing pricing by having the spare production capacity of more than 2 mb/d.”

“This is crunch time now for the next couple of months,” a commodities analyst told Bloomberg. “They can control the supply part of the picture, but weak demand and the perception of that is what’s dictating the price,” Edward Bell from Emirates NBD said. Related:OPEC Abandons ‘’Whatever It Takes Strategy’’, Boosts Production

Saudi Arabia has been cutting more production than it had been obliged to under the OPEC+ agreement from last December but it has not been enough as U.S. shale oil output continues rising fast, with the total national to date exceeding 12 million bpd, according to the latest EIA weekly estimate.

Demand, meanwhile, continues to be lukewarm, with forecasters revising their projections for the near term downward because of concern about slowing economic growth in key regions, including China.

Whether or not the split will have any positive effect on Saudi oil revenues is questionable, but it would certainly narrow Al-Falih’s focus to the Kingdom’s oil industry alone.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

from Business - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/30RhliY
via IFTTT
September 02, 2019 at 09:30PM

Argentina imposes currency controls to support economy - BBC News

Oil falls as U.S., China add more tariffs in trade war - Investing.com

© Reuters. An oil pump is seen at sunset outside Vaudoy-en-Brie

By Aaron Sheldrick

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices weakened on Monday after new tariffs imposed by the United States and China came into force, raising concerns about a further hit to global growth and demand for crude.

slipped 22 cents, or 0.4%, to $59.03 a barrel by 0620 GMT, while U.S. oil was down 2 cents at $55.083 at barrel.

The United States began imposing 15% tariffs on a variety of Chinese goods on Sunday - including footwear, smart watches and flat-panel televisions - as China put new duties on , the latest escalation in a bruising trade war.

U.S. President Donald Trump said both sides would still meet for talks later this month. Trump, writing on Twitter, said his goal was to reduce U.S. reliance on China and he again urged American companies to find alternate suppliers outside China.

Beijing's levy of 5% on U.S. crude marks the first time the fuel had been targeted since the world's two largest economies started their trade war more than a year ago.

"Despite President Trump dismissing concerns about a protracted trade war, we are of the view that the latest escalation would not result in a trade deal anytime soon," said Samuel Siew, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

Elsewhere, oil output from members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries rose in August for the first month this year as higher supply from Iraq and Nigeria outweighed restraint by top exporter Saudi Arabia and losses caused by U.S. sanctions on Iran, a Reuters survey found.

In the United States, energy companies cut drilling rigs for a ninth month in a row to the lowest level since January last year. [RIG/U]

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.

from Business - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2ZIi7kQ
via IFTTT
September 02, 2019 at 08:06AM