GLOBAL NEWS-
The Federal Reserve bought $825 million of agency mortgage-backed securities in the week from Dec. 19 to Dec. 24, compared with $1.806 billion purchased the previous week, the New York Federal Reserve Bank said on Thursday.In a move to help the housing market begun in October 2011, the U.S. central bank has been using funds from principal payments on the agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities, or MBS, it holds to reinvest in agency MBS.The New York Fed said on its website the Fed sold no mortgage securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae. It sold $200 million the prior week.
Profits at China’s industrial firms in November grew at the fastest pace in eight months, breaking a three-month declining streak, as production and sales quickened, but broad weakness in domestic demand remains a risk for earnings next year.Industrial profits in November rose 5.4% from a year earlier to 593.9 billion yuan ($84.93 billion), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Friday. That compared with a 9.9% drop in October.China’s economy is expanding at the slowest pace in nearly 30 years and could face greater downward pressure next year, but policymakers have vowed more support to stabilize growth and prevent risks.China plans to set a lower economic growth target of around 6% in 2020, relying on increased state infrastructure spending to ward off a sharper slowdown.
India’s market regulator on Thursday fined two leading credit rating agencies 2.5-million-rupees ($35,058.20) each for their failure to carry out proper due diligence when assigning credit ratings to an indebted shadow bank.ICRA, the Indian arm of global ratings company Moody’s Investors Service, and CARE Ratings “failed to exercise proper skill, care and due diligence” while assigning credit ratings for non-convertible debentures of Infrastructure & Leasing Finance Services (IL&FS), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in two separate orders late on Thursday.India’s credit rating agencies have come under pressure from authorities and investors over their failure to proactively flag financial problems at IL&FS, one of the country’s biggest Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) until a subsidiary started defaulting on some of its debt last year.IL&FS in October said it aimed to resolve 50% of its debt by March 2020 and had identified resolution plans for all of its 302 entities.
Asian shares jumped to an 18-month high on Friday while gold and oil prices stayed buoyant in a holiday-shortened week, as investor optimism was boosted by hopes a U.S.-China trade deal would soon be signed.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS jumped 0.55% to 555.25, a level not seen since mid-2018. It is up about 16% so far this year.Japan's Nikkei was flat, but on track for a near 20% rise this year, biggest annual increase since 2013.The country’s industrial output slipped for a second straight month in November in another sign the economy is cooling.Australia's benchmark index rose 0.2% while Chinese shares were upbeat after Beijing laid out additional plans to bolster its economy, including infrastructure investments. The blue-chip CSI300 added 0.56%.
A Bank of Japan policymaker played down the chance of meeting a proposal by the International Monetary Fund to tweak the central bank’s 2% inflation target into a looser goal set in a range, a summary of opinions at the BOJ’s December rate review showed.
Japan’s jobless rate fell and the availability of jobs held steady in November, government data showed on Friday.The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 2.2% in November from 2.4% in the previous month, figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed. That compared with a median market forecast of 2.4%.The jobs-to-applicants ratio stood at 1.57 in November, which was in line with October as well as economists’ median forecast, labour ministry data showed.
South Korea’s exports likely contracted for a 13th straight month in December, though at a much slower pace, as stabilizing chip prices and a recovery in Chinese demand offered a ray of hope for the trade-reliant economy.Overseas sales in December were seen falling 6.0% from a year earlier, according to the median forecast of 11 economists polled, the slowest contraction since April, when exports fell a revised 2.1%.The projected December fall, much better than a 14.4% decline seen in November, is expected to end a sequence of double-digit percentage declines that has lasted six months.Preliminary data showed South Korea’s exports slid 2.0% in the first 20 days of December from a year earlier, the slowest fall in a year, offering signs that a year-long run of declines may be nearing its end.The poll also forecast that South Korea’s consumer prices rising a median 0.6% in December compared with a 0.2% gain in the previous month.
Oil prices rose on Friday, hitting three-month highs after data showed record online spending by U.S. consumers, stoking faith in the world’s no. 1 economy even before the hoped-for end to the trade war between Washington and Beijing.Brent crude futures were up 13 cents, or 0.2%, at $68.05 a barrel , while the West Texas Intermediate CLc1 contract was up 13 cents, or 0.2%, at $61.81 a barrel.Oil prices were up about 1% to the highest in more than three months on Thursday, boosted by hopes that the China-U.S. trade fight would soon come to an end and by a report showing lower U.S. crude inventories.
Gold prices edged lower on Friday on rising risk appetite buoyed by optimism over an interim U.S.-China trade deal, but bullion was still set to register its best week in more than four months.Spot gold fell 0.1% to $1,509.56 per ounce. Prices peaked to their highest since Nov. 4 at $1,512.30 in the previous session. U.S. gold futures were unchanged at $1,514.40 per ounce.For the week, spot gold was on track to post a jump of 2%, its best weekly rise since early August.Gold has risen nearly 18% so far this year owing to a 17-month long tariff war.