According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), wage income in the world has fallen by 10.7% in the first nine months of 2020, equivalent to $3.5 trillion or 5.5% of global GDP in the first three quarters of 2019. From the perspective of income, the positive side is that the figures do not take into account government subsidies which have provided a key safety net for families’ vital consumption.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden have pronounced policy differences on corporate taxes, energy and US-China trade, but generally similar views around drug pricing, large-cap tech firms and infrastructure investment. As the US presidential election draws closer, the race is tightening between both candidates. While much is at stake in this election cycle, the three policy areas noted above could have a large impact on the markets and portfolio allocations, warns Allianz GI.
After being hyped up by CEO Elon Musk in the run up to it, Tesla’s ‘battery day’ disappointed investors, as the new innovations unveiled remain years away. The firm’s share price closed the day 5.6% down, then slumped further in after-hours trading, after Musk clarified that some of the technologies showcased are “close to working” and require a “a ton of work from here to there.”
Brazilian fund management firm Hashdex is working with Nasdaq to launch the world’s first bitcoin ETF on the Bermuda stock exchange, according to Coin Telegraph.
The economy grew 7% in 2019, as a surge in exports to the US offset weaker demand from China. Private consumption and fixed investment also performed well, helped by rapid wage growth, rising tourism and export manufacturing. However, in 2020 the economic performance is severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, with GDP growth expected to slow down to 2.3%. Both domestic demand and exports are impacted, with tourism, transport (aviation), electronics, textiles, and agriculture being the most affected industries.
Analysts at BofA Global Research still expect the global oil market to move into a 4.9mn b/d deficit in 4Q20 on the back of the OPEC+ cuts, supporting crude prices. Yet diesel and jetfuel/kerosene make up by far the largest petroleum product group in the oil market. So crude oil prices cannot really rally until distillate demand, jet fuel included, recovers to more normal levels in the next few months.
The Libra Association has hired former HSBC European head James Emmett as the managing director of Libra Networks — the operating company subsidiary of the association. Libra said on Thursday that Emmett, who spent more than 25 years at HSBC and recently stepped down as the CEO of HSBC Bank plc and Europe, is joining in October. Stuart Levey, CEO of the Libra Association, who also joined from HSBC recently, reportedly, said Emmett’s leadership “will help make Libra’s vision a reality.”
In 1993, both India and China were equally poor with GDP at USD377 per capita. Fast forward to 2019, India GDP per capita rose to USD2,104 while China fast-tracked to USD10,261… The only country that is comparable in size to China is India, as one has 1.40bn people and the other 1.33bn people, respectively. Combined, they are home to 36 percent of the world’s population. From May until the recent truce engineered in Moscow, the China-India border dispute has threatened to fracture efforts to foster bilateral ties between the two economies, such as the India banning of Chinese apps in response to the conflict.
Link Securities | After the publication of the Fed’s meeting’s statement and the intervention of Jerome Powell, the central bank’s “performance” did not end up pleasing everyone. It adhered to the script. The Fed confirmed that the majority of its members do not expect increases in official interest rates until the end of 2023. They also reiterated that they will allow inflation to stay above 2% for a while, until the objective of reducing the jobless rate to pre-pandemic levels is achieved.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga won the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election, meaning he was poised to replace Shinzo Abe as prime minister of Japan. Suga has been confirmed by a vote in the Diet on Wednesday 16 September. This comes after Abe announced in late August that he planned to step down due to ill health. Suga could reignite structural reforms although his top priority is containing the virus, says Schroders.