Investors greeted the gains made by the Liberal Democratic Party of Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in the weekend’s Upper House election by bidding the Topix up by 3.8% on Monday. Although much of the immediate rally was powered by short-covering, international investors will naturally ask themselves whether Abe’s reinforced mandate, and his post-election pledge
Blame the British. In the wake of the UK’s Brexit vote, investors fearful of spreading contagion have woken abruptly to the slow-burn banking crisis in Italy. It should have been news to no one that Italy’s banks are sitting on non-performing loans with a face value of EUR360bn, 18% of their total loan books, and
The febrile behavior of financial markets ahead of Britain’s EU referendum shows that the voting on June 23 will influence economic and political conditions around the world far more profoundly than Britain’s share of 4% in global GDP might suggest. This outsize impact has at least three explanations. Firstly, the Brexit referendum represents a global
US$120m US$750m US$1.2bn Answer: In the first quarter of 2016 Starbucks had US$1.2bn loaded onto its stored-value loyalty cards and its mobile app—more than some US banks have in deposits. The stored value can be used to purchase drinks, food and other merchandise. Sizable though the magnitude of Starbucks’ stored-value quasi-deposits may be, they
120% mortgage. A buy one, get one free deal on covered parking spaces. A 20% discount on properties that will be ready in 2018. To see the answer… Answer: Sun Hung Kai Properties is offering mortgages worth up to 120% of a home’s value at one of its projects. While generous, this is not quite
The European Central Bank pushed further into uncharted territory this week when it made its first foray into the corporate bond market. Three months after announcing its new initiative, the ECB added the Corporate Sector Purchase Program, or CSPP, to its alphabet soup of monetary operations. Under the CSPP, the central bank will make purchases
