GERMANY
Industrial orders decline
Industrial orders fell unexpectedly in August as demand from non-eurozone countries weakened, raising worries a slowdown in China will cut into exports from Europe’s biggest economy. Contracts for goods declined by 1.8 percent on the month, the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy said. The data enhances a picture of waning demand from abroad, especially China and other emerging markets. That suggests the strong exports that supported growth in the first half could lose momentum.
REAL ESTATE
UK house prices dip
UK house prices last month declined the most in more than a year, according to Halifax, which said strengthening demand means the dip may be temporary. The average cost of a home fell 0.9 from the previous month, the mortgage lender said in a statement yesterday. Prices had surged 2.7 percent in August and Halifax said that monthly changes are volatile. From a year earlier, prices rose 8.5 percent last month, while they advanced 2 percent in the third quarter.
MACROECONOMICS
US service sector slows
Growth in the US services sector slowed last month as sales fell and new orders plunged, evidence that stock market volatility may have hit consumer confidence and limited spending. The Institute for Supply Management on Monday said that its services index fell to 56.9 last month from 59 in August, which was the second-highest reading in a decade. Any reading above 50 signals expansion.
INTEREST RATES
Fed could delay hike
Goldman Sachs Group Inc says there is a chance the US Federal Reserve could delay its planned interest-rate increase well into next year, or even later. While a December liftoff is still the company’s central forecast, a slowdown in output and employment may justify policymakers keeping the near zero rate policy for “much longer, well into 2016 or potentially even beyond,” Jan Hatzius, the bank’s New York-based head economist, wrote in a note to clients. The probability the central bank will increase rates this year has dropped to 35.2 percent, from 60 percent odds at the end of August, according to a Bloomberg survey.
ARGENTINA
Debt repayment met
The government on Monday repaid US$5.9 billion of its debt in keeping with its repayment schedule, though a longstanding dispute with US hedge funds remains. “The payment has been made on time. We have met our commitment with one of the largest repayments in about two decades,” central bank President Alejandro Vanoli said. The payment was made by drawing on the nation’s foreign exchange reserves, which showed a balance of US$27.7 billion on Monday.
MACROECONOMICS
Latin America contracting
Latin America’s economies will contract by 0.3 percent this year as a weak global economy, falling commodity prices and China’s slowdown continue hammering emerging markets, a UN panel said on Monday. The slowdown will hit hardest in ailing regional powerhouse Brazil, which is facing a contraction of 2.8 percent, and in crisis-hit oil giant Venezuela, which is on track for a 6.7 percent contraction, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean said. The commission forecast a return to growth of 0.7 percent for the region next year.
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
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