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.
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
LIMITED MEASURES: The proposed restrictions on Chinese chip exports are weaker than previously considered, following lobbying by major US firms, sources said US President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing additional curbs on sales of semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips to China that would escalate the US crackdown on Beijing’s tech ambitions, but stop short of some stricter measures previously considered, said sources familiar with the matter. The restrictions could be unveiled as soon as next week, said the sources, who emphasized that the timing and contours of the rules have changed several times, and that nothing is final until they are published. The measures follow months of deliberations by US officials, negotiations with allies in Japan and the Netherlands, and
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has retired from the company and stepped down from its board of directors just as the company is in the middle of trying to execute a turnaround plan. Intel chief financial officer David Zinsner and Intel Products CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus are serving as interim co-CEOs while the board searches for Gelsinger’s replacement, the company said in a statement. Frank Yeary, independent chair of the board of Intel, is to serve as interim executive chair, the company said. Gelsinger’s departure is hitting at a tumultuous time for the US chipmaker. Once the industry leader in
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