March 30, 2022 By Mike Dolan LONDON (Reuters) – If not now, when? Investors typically demand some added compensation for holding a security over many years to cover all the unknowables over long horizons – making the absence of such a premium in bond markets right now seem slightly bizarre. Disappearance of the so-called “term premium” in 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds over the past 5 years has puzzled analysts and policymakers and been blamed variously on subdued inflation expectations or distortions related to central bank bond buying. And yet it’s rarely, if ever, been more difficult to fatho ..read more

March 29, 2022 By Jamie McGeever ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – Remember ‘Japanification’? After the financial crash of 2008, a consensus emerged that the United States and Europe would slide into the sort of multi-decade economic malaise Japan experienced after its property bust of the 1990s – where the effects of a rapidly ageing population saw waves of excess savings, slow growth and persistent deflationary pressures. Termed ‘Japanification’, the diagnosis involved chronically low or negative interest rates and bond yields, with repeat bouts of bond-buying ‘quantitative easing’ and mounting deb ..read more

March 29, 2022 By Chris Taylor NEW YORK (Reuters) – For the past few years, Lee Adler kept track of the U.S. real estate market, and things just kept going up – and up. So it seemed an optimal time to sell his stateside home after Adler moved abroad to Nice, France, shortly before the pandemic began. His single family house in West Palm Beach, Florida sold within a month. “I felt that I was in the driver’s seat,” says Adler, 71, who publishes websites like Liquidity Trader and the Wall Street Examiner. “I got a cash offer with no contingencies at my asking price. The selling price was 40% hig ..read more

March 28, 2022 By John Kemp LONDON (Reuters) – Investor positions in crude and refined products steadied last week, after heavy sales in the two previous weeks, as fund managers tried to balance opposite risks from sanctions on Russia and a potential global recession. Hedge funds and other money managers purchased the equivalent of 16 million barrels in the six most important petroleum-related futures and options contracts in the week to March 22 (https://tmsnrt.rs/3LCWUxl). Buying came after managers sold 178 million barrels over the two preceding weeks, according to position records publish ..read more

March 25, 2022 MILAN (Reuters) – Rebel challengers to Generali’s current management pledged to increase earnings by a double-digit percentage and free more cash for takeovers, setting out their plans for Italy’s largest insurer before a showdown next month. Generali faces a power struggle over its board, with investor Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone putting up his own candidates for the top jobs. The following is a selection of reactions to a plan presented by the Caltagirone camp dubbed “Awakening the Lion” on Friday: BNP PARIBAS EXANE “14% EPS growth would not just beat the existing Generali ..read more

March 24, 2022 By Mark Miller (Reuters) – If you need help filing for Social Security, Medicare or disability benefits, I have good news and bad news. The good news: The sprawling network of more than 1,200 Social Security field offices around the United States will reopen to the public in early April after a two-year COVID-19 shutdown. During that time, nearly all public service has been available only online, and by phone and mail. Millions of Americans who need in-person help from the agency can now start to get it. The bad news: The Social Security Administration (SSA) is bracing for a cr ..read more

March 17, 2022 LONDON (Reuters) – Investment funds that market themselves as sustainable under European rules get similar levels of “green revenues” through the companies they invest in as traditional funds, according to a new study published on Thursday. So-called “green revenue” is the percentage of sales generated from products that benefit the environment such as with cleaner water or contribute to mitigating climate change. Clarity AI, a sustainability data technology platform part-owned by BlackRock, analysed 31,000 funds to assess how they perform against a new European Union classific ..read more

March 11, 2022 By Chris Taylor NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cash savers are between a rock and a hard place right now. Interest rates on typical places to stash money, like savings accounts, are near all-time lows. Meanwhile, inflation rates are the highest they have been in decades – consumer prices in the United States surged in February to a 7.9% annual growth rate, according to the Labor Department. That means the purchasing power of your savings is eroding bit by bit every month. “We are certainly getting more questions about inflation,” says Roger Young, director of thought leadership at Baltim ..read more

March 9, 2022 By Arathy Somasekhar and Ernest Scheyder HOUSTON (Reuters) – Energy industry leaders said the burgeoning energy crisis is perhaps more dire for Europe’s natural gas market than its crude oil imports, due to the continent’s dependency on Russia and as prices have been sky-high for months. Panelists at this year’s CERAWeek conference in Houston have stressed increased need for secure energy supply. European gas markets have been in turmoil since last year as Russia slowed pipeline flows and as Asian demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) surged, driving up prices across the globe ..read more

March 7, 2022 By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) -Billionaire investor William Ackman has built a new stake in railroad operator Canadian Pacific, returning to one of his most profitable investments as rail firms eye a boost from the drive to cut carbon emissions and as manufacturing is brought back to the United States and Mexico from abroad. Ackman’s hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management reported owning 2.8 million Canadian Pacific shares at the end of Dec. 31, 2021, according to a regulatory filing on Monday. That would value the stake at roughly C$280 million ($220 million) a ..read more