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Australia posts bumper jobs run but soft outlook keeps rate cut views alive

Commuters cast their shadows as they arrive at the Central Business District during the morning rush hour in Sydney
FILE PHOTO: Commuters cast their shadows as they arrive at the Central Business District during the morning rush hour in Sydney July 1, 2013. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo

February 21, 2019

By Swati Pandey

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s jobs growth surged past all expectations in January as firms took on more full-time staff while the jobless rate stayed at its lowest in seven years, barnstorming performance that will boost policymakers confidence in the economy.

A total 39,100 net new jobs were created in January, from a downwardly revised but still sturdy 16,900 in December and surpassing market forecasts for a 15,000 increase, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report on Thursday.

The Australian dollar briefly jumped to a two-week top of $0.7208 and the futures market pared chances of a rate cut later this year.

The rally soon ended after Westpac Banking Corp became Australia’s first major lender to predict cuts in the official cash rate later this year, citing slowing economic growth and lukewarm inflation.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans, however, did point to January’s strong labor market outcome as a risk to his rate outlook.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which has held rates at a record low 1.50 percent for 2-1/2 years, is counting on labor market strength for a long-awaited pick up in wage growth and inflation in the face of a downturn in the property market.

In recent public comments, RBA Deputy Governor Guy Debelle underlined the importance of the labor market for the economy.

“The main thing is to not lose your job,” Debelle said. “I say that in all seriousness.”

“Our main job is to make sure that the economy continues at a reasonable pace, with a low level of unemployment,” he added. “That’s going to be the thing which allows most people out there, who’ve got a mortgage, to continue to handle that mortgage.”

So far, the labor market is sticking to the RBA’s script with annual employment growth of 2.2 percent faster than the 1.6 percent rise in population.

The unemployment rate is at a 7-1/2-year trough of 5.0 percent. The only factor preventing a further decline in January was a rise in the participation rate to 65.7 percent. This means unemployment was steady even with an increase in the number of people looking for work.

A Reuters poll this week showed a median of 28 economists predicted rates at 1.50 percent through early 2021, a view that would find some support in Thursday’s numbers.

“The latest data means that the Reserve Bank stays on the interest rate sidelines for an extended period,” CommSec chief economist Craig James said.

“A strong job market, combined with generational lows in interest rates, reduces the prospect of a broader economic slowdown caused by fall in Sydney and Melbourne home prices.”

Helping that confidence, leading indicators of labor demand continue to point to further employment growth in Australia in a positive sign for household spending.

An index of vacancies released by the department of jobs and small business last month showed there were 185,547 skilled job vacancies in December, the highest in 6-1/2 years.

(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Sam Holmes)

Source: OANN

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Strong quake hits Japan's northernmost main island Hokkaido

A strong earthquake has hit Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, but there are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake shook a wide area of the southwestern part of Hokkaido.

The Japan Meteorological Agency says the quake hit Thursday evening at a depth of 30 kilometers (19 miles) and measured a preliminary magnitude of 5.7. It says no tsunami is expected.

Public broadcaster NHK showed images that appeared to indicate a temporary blackout in one community.

NHK warned about possible landslides. It said nuclear plants in the area were being checked but no abnormal radiation readings were reported.

Source: Fox News World

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Virginia woman hid mother’s decomposing body under blankets, air fresheners: police

A Virginia woman hid her mother’s decomposing body inside their home for weeks, covering the corpse with dozens of blankets and surrounding it with air fresheners to mask the smell, authorities said.

Jo-Whitney Outland, 55, of Bristol, Va., was charged last week with felony concealment of a body. Bristol police detective Steve Crawford said the investigation began Monday when Outland’s relatives were concerned about the welfare of her mother Rosemary Outland. Investigators believe Rosemary Outland, 78, died in late December.

Crawford said a letter found at the home and written by Outland appeared to indicate her mother died on Dec. 29, and she tried to revive her with CPR.

VIRGINIA CAREGIVER, 60, RAPED AND IMPREGNATED MENTALLY DISABLED WOMAN, MAY HAVE OTHER VICTIMS, COPS SAY 

Crawford said authorities discovered the body propped up in a chair and covered with more than 50 blankets and pieces of clothing and more than 60 air fresheners. He said medical examiners will confirm the identification and cause of death.

“I’ve handled a lot of deceased people but nothing of this magnitude,” Crawford said. “It’s bizarre.”

Crawford said Rosemary’s body was discovered after a relative climbed in the house through a window after they had not heard from her. He said dogs and cats were discovered living in the home but have been taken out of the residence by animal control.

FLORIDA MAN WHO FILMED INSTAGRAM LIVE SHOOTING FIRED AT DEPUTIES FIRST, POLICE SAY

Outland told WJHL-TV on Thursday that she had covered her mother’s body out of respect.

"Yes, I put air fresheners around her body because I was in the room with her every night after she died, except for this past Monday... I covered her up out of respect for my mother, and I covered her up with blankets, yes I did," Outland told WJHL-TV.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Alpine skiing: Hirscher wins eight successive World Cup title

Alpine Skiing World Cup - Men's Slalom
Alpine Skiing - Alpine Skiing World Cup - Men's Slalom - Kranjska Gora, Slovenia - March 10, 2019 Austria's Marcel Hirscher reacts after his second run REUTERS/Borut Zivulovic

March 10, 2019

(Reuters) – Austria’s Marcel Hirscher extended his dominance of Alpine skiing as he won a remarkable eighth successive overall World Cup title on Sunday.

The 30-year-old finished third in the slalom at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia to take an unassailable 509 point lead at the top of the standings with four races to go. Hirscher has also won the slalom and giant slalom titles for the season.

The overall World Cup title is considered the most prestigious in skiing because it covers all disciplines over a whole season.

Hirscher said he had not decided whether to continue racing next season.

“We have to talk things over in the summer. That decision will be the toughest of my life,” he told reporters. “I can’t say how it will go. My head’s a bit crazy at the moment.”

Hirscher equaled the record of 20 overall and discipline World Cup titles set by American Lindsey Vonn who retired last month.

Vonn won four overall, eight downhill, five super-G and three combined titles while Hirscher has won eight overall, six giant slalom and six slalom titles.

Ramon Zenhaeusern of Switzerland won Sunday’s race and Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway was second.

(Writing by Brian Homewood; Editing by Ken Ferris)

Source: OANN

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Pro-Thaksin candidates adopt his name in Thai election

It's election season in Thailand and a campaign truck is rolling at the crack of dawn through the streets of the northeastern town of Phimai, blaring the slogan "Vote Thaksin, Get Thaksin."

It's a bit disconcerting, since the Thaksin everyone in Thailand knows is former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted by a 2006 military coup and living in self-imposed exile since 2008 to avoid serving a prison term for a conviction on a conflict of interest charge.

This small-town Thaksin, distributing campaign handbills as he walks ahead of the truck, is a 46-year-old schoolteacher.

He happily explains that sharing his name with the 69-year-old former prime minister is no coincidence, and that he changed his former name — Veerawit Chuajunud — to Thaksin Chuajunud as a vote-getting tactic.

Phimai, in Nakhon Ratchasima province, is in Thailand's poor rural region known as Isan, the heartland of the neglected farmers and villagers who represent the original and still largely loyal base of the former prime minister, a billionaire now living in Dubai.

"I want to grab the attention of the people, making sure that my name is easy to remember. I only have one to two months to campaign, so I decided to change my name to be symbolic," said the candidate in Sunday's general election.

The name-changing tactic may be tricky, but it's not insincere. Phimai's Thaksin is running as a candidate for Pheu Chart, one of several small parties established by allies and supporters of the former prime minister.

There is an established flagship pro-Thaksin party, Pheu Thai, but election laws established by the anti-Thaksin military government targeting the former leader's political machine are aimed at keeping any large party from obtaining a legislative majority. So the pro-Thaksin strategy is to splinter the machine into separate parties that could unite forces after the election.

Name-changing is a tactic to help overcome confusion over political brands, especially for the new, lesser-known satellite parties. It also helps to stand out in a large field of candidates. More than 11,000 are registered for Sunday's vote, compared to just over 2,800 in the last election.

Thaksin Chuajunud is one of 15 candidates from his party who made opportunistic name changes. Most took on the name "Thaksin," but four adopted the name of Thaksin's sister, Yingluck, who became prime minister in 2011 and was forced from office by a controversial court decision just before the military ousted her government in another coup. She also has faced court cases that supporters charge amount to political persecution, and likewise fled into exile.

Phimai's Thaksin is on fairly friendly ground as he introduces himself at a local market. It's been more than a decade since Isan's political hero, the former prime minister, even set foot on Thai soil, but he is not forgotten.

"I wish he would come back. I wish that every day and every minute. I don't know how and I have never really said this. I do miss him. I am concerned about him, and I quietly give him my support," says farmer Pajaree Changkodpanao, wiping away tears.

Pro-Thaksin parties, despite serious roadblocks put in their way by Thailand's traditional conservative political establishment, have won every national election since 2001.

Thaksin, who made his fortune in telecommunications, used his money to subsume rural and regional political power brokers into his own party, then once in power implemented generous and generally unprecedented social programs benefiting the rural poor and urban working class, cementing his relationship with a majority of the country's voters.

"No matter what anyone said about him, I always loved him since many years ago," says 59-year-old Nuwate Jiamwong from Nonrung village, another farmer. "It's fixed in my mind."

Thaksin's populist policies, such as a universal health care scheme and generous farming subsidies, account for a good deal of his popularity in poor rural areas. They also show the people in those areas the gains the political process could bring them aside from the cash handouts they traditionally receive from vote-buyers on election eve.

Virot Ali, a political science lecturer at Bangkok's Thammasat University, says he believes people in the countryside still think of Thaksin as the main person who guided the economy in the interests of the rural sector, as well as gave them confidence that democracy could work to their benefit.

Thaksin's populist policies assured him large electoral majorities, but also alienated the country's traditional power-holders — royalists, the military and their Bangkok middle-class supporters. The 2006 coup that ousted him, after accusations of abuse of power and disrespect toward the monarchy, set off a battle for power between his supporters and opponents that sparked sporadic mass street violence and triggered the army's second coup in 2014.

The anti-democratic measures still being taken by Thaksin's opponents to thwart his political comeback — changes to the constitution that offset the direct election of legislators and limit the power of elected lawmakers — are a measure of what Thaksin's supporters are up against.

Phimai candidate Thaksin says he's up for the challenge.

"I know that changing my name does not mean that I will automatically win," he says. "I still have to work hard, visiting and working continuously for the community."

Source: Fox News World

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Mueller investigated Sessions for perjury, found ‘insufficient’ evidence

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office investigated former Attorney General Jeff Sessions for possible perjury, but it found evidence was “insufficient” to prove that he was “willfully untruthful” in his answers.

Mueller’s report, a redacted version of which was released Thursday, said that it looked into Sessions’ interactions during the campaign with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Kislyak and Sessions met during the Republican National Convention in July 2016 and in his Senate office in September.

TRUMP RAILS AGAINST ASSOCIATES WHO SPOKE TO MUELLER, CALLS CLAIMS 'TOTAL BULL---T'

“The office considered whether, in light of these interactions, Sessions committed perjury before, or made false statements to, Congress in connection with his confirmation,” the report said.

Sessions said in his Senate confirmation hearing in January 2017 that he “did not have communications with the Russians” in response to a question about Trump campaign communications with the Russian government.

He also followed up with written responses, answering “no” to a question that asked whether he had “been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day.”

In a March 2017 follow-up, after his interactions with Kislyak were reported by the media, Sessions said he did "not recall any discussions with the Russian Ambassador, or any other representatives of the Russian government, regarding the political campaign on these occasions or any other occasion."

The report says the investigation established that Sessions interacted with Kislyak and that the Russian mentioned the presidential campaign “on at least one occasion” but that “the evidence is not sufficient to prove that Sessions gave knowingly false answers to Russia-related questions in light of the wording and context of those questions.”

Mueller’s team says that the evidence “makes it plausible” that Sessions didn’t recall discussing the campaign with Kislyak, and his answer in his confirmation hearing was in response to a question about a an alleged continued exchange of information between the campaign and the Russian government.

“Sessions later explained to the Senate and to the Office that he understood the question as narrowly calling for disclosure of interactions with Russians that involved the exchange of campaign information, as distinguished from more routine contacts with Russian nationals,” the report says. “Given the context in which the question was asked, that understanding is plausible.”

NEWT GINGRICH: CAUGHT UP IN THE MUELLER MEDIA MADNESS

As a result, Mueller's office concluded that “the evidence was insufficient to prove that Sessions was willfully untruthful in his answers and thus insufficient to obtain or sustain a conviction for perjury or false statements.”

Sessions’ personal lawyer said in March last year that Sessions was not not the subject of a federal criminal investigation for alleged perjury.

ABC News reported that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had overseen an investigation into whether Sessions "lacked candor" when he testified before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"The Special Counsel‘s Office has informed me that after interviewing the Attorney General and conducting additional investigation, the Attorney General is not under investigation for false statements or perjury in his confirmation hearing testimony and related written submissions to Congress," attorney Chuck Cooper said in a statement.

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Sessions announced in 2017 that he would recuse himself from overseeing any FBI probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials -- placing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge of overseeing the probe.

Sessions resigned in November 2018 and was subsequently replaced by current Attorney General William Barr.

Fox News’ Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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House Democrat files bill to make Mueller report public

FILE PHOTO: Mueller attends a meeting of cabinet-level officials to discuss efforts against human trafficking, at the State Department in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Robert Mueller, serving as U.S. FBI director, attends a meeting of Cabinet-level officials to discuss efforts against human trafficking at the State Department in Washington, February 1, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

February 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Democratic lawmaker in the U.S. House of Representatives filed legislation on Tuesday that would require Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report to be made public and give Congress access to the investigation’s underlying evidence.

The legislation represents the latest effort by House Democrats to prevent any effort by the Trump administration to keep under wraps the findings of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and any involvement by President Donald Trump’s election campaign.

“This legislation safeguards … taxpayer-funded law enforcement work and assures the right of Americans to see justice served,” the Democrat, Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas, said in a statement.   

(Reporting by David Morgan, Editing by Franklin Paul)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of the OPEC is seen at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

April 26, 2019

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.

“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy near Lyon
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy in Meyzieu near Lyon, France, April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

April 26, 2019

By Julien Pretot

MEYZIEU, France (Reuters) – Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas was wringing out his women’s team shirts in the locker room on a rainy London day eight years ago when he decided it was time to take gender equality more seriously.

It was halftime in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal at Meadow Park with 507 fans watching and Aulas realized that his players did not have a another kit for the second half.

“Next time, there will be a second set just like for the men, that’s how it’s going to work from now on,” he said.

Lyon have since won five Champions League titles to become the most successful women’s team in Europe and recently claimed a 13th consecutive domestic crown.

They visit Chelsea on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a fourth straight title in their sights.

At the heart of their achievements is a pervasive ethos that promotes gender equality throughout the club, starting in the youth academy.

In 2013, Aulas appointed former Lyon and France player Sonia Bompastor as head of the Women’s Academy — the female equivalent of one of France’s top youth set-ups that has produced players such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa.

At the Youth Academy, girls and boys share the same facilities.

“Pitches, physiotherapy rooms are the same for all,” the 38-year-old Bompastor told Reuters.

As the girls train under the watch of former Lyon and France international Camille Abily, the screams of the boys practicing can be heard nearby.

The boys and girls also benefit from the same psychological support that includes hypnosis sessions and yoga.

“We have a ‘mental ability’ cell and the hypnotist acts on the girls’ subconscious, on their deeply held beliefs after observing them on and off the pitch,” Bompastor added.

SAME TREATMENT

One message the Academy staff are trying to convey is that girls are as good as boys.

“Women’s nature is such that we have low self-esteem. So self-esteem is a big topic for our girls,” said Bompastor.

This is not the case with the boys, she added.

“Some 14, 15-year-old boys still think they would beat our professional players, we tell them this would not be happening. We still need to work on those beliefs,” she said.

Female players also have to face questions that their male counterparts do not, Bompastor explained.

“In France there is a problem with the way women are considered, there are high aesthetic expectations. So we get heavy questions on femininity, intimate questions that men don’t get,” she said.

OL’s Academy has been held up as a shining example for others to follow, even in the U.S., where women’s soccer has a wider audience than in Europe.

“About one third of the (senior women’s) squad comes from the Academy, we have a good balance,” said Bompastor.

“I’m getting tons of requests from American universities and foreign clubs, who want to come and visit our facilities.”

‘ONE CLUB’

The salaries of the senior players is one area where there remains a large discrepancy between Lyon’s men’s and women’s teams.

While the three best-paid women players in the world are at Lyon with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg earning 400,000 euros ($445,520) a year, this figure is dwarfed by the around 4 million euros earned annually by men’s player Memphis Depay.

There is, however, a level of interaction between the men’s and women’s players that is not present at many other clubs.

“When you talk about OL you talk about women and men, you talk about one club and you feel it when you are here or outside in the city,” Germany defender Carolin Simon told Reuters.

“We see it when we play in the big stadium. It’s not ‘normal’ for women’s football,” the 26-year-old, who joined the club last year, added.

Lyon’s female players also enjoy respect from their male counterparts, Simon said.

“It’s very cool, it’s a big honor to feel that it doesn’t matter if you are a professional man or woman. We talk with the men, there are handshakes, it’s a good atmosphere and it’s also why we are successful,” said Simon.

“The men respect us and it’s not just for the cameras.”

Her team mate, England’s Lucy Bronze, sees the men’s respect as key to improving women’s football.

“We might not be paid the same but they are just normal with us, they see us as footballers the same as they are,” Bronze told Reuters.

“Being at Lyon has really opened my eyes. To improve women’s football, it starts with having the respect of your male counterparts. It’s the biggest thing because they can influence so many people.”

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman/File Photo

April 26, 2019

GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, “creating an acute humanitarian situation,” the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.

“IOM is deeply concerned about the conditions in which the migrants are being held and is engaging with the authorities to ensure access to the detained migrants,” the International Organization for Migration said.

The migrants are held in open-air football stadiums and in a military camp, it said in a statement.

The detentions began on Sunday in the city of Aden and the neighboring province of Lahj, which are under the control of the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran-aligned Houthi rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and other major urban centers.

Both sides are under international diplomatic pressure to implement a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire deal agreed last year in Sweden and to prepare for a wider political dialogue that would end the four-year-old war.

Thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, mostly from the Horn of Africa, driven by drought and unemployment at home and lured by the wages available in the Gulf.

(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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U.S. dollar notes are seen in this picture illustration
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.

1/DOLLAR JUGGERNAUT

The dollar has zipped to near two-year highs, leaving many scratching their heads. To many, it’s down to signs the U.S. economy is chugging ahead while the rest of the world loses steam. After all, Wall Street is busily scaling new peaks day after day.

Never mind the cause, the effect is stark. The euro has tumbled to 22-month lows against the dollar and investors are preparing for more, buying options to shield against further downside. Emerging-market currencies are also in pain, with Turkish lira and Argentine peso both sharply weaker.

Now U.S. data need to keep surprising on the upside or even just meet expectations. The International Monetary Fund sees U.S. growth at 2.3 percent this year. For Germany, the forecast is 0.8 percent. The U.S. economy’s rude health has given rise to speculation the Fed might resume raising interest rates. Unlikely. But as other countries — Canada, Sweden and Australia are the latest — hint at more policy easing, there seems to be one way the dollar can go. Up.

(GRAPHIC: Dollar outperforms G10 FX – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dz17S5)

2/FED: UP OR DOWN?

Wall Street is near record highs and recession worries are receding, so as we mentioned above, investors might wonder if the Federal Reserve will start raising rates again.

Such a pivot is unlikely after the Fed killed off rate-rise expectations at its March meeting. And the latest Reuters poll all but puts to bed any risk of rates will go up this economic cycle, given inflation remains below the Fed’s alarm threshold and unemployment is the lowest in generations.

Before the March rate-pause announcement, a preponderance of economists penciled in one or more increases this year. But that has flipped. A majority of those surveyed April 22-24 see no further tightening through December and more are leaning toward a cut by the end of next year.

Indeed, interest rate futures imply Fed Funds will be below the current 2.25-2.50 percent target range by this December.

Recent positive consumer spending and exports data have eased market concerns of a sharp economic slowdown. But inflation probably needs to run hot for a long period to panic policymakers off their wait-and-see course.     

(GRAPHIC: Federal funds and the economy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DzjTZz)

3/HEISEI TO REIWA

Next week ends three decades of Japan’s Heisei era. Heisei, or Achieving Peace, began in 1989 near the peak of a massive stock market bubble and closes with the country trapped in low growth, no inflation, and negative interest rates.

The new era that dawns on May 1 is called Reiwa, meaning Beautiful Harmony. It begins when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. But do investors really want harmony? What they want to see is a bit of economic growth and inflation to shake up the status quo.

The Bank of Japan’s stimulus toolkit to revive a long-suffering economy is anything but harmonious and yet it’s set to stay. The central bank confirmed recently rates will stay near zero for a long time. But the coming days may not be harmonious or peaceful for currency markets. A 10-day Golden Week holiday kicks off on April 29 and investors are fretting over the risk of a “flash crash” – a violent currency spasm that can occur in times of thin trading turnover.

The year has already seen two yen spikes and many, including Japan’s housewife-trader brigade – so-called Mrs Watanabes – appear to have bought yen as the holiday approaches. Their short dollar/long yen positions recently reached record highs, stock exchange data showed.

(GRAPHIC: Japan stocks: from Hensei to Reiwa – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W6a7Fe)

4/EARNING TURNING

Quarterly earnings were supposed to be the worst in Europe in almost three years, but with a third of results in, things are looking a little rosier.

Two-thirds of companies’ results have beat expectations, and they point to earnings growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year. Financials have delivered the biggest surprises, according to analysis by Barclays.

That might just show how low expectations were. In fact, analysts are still taking a red pen to their estimates.

The latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv shows analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings-per-share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent. That would be their worst quarter since 2016 and down sharply from an estimated 3.4 percent just a week earlier.

Those estimates may end up being a little too bearish as earnings season goes on, quelling worries that Europe is heading toward a corporate recession.

GSK and Reckitt Benckiser will give the market a glimpse of the health of the consumer products market and spending on everything from toothpaste, washing powder and paracetamol.

(GRAPHIC: Earnings forecasts – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DuO2ZF)

5/WAITING FOR THE OLD LADY

Sterling has gone into the doldrums amid the Brexit delay and unproductive talks between the UK government and the opposition Labour party on a EU withdrawal deal. The resurgent dollar, meanwhile, has taken 2 percent off the pound in April. It is unlikely the Bank of England will be able to rouse it at its May 2 meeting.

Despite robust retail and jobs data of late, the economic picture is gloomy – 2019 growth is likely to be around 1.2 percent, the weakest since 2009, investment is down and Governor Mark Carney says business uncertainty is “through the roof”.

Indeed, expectations for an interest rate increase have been whittled down; Reuters polls forecast rates will not move until early 2020, a calendar quarter later than was forecast a month ago. The hunt for a new governor to replace Carney in October adds more uncertainty to the mix.

The recent run of UK data has fueled hopes of economic rebound. That’s put net hedge fund positions in the pound into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street might temper some of that optimism.

(GRAPHIC: Sterling positions – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XJwUXX)

(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Karin Strohecker, Josephine Mason and Saikat Chatterjee in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; edited by Larry King)

Source: OANN

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Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren suggested that doctors and nurses don’t treat African American women the same way they do white women.

Warren appeared on Wednesday together with a number of other 2020 Democratic candidates at the She The People Forum in Houston, discussing issues concerning women of color.

WARREN’S $1.25T EDUCATION PLAN ‘SWEEPING’ GIVEAWAY TO THE WEALTHY AT EXPENSE OF THE POOR, WAPO EDITORIAL BOARD SAYS

The Massachusetts senator announced on stage a plan to decrease the childbirth mortality rate among black women while identifying a systematic problem with how they are treated.

“And there is a specific problem, as you rightly identified, for women of color who are three, four times more likely to die in childbirth,” Warren said.

“And here’s the thing, even after we do the adjustments for income, for education, this is true across the board. This is true for well-educated African American women, for wealthy African American women, and the best studies that I’m seeing put it down to just one thing, prejudice,” she added.

“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”

“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”

— Elizabeth Warren

CHARLIE KIRK: WARREN AND OTHER DEMS OFFER FREE MONEY – BUT DON’T TELL YOU PRICE WILL BE YOUR FREEDOM

Warren went on to get into details of her plan, noting that hospitals will be given bonuses if they manage to reduce the childbirth mortality rate among black women in an effort to give financial incentives for those doctors and nurses to provide better care.

“And if they don’t, then they’re going to have money taken away from them,” Warren added.

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“I want to see the hospitals see it as their responsibility to address this problem head-on and make it a first priority. The best way to do that is to use the money to make it happen because we gotta have change, and we gotta have change now.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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