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American tourist captured in Uganda did not take mandatory armed guard with her, officials reveal

The American tourist and her driver who are being held hostage inside a wildlife park in Uganda defied regulations by setting off into the vast expanse without an armed guard, officials revealed Thursday.

The announcement from the Uganda Wildlife Authority comes as the woman’s whereabouts inside the Queen Elizabeth National Park remain unknown following her reported capture Tuesday. Two armed men held four tourists at gunpoint before two were rescued and alerted police. The assailants since have been using the woman’s phone to make ransom demands of $500,000, police have told Fox News.

“We have armed ranger guides, if you’re going out on a drive in the park you’re supposed to have one but these tourists went out on their own without a guard,” Bashir Hangi, the UWA’s spokesperson, said in an interview with Reuters.

“From their camp in the park, they just got into a vehicle and went out,” Hangi added. “They should have notified us and informed us that they’re going out for a game drive and then we would have availed them a guard but they didn’t do this.”

Fox News' Hollie McKay contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Tokyo’s drive to expel zombie stocks hits small caps

FILE PHOTO: Attendees take pictures of a stock quotation board after a ceremony marking the end of trading in 2018 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: Attendees take pictures of a stock quotation board after a ceremony marking the end of trading in 2018 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo, Japan December 28, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

February 20, 2019

By Hideyuki Sano and Tomo Uetake

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s push to weed out small and weak firms from its main board could take years, but some fund managers are already ditching small-caps for fear they could be excluded from benchmarks.

Asia’s second largest stock exchange is expected to unveil a plan in coming months to revamp its stock market structure, in part a response to criticism that it has too many listed firms on the main board, seen as the blue ribbon segment of the bourse, and its Topix index.

“It’s good that the TSE wants to do something about the Topix index, which appears to be making Japan look full of zombie companies,” said Toru Ohara, chief investment officer at Okasan Asset Management.

“A stock market benchmark is a strategic product for a country. Having a strong stock index is one of the cheapest ways to boost the economy,” he said.

In November, there were 2,119 firms on the TSE’s first section – that compares with 292 in Euronext’s compartment A and 500 in London Stock Exchange’s Premium Listing.

And it’s not far off the 2,434 in the New York Stock Exchange in the United States, whose economy is almost four times bigger than Japan’s.

Unlike the main bourses of Wall Street and elsewhere – where the numbers of listings have shrunk due to mergers, failures to meet listing standards and bankruptcies – Tokyo’s list of counters has risen over the last three decades.

Additionally, there has been less shareholder pressure in Japan for companies to boost profits while the exchange’s exit rules are considered relatively lax.

As a result, about a third of main board’s counters are now valued at below the 25 billion yen ($226 million) mark the exchange itself sets as a minimum for new listings. Many of them also trade below their book value.

SMALL CAP WHACK

Some fund managers have already started to take the TSE’s reform drive into consideration.

“That is something investors keep in some corner of their mind,” said Yas Iwanaga, chief investment officer at Amundi Japan.

Indeed, small caps have underperformed the overall market since November, when an external panel set up by TSE to look into the issue proposed the exchange should consider having stricter rules for companies to stay on the main board.

The Topix Small, an index of all listed firms excluding top 500 companies, has fallen 5.4 percent, compared with a 2.6 percent fall in the Topix.

The Topix Small Value fared worse, falling 5.6 percent.

“I wouldn’t say small cap shares will be deserted forever. If they become cheaper, there will be some buying,” said Amundi’s Iwanaga.

Japan small cap shares: https://tmsnrt.rs/2BAcF6k

While some analysts attribute the small cap underperformance to global demand for bigger stocks, most agree a major change at the TSE would have a huge impact on markets.

“It would be such an easy, tradable idea. Small, value shares would come under major pressure,” said Masahiro Suzuki, senior quantitative analyst at Daiwa Securities.

At the same time, many investors believe attempts to trim the main board would meet corporate opposition given the prestige such listings hold in Japan.

Main board firms have better access to bank loans and are seen attracting top talent more easily.

“It even affects staff at those companies, because it is easier for people working for the main board companies to get housing loans for instance,” said an executive at asset management firm, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. “You should expect very strong resistance.”

It would also be difficult to get consensus on criteria for the main board. Many investors worry that market capitalization thresholds would exclude some promising companies.

Given likely resistance, some market participants think a better solution for the TSE would be to create a new elite market above the first section, rather than kicking out existing companies.

Akiya Kiyota, CEO of Japan Exchange Group, which runs TSE, has said he personally thinks there are too many markets now, noting the current four: the first and second sections and two start-up markets.

But he has so far steered clear of saying how he wants to streamline and when he plans to make changes, citing ongoing discussion at the panel.

(Reporting by Hideyuki Sano & Tomo Uetake; Editing by Sam Holmes)

Source: OANN

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Trump: Russia Would've Much Rather Had Hillary as President

President Donald Trump said Russia would have preferred Hillary Clinton as president.

Trump made his remarks during a Wednesday interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News. It was his first interview since special counsel Robert Mueller completed his investigation.

“You look at all of the different things, Russia would’ve much rather had Hillary than Donald Trump. I can tell you that right now,” Trump said.

Trump insisted he had nothing to hide about Russia.

“I will tell you this about Russia,” the president told Hannity. “If they had anything on me, it would have come out a long time ago. Probably a long time before I ran…”

Source: NewsMax Politics

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French plan to privatize Paris airports faces backlash

French opposition lawmakers from the right and left are combining efforts to try to block President Emmanuel Macron's plan to privatize Paris airports.

France's lower house of parliament, the National assembly, definitively adopted on Thursday a measure allowing the government to privatize the group operating Paris' three airports, Aeroports de Paris, or ADP.

Opposition lawmakers from the left and right launched a long process that could ultimately lead to a popular referendum under a procedure introduced in 2008. The Constitutional Council will examine their request.

The state owns 50.6% of ADP and did not specify how much it would sell.

The centrist government says the move would raise 10 billion euros ($11.3 billion), money that would help finance investment in new technologies.

Opponents say Paris airports are strategic hubs.

Source: Fox News World

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After Notre Dame, support for torched black churches swells

The crowdfunding campaign to raise money for three African American churches gutted by arson in Louisiana began a week ago, but donations surged after flames engulfed the roof of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and the outcry provoked a conversation about the disparate reactions to the tragedies.

Nearly $1 billion had been pledged to the Notre Dame rebuilding effort within hours of Monday's blaze. The massive attention focused on the French landmark prompted Megan Romer to take note and tweet: "My heart is broken over the loss of Notre Dame. The Catholic Church is also one of the world's wealthiest entities. If you are going to donate money to rebuild a church this week, I implore you to make it the black churches in St. Landry Parish."

GoFundMe spokeswoman Aja Shepherd confirmed in an email that giving to the destroyed Louisiana churches increased Tuesday after Romer's tweet and a challenge from freelance journalist Yashar Ali to his nearly 400,000 Twitter followers.

Other online reminders of the black churches' plight followed, including this Tuesday tweet from Hillary Clinton: "As we hold Paris in our hearts today, let's also send some love to our neighbors in Louisiana."

Donations that totaled about $300,000 nearly a week into the campaign surged to $1.5 million by Wednesday night. The money is to be distributed equally among the three century-old churches to help them recover from the fires intentionally set from March 26 to April 4. White suspect Holden Matthews, 21, has been charged with arson and hate crimes.

Among the calls for more giving to the black churches, there was concern that they were already being forgotten as flames leapt from the roof of Notre Dame.

"It's terrible what happened to Notre Dame. ... But, 3 black churches in LA were purposely burnt down b/c of hate. Let's not forget to be even more outraged about that," Twitter user Joe Boyd wrote.

Native American Terrell Johnson, a 19-year-old Columbia University student and member of the Assiniboine Tribe, wondered: "Why are we not as worried about these sites being hurt that are historic to our minority groups, rather than majority groups?"

"It shows how little we are valued. These black churches, the mosque, Native American sites, they are not as valued as Catholicism or Christianity in that aspect, and it's frustrating," Johnson said in a Wednesday interview.

But journalist Thomas Chatterton Williams, in a series of tweets, took issue with the notion that concern about Notre Dame could be boiled down to a matter of race.

"It's a tragedy when black churches + mosques are bombed, burned or vandalized, but of course the world pays more attention to an 800-year-old architectural masterpiece in the heart of a city everyone visits! That's not white supremacy, and nonwhites who love Paris aren't dupes," he wrote.

The Rev. Roderick Greer of St. John's Cathedral, an Episcopal place of worship in Denver, acknowledges that Notre Dame has higher visibility as a cultural, artistic and religious landmark than the three rural church buildings in Louisiana's St. Landry Parish.

Still, in a Wednesday interview, he questioned whether white Americans would pay as much attention even if the fire happened at high-profile black churches, such as Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta or Birmingham, Alabama's 16th Street Baptist Church.

"Even if Mother Emmanuel or Ebenezer or 16th Street Baptist Church went up in flames, do white Americans, in particular, have the same emotional and visceral connections that they have to Notre Dame, which is on another continent?" said Greer. "That's such a telling commentary on the white American imagination that support for black churches lost to arson surged only in the wake of a historic European cathedral fire."

The Rev. Mason Jack, an officer with the Seventh District Missionary Baptist Association, which includes the burned churches, said Wednesday he was grateful for the surge in donations. He acknowledged that the Notre Dame fire raised consciousness about the Louisiana fires but downplayed any concerns that black churches were being overshadowed or forgotten.

He said publicity surrounding all of the fires helped increase awareness of the need in Louisiana. "Maybe, for some, it was an awakening for them to bring healing and restoration," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this story.

Source: Fox News National

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The Latest: Power restored to parts of Venezuela's capital

The Latest on the political crisis in Venezuela (all times local):

2 p.m.

Power has begun returning to some parts of Venezuela's capital.

Pro-government state broadcaster VTV reported that electricity had been restored to 16 neighborhoods around Caracas.

That account could not be immediately verified, though some Venezuelans on social media began reporting they had power. Streetlights could also be seen turning on in a Caracas neighborhood.

However, the lights in one office building flickered on and then turned off.

The South American nation is experiencing its most prolonged blackout yet after the power went out early Thursday evening.

The lack of electricity is adding to mounting tensions over the political standoff between President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition.

___

1:55 p.m.

Hospitals struggled to get back-up generators running and families anxiously tried to contact loved ones amid Venezuela's worst-ever power outage Friday.

Much of the nation of 31 million people was still without electricity as the blackout stretched into a second day and patience began to wear thin.

"This has never happened before," a frustrated Orlando Roa, 54, said. She decried President Nicolas Maduro's administration for failing to maintain the electrical system and letting qualified engineers leave the country. "This is the fault of the government."

Maduro ordered schools and all government entities closed and told businesses not to open to facilitate work crews trying to restore power.

Source: Fox News World

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Pete Buttigieg was voted ‘most likely to be president’ in high school, report says

Years before Pete Buttigieg announced his run for president, his high school voted him “most likely to be president of the U.S.,” a report stated.

Buttigieg, 37, an Afghanistan war veteran and mayor of South Bend, Ind., formally announced his run for president Sunday. The Democratic presidential contender has seen his poll numbers surge in recent weeks.

Apparently, Buttigieg has had his eye on the presidency for some time now. Katie Kowals, a nurse who told ABC News that her brother-in-law knows the mayor well, told the media outlet that Buttigieg was “voted most likely to become president in our yearbook.”

PETE BUTTIGIEG FORMALLY ANNOUNCES 2020 PRESIDENTIAL RUN

The yearbook from the year 2000 showed Buttigieg as well as a fellow St. Joseph High School classmate voted “most likely to be President of the U.S.” Kowal’s brother-in-law, Peter Kowals, was voted “most likely to overthrow the government.”

Buttigieg was also voted “most likely to succeed” and was the class valedictorian.

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Following high school, Buttigieg attended Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. The mayor’s campaign has raised more than $7 million in the first three months of this year. He would be the first openly gay nominee of a major presidential party. He married his husband, Chasten, last year. And, he would be the youngest person to become president, turning 39 the day before the next inauguration, which is on January 20, 2021.

Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain's far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.

No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.

Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.

By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.

Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.

The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.

The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.

Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.

It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.

While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.

TRENDING

According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.

Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.

Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.

Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.

“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said

For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.

“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.

For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.

The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.

The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.

That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.

(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)

(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)

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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