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U.S. agency submits auto tariff report probe to White House

FILE PHOTO: Toyota trucks are shown on a car carrier for delivery after arriving in the United States in National City, California
FILE PHOTO: Toyota trucks are shown on a car carrier for delivery after arriving in the United States in National City, California, U.S. June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake

February 18, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department sent a report to U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday that could unleash steep tariffs on imported cars and auto parts, provoking a sharp backlash from the industry even before its contents are revealed.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Commerce Department said late Sunday the agency would not disclose any details of the “Section 232” national security report.

Trump has 90 days to decide whether to act upon the recommendations, which auto industry officials expect to include at least some tariffs on fully assembled vehicles or on technologies and components related to electric, automated, connected and shared vehicles.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and David Lawder; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: OANN

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Howard Dean: Biden’s biggest problem is that his party has been taken over by ’35-year-olds’

Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Howard Dean warned the party's latest official candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, about the troubles he may face ahead, including the “35-year-olds” who Dean says have been running the party -- a clear nod to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and fellow freshman Democrats.

Dean, whose 2004 primary campaign fizzled after early signs of promise, gave his take on the Democrats of 2019.

“This party is being taken over by 35-year-olds. The people who won the races are 35 years old,” Dean told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

“And, they’re mostly centrists, they’re not particularly liberals. AOC gets all the press, who I am a big fan of, Rashida Tlaib, [Ilhan] Omar, they get all the press. There’s 37 people who come from Orange County, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas- that’s where we picked up the seats.”

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“This is a very different party than even the party Joe Biden ran in in 2012. Very different,” Dean continued. “A lot of people could win this race. There’s 20 people in there. I think it’s going to take $20 million to get to the starting line. If you can’t raise $20 million, you’re gone, and I think that’s going to take care of about six or eight of these folks... but it is not the same party that it was five years ago.”

Dean, 70, later added that he himself would never run for president at his age, saying the 35-year-olds taking over represented the “best thing” that could happen to the party.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Over 80 people injured after Japanese ferry collides with whale

Over 80 people were injured – some seriously – after a ferry collided off a Japanese island with what appears to have been a whale.

The incident occurred off Sado Island and left at least five people with serious injuries after the supposed whale caused a 6-inch crack at the ferry’s stern.

The ferry was carrying 121 passengers and four crew members.

CRUISE PASSENGERS PRAISE SHIP'S CREW, COAST GUARD FOR RESCUING PLANE-CRASH VICTIMS: 'INCREDIBLE WORK'

A marine expert was quoted by Japanese public broadcaster NHK saying that the ferry must have collided with a whale, according to the BBC.

NEW ORCA SPECIES DISCOVERED? SCIENTISTS SPOT MYSTERIOUS KILLER WHALES

Ferry operator Sado Steam Ship Co. said in a statement that the jetfoil ferry reached its destination despite the incident and apologized to the customers, saying the ship was hit by “marine life.”

“My throat hit the seat in front of me,” one passenger told Japanese media, according to the outlet0. “People around me were moaning [in pain].”

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Coast guard officials said the exact cause of the accident is now under investigation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Feds now probing El Chapo’s wife over kingpin’s daring 2015 prison escape

With drug kingpin El Chapo finally behind bars, the feds are now pursuing his glamorous young wife, “La Reinita” or the little queen, The Post has learned.

EL CHAPO'S WIFE TO LAUNCH FASHION BRAND IN MOB BOSS' NAME

“She’s being investigated for conspiracy in this country,” a federal law enforcement source told The Post. “She is being looked at for her part in El Chapo’s escape.”

Emma Coronel Aispuro, 29, a leggy brunette and former teenage beauty queen who was born in the US and holds dual Mexican and American citizenship, continues to use cash from her husband Joaquin Guzman Loera’s drug empire to support her lavish lifestyle, the source said.

She has not been charged with a crime in either Mexico or the US, but during El Chapo’s trial in Brooklyn federal court earlier this year — which ended in a drug trafficking conviction that could bring a life sentence — a witness recounted her alleged role in her husband’s daring escape from a Mexican prison in July 2015.

Damaso Lopez Nunez, the drug lord’s longtime lieutenant, said El Chapo, now 62, contacted him soon after his capture by Mexican Marines in February 2014. Before that, the drug kingpin had been on the lam for more than 13 years.

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Lopez said his boss asked him to “meet with the mother of the twins,” referring to Coronel, with whom he has two 7-year-old daughters. Coronel is also the daughter of one of El Chapo’s former drug-trafficking partners in the Sinaloa cartel, Ines Coronel Barreras, who was convicted on weapons charges and marijuana trafficking in 2017. He is currently serving a 10-year sentence in Mexico.

Coronel told Lopez that her husband was “taking the risk … and thinking of escaping from prison,” Lopez said in court.

Coronel “was giving us his messages,” Lopez said during his testimony in January. He described her as a go-between who delivered communiques to the lieutenants building the ventilated, mile-long tunnel the drug kingpin would famously use to escape. The entrance to the tunnel was through El Chapo’s prison bathroom.

Lopez, who was known by his underworld alias El Licenciado and whose main job was to bribe public officials, said he had a meeting in May or June of 2014 with Coronel and some of El Chapo’s sons. Lopez said they discussed buying a plot of land near the prison so that they could dig the tunnel — a project that took months to complete.

Coronel allegedly told Lopez to procure weapons and an armored truck to be used in the break-out, which took place July 12, 2015.

El Chapo escaped on a motorcycle that was used to spirit him through the tunnel. When he emerged, Coronel was among those who greeted him at the exit, the federal source previously revealed to The Post.

El Chapo was then driven to a warehouse and later flown to a hideout, Lopez testified.

He was finally captured by Mexican law enforcement working with US federal agents nearly six months later in Sinaloa in January 2016, and extradited to the US a year later.

When El Chapo’s trial began in Brooklyn in November, Coronel was a daily fixture in the courtroom although authorities would not allow her to speak to her husband, whom she hadn’t seen since his January 2017 extradition.

Source: Fox News National

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French bank SocGen plans to cut 1,600 jobs in bid to buoy profits

FILE PHOTO: The logo of French bank Societe Generale is seen on the company's headquarters in Puteaux at the financial and business district of La Defense near Paris
FILE PHOTO: The logo of French bank Societe Generale is seen on the company's headquarters in Puteaux at the financial and business district of La Defense near Paris, outside Paris, France, May 14, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

April 9, 2019

By Inti Landauro and Matthieu Protard

PARIS (Reuters) – Societe Generale, France’s third-largest bank, unveiled on Tuesday a plan to cut 1,600 jobs, mainly at its corporate and investment banking arm, in a bid to buoy profitability after last year’s poor performance.

SocGen had announced it would cut 500 million euros ($563 million) in costs at its corporate and investment banking in early February after its fourth quarter results were hit by a steep market downturn, which in turn forced it to lower both profitability and revenue growth targets.

“Since early February, we have carried out a review of all the activities of corporate and investment banking. Our goal is to restore the business’ profitability above the cost of capital,” said Severin Cabannes, SocGen’s deputy CEO and the head of its corporate and investment banking arm.

In February, Cabannes had admitted the cost-cutting plan would lead to job cuts at the unit which employs 18,000 people in 30 countries, but had refused to be specific until now.

The bank will cut 750 jobs in France, where all the redundancies will be made on a voluntary basis.

The other job cuts will be carried out abroad, mainly in New York and London, where the bank may fire people.

“This news confirms that management is on a target to deliver the plan,” wrote brokerage Jefferies.

As part of the restructuring, SocGen will stop some businesses such as proprietary trading altogether.

“This activity never found its equilibrium or its profitability,” Cabannes said.

The bank intends to end other businesses such as over-the-counter (OTC) commodity trading and will also reduce the size of other businesses such as its fixed-income arm. Associated jobs from support functions will also go, added Cabannes.

The bank has also decided to shut some clients off.

“There are some clients whose profitability is structurally insufficient so we will not service them any more,” said Cabannes.

After years of low interest rates curtailed returns for retail banking, SocGen, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and other big European banks have relied on the more volatile earnings from corporate and investment banking with mixed results.

Although shares of other major European banks have bounced back this year, SocGen shares are still down by more than three percent amid concerns over solvency and profitability. The stock has lost more than 39 percent over the past 12 months.

SocGen’s CEO Frederic Oudea is under pressure from investors. He has said the bank will sell more assets than originally planned to boost the bank’s solvency ratios.

The bank expects to free up to 10 billion euros in capital as part of the reorganization plan unveiled Tuesday.

($1 = 0.8881 euros)

(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Matthieu Protard; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

Source: OANN

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China’s censors drop gay scenes from ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ film

'Bohemian Rhapsody' movie world premiere
FILE PHOTO - Actors Ben Hardy, Rami Malek, Gwilym Lee and Joe Mazzello attend the world premiere of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' movie in London, Britain October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

March 27, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has scrubbed at least 10 scenes with gay references from the Oscar-winning biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” about British rock musician Freddie Mercury, incensing some domestic viewers who said authorities were overreacting.

The film about the lead singer of British rock band Queen, idolized by gay Western fans, has earned more than 50 million yuan ($8 million) in box office revenue since opening in Chinese arthouse cinemas on Friday, according to Alibaba Pictures.

But at least three minutes of scenes, from a close-up of Mercury’s gyrating crotch as he performs, to a kiss with a male guest and the spanking of a female guest at a party, are missing.

“In effect it feels like the whole movie has been cut, though in reality it’s only a three-minute cut,” said one commentator on China’s Twitter-like Weibo.

“The film itself is not trying to highlight anything, but when we deliberately make deletions, it makes these things sensitive,” said another.

The China Film Administration did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

The film traces the singer’s life since Queen was formed in 1970 to one of its highlight performances in London in 1985.

Homosexuality is not illegal in China, with a thriving gay scene in some cities, but activists say the conservative attitudes of some have prompted occasional government clamp-downs.

Since 2012, China has stepped up a crackdown on content it deems to violate so-called “socialist core value” under President Xi Jinping, whether in video games, music or television.

But Chinese censors can be unpredictable in their attitudes to violence, pornography, and politically sensitive topics.

For example, gay references were left intact in another movie, “Green Book”, which snatched the Best Picture Award from “Bohemian Rhapsody” at this year’s Academy Awards, when it released in China this month.

But Shi Yedong, a Beijing-based film analyst, said it was unusual that “Bohemian Rhapsody” had even passed China’s censors in the current circumstances.

“The censorship is getting more and more intense on film and television,” he said.

($1=6.7153 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Pei Li and Brenda Goh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: OANN

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Family plans to take Swiss bank Edmond de Rothschild private

FILE PHOTO: A logo of Banque Privee Edmond de Rothschild is seen on the bank building before a news conference for the group's 2010 results, in Geneva
FILE PHOTO: A logo of Banque Privee Edmond de Rothschild is seen on the bank building before a news conference for the group's 2010 results, in Geneva March 31, 2011. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

March 13, 2019

ZURICH (Reuters) – The Benjamin de Rothschild family plans to take Swiss bank Edmond de Rothschild (Suisse) S.A. private as a way to consolidate Edmond de Rothschild banking activity and make the Swiss group its operative holding company, the bank said on Wednesday.

The offer price for each bearer share is 17,945 Swiss francs in cash, or 15,500 francs after deducting its proposed dividend, it said. The stock closed on Tuesday at 16,400. Founded in 1953, the private banking and asset management group has 170 billion Swiss francs ($168.72 billion) in assets under management.

(Reporting by Michael Shields)

Source: OANN

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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)

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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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