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☆ Wall Street giants like JPMorgan and Pimco are walking back their environmental pledges after years of outspoken support for fighting climate change
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Read previewSome Wall Street giants, many of which have spent the last few years pledging to fight climate change through corporate responsibility, are now retreating from some of their environmental initiatives. Founded in 2017, Climate Action 100+ initially launched as a five-year initiative that in 2022 was extended until 2030. AdvertisementFollowing the departures of JPMorgan, State Street, and Pimco, financial investors including Neuberger Berman, William Blair Investment Management, and Wellington Management remain members of Climate Action 100+, whose targeted companies include American Airlines, Chevron, and Procter & Gamble. Other finance giants have similarly stepped back from previous environmentally friendly initiatives, The New York Times reported. They include BlackRock, which scaled back its participation with Climate Action 100+ in recent weeks, as well as Bank of America, which walked back a pledge to stop financing coal.

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☆ Brazil woos sceptical foreign investors with new fiscal plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Rebounding commodity prices and a hawkish, independent central bank made Brazil an emerging market investor darling last year. But stocks are in the red in dollar-terms (.MIBR00000PUS) in 2023 compared to small gains in wider emerging markets (.MSCIEF) and a more than 20% rise in Mexico's equities (.MIMX00000PUS). "It feels to me like there are a lot of things that can go wrong," said William Jackson, chief emerging markets economist with Capital Economics. Ronaldo Patah, chief investment officer Brazil at UBS Wealth Management, said that despite uncertainties, Lula's fiscal reform suggested he had shifted his focus to the future -- and away from unravelling previous reforms. "Foreign investors have goodwill for Brazil - they want to invest."

While money funds are not strictly gauranteed or insured, the 85% invested heavily in government securities put up some stark competition for bank deposits that have lagged central bank policy rate rises over the past 18 months - causing much political ire in countries such as Britain. But, in contrast to money funds, the average rate across all of them, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is still just 0.37%. That's now changing due to safety and insurance fears at smaller banks stateside - as well as the compelling alternative at money funds that appear safer against that backdrop. Of this trillion, half went to government money market funds and the other half to larger banks, they reckoned. Noting that some $7 trillion of U.S. bank deposits remained uninsured, the JPM team concluded: "A FDIC guarantee of all U.S. bank deposits would certainly help, but it might not be enough to completely stop this deposit shift."

Far from ignoring Lula's challenges to control the risks of this institutional shock, investors and analysts said however that the focus remains on fiscal issues when assessing the new government in the long term. If the new parameters are considered weak by the market, it could renew fears of fiscal dominance and prevent the BCB from easing." Discussions of the new fiscal framework are key under Lula's administration, after policymakers have highlighted inflationary risks arising from leftist President-elect's 168 billion reais ($32 billion) spending proposal to meet campaign promises. "The unsettled and deeply divided political environment and related high social tension keeps risk premia high and could undermine overall governability." (.JPMEGDBRAR)A mobilized opposition with the "potential to turn violent" is the main conclusion from Sunday's protests for the political risk advisory Eurasia Group.

☆ Turkey slashes interest rates by 150 basis points despite inflation at 83%
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Turkey's central bank slashed its key interest rate by 150 basis points for the third consecutive month of cuts on Thursday, from 12% to 10.5% — despite Turkish inflation at more than 83%. Market analysts expected a 100 basis-point cut, so the move still managed to take many by surprise despite the increasing regularity of Turkey's interest rate cuts. Erdogan vocally espouses the unorthodox belief that raising interest rates increases inflation, rather than the other way around, and has called raising rates "the mother of all evil." The lira was roughly flat after touching an all-time low following the news at 18.615 to the dollar. "The lira remains weak, real yields are artificially low, inflation has surged and the current account remains in deficit.

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