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☆ Asia's 'best restaurants' list is out — and it's no surprise which country made the list 17 times
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Goh Chiew Tong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

William Drew, director of content for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, said Japan's strong performance is "no surprise." The top 50 restaurants in AsiaThis year commemorates the 10th anniversary of the "Asia's 50 Best Restaurants" list. Asia's top 50 restaurantsThe list of "Asia's 50 Best Restaurants" for 2023 are: 1. Ten restaurants that ranked among Asia's best 50 restaurants last year fell into the 51-100 ranking this year. Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2023Labyrinth also rose 29 spots to No.11, winning the "Highest Climber" award.

☆ Germany is overhauling its immigration rules to bolster a rapidly shrinking workforce
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Currently, only people with EU passports, or those who have one parent from Germany, are eligible to hold German citizenship. Immigration reforms based on Canada's points system, meanwhile, will make it easier for skilled workers to enter the country without having professional qualifications recognized in Germany. A January survey showed that more than half of German companies are struggling to fill vacancies due to a lack of skilled workers. The number of people who can come and set up businesses will be huge and a huge benefit for the country. "The number of people who can come and set up businesses will be huge and a huge benefit for the country."

A pedestrian along the Bund in Shanghai, China Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesAsia-Pacific markets are set to rise on Wednesday following a slightly cooler U.S. inflation report and as the fallout in the banking sector seemed to be contained. The U.S. consumer price index report for February came in at 0.4% and an annualized increase of 6%, in line with Dow Jones estimates. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.64% as bank stocks rallied early in the trading day. In Japan, the Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 27,225, and its Osaka counterpart stood at 27,190 against the Nikkei 225's last close at 27,222.04. Investors will be closely watching a slew of economic data releases from China today, with the country set to release its retail sales and industrial output numbers for February, as well as its one year medium term lending rate for March.

March 13 (Reuters) - Euro zone government bond yields tumbled on Monday as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) sent investors rushing into safe-haven assets and caused traders to bet on a smaller rate hike from the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday. SVB's collapse sparked a massive rally in European and global bond markets on Monday. The German 2-year bond yield was last down 34 basis points (bps) at 2.746%, on track for its biggest one-day drop since 1995. Market pricing showed traders thought a 25 bp hike is now the more likely outcome, despite 50 bps appearing almost certain last week. The European Central Bank is not planning an emergency meeting of its banking supervisory board on Monday after the collapse of SVB, a senior source told Reuters.

☆ Euro area bond yields tumble as SVB collapse scares investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Stefano Rebaudo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

March 13 (Reuters) - Government bond yields fell on Monday as investors rushed into safe-haven assets while assessing the possible fallout from Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) collapse amid bets on less aggressive tightening from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The European Central Bank is not planning an emergency meeting of its banking supervisory board on Monday after the collapse of SVB, a senior source told Reuters. European stocks fell on Monday and were on course for their worst day in almost three months, as the region's banking shares continued to tumble. Fed funds futures showed traders scaled back their projections for the Fed's next rate rise, but markets still bet on a less than 50% chance of a 25 bps rate hike next week. ESTR forwards currently imply an 80% chance of a 50 bps rate hike next week.

Ahead of crucial U.S. jobs data on Friday, MSCI's broad index of global stocks (.MIWO00000PUS) fell 0.3%. This view has clashed with market repricing of interest rate expectations and bond market signals that aggressive monetary tightening raises recession risks. "If the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes," Powell said. U.S. Treasury yields continued an ascent on Wednesday, with the two-year yield, which tracks interest rate expectations, briefly touching 5.08% -- its highest level since 2007. After a series of jumbo hikes last year, the Fed raised rates by 25 basis points last month.

☆ Analysis: Governments could find avid buyers for record bond sales as ECB rates peak
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Stefano Rebaudo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

March 8 (Reuters) - Investors have rapidly revised up their expectations for euro zone interest rates, but with a peak now in sight, governments might find it much easier to allocate record bond sales thanks to a cocktail of attractive yields and available liquidity. Traders are confident the ECB will have a smooth start to unwinding its huge bond holdings, a process known as quantitative tightening (QT). Bond demand is set to accelerate as markets increasingly price in a peak for yields. “The euro area keeps having excess liquidity and is able to fund smoothly the government bond supply expected for this year,” said Erjon Satko, rates strategist at BofA. Some analysts say that no matter what national treasuries do, they will relieve the pressure of record bond supply.

☆ Chinese stocks often gain after the country's annual congress meeting. Here's what strategists expect this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Jihye Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

After three years of turbulence under the Covid pandemic, China's leaders are expected to lay out goals to get growth back on track. China's onshore stocks often see a modest rally after the country's party congress sessions, but economists and strategists are mixed on whether that pattern will carry on this year. "The market tends to have reasonable performance pre- and after-twin sessions," Hao Hong, chief economist of Grow Investment Group told CNBC. But there's been fluctuation ahead of this year's sessions: He pointed to a recent decline after Hong Kong stocks rallied roughly 50% and China's mainland stocks rose by 15%. He expects the indexes to move between gains and losses of 3%, "unless there are policies unexpected by the market," he said.

☆ Stubborn inflation will remain at a very high level, German central bank president says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Silvia Amaro | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Joachim Nagel, president of Germany's Bundesbank and one of the ECB's more hawkish members, told CNBC's Annette Weisbach Wednesday that consumer price rises are set to remain stubbornly high. "But still, what we expect for this year for Germany is an average inflation rate of around 6 to 7%." The yield on the 10-year German bund — seen as the main benchmark in the region — rose to its highest level since 2011 on Wednesday. Goldman Sachs said Wednesday that it was increasing its expectations for peak interest rate hikes in the euro area. The ECB is this month starting to sell bonds at a pace of 15 billion euros a month until June.

That has pushed 10-year bond yields across the euro area to levels last seen during the bloc's 2011-2012 debt crisis , . "Equity markets appear expensive when considering the possibility of prolonged higher rates." Patrick Saner, head of macro strategy at Swiss Re, added that rising government bond yields also made risk assets relatively less attractive. And while government bonds were seen vulnerable to further selling, higher yields are still viewed as a buying opportunity. "In sovereign markets now, 10-year German bond yields are north of 2.70%.

☆ One year of war in Europe: How the dollar, energy and food prices swirled
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Russia's invasion of Ukraine has disrupted economies and markets around the world, from energy and food prices to European banks, emerging market stocks and the Russian currency. Below are five charts that show how Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two has shaped global financial markets in the last 12 months. But when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine in late February, European natural gas prices rocketed by almost 400% in two weeks. Energy prices soared, bringing the threat of blackouts, recession and a worrying switch back to dirtier sources of fuel. Food price pressures are easing, but that does little to soften the blow for many developing nations, where food and energy prices make up a larger share of spending.

☆ BlackRock downgrades Japan stocks on possible monetary policy shift
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Jihye Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Kazuhiro Nogi | Afp | Getty ImagesBlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, cut Japanese stocks to "underweight" – as Japan is set to appoint a new governor to lead its central bank. "We downgrade Japanese stocks on policy uncertainty and a worsening economic environment," BlackRock's research arm said Monday, before the government submitted its central bank picks to parliament. U.S. Treasury yields spiked, with the 10-year note and the 30-year note jumping 7 and 8 basis points respectively. One possibility is the Bank of Japan further widening its tolerance range beyond 50 basis points. Nikkei separately reported earlier this month that the central bank purchased 23.7 trillion yen ($182 billion) of JGBs in January, a new record high.

/USThe dollar index fell 0.21% from one-month highs, while the Japanese yen gained 1.21% to 131.08 per dollar after unusually strong Japanese wage data. The Australian dollar bolted 1.02% higher after its central bank reiterated further increases would be needed. Asian stocks stabilized overnight after they, like most global share markets, suffered steep losses following that U.S jobs data. Oil prices climbed more than 3% after Powell eased market concerns over rate hikes, while recovering demand in China also boosted prices. Gold eked out gains, tracking a slight pullback in the dollar, as investors mulled comments by Powell and the outlook for the Fed's rate-hike policy.

U.S. and European equity markets were mixed to lower, with the euro and pound lower against the dollar. The broad pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) was up 0.04% and MSCI's gauge of global stock performance (.MIWD00000PUS) shed 0.12%. "What's been really important is that the market sees a lower likelihood of rate cuts by the end of the year." Asian stocks stabilized overnight after they, like most global share markets, suffered steep losses following that U.S jobs data. "Sentiment in markets is dominated by central banks and the repricing of rates yet again," Kerry Craig, JPMorgan Asset Management's global market strategist, said.

☆ Sell-off fizzles out ahead of Fed, ECB and BoE speeches
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] The Federal Reserve building is seen in Washington, U.S., January 26, 2022. Then comes Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the Economic Club of Washington during U.S. trading plus U.S. President Joe Biden's State of the Union address. DEADLY QUAKEAmong the main commodities, oil jumped for a second straight session driven by optimism about recovering demand in China, and after Monday's devastating earthquake in Turkey had shut down one of the region's major oil export terminals. "Equities have had a strong run since the start of the year so seeing an air pocket emerge now is no major surprise." Additional reporting by Scoot Murdoch in Sydney; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Jacqueline WongOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Bond strategists take axe to U.S. Treasury yield forecasts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Hari Kishan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Bond strategists at JPMorgan noted recently that the U.S. Treasury market is already priced for a recession and not just for the heightened risks of one. Already off their peaks from late last year and early 2023, major benchmark government bond yields have eased 20-40 basis points since, and more than 50 basis points on the particularly rate-sensitive U.S. two-year Treasury yield. That is about 30 basis points lower on the one-year horizon than a poll published in December. This would extend one of the longest periods on record where two-year yields have been higher than 10-year ones, a yield curve inversion. The poll expected German bund yields to rise from their current 2.25% to around 2.4% in three and six months.

☆ Europe's stellar stocks and bonds rally has gone too far - Amundi
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Naomi Rovnick | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/IllustrationLONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - A blazing rally in European stocks and government bonds has gone too far, the chief investment officer of the region's largest asset manager said on Wednesday, warning that markets are ignoring the possibility of euro zone rates going as high as 4%. MSCI's broad index of European shares outside the UK (.dMIEU00000PUS) is up 8.8% so far in January. "We could expect a consolidation of 15% to 20% from current levels," on European equity indices, Mortier said. "These kinds of processes are very powerful and work well until something breaks, and that's why we don't want to participate [in the rally]," Mortier said. Continued ECB rate rises after the U.S. Federal Reserve pauses its hiking cycle could see the dollar weaken further, he said.

☆ China's economy looks set for a rebound in 2023, but a lot depends on one variable, KraneShares says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

China's gross domestic product grew 3% in 2022, less than half of 2021's rate. China's economy looks poised for a rebound in 2023, but a lot depends on one variable — the consumer, said investment management firm KraneShares. "We believe the reopening may lead to a V-shaped recovery in the share prices of China's consumer brands in early 2023. "The fallout from regulatory changes affecting the real estate development industry lingered longer than expected despite a commitment from the government to stabilize the sector," Chen said. China's real estate market slowed down sharply in 2022 as the government tightened restrictions on borrowing by developers.

☆ China’s population drops for the first time in decades
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING — China's population declined in 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. Mainland China's population, excluding foreigners, fell by 850,000 people in 2022 to 1.41 billion, the statistics bureau said. The country reported 9.56 million births and 10.41 million deaths for 2022. In 2021, China's population grew by the slowest increase on record. The mainland China population, excluding foreigners, rose by 480,000 to 1.41 billion people at the end of 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

☆ Wall Street veteran whose fund returned 160% in 2022's bear market shares his trading 'bible'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Zavier Ong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Last year's bear market left many investors deep in the red, but hedge fund manager Neal Berger bucked the trend. 'My bible is the price action' That's why the veteran fund manager is sticking to his tried-and-proven playbook. "As a trader, my bible is the price action. I'm a student of price action and I'm going to be trading the market in accordance with the longer-term trends," he said. He noted that the one-year trend of all asset prices, such as stocks, bonds and crypto, is pointing downward.

☆ China’s local governments set 2023 growth targets, offering clues on economic recovery
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The meetings will culminate in the national parliamentary session to be held in March, in which the premier is expected to disclose the nation’s GDP growth target. So far, a group of government economists and international analysts have said they expect Beijing to set a growth target of above 5% in 2023. On Thursday, Zhejiang province, another major economic powerhouse, announced it’s targeting an expansion of more than 5% in 2023. On Wednesday, Shanghai, the most affluent city in mainland China, announced it would aim for 5.5% growth this year. On the same day, Fujian, Sichuan and Hebei provinces all disclosed growth targets of 6% for 2023.

☆ Analysis: Move over TINA, it's time for TARA
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Naomi Rovnick | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Reuters GraphicsIdanna Appio, a portfolio manager at First Eagle Investments, said that TINA was good for passive investors as it meant that equity prices went up because bond yields went down. "The risk free rate," he added, referring to core government bond yields, "actually gives you something." Bond funds recorded net inflows for six straight weeks until early January, BofA said, based on its analysis of EPFR data. "The end of TINA is very important," said Francesco Sandrini, head of multi-asset strategies at Amundi, Europe's largest fund manager. "You don’t need a bond bull market, you now have income," said Jeffrey Sherman, deputy chief investment officer at U.S. money manager DoubleLine.

☆ Asia-Pacific markets set to trade mixed as investors look ahead to Fed minutes
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A woman walks at the Bund in front of the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai, China. The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 25,800 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 25,790. Both are lower compared to the Nikkei 225 's last close at 26,094.50. Asia-Pacific shares are poised to trade mixed as investors look ahead to the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes for December, watching for signs of more interest rate hikes. In the day, investors look ahead to the release of the U.S. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, better known as JOLTS, as well as the minutes of the Fed's latest policy meeting set to come out in the afternoon stateside.

☆ European shares start 2023 on upbeat note on encouraging factory data
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Bansari Mayur Kamdar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The pan-regional STOXX 600 (.STOXX) rose 0.8%, supported by consumer discretionary stocks. "With 10-year bund yields above 2.50%, relaxed year-end trading and the probable drop in HICP inflation are raising hopes for an upbeat start into the year," Commerzbank Research analysts said in a note, referring to the euro zone consumer prices inflation data due later this week. Rate-sensitive technology stocks (.SX8P), among the worst-performing shares last year, rose 1.5% on the day, despite more hawkish signals from the European Central Bank. Bond yields of Europe's largest economy, Germany, dropped from their highest levels in more than a decade as investors braced for inflation data this week. The German DAX (.GDAXI) gained 1.0%, while other European exchanges also started the year on a positive note.

[1/6] People release balloons as they gather to celebrate New Year's Eve, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China January 1, 2023. “I was still afraid when I came out tonight, but I just wanted to come out, because everyone has come out." In late November hundreds of people took part in lockdown demonstrations on the streets of cities across the country including Wuhan. “Those restrictions were in place for too long, so perhaps people were pretty unhappy," said 24-year-old Wuhan resident surnamed Chen, who works in e-commerce. “People have been afraid to come out since the COVID policy was loosened,” he said.

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