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☆ Premarket stocks: The Grinch comes for retailers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

What’s happening: US retail sales, which measure the total amount of money that stores make from selling goods to customers, fell 0.6% in November, the weakest performance in nearly a year. The Fed factor: November’s report could indicate that consumers are feeling the double-punch of sky-high inflation and painful interest rate hikes from the central bank. This retail sales data adds to recessionary concerns, as it suggests that consumers may be becoming more cautious with their spending. Those increases were spurred by the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented campaign of harsh interest rate hikes to tame soaring inflation. The Fed announced on Wednesday that it will continue to raise interest rates — albeit by a smaller amount than it has been.

☆ Rents are falling — it could help pull mortgage rates down even lower
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Falling rents could help bring inflation down, leading to less mortgage interest rate hikes. And if this trend continues, it could even help ease inflation and ultimately lead to lower mortgage rates. Another important component in the slowing rent growth is that it could lead to cheaper mortgage rates. Slowing inflation has already translated to lower mortgage rates, which peaked at over 7% in October. Over the last five weeks, mortgage rates have declined by more than three quarters of a point — marking the largest drop since 2008.

☆ Mortgage rates drop for fifth week in a row
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Anna Bahney | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Washington, DC CNN —Mortgage rates fell once again this week, dipping for the fifth straight week. But mortgage rates have tumbled in the last several weeks, following data that showed inflation may have finally reached its peak. The rate hike was already factored in to where mortgage rates are, but signaled more good news on inflation. Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds. Mortgage applications tick upFor people looking to buy a home, and homeowners wanting to sell, the retreat in mortgage rates over the past several weeks has been welcome.

The fed funds rate currently stands in the 4.25%-4.50% range. Plenty of investors believe the Fed will stick to its guns, even if the economy wobbles. The Fed's economic projections showed rates dropping to 4.1% in 2024, higher than estimated three months ago. She is expecting the gyrations that rocked bonds this year to continue, driven in part by investors second-guessing the Fed's commitment to keeping monetary policy tight. "We have a generation of traders that has never seen the Fed not bail it out when push comes to shove."

☆ Peru diplomatic spat grows as envoys in Mexico, Argentina summoned home
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Marco Aquino | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Supporters of Peru's former President Pedro Castillo gather outside the police prison where he is being held, in Lima, December 15, 2022. REUTERS/Sebastian CastanedaLIMA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A diplomatic spat over Peru deepened on Thursday as the new foreign minister formally summoned ambassadors home from countries including Mexico and Argentina, which have criticized the recent ouster of former president Pedro Castillo. On Monday, four nations led by leftist presidents - Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico - signed onto a joint statement declaring Castillo "a victim of undemocratic harassment." Gervasi wrote in a post on Twitter that the consultations "relate to interference in the internal affairs of Peru." Boluarte's week-old administration, which she has said will be a transition government, has been recognized by Chile's leftist president, plus by Uruguay, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Canada and the United States.

☆ It's been a decade since the Sandy Hook shooting. Here are the names and pictures of the 27 victims, including 20 children, who were murdered that day.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Michal Kranz | Rebecca Harrington | Azmi Haroun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twenty children and six staff members were killed in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012. It was the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in US history. The 20-year-old gunman also killed his mother that day and shot himself after the massacre. "Sad for the searing loss, that hurts like hell every Dec 14th for those parents, my friends. Here are all 27 people killed in the deadliest elementary school shooting in US history.

“I haven’t seen sunlight in what seems like a long time,” Li told CNN, a week after the protests broke out. In recent years, Beijing has extended its crackdown on dissent to the foreign platform, detaining and jailing Chinese Twitter users who criticized the government. TwitterLi received thousands of submissions a day – and up to dozens per second at the height of the protests. Journalists, observers and activists monitored his feed closely, and some of his posts were aired on televisions across the world. And then they went to our house at midnight to harass my parents,” Li said.

☆ What next for Stadium 974, the World Cup's first 'fully-demountable' arena?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Rohith Nair | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Expensive World Cup stadiums have often proven to be white elephants for the host country but the temporary arena that is Stadium 974, unveiled in November last year, has done its job and its prefabricated pieces will soon be dismantled. Described as the "first fully-demountable tournament venue" in World Cup history, the arena will also host a fashion show on Dec. 16 - two days before the final - with several music artists set to perform. METAL ARENAStadium 974 is the first stadium fans arriving in Qatar see when they land at the airport and travel into central Doha. The 44,089-capacity stadium is named after the number of containers of various bright colours used to build the arena, while 974 is also Qatar's international dialling code. Stadium 974 is also the only one of eight World Cup arenas in Qatar without air conditioning, which meant all seven games it hosted could only be played after sunset.

☆ Moroccans celebrate historic World Cup win against Spain
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Its World Cup success has reverberated across the Arab world and among Moroccan and some other immigrant communities in Europe. “Today is a day of joy for Moroccans and all the Arab world,” Lotfi said. “Morocco is representing all the Arab world, all the African continent, that is beyond description, it is the most glorious part,” he said. In Qatar, Moroccan fans clashed briefly with police outside the stadium before the game started. Ten days ago riots broke out in Belgium and the Netherlands as Morocco fans celebrated beating Belgium in the group stage in Qatar.

☆ Markets 'completely ignored' Powell's balanced inflation remarks and are not pricing in key risks, Mohamed El-Erian says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Markets are dismissing inflation risks after Powell signaled rate hikes may slow, Mohamed El-Erian said. But inflation is likely to stay sticky next year, and there are still credit and earnings risks for stocks. "So the marketplace is saying inflation risks are over. The market isn't focusing yet on credit and earnings risk, and that's because … there's no sign of a recession," El-Erian added. So keep an open mind, and let's not repeat the mistake of last year, when we all embraced transitory inflation," El-Erian said.

☆ New Disney CEO reportedly joked to employees that his wife wanted him to return to keep him from running for US president
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Disney CEO Bob Iger said his wife encouraged him to return to Disney to avoid a presidential run, CNBC reported. Iger opened a town hall with Disney staff on Monday with a quote from "Hamilton," per the report. But the sun comes up and the world still spins," Iger quoted, sources who attended the town hall told CNBC. When he first stepped down from his role as Disney CEO in 2020, Iger said in a podcast that he'd seriously considered running for office on multiple occasions. "You can run for anything you want, but not with this wife," Iger said Bay told him.

Blackouts forced the shutdown of reactors at Ukraine's Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in the south and the Rivne and Khmelnitskyi plants in the west, all in government-held territory, the state-run nuclear energy firm Energoatom said. "Currently, they (power units) work in project mode, without generation into the domestic energy system," Energoatom said. Explosions reverberated throughout Kyiv on Wednesday afternoon as Russian missiles bore down and Ukrainian air defence rockets were fired in efforts to intercept them. Most thermal and hydro-electric power plants were forced to shut down as well, Ukraine's energy ministry said earlier. [1/15] Rescuers work at a site of a residential building destroyed by a Russian missile attack, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Vyshhorod, near Kyiv, Ukraine, November 23, 2022.

☆ Gareth Bale saves Wales to frustrate USMNT
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Ben Church | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Matthew Ashton/AMA/Getty Images Walker Zimmerman fouls Wales' Gareth Bale in the box, conceding a second-half penalty that Bale would convert to tie the match at 1-1. Pedro Nunes/Reuters US fans stand for the national anthem prior to the Wales match. Stu Forster/Getty Images Wales' Neco Williams tries to fend off Weston McKennie on Monday. Francisco Seco/AP A family watches the opening match from their home in Doha. But just as all hope looked to have disappeared for Wales, Bale was clumsily brought down by Walker Zimmerman in the US box.

☆ Binance to relaunch bid to buy bankrupt Voyager Digital - Coindesk
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 17 (Reuters) - Crypto exchange Binance's U.S. unit is relaunching its bid to buy bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, Coindesk reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The report comes after Voyager called off FTX's bid to acquire the company following its collapse. In September, the Wall Street Journal had reported that Binance and FTX came up with the leading bids to buy Voyager's assets. FTX had won Voyager's assets in a $1.42-billion bid at an auction thereafter. The collapse of FTX, which reverberated across the crypto world, sending bitcoin and other digital assets plummeting, impacted nearly one million customers and several investors as they faced billions of dollars in losses.

☆ Special Report: FTX's Bankman-Fried begged for a rescue even as he revealed huge holes in firm's books
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Angus Berwick Anirban Sen Elizabeth Howcroft Lawrence Delevingne | Angus Berwick | Anirban Sen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +22 min

Sequoia was shocked at the amount of money Bankman-Fried needed to save FTX, according to the sources, while Apollo first asked for more information, only to later decline. The booklet flagged the risks of crypto trading, particularly how sudden sales of tokens could trigger a "domino effect" that would lead to a "cascading set of liquidity failures." Using profits from Alameda, Bankman-Fried launched FTX in 2019. From almost nothing in 2019, FTX handled about 10% of global crypto trading this year, a September document shows. At one point, he lived in a penthouse overlooking the Caribbean, valued at almost $40 million, according to two people who worked with FTX.

☆ U.S. House committee to hold hearing on collapse of FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. House Financial Services Committee said Wednesday it plans to hold a hearing in December to investigate the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The committee said it expects to hear from the companies and individuals involved, including FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda Research, Binance, FTX and related entities, among others. House Financial Services committee top Republican Patrick McHenry said "we must get to the bottom of this for FTX’s customers and the American people. It’s essential that we hold bad actors accountable so responsible players can harness technology to build a more inclusive financial system." Last week, U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow said Congress needs to pass legislation after the FTX collapse.

☆ Crypto's been 'cut to ribbons' - but it can survive FTX's crash if players stop lighting each other up on Twitter, Anthony Scaramucci says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Anthony Scaramucci said the crypto industry has been "cut to ribbons" this year, after FTX's crash. He said the industry can only grow up if crypto players stop lighting each other up on Twitter. Scaramucci stressed that the crypto industry can only grow up if crypto players collaborated with each more instead of banging heads with each other. Before FTX's downfall that reverberated through the crypto industry, Zhao tweeted that Binance would be liquidating all its FTT tokens — a crypto token native to FTX — due to "recent revelations." He told CNBC hours before FTX filed for bankruptcy that he's in a worse position because Bankman-Fried has hurt the industry.

☆ Analysis: Iran's unrest sounds death knell for once vibrant reformists
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

It highlighted the main problem facing reformists in a system where Khamenei, 83 and in power since 1989, wields ultimate power. "People feel reformists helped hardliners by promising reforms that were impossible with hardliners in power," a former official who served in the Khatami administration told Reuters. The reform movement is dead." That view has been echoed in the streets where protesters have grouped reformists with hardliners as part of the problem. The fact is that the reform movement is dead, its has been dead for some time," he said.

☆ Take Five: It's rate hike central
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - It's rate hike central with monetary policy meetings in the United States, Britain, Australia and Norway in the week ahead. Graphics by Vincent Flasseur and Sumanta Sen.1/ FOUR IN A ROWA fourth straight jumbo 75-basis point (bps) interest rate hike is widely expected when the Federal Reserve meets on Nov 1-2. Fed chair Jerome Powell has come under political pressure to be careful of putting U.S. jobs at risk by tightening policy too much. Inflation in the bloc hit 10.7%, accelerating from 9.9% last month and dashing hopes that peak inflation could be near. The European Central Bank just delivered its second 75 bps rate increase to control price pressures.

☆ Take Five: It's rate-hike central
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - It's rate-hike central with monetary policy meetings in the United States, Britain, Australia and Norway in the week ahead. Fed chair Jerome Powell has come under political pressure to be careful of putting U.S. jobs at risk by tightening policy too much. A consequential week for markets also includes Friday's October U.S. payrolls report, with economists polled by Reuters forecasting the economy created 200,000 new jobs. Inflation in the bloc is running at almost 10% and the European Central Bank just delivered its second 75 bps rate increase to control price pressures. Like other big central banks, the ECB is hoping for signs that peak inflation is coming.

☆ 2-year Treasury yield tops 4.6% as recession fears grow louder
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Sophie Kiderlin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed as high as 4.18% on Thursday, reaching level last seen over 14 years ago in mid-2008. It was last up by 3.8 basis points to 4.167%. The yield on the policy-sensitive 2-year Treasury was last at 4.612% after rising by six basis points to levels last noted in 2007. The yield on the German 10-year bund was last up by around 8 basis points to 2.448%, levels last seen in 2013. Meanwhile, the British 10-year gilt yield was up 9 basis points to 3.964% amidst economic turmoil in the U.K.

☆ Iranian officials say Tehran prison blaze killed 4 inmates
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

TOPSHOT - This image obtained from the Iranian news agency IRNA on October 16, 2022, shows a fire truck in front of the Evin prison, in the northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran. Families of inmates gathered Sunday near the prison hoping for news of their loved ones inside. Another man, Reza, who also gave only his first name, said his brother has been in Evin Prison since last year after he was involved in a violent quarrel. Iranian social media posts challenged state media claims over the cause of the fire and apparent explosions at the prison. Evin Prison, which holds detainees facing security-related charges and includes dual citizens, has been charged by rights groups with abusing inmates.

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File PhotoOct 12 (Reuters) - Signs of stress are growing in the global financial system, sparking worries over everything from contagion between markets to ruptures in financial products. This week alone, a gloomy report from the International Monetary Fund flagged risks of “disorderly asset repricings” and “financial market contagions” while JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon predicted a looming recession. Global financial conditions, which reflect the availability of funding, touched their tightest since 2009 in late September, an index compiled by Goldman Sachs showed, lifted by surging interest rates, falling equities and a soaring dollar. “There are dollar funding shortages.”The IMF's Global Financial Stability Report, released Tuesday, also highlighted specific risks in open-end investment funds and the leveraged loan market. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday said she has not seen signs of financial instability in U.S. financial markets despite high volatility.

☆ Sterling slippery, stocks stalling as BoE boost fades
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

S&P 500 futures fell 0.2%. European futures rose 0.6% and FTSE futures lifted 0.3%. The U.S. dollar index had its worst session in 2-1/2 years on Wednesday, recoiling from record highs. The Australian dollar fell 0.8% to $0.6470. Brent crude futures fell 0.8% to $88.62 a barrel.

☆ Stocks bounce but sterling slippery after BoE buys bonds
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Bank of England said it will buy as much as £5 billion ($5.4 billion) a day of long-dated government bonds until Oct. 14. For one, this re-stimulation will lift, not quell UK inflation, and that's bad for bonds and sterling." The mood gave pause to the U.S. dollar's march higher and the dollar index had its worst session in 2-1/2 years as the greenback recoiled from lofty heights. The dollar index was up 0.1% to 113.12, within striking distance of Wednesday's 20-year high of 114.78. ($1 = 0.9252 pounds)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterEditing by Shri NavaratnamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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