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Central banks might make some progress toward their inflation targets by raising interest rates and managing demand, Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman said at the Reuters Next conference in New York. Central banks, by managing demand through interest rates, could probably "bring inflation down to around four percent. But he also nodded beyond the world's central banks to a needed supply-side solution to rising prices. So far, and particularly in the United States, the actions of central banks have not had an appreciable impact on core elements of the economy, particularly the job market. "I would be surprised if central banks officially moved the target, but they might decide to stay higher than it for some time."

In Beijing, hundreds of mostly young people demonstrated in the commercial heart of the city well into the small hours of Monday. Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of arts, freedom of movement, personal freedoms. A security guard tries to cover a protest slogan against zero-Covid on the campus of Peking University in Beijing. “Open your eyes and look at the world, dynamic zero-Covid is a lie,” the protest slogan at Peking University read. At Tsinghua University, another elite university in Beijing, hundreds of students gathered on a square to protest against zero-Covid and censorship.

BRUSSELS/BELGRADE, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday warned of "escalation and violence" after Kosovo and Serbia failed to agree in emergency talks on a solution to their long-running dispute over car licence plates used by the ethnic Serb minority in Kosovo. Kosovo has attempted this year to require its Serb minority to change their old car plates that date before 1999 when Kosovo was still part of Serbia. The dispute over licence plates has stoked tensions for almost two years between Serbia and its former breakaway province, which declared independence in 2008 and is home to a Serb minority in the north backed by Belgrade. Around 50,000 ethnic Serbs who live there refuse to recognise Pristina's authority and still consider themselves a part of Serbia. Additional reporting by Bart Meijer; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Josie KaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Bank of America shares one area of the bond market set to deliver 13% returns in 2023 — and lays out the drivers of its 'big reversal'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In a note to clients on Monday, Seliger said investment-grade corporate credit in particular is in for a big year. Investment-grade corporate bonds are those rated Baa by Moody's and BBB by S&P and Fitch because they're deemed to have low default risk. "This base case scenario implies a +12.9% total return and +379bps excess return for IG corporate bonds in 2023. Bank of AmericaBank of America's November survey of bond investors showed that both high yield bond investors and investment-grade bond investors expect BBB-rated bonds to outperform most relative to Treasurys in 2023. The iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) and the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCIT) are two ways to gain exposure to investment-grade corporate bonds.

☆ Wall Street ignored Big Tech's bloat during boom times. Now it's ready to slice and dice.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jake Swearingen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

As tech companies' stock has slumped, Wall Street now has leverage over companies. One reason for those layoffs: Wall Street is increasingly getting a say in how the tech giants are run. But 2022's slumping tech stocks and dismal revenue forecasts mean Wall Street suddenly has leverage. The more open question is whether tech companies are truly bloated regarding headcount. Wall Street will want to see companies cut costs, which will mean more layoffs.

[1/5] Climate activists take part in a protest during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 16, 2022. "There's still a lot of gaps in the texts," said a spokesperson for Britain's COP26 Presidency, which hosted last year's climate summit in Glasgow. EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said the first draft left a lot to be desired. TEMPERATURE TARGETOn limiting the global temperature rise, the document mirrors language included in last year's COP26 agreement. Temperatures have already increased by 1.1C, and are projected to blow past 1.5C without swift and deep cuts to emissions within this decade.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The U.N. climate agency published a first draft on Thursday of a hoped-for final agreement from the COP27 climate summit, repeating many of last year's goals while leaving contentious issues still to be resolved. The draft repeats the goal from last year's Glasgow Climate Pact "to accelerate measures towards the phase down of unabated coal power and phase out and rationalize inefficient fossil fuel subsidies." The text does not include details for launching such a fund - a key demand from the most climate vulnerable countries, such as island nations. Climate policy experts said there was deep concern about the talks reaching consensus on many key issues. The document is based on requests that delegates from nearly 200 countries have sought to be included in the final deal.

However, Biden said the weapon was probably not fired by Russia, although the investigation was ongoing. NATO ambassadors will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday with a news conference due around 11.30 GMT. The European common currency was then knocked off that high, falling as low as $1.028 after news of the explosion in Poland sent traders to the safety of the dollar, which also caused falls in equities. "Geopolitical risks continue to hang over currency markets and are likely to remain a key driver of volatility," she said. The greenback was also down 0.15% on the Swiss franc at 0.9418, near Tuesday's seven-month low, and the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six main peers, was 0.24% lower at 106.26.

☆ Asian stocks shaken by blast in Poland, dollar gains
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Xie Yu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Asian stocks dropped and the dollar gained on Wednesday after blasts in Poland that Ukraine and Polish authorities said were caused by Russian-made missiles. The potential for a further ratcheting up of geopolitical tensions saw MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) lose 0.6%. Australian shares (.AXJO) fell 0.5%, while Japan's Nikkei stock index (.N225) dropped 0.76%. NATO member Poland said on Wednesday that a Russian-made rocket killed two people in eastern Poland near Ukraine, and it summoned Russia's ambassador to Warsaw for an explanation after Moscow denied it was responsible. read moreThe dollar rose against major peers, led by a 0.3% advance versus the yen .

☆ Biden-Xi meeting brings North Korea into crosshairs. Sanctions are needed.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Anthony Ruggiero | Anthony Ruggiero Is Senior Director Of The Nonproliferation | Biodefense Program At The Foundation For Defense Of Democracies. He Previously Served On The National Security Council Under President Donald Trump As The Senior Director For Counterproliferation | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

But after North Korea re-engaged in negotiations, he reduced sanctions in exchange for promises of denuclearization, which Pyongyang soon violated. They included sanctions and an indictment against a Chinese company and four Chinese people who helped North Korea evade U.S. sanctions. This robust sanctions policy in the last year of Obama’s presidency extended into the beginning of his successor’s term. More than 20 countries curtailed diplomatic or commercial relationships with North Korea. Yet, instead of ratcheting up pressure on North Korea, Trump turned to other issues for the rest of his term.

☆ EXCLUSIVE Activist Impactive eyes proxy fight at Envestnet amid sluggish stock price
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Impactive is now ratcheting up the pressure on Envestnet, which provides technology and automation software for financial advisors and banks. In a letter to the board, seen by Reuters, Impactive wrote it sees "no choice but to consider nominating a slate of directors" to help correct a string of failures, including a sluggish share price. Impactive criticized the board for failing to evaluate what the returns would be on the spending. But Envestnet roundly rejected Impactive's earlier suggestions that Wolfe join its board, saying she is "not a good fit." Impactive disagrees and wrote that its record on boards has spanned years and "led to over 30% annualized returns for Impactive."

Nestle and P&G both raised prices by less than 9.5% in the same period, having roughly matched one another since mid-2021. Unilever said price rises vary by category and market and not all consumers were experiencing the 12.5% hikes. Unilever has high exposure to regions and countries with high inflation including Latin America, Turkey and Russia, while P&G is more U.S.-focused, Bernstein analyst Bruno Monteyne said. "These countries have high inflation, linked to weak foreign exchange. "We are still absorbing significant cost, which has led to a notable decline in our gross profit margin," a Nestle spokesperson said.

☆ YMTC could be added to U.S. trade blacklist next month: U.S. official
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Karen Freifeld | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Chinese memory chip maker YMTC and dozens of other Chinese entities are "at risk" of being added to a trade blacklist as soon as Dec. 6, a U.S. Commerce Department official said in prepared remarks seen by Reuters. Last month, 31 entities including YMTC were added to a list of companies that U.S. officials have been unable to inspect, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing and starting a 60 day-clock that could trigger the tougher penalties. YMTC and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. U.S. exporters must conduct additional due diligence before sending goods to entities placed on the "unverified list" and may have to apply for more licenses. Once a company is added to the entity list, its U.S. suppliers must seek a special license to ship even low tech items to it.

☆ The 3 biggest mistakes job seekers make after a layoff, from someone who's been let go twice
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Layoff numbers remain historically low in the labor market, but shocks to tech and finance jobs have been ratcheting up throughout the year. He's consistently noticed that sudden job seekers tend to make three big mistakes as they hit the market. But, another big mistake to avoid is asking for help but not being clear about what you're looking for in your next job or company, Ko says. That could mean putting out a call saying you can do anything, as mentioned above, or it can be staying vague about what title or level of work you're seeking. "Telling me you're looking for any job in operations or marketing doesn't help me."

☆ Jailed British-Egyptian activist escalates hunger strike by refusing water as COP27 gets underway
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Jailed British-Egyptian citizen Alaa Abdel-Fattah stepped up his hunger strike by refusing water, ratcheting up fears for the life of one of the country's leading rights activists just as world leaders arrive in Egypt for the start of the COP27 climate summit. Amnesty International chief Agnes Callamard said Sunday that authorities had less than three days to save Abdel-Fattah's life, warning that failure to intervene would overshadow the U.N.'s flagship climate conference. The 40-year-old has stopped drinking water in a desperate attempt to pressure Egyptian authorities to allow him U.K. consular access. The escalation of Abdel-Fattah's hunger strike has prompted grave concerns for the prominent human rights activist and writer, who had consumed just 100 calories a day for more than 200 days. Egypt is hosting the COP27 climate summit in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh through to Nov. 18.

☆ Bank of England set for biggest rate hike in 33 years, but economists expect dovish tilt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

New Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has scrapped the controversial tax cuts at the heart of predecessor Liz Truss' fiscal policy agenda, meaning fiscal and monetary policy are no longer pulling in opposite directions. Deutsche Bank also expects a split vote on Thursday in favor of a 75-basis-point hike, taking the key interest rate to 3%. Deutsche Bank now expects the Bank Rate to reach 4.5% by May next year, down from its previous projection of 4.75%, on account of retreating fiscal stimulus and a push toward fiscal consolidation. watch nowBank of England Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy Ben Broadbent said in a recent speech that GDP would take a "pretty material" hit from such aggressive policy tightening. The Bank's August growth forecasts, which already pointed to a five-quarter recession, were based on a much lower Bank Rate of around 3%.

☆ Biden Calls for Penalties on Oil-and-Gas Companies’ ‘Windfall’ Profits
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Andrew Restuccia | Collin Eaton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

President Biden, who spoke Monday the White House, has seen his approval rating hampered by high prices for energy, among other factors. WASHINGTON—President Biden called on Congress to penalize oil-and-gas companies if they don’t use their profits to help lower energy costs for consumers, ratcheting up his criticism of the fossil-fuel industry ahead of next week’s midterm elections. “Their profits are a windfall of war,” Mr. Biden said Monday at the White House. “At a time of war, any company receiving historic windfall profits like this has a responsibility to act beyond the narrow self-interest of its executives and shareholders.” World energy prices have risen in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

☆ America and Saudi Arabia are locked in a bitter battle over oil. The stakes are massive
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN Business —The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is one of the most important on the planet. Biden visited Saudi Arabia over the summer and even fist-bumped Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi Arabia could respond to penalties from Washington with drastic steps of their own, ratcheting up the conflict further. Saudi Arabia is sitting on roughly $119 billion of US debt, according to Treasury Department data, making it the world’s 16th largest holder of Treasuries. All of this explains why a full-blown breakdown in relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia may be the last thing the fragile economy needs right now.

☆ Analysis: U.S. junk bond investors face tough choice as yields spike
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Matt Tracy | Shankar Ramakrishnan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A sell-off in the U.S junk bond market is presenting investors with a buying opportunity but some are holding back, worried that a looming recession could spark widespread credit defaults. That level is the highest for yields since April 2020, while the index is down some 13% this year. That level is a critical zone of credit stress where credit markets become vulnerable to dysfunction, said Oleg Melentyev, credit strategist at the bank. DEARTH OF OFFERINGSAt the same time, risk aversion has slowed new bond issuance in the primary high-yield market to a trickle. That could change in 2023, however, if a recession further dampens activity in primary markets and borrowing costs remain high, spurring potential defaults in the lowest rungs of junk-rated bonds.

☆ Biden targets Nicaragua’s gold in new move against President Daniel Ortega
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Previous rounds of sanctions have focused on Ortega, his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, and members of their family and inner circle. Together with the Treasury Department’s simultaneous sanctioning of Nicaragua’s General Directorate of Mines, the order all but makes it illegal for Americans to do business with Nicaragua’s gold industry. The Biden administration’s targeting of the gold industry could sap Ortega’s government of one of its biggest sources of revenue. According to Nicaragua’s Central Bank, the country exported a record 348,532 ounces of gold in 2021 and the country’s mining association projects exports totaling 500,000 ounces in 2023. Nicaraguans began fleeing their country in 2018, initially to neighboring Costa Rica, after Ortega violently put down massive street protests.

Associate Justice Elena Kagan poses during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., April 23, 2021. Erin Schaff/Pool via REUTERS/File PhotoOct 21 (Reuters) - Liberal Justice Elena Kagan on Friday expressed hope that her colleagues on the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court could get back to finding "common ground," saying it risked looking political by continuing to overturn legal precedents. Speaking at an event at the University of Pennsylvania, Kagan did not explicitly reference the Supreme Court's decision in June to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. Cases on the court's docket this term present opportunities for the court's conservative justices to flex their mussels further by weakening the landmark Voting Rights Act and barring the consideration of race in college admissions. "Time will tell whether this is a court that can get back to finding common ground, to ratcheting down the level of decision making so we can reach compromises," Kagan said.

Christine Drazan, the Republican nominee in the tight three-way race for governor in Oregon, is ratcheting up attacks on Democrat Tina Kotek on homelessness and education in a new ad that will launch later Monday. The 30-second ad, shared first with NBC News ahead of its release, will run statewide on television and on digital. It is part of a weekly ad buy for more than $1 million, Drazan campaign spokesperson John Burke said. “Leaders like Tina Kotek and Kate Brown have let us down,” Drazan says in the ad in a direct-to-camera appeal. Oregon voters have not elected a Republican governor since 1982.

☆ Apple freezes plans to use China's YMTC chips - Nikkei
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Oct 17 (Reuters) - U.S. tech giant Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has put on hold plans to use memory chips from China's Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) in its products, after Washington imposed tighter export controls against Chinese technology companies, the Nikkei reported on Monday. Apple had originally planned to start using state-funded YMTC's NAND flash memory chips as early as this year, Nikkei said, citing people familiar with the matter. The chips were initially planned to be used only for iPhones sold in the Chinese market. It was considering eventually purchasing up to 40% of the chips needed for all iPhones from YMTC, the newspaper said. Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment, while YMTC declined to comment.

☆ Activist Investor Urges Kohl’s to Replace Board Members
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Lauren Thomas | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Kohl’s has a market value of about $3 billion, with the shares off by nearly half this year. An activist investor that has long targeted Kohl’s is ratcheting up the pressure, calling on the department-store chain to make changes to its board or face another proxy fight. Macellum Advisors GP LLC, which has a roughly 5% stake in Kohl’s, is urging the company to replace three or more long-tenured directors, including its chairman, after sale talks collapsed earlier this year and as the share price sags, people familiar with the matter said.

☆ Josh Brown says the Fed has 'zero credibility' after big miss on 2022 rate hike forecasts
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Jesse Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown said Tuesday that investors should put little weight on the Federal Reserve's predictions about rate hikes after the central bank's missteps over the past year. "This is a body of people who one year ago today were telling us, based on their forecasts, that there would be no rate hikes in 2022. The only thing worse than the Fed's forecast is no forecast, which is why cling to these things, but in reality they don't know what they're going to do," he added. The Federal Reserve has implemented three consecutive rate hikes of 75 basis points, or three-quarters of one percent. The rapid rate hikes come as inflation has stayed stubbornly high throughout 2022 and Fed officials have abandoned their previous position that the price increases would prove "transitory."

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