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☆ Hong Kong’s dollar stress gets more fundamental
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Pete Sweeney | Thomson Reuters | Asia Economics Editor Pete Sweeney Joined Reuters Breakingviews In Hong Kong In September Previously He Served As Reuters' Chief Correspondent For China Economy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

HONG KONG, April 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Hong Kong’s currency peg to the greenback is stuck between a rock and a hard place. In the past 12 months, the de-facto central bank has stepped in to buy Hong Kong dollars from the market roughly 40 times. Some foreign financiers, including Pershing Square boss Bill Ackman, argue Hong Kong’s financial system can’t sustain the peg and question its rationale. But in the long run, demand for Hong Kong dollars depends on confidence in its economic strategy. Hong Kong’s peg is durable enough for now, but its future is in doubt nevertheless.

☆ US home solar installers brace for slowdown as California reform looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Nichola Groom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

California boasts 38% of the nation's residential solar capacity, buttressing the U.S. market's 40% surge in 2022, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group. More than 1.5 million Golden State homes have solar, state data show. They and others have noted a spike in California installations this year as consumers scrambled to get systems connected before the policy change on April 15. California Solar & Storage Association Executive Director Bernadette Del Chiaro called the transition difficult. Residential solar installers are already grappling with higher interest rates that cut into the value of financed systems, and tighter available credit.

☆ Asteroid discovery suggests ingredients for life on Earth came from space
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] The carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu is seen from a distance of about 12 miles (20 km) during the Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa2 mission on June 30, 2018. Scientists said on Tuesday they detected uracil and niacin in rocks obtained by the Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft from two sites on Ryugu in 2019. Scientists long have pondered about the conditions necessary for life to arise after Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago. "It was directly sampled on the asteroid Ryugu and returned to Earth, and finally to laboratories without any contact with terrestrial contaminants." The U.S. space agency NASA during its OSIRIS-REx mission collected samples in 2020 from the asteroid Bennu.

Companies Morgan Stanley FollowMarch 15 (Reuters) - The top U.S. markets regulator on Wednesday proposed a suite of new policies designed to harden the financial system against hacking, data theft and systems failure. The three rule proposals together govern how broker-dealers address hacking incidents and protect consumer data, and how stock exchanges, transaction clearing houses and others deemed critical to national economic security gird themselves against system failure and cyber-intrusion. Broker-dealers, securities exchanges and others would also be required to maintain cybersecurity risk policies and notify the SEC "immediately" of "significant" incidents. Gensler, in prepared remarks, called the proposal "the first explicitly to address cybersecurity practices for the majority of these market entities." A similar proposal last year for investment firms called for confidential notice within 48 hours, drawing objections that this could hinder efforts to respond to hacking incidents quickly.

☆ Oil mixed as investors weigh China demand and U.S. outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Mohi Narayan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Jan 24 (Reuters) - Crude oil prices edged higher in Asian trade on Tuesday amid hopes of a fuel demand recovery from top importer China, although concerns about a slowdown in the U.S. economy capped gains. Brent crude was down 5 cents to $88.14 per barrel by 0436 GMT after rising to a session high of $88.36. Commodities like crude oil, refined petroleum products, LNG, and soybeans are set to benefit from China's demand tailwind, analysts at Goldman Sachs said. "Besides, the greenback hovering around a multi-month low is buttressing oil prices," independent oil market expert Sugandha Sachdeva said. This week traders are watching for more business data that could indicate the health of global economies during an earnings reporting season.

“Mission Hospital used to be where everyone would go if they wanted good care,” Jaquins said, reflecting on her previous experiences with the health care system. Sue Fischer is a longtime HCA employee who’s concerned about patient care in her facility. “We were a great system as Mission Health and we’re an even better system as HCA Mission Health,” she said. “Delays in care is the biggest patient care issue I see because of staffing,” Hernandez said. According to the CMS ranking system, Mission Hospital currently holds an above-average overall quality rating — four stars out of a possible five.

☆ Polycrisis may lead to polycentric world order
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Another scenario is possible: a “polycentric order” with multiple centres of authority, where the United States is the leading power but not the hegemonic one. Indeed, the outlines of such an order may already be emerging out of the conflagration of economic, political and other shocks often labelled the polycrisis. A polycentric order would be different from what is often called a “multipolar” system - a dog-eats-dog world where big powers have a licence to dominate their neighbours. The United States is not nearly as powerful as it was. President Joe Biden realises the United States needs allies, says Peter Engelke of the Atlantic Council think tank.

☆ China’s Pro-Business Shift May Prove Fickle
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Nathaniel Taplin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

China’s change in tone, and news on audits in particular, is positive for U.S.-listed Chinese tech companies such as Alibaba. U.S.-listed Chinese companies are finally getting some light shown on their books by U.S. audit officials. A letter from Terry Gou , the founder of Apple supplier Foxconn, was a key factor behind Beijing’s sudden shift away from its draconian set of zero-Covid policies. The Politburo last week explicitly named buttressing foreign investors’ sentiment as a key priority. And Chinese ride-hailing company Didi, under a more-or-less unrelenting regulatory assault since mid-2021, may soon be permitted back into domestic app stores.

November's labor force participation rate of 62.1% was almost exactly where it was in January, with little variation in between. Each month millions of adults change their work status: Some join the labor market by either accepting a job or starting a job search; others move between a job and unemployment; some leave the labor market altogether. Increasingly "workers leaving employment are dropping out of the labor force, not becoming unemployed," TS Lombard economist Steven Blitz wrote recently. Recent changes in labor flow data "underscores the Fed's concern about the supply-demand labor imbalance underpinning inflation." Reuters GraphicsFEWER 'UNRETIREMENTS'The payroll jobs and labor force data come from different surveys, one of firms and one of households, and might be revised over time.

But among critics, their appearance has evoked parallels with the civil war when the state collapsed, militias controlled the streets and Beirut split into cantons. Such criticisms are rejected by Gemayel, a lawmaker in the Kataeb Party whose father, Bashir, led the main Christian militia in the civil war until he was assassinated in 1982 after being elected president. Lebanon's sectarian parties disarmed at the end of the war, bar Hezbollah, which kept its arsenal to fight Israel. Their pervasive influence is never far from the surface and tensions are common in a country awash with guns. Supporters of different groups fought deadly clashes in Beirut as recently as last year.

☆ Australia to become 'more assertive' on foreign investment in critical minerals
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Australia, a major supplier of minerals key to the energy transition like rare earths, has more to gain by encouraging investment from allies to build up its minerals processing industry, Chalmers said at a conference in Sydney. "Foreign investment is a good thing when it’s in our national interest," Chalmers said. "But as investment interest grows, and as the sources of that investment interest grow, we’ll need to be more assertive about encouraging investment that clearly aligns with our national interest in the longer term." The Labor government which took power in May is buttressing Australia's policy to build out a critical minerals processing supply chain. Australia is revising its critical minerals strategy and has been positioning itself as a green superpower, backed by its mineral endowments.

☆ G20 vows to calibrate pace of interest rate hikes, avoid spillovers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Leika Kihara | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The central banks will also be mindful of the need to limit spillovers, the statement added, in a nod to emerging economies' concerns about the potential for huge capital outflows if aggressive U.S. rate hikes continue. The emphasis on the need to fight inflation contrasted with the G20 statement last year, which said central banks must avoid overreacting to transitory rises in inflation. The G20 leaders also called for "temporary and targeted" fiscal spending to low-income households which are particularly vulnerable to rising living costs. Now, policymakers are faced with the dilemma of having to combat inflation with interest rate hikes, without cooling economies that are already facing the risk of recession. "It may not happen everywhere, but several key countries risk sliding into recession," said WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

"Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy," the draft said, suggesting that Russia had opposed the language. "There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions," said the draft declaration, which was confirmed by a European diplomat. "Recognising that the G20 is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy," the draft declaration said. Fiscal stimulus measures should be "temporary and targeted" to cushion the blow of rising commodity costs for the most vulnerable, to avoid adding to inflationary pressures, the draft declaration said. Wrangling over how to describe the war in Ukraine has prevented G20 ministers earlier this year from issuing a joint communique.

Among the provisions being challenged is one that gives a preference to Native Americans seeking to foster or adopt Native American children, which those challenging the law say discriminates on the basis of race. The challengers are led by Chad and Jennifer Brackeen — a white evangelical Christian couple who sought to adopt a Native American boy — as well as the states of Texas, Indiana and Louisiana. Tribes have also warned that a ruling striking down provisions of the law on racial discrimination grounds would threaten centuries of law that treat Native American tribes as distinct entities. Both sides appealed to the Supreme Court after the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. The Supreme Court has been closely divided in two major recent cases on Native American issues.

☆ Even as inflation bites, consumers are still turning to Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

A spate of fresh data this week showed consumers are feeling the sting from high inflation. But those figures were not adjusted for inflation, indicating that consumer spending on retail actually fell last month. But while consumers are tempering their discretionary budgets this holiday season, Amazon remains their shopping platform of choice, according to Baird. In a separate note Thursday, Cowen said its shopping survey of Gen Z and Millennials showed Amazon to be their "most preferred" shopping website. An Amazon Prime truck is pictured as it crosses the George Washington Bridge on Interstate Route 95 during Amazon's two-day "Prime Early Access Sale" shopping event for Amazon members in New York, October 11, 2022.

☆ Life after monkeypox: Men describe an uncertain road to recovery
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Benjamin Ryan | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +16 min

Following recovery from this skin lesion–causing virus, people often find themselves waiting anxiously over the course of months to see whether monkeypox will leave them with permanent scarring. The marks are also signals of an infection that because it largely transmits through sex between men, can be highly stigmatized. Gerald Febles points to a scar left from his monkeypox outbreak. He founded a Zoom-based monkeypox support group for people with the virus he met mainly through social media. “I need to get back to my normal life,” said Galaise, who works for a New York City governmental agency.

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