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☆ From GE to Siemens, the wind energy industry hopes billions in losses are about to end
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Bob Woods | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The wind farm includes 132 2-megawatt Gamesa G80 wind turbines along 12 miles of the Allegheny Front. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesIt's been a tough couple of years for the U.S. wind energy industry. Although 2023 is expected to remain sluggish, GE Renewable Energy, Siemens Energy and Vestas Wind Systems, the leading makers of wind turbines — outside of China, which has built the world's largest wind energy infrastructure — and their suppliers are banking on growth over the next decade, particularly in the nascent offshore wind niche. "The wind energy market is stuck in this very strange paradox right now," said Aaron Barr, an industry analyst at Wood Mackenzie. Comparatively, the U.S. offshore wind industry is just ramping up after years of delays in permitting, environmental approvals and power purchasing agreements with utilities that buy wind energy.

☆ Stock market bulls got what they wanted today: a Goldilocks CPI
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The March consumer price index was up 0.1% month over month, lower than the 0.2% expected. Core CPI (ex-food and energy) up 0.4% month over month, in-line with expectations. Today's CPI is helpful for the bulls' central thesis: that the Fed's tightening period is nearing an end. Bottom line: the CPI data has a shot at pushing the S & P out of the doldrums. The S & P 500 has been in a very narrow 50-point trading range for over a week.

☆ Hopes for Hong Kong’s IPO Market Rest on Alibaba, JD.com Carve-Outs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Dave Sebastian | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Plans by two of China’s biggest technology companies to sell shares in their subsidiaries could give a jolt of confidence to a Hong Kong IPO market that has been in the doldrums for more than a year. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which is listed in Hong Kong and New York, said last week it would reorganize into six independently run companies and explore IPOs for them. Not long after, smaller rival JD.com Inc. filed paperwork in the Asian financial hub to sell shares in its property and industrial units, which The Wall Street Journal reported were aiming to raise about $1 billion each this year.

☆ Books in Bloom: The Best Reading for Spring
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Wsj Books Staff | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Illustration by Jennifer Potter for the WSJRenewal is in the air: Whether you’re moved by the prospect of fresh blossoms or a new season on the golf course, our reviewers have collected a bouquet of reading delights sure to inspire new adventures. This season’s offerings include contributions from Edward Kosner on sports biographies, Eugenia Bone on guides to foraging in the wild, Timothy Farrington on accounts of some memorable walks, Tucker Shaw on cookbooks to relieve kitchen doldrums and Dominique Browning on the all-important garden.

☆ US home prices fell in January for the seventh-straight month
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Anna Bahney | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington, DC CNN —US home prices fell for the seventh month in a row in January, even as mortgage rates eased, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller US National Home Price Index, released Tuesday. Miami had a year-over-year price increase of 13.8%, followed by Tampa with a 10.5% increase and Atlanta with an 8.4% increase. That battle has caused mortgage rates to spike over the past year, resulting in many home buyers being priced out of purchasing a home. Mortgage rates are expected to be volatile for as long as the Fed has to work to pull back runaway inflation. “Just how much prices will rise from winter lows will depend on whether mortgage rates stabilize and creep downward or stay high and volatile.”

☆ NBA roundup: Warriors withstand Joel Embiid's 46-point game
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

[1/5] Mar 24, 2023; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) dribbles the basketball against the Philadelphia 76ers in the fourth quarter at Chase Center. A 23-9 run in the first 5:59 out of the locker room quickly flipped the game in the Kings' favor. Booker finished with 32 points, 14 in the fourth quarter, and Ross' 30 points marked a season high. Italian rookie Simone Fontecchio led Utah with 26 points, while Kelly Olynyk chipped in with 16 points and seven rebounds. Haliburton and Myles Turner each scored 20 points to lead Indiana, which trailed by 29 in the fourth quarter.

☆ Pessimism persists at big Japanese manufacturers amid global slowdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Tetsushi Kajimoto | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Reuters Tankan, designed to closely track the Bank of Japan's key quarterly tankan survey, suggested the central bank's survey due next April 3 will likely show deterioration in business confidence at big manufacturers. The sentiment index for big manufacturers stood at minus 3, slightly up from minus 5 seen in the previous month, according to the survey conducted March 8-17. Compared with three months ago, the manufacturers' index was down 11 points, suggesting worsening of sentiment in the BOJ tankan's headline big manufacturers index. The Reuters Tankan index is expected to rebound to plus 10 over the next three months. The large service-sector firms' index rebounded to plus 21 in March from plus 17 seen in the previous month.

☆ CNBC Daily Open: First Republic Bank is trying to save itself
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Yeo Boon Ping | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Markets might face a Minsky moment soon, warned Marko Kolanovic, JPMorgan Chase's chief market strategist and co-head of global research. With that in mind, investors might want to heed Kolanovic's warning that a Minsky moment could be on the horizon. Subscribe here to get this report sent directly to your inbox each morning before markets open.

☆ CNBC Daily Open: Not everyone’s happy about UBS buying Credit Suisse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Yeo Boon Ping | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The world's third-biggest economy has struggled to make a solid post-COVID recovery, undermined by lacklustre household consumption and a global slowdown. Slowing shipments to China, which fell for a third straight month, have also shattered policymakers' hopes for a quick rebound from the pandemic doldrums. Exports to China, Japan's largest trading partner fell 10.9% year-on-year in February, registering a second straight month of double-digit decline, as demand weakened for cars, auto parts and display-making equipment. Japan has now posted a trade deficit for 19 straight months. "Chances are 50-50 that Japan may slide into recession," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

☆ Why the UK spring budget won't fix the economy's problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

London CNN —The last time a British finance minister unveiled a “budget for growth,” UK financial markets crashed and mortgage rates shot up, threatening to tip an already weak economy into a deep recession. But he will deliver his budget against essentially the same gloomy backdrop: the UK economy is stuck in the doldrums. John Springford, deputy director at the Centre for European Reform, estimates that Brexit had cost the UK economy 5.5% of GDP by June 2022. SVB could depress UK bank lendingAnother factor that could weigh on the UK economy in the near term: Silicon Valley Bank. “It is likely that UK financial conditions will remain tighter (or potentially significantly tighter) over coming months than they would have been without the US banking troubles,” Pickering said in a research note Monday.

☆ Australia consumer mood stuck in the doldrums in March
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, March 14 (Reuters) - Australian consumer sentiment stayed stuck at historically depressed levels in March amid concerns over inflation and interest rates, a survey showed on Tuesday, with the appetite for buying big-ticket items especially weak. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment was unchanged in March, following a dive of 6.9% the month before. "Index reads below 80 are rare, back-to-back reads even rarer," noted Westpac chief economist Bill Evans. "Both the COVID shock and the Global Financial Crisis saw only one month of sentiment at these levels." The index of the economic outlook for the next 12 months dropped 2.3%, though the outlook for the next five years did bounce 5.6%.

It will also test Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's flagship "new capitalism" policy that aims to more widely distribute wealth among households by prodding firms to hike pay. World's largest car maker Toyota (7203.T) accepted a union demand for the biggest base salary growth in 20 years, while gaming giant Nintendo (7974.T) plans to lift base pay by 10%. The gain will comprise a 1.08% rise in base pay and a 1.78% increase in additional salary based on seniority, it said. Uncertainty over the sustainability of wage hikes could prod the BOJ to go slow in dialing back stimulus, some analysts say. The BOJ will probably wait until next year in doing anything radical, such as ending its bond yield control policy."

☆ Three Years Into Covid, We Still Don’t Know How to Talk About It
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Jon Mooallem | Photographs Ashley Gilbertson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +53 min

It will play out and reverberate for years or decades, Hagen told me. “The pathological normal,” Hagen calls it: a patchwork of homespun, bespoke realities, each one invested in a different story about what exactly happened when Covid ruptured the story of our lives. garb.”More than once, life seemed to be attaining “an uncanny resemblance to normal life,” as one man put it. But because we don’t totally understand where that experience has delivered us, we don’t know the right gloss to give it. “The days are strange,” one public-school teacher told Milstein toward the end of his first interview, in May 2020.

☆ Japan manufacturers gloomy as global slowdown hurts - Reuters Tankan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Tetsushi Kajimoto | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The monthly Reuters Tankan, which closely tracks the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) key tankan quarterly survey, found the sentiment index for big manufacturers stood at -5 in February, little changed from the prior month's -6. The survey asks respondents whether the business situation is good, not so good or bad. "We have not been able to transfer rising costs of materials, gas and electricity to our customers. On top of that, wages are rising, all of which squeezes the business environment," a manager of a metal processing firm wrote in the survey. Japan's economy averted recession in the fourth quarter but rebounded much less than expected as business investment slumped.

☆ China’s State-Owned Property Developers Shun Private-Sector Deals
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Rebecca Feng | Cao Li | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The property-market slowdown has hit state-owned developers, though not as hard as their private-sector counterparts. When China’s private real-estate developers started sliding into distress more than a year ago, the government encouraged state-owned property companies to step in and take over their ailing peers’ projects and assets. That call has gone largely unheeded—a big reason why the country’s housing market remains in the doldrums.

☆ China’s State-Owned Firms Are Sitting Out the Property Rescue
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Rebecca Feng | Cao Li | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Shares of Aircraft Lessors Take Off in Tight Market for Planes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Matt Grossman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

American Airlines has leased about two-thirds of its 737-800 planes in recent years. It has been a good year to own airliners—or stocks and bonds from companies that do. Travelers around the world are dusting off their passports and buying tickets again, nudging global passenger counts closer to pre-Covid levels. But Airbus SE and Boeing Co. have struggled to shake off their own pandemic production doldrums, limiting the supply of new jets.

BERLIN, Feb 15 (Reuters) - This year's Berlin International Film Festival marks a resurgence for the global film industry after years in the doldrums due to the COVID-19 pandemic, industry expert Scott Roxborough said on the eve of the event. "The film industry is starting to come out of the pandemic, starting to revive itself," said Roxborough, Europe bureau chief of the Hollywood Reporter. "It's going to be here in Berlin where we really see the green shoots of the future of cinema." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address Thursday's opening night gala by video link, the festival announced on Wednesday. One of China's biggest stars, her lengthy absence had prompted speculation she had fallen foul of China's leadership.

☆ Record surge in films at Berlin festival marks industry revival post-COVID
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, Feb 15 (Reuters) - This year's Berlin International Film Festival, known as the Berlinale, marks a resurgence for the global film industry after years in the doldrums due to the COVID-19 pandemic, industry expert Scott Roxborough said on the eve of the festival. And, after a three-year pandemic lull, the volume of movies seeking distributors or financing is setting records, with 827 films from 121 countries chasing 1,168 buyers, according to the festival. "The film industry is starting to come out of the pandemic, starting to revive itself," said Roxborough, Europe bureau chief of the Hollywood Reporter. "It's going to be here in Berlin where we really see the green shoots of the future of cinema." One of China's biggest stars, her lengthy absence had prompted speculation she had fallen foul of China's leadership.

☆ Ketamine is being sold as a depression wonder drug. For some, it's making everything worse.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Anna Silman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +42 min

The infusions at the ketamine clinic in his West Texas hometown were a Christmas gift from his grandmother. About five years ago, more and more of my friends started using ketamine recreationally. IV ketamine treatment centers charging $400 to $2,000 an infusion popped up all over the country. "Ketamine used as directed in an appropriate clinical setting very rarely leads to any dependence," Mindbloom says on its website. Like Nadia, most of the people I interviewed said when they started using ketamine, they didn't think it was possible to become dependent on it.

☆ Dollar in doldrums as euro near 9-month peak, yen bounces
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

U.S. dollar banknotes are seen in Chicago on October 18, 2022. Europe's single currency was buoyed on Monday by comments from European Central Bank officials pointing to aggressive policy tightening. The U.S. dollar index — which measures the greenback against a basket of six peers, including the euro and yen — slipped 0.09% to 101.92, heading back towards the 7½-month low of 101.51 reached on Wednesday. The euro EUR added 0.08% to $1.0879, taking it closer to Monday's peak of $1.0927, the strongest since April. "That's integral to our bearish U.S. dollar view, that the U.S. is not going to be the global growth leader."

☆ The bloodletting at Goldman Sachs might not be done yet as the bank looks for more ways to cut costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

If you're a Goldman Sachs' employee who made it through the company's recent layoffs, be warned: There could be more to come. Anyone hoping Goldman's fourth-quarter earnings report would represent a fresh start for the bank was sorely disappointed. Today should provide some hints at to how the bank will navigate things, as Goldman is set to inform employees on their year-end bonuses. Steve Pagliuca, the PE firm's co-chairman, is retiring, The Wall Street Journal reports. Read more on how Wall Street analysts got it so wrong.

☆ Analysis: Bond traders get their swagger back in rate-obsessed markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Lananh Nguyen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

REUTERS/Andrew KellyNEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Bond traders are stars again on Wall Street. Fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) traders bolstered bank profits last year despite dreary deal markets. Bond specialists in the $22 trillion Treasuries market are in high demand as the Federal Reserve and other central banks have aggressively raised interest rates over the past two years. After the financial crisis, central bankers in the United States and advanced economies steadied markets by holding interest rates near zero. On Tradeweb Markets Inc's (TW.O) electronic bond trading platforms, average daily volumes rose almost 10% in 2022.

☆ 6 top M&A bankers lay out their dealmaking playbook for 2023 — from getting around a sagging bond market to dealing with skeptical shareholders
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

"We're certainly telling clients to plan for longer timelines between signing an announcement and when a transaction closes," RBC's Sperduto said. Bankers noted the figure was on pace with the average amount of deals done in the five years preceding the pandemic. "There is still significant desire from both corporates and financial sponsors to transact," Gary Posternack, co-head of global M&A at Barclays, told Insider. But in 2023, bankers see more transactions receiving greater scrutiny from stakeholders. Vito Sperduto, the co-head of global M&A at RBC Capital Markets.

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