China’s leaders just wrapped up their annual National People’s Congress meeting, where policy, economic, market and domestic objectives are solidified in order to create a five-year plan. While the plan covers many areas, analysts globally tend to focus on the economic growth rate that leaders plan to deliver. This year, Premier Li claimed China will grow between 6.5-7%, and signaled…
Officials from the G20 – the group of twenty of the arguably most economically significant countries in the world – meet twice a year to discuss important global issues and to suggest possible policy responses. For financial markets, these events are often observed but are typically of little consequence to investors; by the time governments get around to meeting and…
The U.S stock markets have been oscillating between mayhem and malaise in 2016. In early days the volatility was blamed on China and its erratic stock markets. Volatility remains elevated, but malaise has set in as data last week confirmed fears of a slowdown in the U.S. economy. In the final quarter of 2015, the economy decelerated to a mere…
In just 15 trading days, oil prices have managed to plunge another 20%, after a fall of 29% in 2015 and 44% in 2014. While markets took these drops in stride in the past few years, something seems different about the volatile plunge so far in 2016. Why are oil prices so low? And why are the world’s asset markets…
When I think of all the mayhem that is currently Chinese markets, I picture the old Dutch proverb about the boy who sticks his finger in the leaking hole of a dam, only to be besieged by more holes bursting through. In my analogy, the surging water represents the Chinese economy, and the dam represents the central government’s mass of…
