Ahli bank weekly capital markets newsletter 25th 29th of august 2019
Weekly news
1.
2. TOKYO: Japan's Nissan Motor said Thursday it was recalling more than 2.1
million cars globally due to a faulty engine control system.
Nissan will exchange for free defective parts on certain models, as the fault may
"cause the engine to stall while running", the company said in a report to the
Japanese transport ministry.
In Japan alone, Nissan will recall a total of 834,759 vehicles of nine models,
including the Cube, March and Tida, produced between 2003 and 2006 in Japan,
the spokesman said.
3. : China and the US have reached the basis for an agreement at next month's Group
of 20 summit on setting targets to rein in global trade imbalances, a report said on
Wednesday.
The Financial Times quoted Li Daokui, an adviser to China's central bank, saying
G20 finance chiefs had made "good progress" towards a deal at their meeting in
South Korea at the weekend . "I was very encouraged by the G20 meeting," Li told
the newspaper in an interview . "It is now possible for the two governments (the US
and China) and other governments to have a good understanding ."
4. GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $750 million and plead guilty to
manufacturing and distributing adulterated drugs from a now closed plant in
Puerto Rico, the US justice department said on Tuesday.
The company had said in July it reached an agreement in principle relating to
quality problems at its SB Pharmo Puerto Rico Inc's plant and would pay about
$750 million to resolve the allegations.
Of the $750 million, Glaxo will pay $600 million to settle allegations that,
because the drugs were adulterated, false claims for reimbursement were
submitted to government healthcare programs.
5. Oil fell on Wednesday as the dollar strengthened and after an industry report showed a bigger-than-
expected gain in US crude inventories last week. US crude for December fell 36 cents to $82.19 a barrel at
0258 GMT, more than $2 from a five-month high of $84.43 reached on Oct. 7.
ICE Brent fell 32 cents to $83.34. The link between the dollar and the price of oil remained near its
strongest in 14 months amid speculation that the Federal Reserves will inject money into the US economy.
But the greenback rose 0.1 percent against a basket of currencies on Wednesday after the Wall Street
Journals reported the Fed will unveil a programme of US.
Treasury bond purchases worth a few hundred billion dollars over several months, compared with investors'
base-case scenario of an initial commitment to buy at least $500 billion in debt over five months.
"The dollar is clearly a major driver of oil prices at present, and our prediction that this would be the case is
now being confirmed by the increased correlations evident in the market," JP Morgan analysts headed by
Lawrence Eagles said. Consumer confidence in the US rose slightly in October but remained near
historically low levels as concerns about the labor market persisted, a report showed on Tuesday,
reinforcing the view the Fed will act when it meets next week.
6. India will improve its rank by three notches to the 8th position in IMF, as the group of 20
nations (G20) on Saturday decided to increase the quota of emerging markets in the multi-
lateral lending agency by over six per cent.
"Agreement on IMF reforms has been reached. There will be a shift in quota shares to
dynamic EMDCs (emerging market developing countries) and to underrepresented countries
of over 6 per cent while protecting the voting share of the poorest," finance minister Pranab
Mukherjee said here.
With this, India's rank in International Monetary Fund (IMF) will improve to the 8th position
from the current 11th in terms of quota, he told reporters after a meeting of finance ministers
of G20 nations.
"What we have achieved is significant. The quota share (of India in IMF) will improve to
about 2.75 per cent (from the present level of 2.44 per cent)," Mukherjee added.
Similarly, China will see an improvement in its ranking to the third position from the present
sixth.
Quota represents the relative position of members of IMF. It is based on various parameters
like country's GDP, openness, forex reserves etc.
7. The economy grew slightly faster last summer as Americans spent a little more
freely. Yet it remains too weak to reduce high unemployment just as Democrats
face deep losses in Tuesday's elections.
The Commerce Department said on Friday that the US economy expanded at a 2%
annual rate in the July-September quarter. It marked an improvement from the
feeble 1.7% growth in the April-June quarter. Consumers helped boost last quarter's
economic growth with 2.6% growth in spending. That was better than the second
quarter's 2.2% growth rate and marked the biggest quarterly increase since a 4.1%
gain at the end of 2006 before the recession hit.
8. Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that its net income in the latest quarter rose 51 percent,
boosted by higher sales of Windows and Office software to businesses.
In last year's quarter, Microsoft deferred some revenue from Windows sales. Had it not done
so, net income would have been only 16 percent higher this year in comparison.
For the fiscal first quarter, which ended in September, net income rose to $5.4 billion, or 62
cents per share, from $3.6 million, or 40 cents per share, in the same period last year.
Revenue increased 25 percent to $16.2 billion, from $12.9 billion a year ago.