To Problems With China’s Financial System, Add the Bond Market
Posted: December 21, 2016 Filed under: Asia, China, Economics, Global, Politics | Tags: Bond market, Chair of the Federal Reserve, Chief executive officer, Christine Lagarde, Economic growth, European Central Bank, Federal funds rate, Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve System, Fiscal policy, International Monetary Fund, Janet Yellen, Monetary policy Leave a commentSHANGHAI — Keith Bradsher Chinese officials cheered on the country’s stock market when it reached heady new highs, offering hope that it could become a new source of money to fix China’s economic problems. Then, last year, the market crashed.
“China is struggling with its own balancing act. The Chinese bond slump also stems from Beijing’s efforts to wring excess money from its financial system and to stop potential bubbles that may lurk in shadowy, hard-to-track corners of its economy. Should it continue with those efforts, bonds could fall further.”
Now another fast-growing part of China’s vast and increasingly complicated financial market is showing signs of distress: its $9 trillion bond market.
Prices for government and corporate bonds have tumbled over the past week, a sell-off that continued on Tuesday. The situation has spooked investors, prompting the government to temporarily restrain some trading and to make emergency loans to struggling financial institutions.
“The adjustment has not yet finished. It will continue and normalize until money is put where the government can see it.”
— Miao Zuoxing, a partner at the FXM Brothers Fund
The price drops have resulted in higher borrowing costs at a time when more Chinese companies need the money to cope with slowing economic growth. Yields reached new highs again on Tuesday.
In part, China is reacting to financial shifts across the globe. With the Federal Reserve raising short-term interest rates and many expecting the presidency of Donald J. Trump to lead to heavier government spending, investors worldwide are selling bonds.
“Due to recent, relatively large market fluctuations, our company decided to cancel the issue of the current bond, and will reissue it at a chosen time.”
— Jiangsu Sumec Group
But China is struggling with its own balancing act. The Chinese bond slump also stems from Beijing’s efforts to wring excess money from its financial system and to stop potential bubbles that may lurk in shadowy, hard-to-track corners of its economy. Should it continue with those efforts, bonds could fall further.
“The adjustment has not yet finished,” said Miao Zuoxing, a partner at the FXM Brothers Fund, a Shanghai-based investment fund that trades stocks, bonds and futures. “It will continue and normalize until money is put where the government can see it.”
At least 40 companies have said they would postpone or cancel bond offerings rather than risk being forced to pay high interest rates to sell the bonds — or being unable to sell them at all. Among them was the Jiangsu Sumec Group Corporation, an industrial trading house that exports items as varied as gardening tools and auto parts; the company said on Thursday that it would not go through with the sale of $130 million in short-term bonds.
“Due to recent, relatively large market fluctuations, our company decided to cancel the issue of the current bond,” Jiangsu Sumec Group said in a statement, “and will reissue it at a chosen time.”
China has particular reason to worry. As the world’s second-largest economy, after the United States, it relies on a rickety financial system that is mired in debt and susceptible to hidden stresses. Higher overseas interest rates could also prompt more Chinese investors to move their money out of the country, either to chase higher returns elsewhere or to avoid what some see as China’s growing problems.
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Bye-bye, Ballmer. Investors cheer as Microsoft CEO unveils retirement plan
Posted: August 23, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Apple, Bill Gates, Business, Carol Burnett, Chief executive officer, Google, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer Leave a commentAs Carol Burnett sang: “I’m so glad we had this time together, just to have a laugh or sing a song. Seems we just got started and before you know it , comes the time we have to say, ‘So long.'”
Peculiar Theory of the Day…
Posted: October 8, 2012 Filed under: Reading Room | Tags: Bain Capital, Business, Chief executive officer, City Journal, Edward Conard, Investing, Mitt Romney, United States Leave a commentUnintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong, by Edward Conard Penguin Portfolio, 310 pp., $29.50
“Edward Conard, former managing director of Bain Capital, has a straightforward explanation for why the United States outpaced other nations in generating innovation and wealth in the decades leading up to the financial crisis. It wasn’t the result of rational Americans’ choosing pro-investment policies, he thinks, but rather a cultural accident…”
Read on >> City Journal
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