Tag Archives: Money

Yen falls vs dollar for second day to near two-week low

Japanese Yen Notes

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The yen slid to a nearly two-week low against the dollar on Tuesday as risk appetite improved for a second straight session, undermining traditional safe havens such as the Japanese currency.

Repeated verbal warnings from Japan over the weekend and on Tuesday saying it was prepared to step in to weaken the currency has also held off investors seeking to buy the yen at the expense of the dollar. The greenback has struggled recently as the Federal Reserve is on track to raise U.S. interest rates gradually.

“Risk appetite is naturally tied to the belief that we’re in an ultra-low-yield environment and investment managers can’t simply sit here,” said Jeremy Cook, chief economist at payments company World First in London.

“We have to see a move any time we see the slightest bit of positivity, by grabbing yield in emerging markets currencies, for instance.”

Global stock markets were on the upswing overall led by European and Wall Street shares, adding to the positive risk sentiment. [MKTS/GLOB]

In late morning trading, the dollar rose 0.7 percent to 109.11 yen, after hitting a roughly two-week peak of 109.27 <JPY=>. The U.S. currency tumbled to an 18-month low of 105.55 yen last week after the Bank of Japan stood pat on monetary policy.

Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Monday Tokyo was ready to intervene to weaken the currency if moves were volatile enough to hurt the country’s trade and economy. He reiterated that message on Tuesday.

A key economic adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Koichi Hamada, also said on Tuesday Japan would intervene in currency markets if the yen rose to between 90 and 95 per dollar.

“There’s definitely the possibility of intervention,” said World First’s Cook. “But I don’t think this will turn the market around. It will be more of a stop-gap measure.”

He added that the only thing that could reverse the yen’s recent strength is fiscal and monetary policy action and any change could happen as early as June.

Meanwhile, speculators were cutting favorable bets on the yen, having piled into the currency in the past few weeks. [IMM/FX]

In other currencies, the euro rose 0.8 percent to a near two-week high of 124.38 yen <EURJPY=>, pulling away from a three-year trough of 121.48 plumbed late last week.

The euro was flat against the dollar at $1.1388 <EUR=>. The dollar index <.DXY> was at 94.171, having hit its highest in nearly two weeks earlier and extending its rise from a 15-month trough struck on May 3.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Additional reporting by Anirban Nag in London; Editing by James Dalgleish)

U.S. Bullet train proposals shun public funds, favor private cash

China Railway High-speed Harmony bullet trains are seen at a high-speed train maintenance base in Wuhan

By Robin Respaut

(Reuters) – It took years of lawsuits and political battles for California to finally break ground last year on the nation’s first bullet train, which aims to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2029.

High-speed rail advocates had hoped the line, supported by more than $13 billion in state and federal money, would inspire similar government-financed projects. Instead, its many delays have left rail groups wary of accepting public funds for projects they are proposing in three other states.

Companies in Texas, Minnesota and Nevada all plan to tap private cash from investors globally, with help from foreign train makers and governments eager to export train technology. The projects would rely on partnerships with Japanese or Chinese firms that face saturated train markets at home.

“The United States is the Holy Grail of deployment for Japan, China, France, Germany and Spain,” said Tim Keith, Texas Central CEO.

California’s example shows that taking taxpayer money opens the door to political and legal challenges that can drag out planning, bidding and approvals for years, private rail advocates said. Companies now see a quicker – even cheaper – path by largely avoiding such headaches.

“All the rules relating to public engagement start the day you take public funding,” said Wendy Meadley, chief strategy officer for North American High Speed Rail Group’s project in Minnesota. With private financing, she said, opponents “can’t make thousands of public records requests and run the project over.”

The company said last year it would seek money from Chinese investors. Now, it said it is considering two foreign partners for the $4.2 billion project, which seeks to connect the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to the internationally renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, by 2022.

Texas Central is paying for engineering studies with $75 million from Texas investors, $40 million from a state-backed Japanese development fund and about $130 million in design work from two firms. The Dallas-to-Houston rail line is projected to cost $12 billion and be completed by 2021.

In Nevada, privately financed XpressWest plans to link Las Vegas to Southern California. Started by Las Vegas developer Marnell Companies, the company formed a joint venture last fall with a consortium of Chinese firms, infusing $100 million into the project expected to break ground as soon as this year.

XpressWest officials declined to comment.

GOVERNMENT JUMPSTART

Some experts remain skeptical that bullet trains can work without government money to finance initial legs of construction.

Rail lines are generally profitable once in operation, said Jim Steer, director of UK-based high-speed rail research organization Greengauge 21. But operating profits are unlikely to be enough to repay massive construction costs.

“No private party is actually going to stump up the kind of money needed to create these things,” said Steer.

Supporters of the new rail lines said investors can expect solid returns based on ticket sales and profits from high-end real estate developments near stations.

Current economic trends also make private financing for infrastructure projects easier to secure. Interest rates at historic lows have created global demand for stable, long-term investments, igniting interest in infrastructure projects from banks and major investors, such as pension funds.

The number of institutional investors in infrastructure, such as roads, airports and rail, more than doubled since 2011, according to Preqin, an alternative investments research firm.

“There’s a lot of money swimming around the world that doesn’t know where to go,” said Dr. Alexander Metcalf, president of TEMS, Inc., a transportation consulting firm. “We’ve seen huge increases in institutional money that is willing to go into transportation.”

Longstanding U.S. skepticism of expensive train projects does not necessarily extend to foreign investors, Meadley said.

“People outside of this country believe this will happen more than Americans believe this will happen,” she said.

POLITICAL PERILS

The U.S. is decades behind Europe and Asia in building fast trains.

In the early 1990s, French and German companies made plays to construct a high-speed network across Texas. But the project relied in part on taxpayer money, and the proposal collapsed when local political support waned.

Texas train officials now see private financing as the faster, cheaper – and only – avenue. If their project relied on public subsidies, “we’d end up pulling the plug,” said Robert Eckels, a director at Texas Central.

Project officials say they have avoided U.S. federal funding in part because it includes a requirement that American workers manufacture the trains – even though no such U.S. factory currently exists.

Since 2009, the government has spent $10 billion to improve passenger rail service in the U.S. California was the only recipient constructing a high-speed rail line, and the money will only go so far. The state will likely need private money to finance much of the project’s estimated $64 million cost.

State rail officials overseeing the California project, considered the most ambitious planned in the U.S. and the farthest along, say there’s growing interest from foreign governments and international firms to finance the second leg to Los Angeles.

In February, the state announced the opening of the train’s first leg, a 250-mile line from the rural Central Valley to Silicon Valley, would be pushed back by three years to 2025.

The progress has been measured in decades rather than years. California Governor Jerry Brown first signed legislation to study high-speed rail during a previous tenure in office – in 1982.

“Everything big runs into opposition,” Brown said at the rail line’s groundbreaking in January 2015.

(Additional reporting by Brenda Goh in Shanghai and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; Editing by Brian Thevenot)

Italy’s Renzi signs potentially huge business deals in Iran

Iran and Italy Leaders

ROME (Reuters) – Italy and Iran signed deals potentially worth billions on Tuesday when Prime Minister Matteo Renzi visited Tehran seeking a strong Italian foothold in a nation hungry for infrastructure investment as it emerges from financial isolation.

Renzi was accompanied by a delegation of some 60 business leaders in sectors including, energy, railways and defense, and by Italy’s export agency and state lender which pledged billions of euros in credit lines and guarantees.

Three months ago President Hassan Rouhani made Italy his first stop in Europe as he sought to drum up investment in the Iranian economy, which rejoined the global trading system in January following a deal to lift crippling sanctions in exchange for limiting its nuclear activities.

“The end of sanctions is a historic step not only for Iran but for the whole region,” Renzi told reporters in Tehran with Rouhani standing by his side.

“We are committed to making sure the efforts of the international community are accompanied by mutual trust and by the immediate relaunch of economic links.”

Business delegations from other European countries are expected in Tehran in coming weeks, but Italy is well positioned to win contracts that could deliver a much needed export boost for its chronically sluggish economy.

Enel said it signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Iranian Gas Export Company on possible future cooperation in natural gas, liquefied natural gas and related infrastructure, that could lead to long-term gas supplies for its power stations.

The Enel deal was one of seven signed by Renzi and Rouhani, Iranian state television said. Renzi was due to return to Rome on Wednesday.

Oil major Eni has an agreement that allows it to take oil from Iran in payment for previous investments while oil service group Saipem, expected to clinch a new deal on Tuesday, had already signed preliminary deals in January that a source said at the time could be worth $4-5 billion.

Italy’s state railways company, Ferrovie dello Stato, said it signed a “framework of cooperation” agreement to build two high-speed lines in Iran. The contract could be worth some 3 billion euros, a source close to the matter said.

Italy’s state-run lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti will offer credit lines of 4 billion euros to companies building oil and gas infrastructure, while export agency SACE will guarantee loans and offer trade financing of 4.8 billion euros, a SACE statement said.

($1 = 0.8758 euros)

(Reporting by Steve Scherer and Stephen Jewkes, additional reporting by Sam Wilkin in Dubai, Isla Binnie in Rome and Francesca Landini in Milan, editing by Isla Binnie and Robin Pomeroy)

Interest Rates Unlikely to Raise Yet

Federal Reserve building in Washington

By Jason Lange and Lindsay Dunsmuir

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve appears unlikely to raise interest rates before June amid widespread concern at the U.S. central bank over its limited ability to counter the blow of a global economic slowdown, minutes from the Fed’s March 15-16 policy meeting suggest.

The minutes released on Wednesday showed policymakers debated whether they might hike rates in April but “a number” of them argued headwinds to growth would probably persist, with many arguing they should be cautious about raising rates.

“Participants generally saw global economic and financial developments as continuing to pose risks,” according to the minutes.

Policymakers had signaled at the close of the March meeting that they expected to raise rates twice in 2016 but the timing of the hikes still appears up in the air.

According to the minutes, many Fed members said they were concerned that the central bank had limited firepower to respond to shocks from abroad because interest rates are already so close to zero.

“Many participants indicated that the heightened global risks and the asymmetric ability of monetary policy to respond to them warranted caution,” the minutes stated.

Investors have held doubts the Fed would raise rates at all this year and the minutes did little to shift bets on the path of policy.

Prices for fed futures contracts suggested investors still saw the chance of a rate hike in December as just better than even, and they saw virtually no chance of an increase at the April 26-27 policy meeting, according to the CME group.

“Resistance to near-term action is still quite entrenched,” said Ian Shepherdson, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

According to the minutes, several of the central bankers said elevated risks faced by the U.S. economy meant that raising rates in April “would signal a sense of urgency they did not think appropriate.”

A small minority indicated a rate hike might be warranted when the Fed meets at the end of April. After that meeting, policymakers next convene June 14-15.

Policymakers had signaled in December that four rate increases were likely in 2016, and the minutes of the March meeting highlighted the consensus within the Fed around a cautious outlook for the economy.

PROCEEDING WITH CARE

Fed chief Janet Yellen said on March 29 the U.S. central bank should “proceed cautiously” in raising rates, a view Fed Governor Lael Brainard pushed late last year which has been recently embraced by policymakers including St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who had previously warned the Fed might hike too slowly.

Bullard said on Wednesday that economic data has been mixed since the March meeting, which could make it difficult for the Fed to raise rates this month.

The Fed left its target interest rate for overnight lending between banks at between 0.25 percent and 0.5 percent in March and in January after December’s hike which ended seven years of near-zero rates.

Global financial markets have been volatile since August amid concerns a slowing Chinese economy could drag heavily on global growth. Expectations the Fed would outpace other central banks in raising rates also tightened financial conditions by leading the dollar to strengthen in 2014 and 2015, though the consensus for caution has helped stabilize the U.S. currency.

At the same time, an inflation index closely followed by the Fed has begun to rebound, although policymakers were divided in March over whether the increase would prove lasting.

“Some participants saw the increase as consistent with a firming trend in inflation. Some others, however, expressed the view that the increase was unlikely to be sustained,” according to the minutes.

(Reporting by Jason Lange and Lindsay Dunsmuir in Washington; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

China to Donate Millions of Dollars and Thousands of Troops to U.N.

On Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced to the United Nations General Assembly that his country would provide more money and troops to aid U.N. peacekeeping efforts.

He said that 8,000 troops would be assigned as a U.N. permanent peacekeeping force. Additionally, China would give $100 million to the African Union, so an immediate response unit could be created and capable of responding to emergencies. Finally, Xi stated that China would donate $1 billion – over the next 10 years – to the United Nations as a “peace and development fund.”

China was among other world leaders from more than 50 countries who pledged equipment and training for U.N. peacekeeping missions as well as roughly 40,000 police and troops.

President Xi Jinping also announced that China would also donate a helicopter squad for African peacekeeping operations.

Bruce Jones, vice president for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution and an expert on peacekeeping, state that China’s contributions would be significant, especially the 8,000 police officers.

“Police is one of the most glaring gaps in the United Nations peacekeeping operations,” he said. “This is an important step in creating a dedicated reserve capacity.”

Xi’s pledges for peacekeeping operations comes amid growing concerns over China’s military might and territorial disputes in the Asia-Pacific region. Earlier in his address to the General Assembly, Xi tried to ease the concerns over his country’s growing influence as a threat.

“We are committed to peaceful development. No matter how the international landscape may evolve and how strong China may become, China will never pursue hegemony, expansion, or sphere of influence,” he said.

ISIS Creates Currency as Part of “World Domination” Plan

ISIS has announced the creation of their own “gold dinar” with an aim to take down the American economy.

The move is being called the “second blow” to the U.S. in a newly released video.  The first blow was the 9/11 attacks.

The video, titled “The Rise of the Khilafah and the Return of the Gold Dinar”, was released Saturday.  The video says the goal is to end “the capitalist financial system of enslavement, underpinned by a piece of paper called the Federal Reserve dollar note” along with installing the monetary system “intended by Allah.”

“One of the great forms of corruption that the world came to witness was the dark rise of banknotes borne out of the satanic conception of banks which mutated into a fraudulent … financial system of enslavement orchestrated by the Federal Reserve in America, a private corporation and system that would, through the use of deceit and force, deprive people of their due by imposing on them the usage of the piece of paper that came to be known as the dollar bill,” the narrator states.

The video shows minting of gold, silver and copper coins and then terrorists handing them out to people in the streets.

“We are witnessing the return of days, like those during the time of the prophet,” says one shop keeper who hugs and kisses the terrorist.

The terrorist group is considered one of the richest in history because of oil fields they control and their smuggling of oil.  U.S. official say the group generates as much as $3 million U.S. dollars per day.

France To Step Up Monitoring of Terrorism Financing

French officials have announced they will increase monitoring of cash payments and small bank accounts in an attempt to stop the funding of homegrown terrorists.

Finance Minister Michel Sapin said that after the Islamic terrorist attacks that killed 17 people it was necessary to “fight against the use of cash and anonymity in the French economy.”

“It’s a terrorism that is low cost to carry out but has major impact,” Sapin told a news conference. “This low-cost terrorism feeds on fraud, money laundering and petty trafficking.”

The biggest change is that French account holders will not be allowed to make deposits of more than 1,000 euro in cash, down from 3,000 euro.  Foreign visitors had a higher cap of 15,000 euro but that will be cut to 10,000.  This is done for the benefit of tourism.

The government will also require anyone trying to exchange more than 1,000 euros in cash into other currencies to show an identity card.  And if more than 10,000 euros are transferred the government will be notified.