Wolf Money(world market review 14-20 March 2022)

Latiff Mohidin Malaysia 1941

Pagoda 2 circa 1964 

Collection of National Gallery Singapore

Market Summary 14-20 Mar 2022

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+ Fed Chair Powell: time to move away from accommodative monetary policy introduced at “worst part” of Covid-19 pandemic to “more normal” one, to reduce balance sheet at upcoming meeting 

+ Fed hikes key interest rate by 25 basis points for the first time since 2018

+ US industrial production rises 0.5% in Feb in vs previous mth 

+ US retail sales rise by 0.3% in Feb to US$658.1bn MoM

- US actual ban on Russian oil imports unlikely as it would further propel gasoline prices, already at record high: media

+ US housing starts increased 6.8% to seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,769,000 in Feb 

- US existing home sales fell 7.2% in Feb compared to previous mth

+ US initial jobless claims down 15,000 to 214,000 

- SEC investigating 4 major accounting firms; Deloitte, E&Y, KPMG and Pricewaterhouse over potential conflicts of interest 

- Moderna seeks 4th dose approval of Covid-19 vaccine in US 

+ Amazon closed US$8.45bn deal, opens opportunity to acquire MGM film and TV studios 

+ Microsoft’s 5th Azure cloud data centre put into use in China 

+ Meta working on bringing NFTs to Instagram 

+ Intel to build €17bn chip factory in Germany 

+ Delta to increase ticket prices in aftermath of strong jumps in prices of oil and fuel 

+ Elon Musk says he is going to release Tesla’s master plan part 3 

+ Tesla increased prices for standard Model Y produced in China by >US$2000

- Starbucks CEO will resign from his post, former CEO Howard Schultz will return to serve as interim CEO

+ Tiger Global Management LLC collected around US$12.7bn to fund tech companies 

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+ China Jan-Feb economy beats expectation, expanded 7.5% YoY, retail sales rose 6.7%, fixed-asset investment up 12.2%

+ China approved first 2 financial holding companies (FHCs), marking first approvals since released rules 18 mths ago 

+ Chinese authorities said they “continue to support various types of companies to list overseas”

- China 37 million people are living under lockdown 

+ SZ eases lockdown restrictions in industrial areas 

- China diverted 106 inbound int’l flights from Shanghai to 12 cities due to record number of new Covid-19 cases 

- China number of airports started to cancel domestic flights to help control spreading of Omicron variant 

- China Feb air passenger 

traffic was 58.1% of 2019 level

+ China to build national credit service platform to promote sharing of credit information at national levels 

+ China puts property tax pilot expansion on hold this year to ease market jitters 

- China top health officials reject speculation to ease containment strategy, arguing stringent virus-control measures effective 

+ China emphasized firm measures to increase soybean planting area, expand production other forms of oil crops 

- China hikes fuel prices for the 6th time this year to highest levels in more than a decade 

- China authorities are considering requiring Tencent to include WeChat Pay in newly created financial holding company  

- Tencent plans undisclosed job cuts in 2 of 6 major divisions

+ BYD raises EV prices for 2nd straight mth as lithium surges 

- China fines companies US$3.7bn in 2021 for breaking monopoly rules, >50 times than the year before 

+ China Telecom scaling back 5G investment, pivots to focus on data centres and explores listing its cloud unit

+ Evergrande won regulatory approval to start selling EVs 

+ China EV-battery giant CALB filed for IPO in HK 

- HK likely to see GDP contraction in Q1, with higher jobless due to outbreak of Covid-19: financial secretary

- HK set to ditch US-based State Street as Manager of tracker EFT, to be replaced by Hang Seng Investment Mgnt 

+ Foxconn plans US$9bn factory with Saudi Arabia to make EV components, microchips and other electronics 

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+ Japan PM signals new spending to soften fuel cost surges 

+ Japan’s central bank said will likely reach its key 2% inflation target as oil rates surge, will continue monetary easing policy 

- Japan’s industrial production down by 0.8% in Jan at 95.7

+ Japan’s inflation rises to 0.9% in Feb

- Japan’s total merchandise trade deficit exceeded analysts’ expectations in Feb to ¥668.3 bn

- Toyota to reduce global production by 150,000 units to 750,000 in April due to issues in semiconductor supply 

+ Suzuki Motor to invest US$1.26bn for EV production in India  

- Russia could shut 30% of its crude oil output from April if it doesn’t find buyers 

+ Putin: central bank will not need to print money as it’s economy has marketable, healthy income in a sufficient, good amount 

+ Russian has all the funds necessary to pay off foreign debt: finance minister 

+ Russia will respect private ownership unlike the west, no plans to nationalise foreign assets in the country: Putin 

- Russian sets new foreign currency rules, regulating financial operations with foreign creditors 

+ Russian had transferred US$117m bond interest payment, avoiding default

+ Bank of Russia to hold key interest rate at 20% 

+ Russia considering opening alternative payment links with India, both currently discussing recognition of RuPay and MIR cards

+ Russia to launch its own space mission to Mars in the very near future 

- Argentina’s Senate approved IMF deal, to restructure US$45bn debt, postponing repayment until 2026, avoiding default 

- IEA: get ready for global oil supply shock 

+ IMF: Ukraine conflict to have relatively small impact on China 

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- EU state proposes total ban on bloc’s trade with Russia 

- Eurozone inflation at 5.9% in Feb, up 0.8% from Jan 

- Eurozone trade deficit amounted to €27.2bn in Jan : Eurostat 

+ EU overtook ASEAN to become top trading partner with China first 2 mths this year with trade volume US$137.16bn 

- Europe largest energy trading firms appealed to govts and central banks for help to avert cash crunch and additional tensions in commodity markets 

- EU car registrations fell 67% in Feb at 719,465 units, lowest result since records began 

+ EU approved Amazon’s US$8.5bn MGM acquisition 

+ E.ON, Europe largest operator energy networks has no plans to withdraw from Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project 

+ Volkswagen Gp near decision on potential North America-built electric pickup truck 

+ BMW’s 2021 revenue increased by 12.4% to €111.24bn, with deliveries to customers expanding by 8.4% to 2.52m units 

+ BoE voted 8-1 to increase bank rate from 0.5% to 0.75%

+ UK, US to start talks on trade and investment next week 

- Boris Johnson ended trip in Saudi and UAE without securing  pledges to increase crude supplies 

- Arm Ltd to cut 600 jobs or up to 15% of its workfore after failed deal with Nvidia 

- AstraZeneca considering abandoning to secure approval of its Covid-19 vaccine in US 

+ Porsche plans >80% all-EV by 2030  

+ Italy Covid board of experts to disband on March 31, to relax Covid-19 measures from April 1

+ Swiss banks may hold >US$200bn of Russian wealth; country’s banking lobby estimates 

+ Ukraine legalises crypto to raise war cash 

- Guinea halted iron mine development once again, citing no progress to work towards country’s interest 

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+ Australia announced A$243m in funding support rare earths refining for 4 new projects to challenge China dominance 

+ India reportedly planning to buy Russian oil at discounted prices and even considering Chinese yuan as reference currency 

+ India and Australia close to signing a mini free trade agreement 

+ South Korea to open temporary settlement lines between domestic banks and their units in Russia to help local firms finance trade 

+ Hyundai opened its first car plant in Indonesia to produce first locally assembled EVs 

+ Saudi Arabia reportedly in talks to use Chinese yuan for some of its oil sales in China

+ Iran tyring to raise oil exports to 1.4m bpd 

- Sri Lanka secured US$1bn credit line from India as IMF confirmed it will discuss a possible bailout 

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+ SEA countries; Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Philippines are moving to further to reopen 

+ Indonesia received support from Asian Development Bank in setting up its planned US$32bn new capital 

+ GoTo aims to raise 17.992 trillion rupiah (S$1.69bn) for its coming IPO

+ Thailand to scrap pre-travel Covid-19 test to boost tourism 

+ Thai corporate earnings to continue recovering in 2022: Fitch 

+ Malaysia announced that the RCEP has come into force in the country 

+ Malaysia expected to be the largest beneficiary of RCEP in SEA in terms of export gains, projected US$200m increase 

+ Malaysia tourism industry players ready for reopening of borders: minister 

+ Sg non-resident employment rose for the first time in 2 years in Q4 2021 

+ Sg F&B salaries up 20% in 2 years and set to rise further 

- URA bars strata subdivision for commercial properties in key parts of central area 

- PropertyGuru closes 1.7% lower on its NYSE debut at US$8.46

+ PSA port operator net profit up 18.2% to S$1.4bn in 2021 

- MAS freezes assets of 4 Russian financial institutions, prohibits doing business with Russian govt

Contribution by Derek@valueinvestments chat group. Thank you.

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