Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HSI) declined 3.2%. Korea’s Kospi dropped 2.7%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 (N225) lost 2.4% after coming back from a holiday. China’s Shanghai Composite moved 0.9% lower. US stocks futures also tumbled. Dow futures were down as much as 780 points, or 2.4%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq […]
Crisis
How Putin’s $11 billion pipeline split NATO and the EU at a time of crisis
The United States, United Kingdom, Ukraine and several European Union member states have fiercely opposed the pipeline ever since it was first announced in 2015, warning the project would boost Moscow’s influence in Europe. According to experts, that on its own is a win for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kristine […]
Evergrande’s debt crisis: International creditors threaten legal action over ‘opaque’ restructuring process
A group of the company’s overseas bondholders are threatening to take legal action over its “opaque” debt restructuring process, the latest sign of trouble for the embattled Chinese developer. They said in a statement Thursday they’ve had to “seriously consider enforcement actions” after Evergrande failed to engage substantially with them […]
Evergrande debt crisis: Chairman has sold $1.1 billion worth of his personal assets to prop up the company, Chinese state media reports
Xu has sold several houses in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as well as some private jets, the state-owned China Business News reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources close to the matter. The cash, which Xu has been pumping into Evergrande since the beginning of July, has been used to “maintain […]
Evergrande crisis: US Fed warns China’s property problems could hurt global markets and the US economy
The US central bank warned Monday that China’s ongoing property woes could elevate “financial stresses in China, [which] could further strain global financial markets and negatively affect the United States.” In its biannual report on financial stability, the Fed pointed specifically to the crisis at Evergrande, China’s most indebted developer. […]
Evergrande crisis shines a light on China’s millions of empty homes
For weeks, the ailing Chinese real estate conglomerate has made headlines as investors wait to see what will happen to its enormous mountain of debt. As the slow-moving crisis unfolds, analysts are pointing to a deeper underlying issue: China’s property market is cooling off after years of oversupply. Chinese authorities […]
Energy prices in Europe hit record highs. A winter crisis looms
The wholesale cost of natural gas has surged to record highs in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and Italy. Bills for households and businesses are already soaring, and could go even higher as cold weather sets in and more fuel is needed for electricity generation and heating systems. “We’ve […]
Evergrande’s debt crisis is wreaking havoc on Hong Kong’s stock market
Shares of Evergrande Group plummeted 10% in Hong Kong on Monday, hitting just 2.28 Hong Kong dollars ($0.29) per share. The stock has shed 84% so far this year, plunging below its 2009 IPO price of 3.5 Hong Kong dollars ($0.45). The Hang Seng Index (HSI) on Monday dropped 3.3%, […]
The shipping crisis is getting worse. Here’s what that means for holiday shopping
“The pressures on global supply chains have not eased, and we do not expect them to any time soon,” said Bob Biesterfeld, the CEO of C.H. Robinson, one of the world’s largest logistics firms. The partial closure of the world’s third busiest container port is disrupting other ports in China, […]
Taiwan, the world’s chipmaking factory and home of TSMC, is battling Covid and the climate crisis
Taiwan — which accounts for more than half of the world’s output of chips — has been grappling for months with its worst drought in more than 50 years, an event experts say could become more frequent due to the effects of climate change. “There is clearly pressure in the […]