Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 10 February 2022

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 10 February 2022 

 


 

 


 <https://www.nedbank.co.zw/> 

 


 

 


ü  Disney park trips surge after Covid measures eased

ü  The Enigma: Billion-year-old black diamond sold for £3.16m

ü  Arm boss: We can do it by ourselves

ü  Stocks lose steam in Asia before U.S. inflation test

ü  Treasury wants to stir up U.S. alcohol market to help smaller players

ü  Analysis: After oil, gas and coal, global fuel shortage spreads to diesel

ü  Japan's Jan consumer inflation slows, trade deficit biggest in 8 yrs

ü  Fed hopes economy is on cusp of inflation slowdown as rate hikes loom

ü  Activist investor Quarz opposes terms of $3 bln Singapore REIT merger

ü  Boston Fed picks Susan Collins, first Black woman to lead a Fed bank

ü  Consumers face years of high energy prices, Big Oil CEOs warn

ü  France's Credit Agricole beats profit target a year early

ü  Oil little changed as investors eye U.S.-Iran talks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

 

Disney park trips surge after Covid measures eased

Disney says trips to its US theme parks have surged, while subscriptions to
its streaming service beat expectations.

 

The company said sales at its domestic attractions climbed above
pre-pandemic levels, but warned it expects parks abroad to still be affected
by Covid.

 

Meanwhile, Disney+ added 11.8 million subscribers in the last three months
of 2021, taking the total to almost 130 million worldwide.

 

The firm also forecast further subscriber growth for this year.

 

Disney+, the company's two-year-old streaming service, helped to keep the
business afloat when the pandemic disrupted its legacy theme parks, resorts
and cruise operations.

 

Its latest film Encanto has been hugely popular, with one of its songs We
Don't Talk About Bruno making it to number one in the UK top 40 - the first
original Disney song to do so.

 

The boost in sign-ups to Disney+ also suggests that some pandemic-related
stay-at-home habits may be sticking, despite concerns after Netflix had
warned that its own growth was slowing.

 

Chief executive Bob Chapek said he believed the streaming service will have
230 million to 260 million subscribers by 2024.

 

"This marks the final year of the Walt Disney Company's first century, and
performance like this coupled with our unmatched collection of assets and
platforms, creative capabilities, and unique place in the culture give me
great confidence we will continue to define entertainment for the next 100
years," he said.

 

However, even as Disney+ subscribers jumped, executives warned that revenue
from cinema releases has yet to recover.

 

In contrast, sales at Disney's US amusement parks hit a record in the last
three months of 2021.

 

Overall, the company's revenues rose by 34% year-on-year to $21.8bn
(£16.1bn) for the quarter, while profits surged to $1.1bn.

 

Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Disney's
parks were "doing much better than feared, despite ongoing Covid fears".

 

"Getting customers through the gates is one thing, but being able to sell
them mountains of branded food, toys and gifts is what truly makes Disney a
remarkable business," she added.

 

"It's impossible not to be impressed by recent growth in Disney's streaming
subscriptions. However, the market cares a great deal about the streaming
business, and churning out the levels of growth expected is only going to
become a more difficult task.

 

"If you didn't get a Disney+ subscription while trying to home-school in
lockdowns, chances are you may never get one."

 

Taxi business rebounds

Separately, ride-hailing giant Uber announced that taxi bookings had
rebounded, as people start to put pandemic constraints behind them.

 

Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said his firm's gains showed "just how far
we've come since the start of the pandemic".

 

Uber said overall revenues jumped 83% to $5.8bn, with profits of $892m.

 

Shares in both companies rose in after-hours trade in New York.-BBC

 

 

 

The Enigma: Billion-year-old black diamond sold for £3.16m

The 555.55 carat black diamond has belonged to its current owner for two
decades but little is known about its history before that.

A billion-year-old black diamond, believed to be the world's largest cut
diamond, has sold for £3.16m ($4.3m).

 

Named The Enigma, the 555.55 carat gem, which weighs about the same as a
banana, had been expected to fetch more than £4.4m in the online action.

 

Auctioneer Sotheby's said "the buyer has opted to use cryptocurrency for the
purchase."

 

There are competing theories about the origins of the stone, including that
it was carried to Earth by an asteroid.

 

Sotheby's did not identify the purchaser but after the auction
cryptocurrency entrepreneur Richard Heart took to social media to claim that
he was the buyer of The Enigma.

 

He told his more than 180,000 Twitter followers that "as soon as the
payment's gone through and possession's been taken" the gem would be renamed
the "HEX.com diamond", in reference to the blockchain platform he founded.

 

The gem is a carbonado, which is one of the toughest forms of natural
diamond.

 

Carbonados are extremely rare and have only ever been discovered in Brazil
and the Central African Republic.

 

Because they contain osbornite, a mineral found only in meteors, they are
believed to originate from space.

 

Sotheby's described The Enigma as "one of the rarest, billion-year-old
cosmic wonders known to humankind."

 

Although the precise origin of black diamonds is shrouded in mystery.

 

Black diamonds are usually around 2.6 to 3.2 billion years old - a time
before dinosaurs existed.

 

The Earth itself is around 4.65 billion years old, so not much older than
black diamonds.-BBC

 

 

Arm boss: We can do it by ourselves

After years of major regulatory struggle in the UK, US and EU, what would
have been the biggest computer-chip deal in history is now dead in the
water.

 

But the new boss of Arm, the Cambridge-based company often described as one
of the UK's biggest technology success stories, is upbeat.

 

And although he blames the failure of Arm's planned sale to Nvidia on a
"challenging regulatory environment", Rene Haas - in his first week as chief
executive - is keen to emphasise it will be just fine on its own.

 

"We are very excited about the future for Arm as an independent company
again," he tells BBC News.

 

"There isn't anything Nvidia and Arm could do together that we can't do by
ourselves."

 

Chip designs

Softbank, which acquired Arm in 2016, plans an initial public offering
within a year.

 

 

But some things won't change.

 

Arm's technology for semiconductors is already widely used in mobile phones,
tablets and digital televisions.

 

It licenses its chip designs to customers rather than manufacture them
itself.

 

And Nvidia has confirmed its own 20-year licence agreement with the company
will continue.

 

"In many ways it is a very comfortable rhythm in terms of the business we
have," Mr Haas says.

 

"The difference now is we are coming out of the regulatory process and are
back on our own two feet again and can start thinking about new
opportunities."

 

These will include continuing to expand into areas such as cloud computing
and the automotive industry.

 

'Most exciting'

"Those two markets are seeing a huge amount of growth and really have the
same characteristics to that of the smartphone," Mr Haas says.

 

"They both need more and more compute performance but also more and more
efficiency - whether it is a data centre where limited power can come in or
an electric vehicle that runs on a battery.

 

"Both are also software intensive."

 

But he also intends to go a whole lot further.

 

"The most exciting thing is there isn't an end market you can look at -
whether that is the metaverse, IOT [internet of things], artificial
intelligence - and say Arm can't have a place there," Mr Haas says.

 

For a company he calls "one of the best kept secrets in the industry", Arm
has garnered a lot of headlines in the past year or so.

 

But then so too has the chip industry more generally, as shortages affect
the availability of electronic goods.

 

"The pandemic put constraints on all supply chains - in particular, very
long lead times for building factories - so to respond to a pandemic by
adding capacity is very very hard in our business," Mr Haas says.

 

"Layer on top of that insatiable demand for all things digital - all of that
adds up to a perfect storm of huge demand for our product.

 

"I don't see that changing any time soon.

 

"Capacity will ultimately catch up - but at the same time, the pandemic
accelerates trends around digitalisation which lend themselves well to
semiconductors."

 

And that may require radical change.

 

Technical challenges

"As you start getting to very small geometries, some of the laws of physics
get very challenging," Mr Haas says.

 

"One of the key things that will be an area of innovation in the future is
not only the semiconductor itself but the packaging of those
semi-conductors, how they are built, how the die [the square of silicon] is
built, how to put more transistors on a die... there are lot of exciting
technical challenges."

 

An American living in San Jose, Mr Haas is nevertheless keen to emphasise
his British credentials.

 

"I lived in London for three years, from 2017 to 2020," he says.

 

"I took the train every day from King's Cross to Cambridge, which was a nice
reverse commute because no-one was on it going that way."

 

And his favourite part of British life was pub culture.

 

"I always loved on a Friday afternoon, at 15:00, the pubs had people just
standing outside and drinking a pint and being totally laid-back," Mr Haas
says.

 

And while he doesn't reveal whether he himself ever indulged, if anyone
deserves a laid-back pint to mark the end of the working week this Friday,
it is probably him.-BBC

 

 

 

Stocks lose steam in Asia before U.S. inflation test

(Reuters) - A tech-fuelled global stocks rally cooled in Asian trade on
Thursday as investors took a more cautious posture amid uncertainties around
the outlook for inflation and interest rates.

 

World bond yields, however, continued to ease from multi-year highs and the
dollar trod water ahead of the closely watched U.S. inflation report due
later in the day that should offer new clues on the pace of U.S. interest
rate hikes.

 

Crude oil resumed its uptrend as a big drawdown in U.S. inventories
underscored the ongoing tightness in the market.

 

Japan's blue-chip Nikkei (.N225) started the day almost 1% higher before
beginning a steady slide that took it close to negative territory. It later
rebounded to be 0.33% higher.

 

Meanwhile, Chinese blue chips (.CSI300) sank 0.52% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng
(.HSI) retreated 0.31%.

 

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares (.MIAP00000PUS) eked a 0.10%
gain.

 

"We don't know how many U.S. rate hikes there are going to be this year, and
I don't think the Fed knows either, and that's getting markets a little bit
nervous, to say the least," said Kyle Rodda, a market analyst at IG
Australia.

 

"Any kind of data surprise is going to inflame that nervousness, and that's
leading to the choppiness that we're seeing in markets."

 

On Wednesday, Big Tech led Wall Street higher, with the Nasdaq (.NDX)
surging 2.1% and the S&P 500 (.SPX) ending 1.45% higher.

 

U.S. futures pointed lower though, indicating a 0.28% retreat for the Nasdaq
and a 0.23% decline for the S&P .

 

Helping sentiment overnight was a fall in long-term bond yields. The 10-year
U.S. Treasury yield slipped back to 1.9285% in Tokyo on Thursday from a near
2-1/2-year peak on Tuesday. Its German counterpart retreated from a
three-year high. GOVD/EUR

 

"It was a more positive session for global bonds, with European bond yields
taking a breather from their seemingly relentless recent rise," Damien
McColough, head of rates strategy at Westpac, wrote in a client note.

 

"Even so, global bond yields have entered a bear phase and investors are
likely to demand a higher premium to invest given inflation and policy risks
... so we remain better tactical sellers."

 

A more hawkish tone from both the ECB and the Fed last week caught markets
off guard, sending yields soaring.

 

Australia's 10-year benchmark yield slipped to 2.086% on Thursday from as
high as 2.157% in the previous session, a near three-year peak.

 

Japan's benchmark yield held at a six-year peak of 0.215% amid speculation
that more hawkish monetary tightening globally could force some action from
the Bank of Japan.

 

ECB President Christine Lagarde last Thursday sent rate hike bets surging by
not repeating that a 2022 rate rise was very unlikely, although subsequent
comments from bank officials suggest a big tightening of monetary policy is
not needed.

 

The Fed is broadly expected to begin raising rates at its March meeting
although there is no clarity about the pace of tightening.

 

Money markets are certain of at least a quarter point Fed hike next month,
and give 1-in-4 odds of a half point increase.

 

Data due later on Thursday is expected to show U.S. consumer inflation
racing at a 7%-plus annualised clip, a level reminiscent of the inflation
shocks of the 1970s and 1980s.

 

Currencies were largely in a holding pattern ahead of that release, with the
dollar index steady at 95.581 after bouncing off a two-week low of 95.136 on
Friday.

 

One euro bought $1.14175 and the yen traded at 115.49 per dollar .

 

The combination of a soft dollar and lower bond yields put some shine on
gold , which held close to a two-week high, last changing hands at around
$1,834 an ounce.

 

U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures added 15 cents to $89.81 a barrel,
while Brent crude futures were steady at $91.53 a barrel.

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Treasury wants to stir up U.S. alcohol market to help smaller players

(Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday flagged concerns about
consolidation in the $250 billion annual U.S. alcohol market and outlined
reforms it said could boost competition and save consumers hundreds of
millions of dollars each year.

 

New merger and acquisition scrutiny, different tax rates and lifting
regulatory burdens to new entrants in the wine, beer and spirits market
would make the market fairer for new brewers and cheaper for consumers,
Treasury said in a 63-page paper.

 

The long-awaited report is part of a July executive order on
competitiveness. Its focus on the beer industry, in particular, marks the
latest push by the Biden administration to fight what it calls excess
consolidation in industries from meatpacking to shipping.

 

Treasury, responding to over 800 public comments on the issue, suggested
stiffer Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission oversight,
tougher enforcement of existing rules and development of new ones in the
report, which was first reported by Reuters.

 

"American consumers, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and workers
should not have to suffer under the thumb of a highly concentrated beer
industry," said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter. "Enforcement and
regulatory authorities should have the courage to learn and the fortitude
necessary to enforce the law and protect competition."

 

The U.S. market for beer, wine and spirits has spawned thousands of new
breweries, wineries and distilleries over the past decade.

 

But a web of complicated state and federal regulations, some dating back to
the end of Prohibition in 1933, coupled with "exclusionary behavior" by
massive producers, distributors and retailers means small entrants can
struggle to compete and flourish, U.S. officials said.

 

"We're determined to protect what has been a successful, vibrant industry
with a lot of small businesses entering it," while tackling issues that
"lead to excessive prices for consumers," said one senior U.S. official.

 

The two largest brewers selling beer in the United States - Anheuser Busch
InBev (ABI.BR) and Molson Coors (TAP.N) - account for 65% of U.S. beer
revenues.

 

The Beer Institute, which represents those two companies and other brewers,
said it was disappointed by what it called a "mischaracterization" of the
beer industry and said beer prices had remained low despite rising inflation
and a drop in demand.

 

But the American Craft Spirits Association welcomed the report's focus on
the concerns of small independent distilleries, and said it should spark "a
fresh look at antiquated alcohol laws that are working against small
businesses and curtailing access to our products."

 

The report cited studies that showed so-called "post and hold" laws, which
restrict price competition, mean beer consumers alone pay $487 million more
a year than they should, could drive up the cost of a bottle of wine by up
to 18% and a bottle of spirits by over 30%.

 

The DOJ and FTC, who share the work of antitrust enforcement, should take a
closer look at proposed acquisitions of smaller players by bigger ones,
Treasury said, noting that price benefits promised in past deals had failed
to materialize.

 

The report also called for the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax
and Trade Bureau (TTB) to change labeling rules to protect public health and
to limit the impact of lobbying. As of 2017, alcohol companies reported 303
lobbyists in Washington.

 

U.S. states - which control the bulk of oversight - should examine the
anticompetitive impact of regulations and franchise rules on small
producers, Treasury said.

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

Analysis: After oil, gas and coal, global fuel shortage spreads to diesel

(Reuters) - Global supplies of diesel are dwindling as refiners struggle to
keep pace with rapid post-pandemic demand recovery, exacerbating an acute
global energy shortage which has already sent the prices of gas, coal and
crude oil soaring.

 

At a time when global central banks are fretting over inflation rates not
seen for decades, diesel shortages would push up fuel and transportation
costs further and add more upward pressure on retail prices.

 

The U.S. and Asian diesel imports on which Europe relies have been limited
in recent weeks due to higher domestic consumption for manufacturing and
road fuel purposes.

 

Gasoil inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, held in
independent storage in Europe’s Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining
and storage area fell last week by 2.5%, data from Dutch consultancy
Insights Global showed.

 

Regional stocks were at their lowest level for this time of year since 2008,
according to the data, while Singapore’s onshore inventories of middle
distillates also sank to multi-year lows of 8.21 million barrels.

 

"Diesel demand seems to be improving in (northwest Europe) but lower
refining capacity compared with pre-COVID and low import levels are keeping
the market under severe pressure," said Insights Global's Lars van
Wageningen.

 

Northwest European diesel cargo prices reached $114/bbl on Monday, the
highest since September 2014, while margins to crude reached two-year highs
last week.

 

Morgan Stanley analysts note that diesel prices reached around $180 a barrel
in 2008, driven by an "exceedingly tight" middle distillate market as Brent
crude rose close to $150/bbl.

 

"A repeat of that is not our base case, but it is notable that diesel prices
have been tracking the 2007-08 period closely in recent months," they said,
adding that they expected crude prices to reach $100/bbl in the second half
of this year.

 

Last week, a winter storm tested fuel availability in the U.S. with some
utilities preparing to use more distillate fuel oil to meet demand, while
South Korea and India have been unable to fill a supply gap left by China’s
recent clampdown on refined product exports due to their own domestic needs.
read more

 

Tight supply has pushed Asian diesel prices for the benchmark 10ppm gasoil
to their highest since Sept. 2014.

 

Refiners generally respond to high margins and low inventories by ramping up
output. But the global oil refining complex is under strain, with capacity
falling for the first time in 30 years last year as closures outweighed new
additions, the International Energy Agency said last month. read more

 

Increasing diesel output would also require faster than normal crude
processing rates at refineries, with downstream equipment configured to
maximise middle distillate yields at the expense of light ones.

 

Instead, a number of refineries - particularly in the U.S. - are still
running plants at rates below the five-year average to avoid producing too
much jet fuel, where demand still lags 2019 levels, leaving companies
struggling to identify a clear way to restock diesel inventories in the
short term.

 

"Given the pressure from investors to reduce investments in fossil fuels and
talk of peak oil demand, this backdrop likely reduces the incentive to
invest in new refining capacity,” UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

 

"With fuel demand likely to increase in the next 10–15 years, and supply
unable to keep pace, I would expect more (fuel price) volatility in the
future," he added.

 

LEANING BACKWARDS

 

Tightening European supplies pushed the region's six-month diesel spread to
more than $100 a tonne on Monday, its widest backwardation on record.

 

Backwardation means that prompt prices are higher than future contract
prices, reflecting near-term demand that encourages traders to release oil
from storage to sell it.

 

Nonetheless, preliminary diesel and gasoil flows into Europe from east of
Suez, Russia, the Baltics and the U.S. this month are currently at 1.66
million tonnes, revised down from previous expectations of 1.83 million
tonnes, according to Refinitiv data, and compared to 4.6 million tonnes in
January.

 

“We have seen minimal diesel exporting from the U.S. Gulf Coast, and zero
storage plays on clean vessels,” said one U.S. clean tanker broker.

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Japan's Jan consumer inflation slows, trade deficit biggest in 8 yrs

(Reuters) - Japan's core consumer inflation likely slowed in January from
the previous month, a Reuters poll showed, reinforcing expectations the
country's central bank will lag well behind other economies in raising
interest rates.

 

Separate data is also expected to show Japan likely ran the biggest trade
deficit in eight years in January as persistent rises in fuel and raw
material costs swelled imports, according to economists polled by Reuters.

 

 

The nationwide core consumer price index (CPI) likely rose 0.3% in January
from a year earlier, slowing from a 0.5% gain in December, the poll of 16
economists showed on Friday.

 

The slowdown is largely due to one-off factors such as the base effect from
a suspension of the government's travel discount campaign in late 2020.

 

When stripping away such temporary factors, consumer inflation is likely to
be perking up, analysts say.

 

"Imported goods prices have been rising, and the effect is spreading to
previously soft domestic prices," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at
Norinchukin Research Institute.

 

And yet, many analysts expect consumer inflation to remain distant from the
Bank of Japan's 2% target for the time being, forcing the central bank to
maintain ultra-loose policy.

 

Separate data will likely show Japan suffered a trade deficit of 1,607
billion yen ($13.91 billion) in January, the biggest shortfall since January
2014.

 

Imports likely jumped 37.1% in January on rising raw material and fuel
costs, outpacing a 16.5% gain in exports, the poll showed.

 

Core machinery orders, also due next week, likely fell 1.8% month-on-month
in December to mark the first decline in four months, the poll showed.

 

The government will release CPI data at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 18 (2330GMT, Feb.
17). Trade data and machinery orders data are due at 8:50 a.m. on Feb. 17
(2350GMT, Feb. 16).

 

($1 = 115.5200 yen)

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Fed hopes economy is on cusp of inflation slowdown as rate hikes loom

(Reuters) - New data on Thursday is expected to show U.S. inflation still at
multi-decade highs, but Federal Reserve officials are holding out hope that
the peak may be near.

 

"There is some evidence we are on the cusp" of inflation that begins to ease
perhaps by midyear, Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic said in an
interview with CNBC on Wednesday.

 

In separate comments Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester said she also
expected inflation to ease this year as the Fed steadily tightens credit.

 

The headline consumer price index is expected to have increased more than 7%
in January on an annualized basis, a level reminiscent of the inflation
shocks of the 1970s and 1980s that has pushed the Fed to accelerate plans to
raise borrowing costs and reduce its holdings of government bonds and
mortgage-backed securities

 

But the month-to-month pace of change has been easing, a sign the economy
may be working through supply-chain and other difficulties created by the
pandemic.

 

"What we have seen is inflation not get worse on a month-to-month level, and
I am hopeful that will translate into a slow decline as we move through the
spring and into summer," Bostic said. That "will give me some comfort that
we are heading in the right direction" and perhaps allow the Fed to raise
rates at a slower pace as the economy continues to recover, he said.

 

There is broad agreement at the Fed to begin raising interest rates at the
March 15-16 policy meeting. But there is no clarity about how much the Fed
will have to do to counter inflation, or how likely it is that goods supply
chains and the U.S. labor market will return on their own to something like
the pre-pandemic normal of low inflation alongside low rates of joblessness.

 

Some analysts argue the Fed is already out of step with where the economy is
heading. The unemployment rate is currently 4%, low by historic standards,
and may be heading much lower amid record numbers of job openings, rising
wages, and an economy that may surge over the year as the current pandemic
wave recedes.

 

Some see the unemployment rate dipping to or below 3% this year, something
not seen since the 1950s read more .

 

"The economy is blowing through stop signs," Ethan Harris, Bank of America's
head of global economics, said this week. Harris has been among the most
aggressive forecasters in expecting the Fed will raise interest rates seven
times this year, which would mean hikes at each of its remaining policy
meetings in 2022.

 

"They are really not ready to capitulate and say we are late," in fighting
inflation, he said. "I think they should."

 

A lockstep, meeting-by-meeting tightening cycle has not been seen since the
early 2000s, at the end of former Fed chief Alan Greenspan's tenure.

 

But the pandemic-era economy has surprised more than once, and there are
large competing forces at work - a decline of federal government spending,
for example, that could slow consumption, and healthy household balance
sheets that could sustain it.

 

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said he expects
a combination of rising inventories, eased global shipping conditions, and
initial Fed rate increases will pull inflation down fast -- back to the
Fed's 2% target sometime next year, with prices for keys goods like
automobiles even falling later in 2022.

 

Rates will still need to rise, he said, but because the economy is
improving, not because of a Fed "sprint" to battle inflation.

 

"This Fed will tread cautiously once they feel they have the trend inflation
picture in hand. That should come by the middle of the year," Shepherdson
said, when he anticipates car prices will be "in free fall," housing price
appreciation will slow, and year-to-year price comparisons will work in the
favor of a lower inflation reading.

 

FINANCIAL MARKETS, SUPPLY CHAINS

 

In financial markets the interest rates charged to households and companies
already have risen since the Fed started slowing its bond purchases late
last year and signaled rate hikes to come. A "shadow" federal funds rate
maintained by the Atlanta Fed shows bond markets have produced the
equivalent since then of a nearly 2-percentage-point increase. The cost to
finance a home is rising.

 

There is some evidence of supply-chain improvement as well. Inventories
across many goods sectors have been rebuilt, a buffer against the sort of
shortages that jacked up prices for goods early in the pandemic.

 

Following the release of its latest earnings on Wednesday, executives at
shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk said they anticipated a "normalization" in
global shipping conditions in the second half of 2022. Port backlogs and
container shortages have plagued companies throughout the pandemic as world
manufacturers found it harder to reopen the global economy than it was to
shut it down in response to the pandemic.

 

"Inflation has peaked," Moody's Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi said on
Twitter. "As the pandemic continues to fade...so too will inflation. Global
supply chains are ironing things out...And wage growth will moderate as
workers get healthy again."

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Activist investor Quarz opposes terms of $3 bln Singapore REIT merger

(Reuters) - Activist investor Quarz Capital Management said it is opposed to
the terms of a proposed S$4.2 billion ($3.1 billion) merger of two
Temasek-linked Singapore real estate investment trusts, saying the target
firm was significantly undervalued.

 

It is urging Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust (MNACT) to negotiate an
improved offer from Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT), according to a Feb. 9
open letter reviewed by Reuters.

 

Quarz, which has previously been successful in blocking a Singapore REIT
deal, says it and its affiliates hold stakes that rank them among the top 10
unitholders of MNACT.

 

An external spokesperson for MNACT and MCT said they had no immediate
comment on Reuters queries.

 

Singapore state investor Temasek declined to comment. Its Mapletree
Investments Pte Ltd, a global real estate conglomerate, is the single
largest unitholder in both real estate investment trusts (REITs), owning
32.6% of MCT (MACT.SI) and 38.1% of MNACT (MAPE.SI) as of Dec. 29.

 

On Dec. 31, MCT announced plans to buy MNACT, seeking to create the
seventh-largest REIT in Asia with an expected market valuation of about
S$10.5 billion.

 

MNACT's main portfolio includes one commercial property in Hong Kong and two
in China, while MCT is a Singapore-focused REIT.

 

Quarz, which is run by Jan Moermann, a former Swiss banker, said it supports
the deal rationale but objects to the merger ratio and price.

 

"Quarz has been approached by many MNACT unitholders on MCT's inferior offer
for MNACT. We agree that the offer is value destructive to unitholders and
significantly undervalues MNACT," Moermann and Havard Chi, Quarz's
Singapore-based research head, said in the letter.

 

MCT offered to acquire all units of MNACT in exchange for MCT units, or a
combination of both cash and MCT units that gave the target's unitholders
S$1.1949 per unit.

 

This represented a 7.6% premium to MNACT's Dec. 27 closing price of S$1.11
and was based on MCT's unit price of S$2. The companies said the offer was
in line with MNACT's net asset value (NAV) per unit.

 

Since then, MCT's units have fallen 8.5% to S$1.83 as of Wednesday's close,
while MNACT's were unchanged at S$1.1.

 

Quarz argued in the letter that the offer price represented one of the
"highest discounts to net asset value in the 20-year history of the
Singapore REIT market with multiple takeovers and mergers."

 

"MNACT's board and management should initiate a transparent and robust
process to sell the assets above NAV of S$1.23 instead of recommending the
suboptimal offer of S$1.08-S$1.10 from MCT ," Quarz said.

 

It added it was confident MNACT would stage a strong recovery from the
second half of 2022, citing global vaccination rates.

 

Singapore's REIT market is dominated by retail investors who are attracted
to the high dividends paid by trusts as the firms are mandated to pay out
90% of their rental income.

 

Founded in 2011, Quarz has publicly campaigned against about a dozen
Singapore-listed firms.

 

It mustered support to block a merger in 2020 between two Singapore REITs,
whose managers are owned by a unit of Asian logistics giant ESR Cayman Ltd
(1821.HK), marking a rare victory for activist funds in the city-state.

 

($1 = 1.3425 Singapore dollars)

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Boston Fed picks Susan Collins, first Black woman to lead a Fed bank

(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on Wednesday named University
of Michigan provost Susan Collins as its next chief, making her the first
Black woman to lead a regional Fed bank and delivering a measure of new
diversity to U.S. central bank leadership.

 

Collins will start her job on July 1, the Boston Fed said in a statement. By
then, the Fed is likely to have already begun to tighten monetary policy to
fight inflation, raising interest rates and perhaps shrinking its balance
sheet.

 

Collins will be in place to weigh in on Fed policy within weeks of starting,
at its July 26-27 policy meeting. Following Fed rules, Philadelphia Fed
President Patrick Harker will continue to vote for the Boston Fed until
then.

 

She fills a vacancy left by longtime Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren,
who resigned last fall during an ethics probe into personal trading by Fed
officials during the pandemic.

 

Fed policymakers and outside observers say it is important for Fed
leadership to diversify to look more like America and citing research that
suggests a wider range of viewpoints improves decisions.

 

Choosing Collins is a "historic step" for the Fed, says Benjamin Dulchin,
campaign director for policy advocacy group Fed Up. "Working people want an
economic recovery that includes everyone this time, and Dr. Collins has the
deep expertise that the Fed will need."

 

The Boston Fed is one of 12 regional Fed banks whose presidents, along with
members of the Washington-based Fed Board, set U.S. monetary policy. Three
other Fed bank presidents are women, and two are nonwhite men.

 

The Fed Board is all-white, though U.S. President Joe Biden this year
nominated three new Fed governors who would make the Fed's top leadership
the most diverse by race and gender in its 108-year history, if the U.S.
Senate confirms them.

 

Two nominees, Davidson College's Philip Jefferson and Michigan State's Lisa
Cook, are Black. The addition of Biden's third nominee, former Fed Governor
Sarah Bloom Raskin, would give the Fed Board four women governors for the
first time.

 

The Senate Banking Committee is slated to vote on Biden's Fed nominees next
week. Regional Fed presidents, unlike nominees to the Fed Board, do not need
Senate confirmation.

 

A KNOWN FIGURE

 

Like Cook and Jefferson, Collins comes from academia, a professor of public
policy and economics with a PhD in economics. She is well-known among
monetary policymakers, frequently moderating at the Kansas City Fed's annual
Jackson Hole symposium, global central banking's best-known conference,
among other work. She also served as a director at the Chicago Fed for nine
years.

 

Her academic research has focused on emerging markets, exchange rates and
trade. Other roles have included senior staff economist for President George
H.W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, professor at Georgetown and
Harvard Universities, and, in 2001, visiting scholar at the International
Monetary Fund.

 

Less well known is her stance on monetary policy. In 2019, she suggested in
an interview that the Fed would do well to consider raising its 2% inflation
target to allow the labor market more room to heal. Her view on the current
situation is unclear, with a strong job market and inflation at 7%.

 

In addition to helping set monetary policy, Collins' job will entail
overseeing the Boston Fed's banking supervision, community outreach, and its
lead role at the central bank in research on technology that could be used
if the Fed adopts a central bank digital currency.

 

The bank recently released the first phase of a multi-year research project
with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Collins' alma mater,
and will explore issues such as security and programmability in later
phases.

 

Former Boston Fed president Rosengren and Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan
resigned last fall after disclosures they conducted active trading -
Rosengren in real estate securities and Kaplan in stocks - as the Fed
undertook an aggressive rescue effort.

 

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has since overhauled ethics rules to bar most active
trading by senior Fed officials, and asked the central bank's inspector
general to launch an investigation into the trading. That probe is ongoing.

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Consumers face years of high energy prices, Big Oil CEOs warn

(Reuters) - Consumers should brace for years of high energy prices, heads of
top oil and gas companies said, in what would pile pressure on governments
struggling with spiralling inflation.

 

Oil and gas prices have rocketed in recent months as a result of a rapid
recovery in global economic activity as COVID-19 restrictions have eased, as
well as a drop in investment in new energy supplies.

 

While oil and gas companies reported bumper earnings in 2021, consumers,
particularly in Europe, have faced sharp rises in petrol, heating and
electricity bills, which in turn have led several governments to introduce
subsidies to ease the pressure. read more

 

"I've no good news to deliver, oil prices will remain high", Patrick
Pouyanne, chief executive of France's TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), told RTL
Radio. read more

 

TotalEnergies will hand out a 100-euro ($114.20) voucher to help some of its
lower-income clients deal with high energy bills, Pouyanne said.

 

European natural gas , prices have more than tripled over the past year,
after hitting record highs late last year amid low seasonal inventories.

 

"What we can expect is volatility over the coming months and years," BP CEO
Bernard Looney told Reuters on Tuesday after the British company reported
its highest annual profit in eight years, prompting calls for the government
to impose more taxes on oil and gas companies to help deal with energy
bills.

 

Oil markets could see supplies tighten more this year and further support
prices which remain above $90 a barrel, their highest since 2014, Looney
said.

 

Equinor (EQNR.OL), Europe's second-largest pipeline gas supplier after
Russia's Gazprom , posted record quarterly profits on Wednesday.

 

Its Chief Executive Anders Opedal said he expected the European gas market
to remain tight, with demand to remain strong this year as below-normal
storage needed replenishing.

 

"We expect a tight gas market going forward and we expect volatility in
power price development," Opedal told a news conference.

 

Europe's top energy companies plan to shift their businesses away from
fossil fuels to low-carbon energy and renewables and have slowed down
investments in new oil and gas projects in recent years, partly contributing
to current supply shortages.

 

Equinor expects its total oil and gas production to increase by 2% in 2022.
BP's production is expected to remain flat this year compared to 2021.

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

France's Credit Agricole beats profit target a year early

(Reuters) - Credit Agricole SA (CAGR.PA) beat its 2022 profit target a year
early as lower costs for troubled loans and rising revenues across business
lines boosted fourth-quarter results beyond consensus, France's
second-biggest listed bank said on Thursday.

 

The lender said it would present a new strategic plan for 2025 on June 22
after underlying net income came in at about 5.4 billion euros for 2021,
well above its 5-billion target for this year.

 

Other key 2022 targets, such as a cost-to-income ratio below 60% and a
return on tangible equity of more than 11% were met, with 2021 figures
standing at 57.8% and 13.1% respectively.

 

The group, which has a policy of paying half of profits to shareholders,
said it would propose a 2021 dividend of 1.05 euro per share which includes
a 20 cents catch-up for the 2019 dividend which could not be paid.

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

Oil little changed as investors eye U.S.-Iran talks

(Reuters) - Oil prices edged down on Thursday, after rallying on an
unexpected drop in U.S. crude inventories in the previous session, as
investors await the outcome of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks that could add crude
supplies quickly to global markets.

 

Brent crude futures slid 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $91.48 a barrel at 0425 GMT,
while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $89.62 a barrel, down 4
cents.

 

Robust demand recovery from the coronavirus pandemic has kept global oil
supplies snug, with inventories at key fuel hubs globally hovering at
multi-year lows. read more

 

U.S. crude inventories (USOILC=ECI) fell 4.8 million barrels in the week to
Feb. 4, dropping to 410.4 million barrels - their lowest for commercial
inventories since October 2018, the Energy Information Administration said.
Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a 369,000-barrel rise. read more

 

U.S. product supplied - the best proxy for demand - peaked at 21.9 million
barrels per day (bpd) over the past four weeks due to strong economic
activity nationwide, EIA data showed.

 

"We are seeing some consolidation after a fairly constructive EIA report,"
said Warren Patterson, ING's head of commodities research.

 

However, investors are closely watching the outcome of U.S.-Iran nuclear
talks which resumed this week. A deal could lift U.S. sanctions on Iranian
oil and ease global supply tightness.

 

The White House publicly pressured Iran on Wednesday to revive the 2015 Iran
nuclear agreement quickly, saying that it will be impossible to return to
the accord if a deal is not struck within weeks. read more

 

"The core uncertainty remains whether Iran is willing to sign on the dotted
line," Eurasia analyst Henry Rome said, adding that the consultancy was
holding onto a 40% call on a return to the agreement.

 

The restoration of sanction waivers to Iran to allow international nuclear
cooperation projects, which were announced last week, along with some
positive comments from Russian diplomats, suggest that the parties are
moving closer towards a deal, Patterson said.

 

"Any quick deal would likely put some further downward pressure on prices,
as it would help alleviate some concerns over the lack of spare OPEC
capacity," he added.

 

Separately, U.S. President Joe Biden and King Salman of Saudi Arabia
discussed energy supplies and developments in the Middle East, including in
Iran and Yemen, during a phone call on Wednesday. read more

 

Salman also spoke about maintaining balance and stability in the oil markets
and emphasised the need to maintain the OPEC+ supply agreement, state news
agency SPA said.

 

In Europe, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will be meeting allies and
partners in Munich next week seeking to deter Russian aggression in Ukraine.
read more

 

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


 


Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

 

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INVESTORS DIARY 2022

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


Companies under Cautionary

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


ART

PPC

 

 


Starafrica

Fidelity

Turnall

 


Medtech

Zimre

Nampak Zimbabwe

 


 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

 


DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of
Faith Capital (Pvt) Ltd for general information purposes only and does not
constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or
subscribe for any securities. The information contained in this report has
been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or
warranty is made or guarantee given as to its accuracy or completeness. All
opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without
notice. Securities or financial instruments mentioned herein may not be
suitable for all investors. Securities of emerging and mid-size growth
companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than
the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any
other member of Bulls ‘n Bears nor any other person, accepts any liability
whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this report or its
contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Recipients of this
report shall be solely responsible for making their own independent
investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of
any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are
for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

 


 

 


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<mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw Tel: +263 4 2927658 Cell: +263 77
344 1674

 


 

 

 

 

 

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