1. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett and JPMorgan CEO Jamie
Dimon voiced concerns that the financial markets' focus on
short-term goals is hurting the economy and urged companies to
move away from providing quarterly earnings guidance, according
to the Wall Street Journal. "In our experience,
quarterly earnings guidance often leads to an unhealthy focus on
short-term profits at the expense of long-term strategy, growth
and sustainability," they wrote.
2. The European Union and Mexico struck back President Donald
Trump's trade threats, and the two countries appear to be trying
to send a message with their
retaliation. Both the EU and Mexico announced
retaliatory tariffs on US goods in response
to Trump's
decision to impose steel and aluminum
tariffs on imports from the two key allies. The moves follow a
similar announcement from Canada.
3. Meanwhile, China's Commerce Ministry said on Thursday that the
country does not want an escalation of trade friction with the
United States, and that some specific progress was made in talks
that concluded over the weekend. Ministry spokesman
Gao Feng made the comments at a weekly briefing.
4. Stocks rose on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial
average cracking 25,000 for the first time since late
May. The euro hit
a two-week high against the dollar.
US Treasury yields rose, holding just below 3%.
5. Swiss bank UBS is cutting jobs at its asset management unit
while it focuses on growth in China along with passive and
sustainable investing, Bloomberg said on
Wednesday. The smallest of UBS's operating
divisions is said to have cut at least 100 positions over recent
months, Bloomberg said, citing sources, in areas including
distribution.
6. The US trade deficit hit a seven-month low in
April. Record-high exports and a slight fall in
imports shrunk the gap by 2.1%, the Commerce Department said, to
$46.2 billion.
7. The Chinese yuan is currently deemed to be the most overvalued
currency worldwide, according to modeling from Deutsche
Bank. Deutsche says its Cap-PPP currency valuation
model has "significant predictive power for FX, both in terms of
directional accuracy and the magnitude of moves, especially over
longer-term horizons."
8. China is the world's largest trader and is part of almost
every supply and value chain. But a team of Macquarie
Research analysts led by Viktor Shvets argue in a recent research
note that China's trade importance is "overstated" and
"distorted." Shvets says the trade balance used
to be more relevant. But now, in an era of multinationals
and fragmentation of global supply value chains, he says it can
be misleading.
9. A Swiss referendum to overhaul the country's financial system
misunderstands how banks fail and won't make them safer,
according to a leading academic. Martin Brown, a
professor of banking at the University of St. Gallen,
said: "Most academic economists are very sceptical, not just
about this vote, but about the whole campaign for monetary reform
which goes in the direction of sovereign money."
10. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has acquired a small stake in
Allergan Plc at a time when the drugmaker is under pressure from
other activist shareholders, people familiar with the matter said
on Wednesday. Icahn's intentions are not clear,
though he has been a longtime supporter of Allergan Chief
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