Global Liquidity is Drying Up

On October 27, 1997, the S&P 500 fell nearly 7 per cent as contagion from Asia’s currency crisis spread globally. About a year later, Russia’s debt default and the collapse of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management sparked a 20 per cent decline in the S&P 500. In August 2015, fears of a hard landing in China, following a surprise 2 per cent devaluation in the currency, led the S&P 500 into correction territory, the Financial Times reported in a commentary.
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Force India mechanics were preparing their cars for the Belgian Grand Prix on Thursday despite lingering uncertainty about the Formula One team’s eligibility to race after a change of ownership, Reuters reported. The pink and white trucks and hospitality unit had no Force India branding, with the official team name appearing only over the garage on signs put up by Spa circuit organisers.
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India’s Ambani brothers have completed the first part of a long pending multibillion-dollar telecom transaction, after months of uncertainty amid insolvency action against the stricken Reliance Communications, the Financial Times reported. RCom, controlled by Anil Ambani, said on Thursday that it had completed the sale of telecom infrastructure worth Rs20bn ($285m) to Reliance Jio, led by Mr Ambani’s older brother Mukesh.
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As China’s economy slows and the trade war with the United States intensifies, Beijing’s economic bosses are swinging into action, the International New York Times reported. Chinese officials are pushing banks to lend more and allowing indebted local governments to spend money on big projects again. They have moved to shore up the value of the country’s currency. They have also helped out the stock market, say financial analysts, as the government works to avert a stock market collapse like the one three years ago that shook the world.
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Turkey’s financial trouble has claimed some distant victims: small investors in Japan, who have dabbled in emerging-market assets to escape superlow domestic returns, The Wall Street Journal reported. The upset illustrates the appetite for risk among an army of punters often dubbed “Mrs. Watanabe,” after the stereotypical Japanese homemaker. Last year, Deutsche Bank researchers said these buyers had fueled a rally in bitcoin and made up half of global foreign-exchange trading using borrowed money.
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One of the longest stalemates in Australian corporate history could be nearing a resolution. Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty, the joint venture between Vodafone Plc and a unit of Victor Li’s CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. that runs the nation’s third-largest mobile network, is in talks to merge with homegrown challenger TPG Telecom Ltd., the companies said in statements Wednesday.
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Zhejiang Shipbuilding, a bankrupt subsidiary yard of Sinopacific Shipbuilding, has released a draft restructuring plan, Splash reported. Under the plan, Shanghai Yingjun Investment Management Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of China’s real estate conglomerate Evergrand Group, will provide RMB1.501bn ($220m) to support the restructuring of the yard. Upon completion of the restructuring, Yingjun Investment will gain full control of the yard. Zhejiang Shipbuilding has total confirmed liabilities of RMB3.178bn and a total asset value of RMB953m.
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Russian potash producer Uralkali has questioned the process behind the sale of the Force India Formula One team after losing out in a battle between billionaire fathers of young racing drivers, Reuters reported. Uralkali co-owner Dmitry Mazepin is the father of 19-year-old Nikita, who races in the junior GP3 series and is a development driver for Force India. The team were put into administration at the end of July with a rescue deal led by Canadian Lawrence Stroll, the father of 19-year-old Williams F1 racer Lance, announced on Aug. 7.
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Reliance Communications Ltd., the Indian mobile operator that defaulted on its dollar bonds last year, is up against the clock, Bloomberg News reported. The company controlled by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani is in the midst of restructuring the $300 million U.S. currency notes and plans to meet those bondholders on Aug. 24 to seek approval on extraordinary resolutions. Those talks come ahead of a Aug.
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Six HNA Group Co. units have lost about $10 billion in market value since their shares resumed trading in the past few weeks, underscoring persisting concerns about the conglomerate, which is saddled with one of the biggest piles of debt in corporate China, Bloomberg News reported. Total losses topped the milestone during early trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen on Tuesday, though they pared back declines to about $9.8 billion as of the midday break. All the units have underperformed their benchmark indexes since the share suspensions, with Hainan HNA Infrastructure Investment Group Co.
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