Headlines

Shares of Chinese property developers surged on rising expectations that government entities in China are moving to help buy up excess housing in a bid to revive the struggling real-estate sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index, which tracks Chinese property developers listed in Hong Kong, was up 5.6% in afternoon trading Thursday. Sino-Ocean and CIFI rose 46% and 29%, respectively, while Longfor, China Vanke, Agile and Sunac China were each more than 10% higher.

The eurozone’s financial system faces less acute threats to stability as it appears increasingly unlikely that the currency area’s economy will slide into a deep recession, the European Central Bank said. However, the central bank warned that geopolitical and policy uncertainty remains “elevated” and that the potential for economic or financial shocks remains “high,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “Geopolitical risks continue to cloud the outlook for financial stability,” ECB Vice-President Luis de Guindos said Thursday.

The Japanese economy contracted in the first quarter of 2024, extending a rough patch and signaling that inflation fueled by a weak yen is hurting consumer demand, the Wall Street Journal reported. The economy’s overall performance contrasts with robust earnings reported recently by top Japanese exporters such as Toyota Motor and the stock market’s rise over the past year. The fall in the yen, which recently traded at a 34-year low against the dollar, helps exporters’ competitiveness and tends to lift their profits.

Brazil’s central bank chief justified his decision to change the institution’s written guidance on interest rates during a public speech, one day after another board member said such a move should have been discussed with the whole board and communicated through more formal channels, Bloomberg News reported. Roberto Campos Neto made it clear during a speech in Washington last month that the bank may not make the additional half-point cut it had previously signaled in statements, opening the door for the smaller quarter-point reduction it delivered last week.

The Philippine central bank held its policy rate steady as it continues to guard against inflation risks, but the meeting has stirred speculation that its hawkish stance is softening, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas kept its benchmark overnight reverse repurchase rate unchanged at 6.50% on Thursday, extending a policy pause stretching back to November 2023. It also maintained its benchmark lending rate at 7.00%. Gov.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said that discussions with Zambia over the third review of its loan package were focused on the impact of its drought and "difficult financing conditions," Reuters reported. The staff level agreement would unlock the next tranche of money from Zambia's $1.3 billion three-year loan. The country is in the midst of a punishing drought that has impacted and is also in the final stages of reworking its debt after a 2020 default. Read more.

Talks between the International Monetary Fund and Ethiopia around a new loan and reform package have "made substantial progress", but are ongoing, an IMF spokesperson said on Thursday, Reuters reported. "We have made substantial progress towards establishing how the IMF can support the authorities' economic programme, and we will continue to work closely with the authorities in these virtual discussions," the IMF's Julie Kozack said during a press briefing.

Unemployment in Australia jumped in April as more people searched for work, a rise that is likely to reduce pressure on the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise interest rates further, the Wall Street Journal reported. The unemployment rate rose to 4.1% in April from 3.9% in March, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. Economists had expected the jobless rate to remain steady at 3.9%. The increase in unemployment came despite the economy adding 38,500 new jobs over the month. That wasn’t enough to account for a rise of 68,800 in the number of people seeking employment.

Aiden Pleterski, the self-proclaimed “Crypto King” who collected millions of dollars from investors, only to spend it on luxury goods, has been arrested on fraud charges in Canada, Bloomberg News reported. Pleterski, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Whitby, Ontario, was charged with fraud and laundering the proceeds of crime and held for a bail hearing, according to a statement Wednesday from the provincial securities regulator. Another man, Colin Murphy of Oshawa, Ontario, was charged with one count of fraud.

Nine people have been charged in Britain for promoting unauthorised foreign exchange trading schemes on Instagram in the first crackdown on "finfluencers", the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Thursday. Emmanuel Nwanze, 30, and 33-year-old Holly Thompson offered advice on buying and selling high-risk contracts for difference (CFDs) over the social media platform between May 2018 and April 2021, although they were not authorised to do so, the regulator alleged.