Headlines

Members of Nasdaq's Nordic commodities exchange have replenished more than 90 percent of vital clearing house contingency funds that were lost last week when a single Norwegian trader defaulted, the exchange operator said, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Einar Aas, a derivatives trader who made large bets on the power market, left a 114 million euro (£101.7 million) hole in the clearing house buffers when his funds ran out, drawing scrutiny from regulators seeking to clarify whether rules were broken.

Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos SA recently approached Avon Products Inc. about a takeover, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies aren’t in serious talks and Avon, which has received other expressions of interest, is focused on turning itself around and reviving its shares, one of the people said. Following years of decline in its once-formidable direct-sales business, Avon had a market value as of Monday’s close of just $900 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is downplaying risks to the housing market from rising mortgage interest rates, saying that the cost of funding a home loan is still below that a year ago, The Wall Street Journal reported. In minutes of its Sep. 4 policy meeting released Tuesday, the RBA said that at the time of the board gathering, lenders accounting for around 40% of the market had raised mortgage lending rates.

Abu Dhabi Financial Group (ADFG) has submitted a revised bid to acquire the management rights for the Middle East funds of stricken Dubai-based Abraaj, according to a document seen by Reuters. The Abu Dhabi-based alternative investment firm is among more than a dozen bidders seeking to buy the bulk of Abraaj’s private equity funds, Reuters reported. But in a letter to investors in Abraaj Funds, ADFG said that the bid is unlikely to materialize given the “convolution” of the situation. To address this, ADFG is seeking a dedicated budget to conduct a full forensic audit and a litigation budget.

Fifty years of currency crises from Chile to Indonesia signal a bleak outlook for Argentina and President Mauricio Macri -- a deep recession followed by political upheaval. Countries that have seen their currency decline by more than 40 percent in a year have typically suffered economic contractions of more than 6 percent the year after. Argentina’s peso is down 53 percent in the past 12 months, Bloomberg News reported.

Sweden’s financial regulator on Friday vowed to investigate how a Nordic power trader that this week racked up huge losses and barred by Nasdaq Inc. was able to act as his own clearer, or guarantor of trades, Bloomberg News reported. “This is a question that Nasdaq Clearing has to answer,” Daniel Gedeon, director of financial markets infrastructure supervision at the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, said by email.

With food prices rising, wages struggling to keep up and the Bank of England again raising interest rates, the number of people seeking help to manage their debt is surging—with alarming echoes of the past, Bloomberg News reported. “A large number of people are living right at the edge,” said Mark Almond, director of the Citizens Advice Bureau for the area of North Tyneside. It’s part of a network of charities with advisers across the country.

China agreed to several small oil deals with Venezuela this week but gave no public confirmation that it would extend more loans to the cash-strapped country during a rare visit by President Nicolás Maduro to Beijing. Venezuela faces a stiff payments schedule over the next two months of about $2bn to bondholders, some of whom have debt secured against US-based refiner Citgo, and in compensation to western oil companies for past nationalisations in Venezuela.

European equity funds have faced billions of dollars in outflows in recent weeks as Brexit, trade tensions and a slowdown in growth across the eurozone have dented investor sentiment, the Financial Times reported. European stocks have suffered outflows for 26 of the last 27 weeks with investors withdrawing a total of $41.3bn this year according to new figures from Bank of America Merrill Lynch based on EPFR data. This wipes out the net inflows of $36bn which Western Europe took in over the course of 2017.

Deutsche Bank has scaled up plans to shift hundreds of billions of assets from London to Frankfurt after coming under increasing pressure from European regulators over the size and complexity of its UK operations after Brexit, the Financial Times reported. Deutsche could eventually move about three-quarters of its estimated €600bn balance sheet back home.