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SYDNEY/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Central banks in Asia struggled to smother a selloff in global bonds on Friday, piling pressure on their bigger peers to do more, as spooked investors sold assets to cover deepening losses and rushed out of crowded positions in stocks.
FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a protective face mask walks past a stock quotation board outside a brokerage, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan November 2, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato
The erratic trade evoked memories of last March and comes as the pandemic recovery enters a delicate phase, with financial markets moving swiftly to price in an end to the cheap money that had lit a fire under world stocks for a year.
The European Central Bank is monitoring the recent surge in government borrowing costs but will not target specific levels in bond yields or mechanically react to market moves, two ECB policymakers said on Friday.
By Reuters Staff
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OSLO, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Norwegian Air said on Friday its examinership process in Ireland and reconstruction process in Norway were progressing as planned and were expected to end during the second quarter.
It booked an impairment loss of 12.8 billion Norwegian crowns ($1.50 billion) related to owned and leased aircraft as well as pre-delivery payments on terminated aircraft orders in the quarter, the company said in its earnings report.
The budget airline was late last year given protection from bankruptcy in both Norway and Ireland, where most of its assets are registered, and is aiming to emerge from the process with fewer aircraft and less debt.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane warned on Friday that an inflationary “tiger” had woken up and could prove difficult to tame as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially requiring the BoE to take action.
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In a clear break from other members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) who are more relaxed about the outlook for consumer prices, Haldane called inflation a “tiger (that) has been stirred by the extraordinary events and policy actions of the past 12 months”.
“People are right to caution about the risks of central banks acting too conservatively by tightening policy prematurely,” Haldane said in a speech published online. “But, for me, the greater risk at present is of central bank complacency allowing the inflationary (big) cat out of the bag.”
LONDON (Reuters) - If there’s no taper, why the tantrum?
U.S. one dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken February 8, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
A surge in government bond yields this month and related wobble in equities has markets harking back to 2013’s “taper tantrum” when the prospect of the Federal Reserve winding down its bond-buying nearly doubled 10-year U.S. Treasury yields in four months and briefly knocked world shares by 10%.
This year’s moves, so far, are less than half that magnitude, and the tentative comparison runs further aground.
Eight years ago, the Fed did indeed signal a tapering of its monthly bond purchases, in place since the 2008 banking crash. This year, there’s little or no chance of it doing so. If anything, central banks might double down on easing.