A spending survey done by MasterCard shows that March retail sales in Hong Kong declined at the worst rate in the history of the survey. According to the latest MasterCard SpendingPulse Hong Kong Report, "Overall retail sales in Hong Kong contracted 18.5% year-on-year, reflecting the deepest decline since 2014."
A few years back I wrote an article comparing buy-one-suit-get-three-free sales by Jos. A. Bank to the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program. Then Jos. A. Bank’s management did something absolutely brilliant: In March 2014 it sold the company for $1.8 billion to Men’s Wearhouse, its closest competitor (and twice its outfit’s size).
In the wake of the Panama Papers being released, the U.S.Treasury announced that it will use existing powers in order to make two rule changes that are intended to stop tax evasion.
First, in a rule which amends the US Bank Secrecy Act, the Treasury said it will require financial institutions to verify the identity of the real people, or "beneficial owners", who control companies opening accounts with them. The aim is to prevent true owners of the account from being masked by the names of lawyers or other representatives.
When Jim Chanos said earlier this week that days ago that sub-Saharan Africa is facing a severe cash shortage (mostly as a result of their collapsing oil export revenue) he probably did not have the economic basket case of Zimbabwe in mind, and yet this is the country which, after years of monetary and economic collapse "problems", including the occasional bout of hyperinflation, finds itself in the most dire situation.
Seriously...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs
First things first - it's payrolls day so stock ramp no matter what... But gold topped stocks post-payrolls and bonds were sold as crude rallied most...
It's been a volatile week...