Aurelia Butler

Standard DigitalWeekend Print + Standard Digitalwasnow $85 per monthBilled Quarterly at $199. Complete digital access plus the FT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts10 monthly gift articles to shareGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionEverything in PrintWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisPlusEverything in Premium DigitalEverything in Standard DigitalGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresFirstFT newsletterVideos & PodcastsFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit app10 gift articles per monthExclusive FT analysisPremium newslettersFT Digital Edition10 additional gift articles per monthMake and share highlightsFT WorkspaceMarkets data widgetSubscription ManagerWorkflow integrationsOccasional readers go freeVolume discountFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Standard DigitalFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Premium Digital More

Did they or didn’t they? The yen surged across the board on Thursday in what may have been a perfectly timed round of Japanese intervention upon release of a tame U.S. inflation report that sent Treasury yields and the dollar lower.While analysts did not rule out intervention, they said forex players could have been caught wrong footed on short yen positions. But local Japanese television cited government sources as saying official intervention did occur and, while Jiji said Japan’s currency boss Masato Kanda could not comment yes or no, the news service did quote him saying recent yen moves were not in line with fundamentals.    Either way, the yen jumped more than 2% at one point against the greenback and the euro moments after news that U.S. consumer prices fell for the first time in four years, which bolstered the case for a circumspect Fed to lower interest rates in September. The 0.1% CPI drop from May to June smacks of an important dovish watershed for data-dependent Fed policymakers. Friday brings the U.S. Producer Price Index as potential confirmation, bits of which feed into the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures prices index.Futures traders raised the odds of a Fed easing in September to 85% from 70% before the report and added to bets for a second cut in December. While Wall Street took the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to another set of intraday records after the open, a plunge in Treasury yields was not enough to keep the rally going. Only the Dow closed in the green.Taiwan Semiconductor needs to carry the baton for the chips sector, and growth stocks in general, after rotation out of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) took the froth out of U.S. markets.   Many Asia bourses have their own momentum. No one would rule out the Nikkei taking a breather from its record-setting streak. MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index rose 1.4% on Thursday. Beijing’s quinquennial Party plenum looms next week as a source of signals for China’s markets. Meanwhile, fresh curbs on short selling could mean another day of positive vibes for the Shanghai Composite index after it’s 1.06% gain Thursday. Likewise for the blue-chip CSI300 index.  Dollar/yen was down 1.8% at 158.79 in late U.S. trade. The euro rose 0.34%. The yuan strengthened against the falling dollar and was last at 7.2582 per dollar.Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Friday:- Malaysia industrial output (May)- Japan industrial output (May)- U.S. Producer Price Index (June)- JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup earnings (Q2) More

(Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Thursday made it easier for the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to police a form of housing discrimination known as redlining, reviving the agency’s first such case against a non-bank mortgage lender.Reversing a lower court ruling, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the CFPB can try to prove that Chicago-based Townstone Financial and its co-founder Barry Sturner violated the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act by discouraging Blacks from applying for mortgage loans.Circuit Judge Kenneth Ripple wrote for a three-judge panel that a CFPB regulation for enforcing the law applied not just to mortgage applicants, but also to discouraged prospective applicants.Redlining occurs when lenders deny or discourage mortgage loans based on race, color, or national origin.The CFPB sued Townstone and Sturner in July 2020, citing statements made on Townstone’s AM radio show and podcast “The Townstone Financial Show”, known as a long-form commercial advertisement.These included where Sturner said Chicago’s South Side was “hoodlum weekend” between Friday and Monday, and another host discussing a mainly Black suburb said “you drive very fast through Markham … and you don’t look at anybody or lock on anybody’s eyes.”Townstone’s practices led to its receiving fewer mortgage applications from Black applicants and for homes in majority-Black neighborhoods than its Chicago-area peers, the CFPB said.The defendants said the CFPB lawsuit was a means to censor their speech.But Ripple, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, said “it was clear” that Congress intended that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act be construed broadly, with a goal of ending discrimination in loan applications.”The term ‘applicant’ cannot be read in a crabbed fashion” to exclude discouraged applicants, Ripple wrote. “Congress well understood that ‘any aspect of a credit transaction’ had to include actions taken by a creditor before an applicant ultimately submits his or her credit application.”Oliver Dunford, a lawyer for the conservative nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation which represented the defendants, said “we’re disappointed in the decision,” which “ignored completely Townstone’s First Amendment arguments. We are considering our options for further review.”A CFPB spokesperson had no immediate comment.The 7th Circuit returned the case to U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama in Chicago, who dismissed it in February 2023.The case is CFPB v Townstone Financial Inc et al, 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 23-1654. More

CHICAGO (Reuters) -Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Austan Goolsbee said on Thursday the U.S. economy looks like it is back on track to 2% inflation after a bump up earlier this year, suggesting he is gaining confidence the time will soon be ripe to cut interest rates.”My view is, this is what the path to 2% looks like,” Goolsbee told reporters in a group interview at the bank. A government report earlier on Thursday showing consumer prices unexpectedly dipped in June from May was “excellent” news and along with May’s reading suggested stronger-than-expected inflation prints in January were just a “bump in the road” rather than a reversal of progress, he said. Thursday’s report also showed a long-awaited easing in housing and rent inflation that he said was “profoundly encouraging.” Goolsbee declined to say whether he would push for a rate cut when the Fed next meets to decide on policy on July 30-31. However, he did say that for the Fed to hold the policy rate steady in the 5.25%-5.5% range, as it has done since last July, effectively means the central bank is increasingly putting the brakes on the economy.”By not moving, we are tightening … and it’s starting from a level of restrictiveness that is as high as it’s been in decades,” Goolsbee said. “The reason to be as restrictive as that and the reason to tighten in real terms would be if you thought the economy was overheating. This is not in my view what an overheating economy looks like.” The labor market is cooling, though still strong, he said, adding it does not feel like the beginning of a recession. Goolsbee said he does see some warning signs the economy is slowing, including a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.1% last month, and an uptick in delinquencies. But because the pandemic upended the economy, he said, it is difficult to know exactly what those warning signs may foretell. What is clear, Goolsbee said, is that financial conditions are “pretty restrictive” and that by holding rates steady even as inflation falls the Fed is “undeniably” tightening policy. Once the Fed delivers its first rate cut, he said, the decision to follow that move with more rate cuts and if so at what pace will depend on the data. “I’m not a fan of pre-committing or tying our hands,” he said. More

(Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he had confidence in Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and that the two would continue to work together, damping reports of tensions between her and the prime minister’s aides.Canada’s Globe and Mail, citing unidentified sources, reported earlier on Thursday that the relationship between Freeland and the prime minister’s office had become strained over what the newspaper said was the perception that she had been ineffective in delivering an upbeat economic message.Speaking to reporters in Washington, Trudeau said Freeland has been a close friend and partner in doing “really big things for Canada” and she would continue her work on housing and the economy, among other areas.Trudeau, in power since 2015, shuffled much of his cabinet last year with the aim of increasing focus on economic issues, such as a housing shortage and the rising cost of living – issues that have hurt his standing with voters. The prime minister brought seven new people into cabinet, but kept prominent ministers including Freeland in their portfolios.”She is a critical and essential member of my team and I’m fully confident in her abilities,” Trudeau said of Freeland, who also serves as deputy prime minister.The Globe reported that concern over Freeland had stemmed from low approval ratings for the Liberal government, especially after it lost a once-safe Toronto constituency in a special election last month.The newspaper said there had been discussions internally about bringing in former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney to replace Freeland as finance minister, a post she has held for nearly four years.Trudeau said he had been talking with Carney for years to convince him to join federal politics and that he would be an “outstanding addition at a time when Canadians need good people to step up.”The next federal election must be held by the end of October 2025. A range of polls show the Liberals would lose badly to the main opposition Conservative Party. More

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