posted on 20 January 2016

Written by Econintersect

Early Bird Headlines 20 January 2015

Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.

Global

Asian stocks slide to four-year lows as oil spirals lower (Reuters) Asian stock markets slumped to fresh four-year lows on Wednesday as a relentless slide in oil prices snuffed out an attempted rally on Wall Street and dealt a further blow to global investors' appetite for riskier assets. European stocks were expected to fall sharply at the open on Wednesday with financial spreadbetters predicting Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE to open down 2%t, Germany's DAX .DAXI to fall 2.4% and France's CAC .FCHI to slip 2.2-2.4%. U.S. crude wallowed at its lowest since 2003 after the world's energy watchdog warned the market could "drown in oversupply" (See article below.) U.S. futures CLc1 shed nearly 3% to $27.68 while Brent crude LCOc1 lost 2% to $28.21 a barrel. In Asia, stocks surrendered all of Tuesday's rare gains with the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS falling 2.6% on the day and hitting its lowest since October 2011. Other losses today: Hong Kong (down 3.7%), Tokyo Nikkei 225 (down 3.7%), Australia (down 1.3%) and South Korea (down 2.3%).

IMF downgrades outlook for world economy (The Washington Post) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday lowered its forecast of global economic growth over the next two years amid the deepening slowdown in emerging markets and a continued slump in oil prices. The IMF now projects the world economy will grow 3.4% this year and 3.6% in 2017. That pace would be faster than last year, but the projections are 0.2% points lower than the IMF estimated in the fall - a sign that the global recovery is still struggling to build momentum. The IMF's new projection for China is 6.3% growth for 2016 and 6.0% in 2017. China has just announced the 2015 growth was 6.9%, the lowest growth since the Great Recession in 2009.

Davos 2016: Global economy seen to be hanging in the balance (Financial Times) Hat tip to Rob Carter. The world economy is precariously balanced between continued recovery and a third leg of the global financial crisis, according to leading economists attending the World Economic Forum in Davos. Economists said the instability arising from uncertainties surrounding the global outlook in 2016 amid fears of a slowdown in China, plunging commodity prices and high levels of corporate US dollar-denominated debt in emerging economies threatens to exacerbate the vulnerability of households and companies, which are already responding to disruptive technological changes.

Oil market could drown in oversupply in 2016, says IEA (The Guardian) The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts increase in supply after lifting of sanctions against Iran, pushing prices down further. The IEA said in its January report that this could be the third successive year when supply exceeded demand by 1 million barrels a day, and the system would struggle to cope. The IEA is forecasting prices could go markedly lower.