Fearing the threat from tech giants in the US and China, the EU plans to bulk up its own “high-potential European companies” through a sovereign wealth fund
According to media reports, which quoted an internal EU document, plans are afoot to set up a “European Future Fund” with a capital of € 100 billion ($ 110 billion) and the mandate to invest in promising European corporations to bring them up to speed on the tech front.
Hedge fund titan Ray Dalio said to CNBC that China might well use its massive US Treasury holdings to gain a strategic advantage over the United States in the ongoing trade war
Will China use the nuclear option? That refers to China’s ability to dump its holdings of US Treasury bonds and thereby cause a massive rise in US interest rates that could potentially derail the US economy.
The US-China trade war took a toll on global fintech investments, which slumped 29% in the first half of the year.
According to a report from consulting firm Accenture, fintech deals across the globe in the first half of 2019 amounted to $22 billion, sharply lower than $31.2 billion in the same period in 2018.
The number of deals was higher by 2% to 1,561 this year, however.
Yield curves have inverted on both sides of the Atlantic following the release of weak economic data across the globe
Yield curve inversion, a phenomenon where longer-term yields fall below short-term yields, was on full display in the U.K. and the U.S. today.
In the U.S., 10-year yields were poised at 1.62% while two-year yields dropped to 1.63%. Across the pond, in the U.K., the 10-year and 2-year yields quoted 0.475% and 0.478% respectively.
The US-China trade war and growth concerns are likely to push up debt defaults in the region
As default rates in China tick up, a distressed cycle is looming on the horizon, according to George Long, Chief Investment Officer of LIM Advisors, a 14-year-old hedge fund based out of Hong Kong that manages $1 billion in assets.