Fixed income

Latest reports on the Canadian economy showed strong job creation and lingering housing market overheating. These were early signs for a rate hike. In your opinion, should we expect the BoC to raise interest rates? Why?

No, I do expect the BoC to raise rates anytime soon, as there still are some downside risks that the Bank of Canada wants to make sure do not materialise, especially in the US trade policy. Another issue is that inflation is still below the Central Bank’s target. There is still time for the excess capacity to be reduced before a rate hike becomes appropriate.

Credit Suisse shareholders on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a plan to sell 4 billion Swiss francs ($4.1 billion) of new shares to raise capital, allowing the banking giant to keep full control of its profitable Swiss unit. The capital raising plans, announced last month, received 99.35 percent of the votes at an extraordinary general meeting in Zurich.

Credit Suisse announced the capital hike on April 26, shelving its longstanding plans to partially float its Swiss banking unit through an initial public offering. The bank previously raised 6 billion francs in 2015.

Hackers are claiming to have stolen an upcoming Disney movie and are demanding a ransom, according media reporters. Disney CEO Bob Iger first revealed the hackers’ claim in a staff meeting with employees in New York City, Deadline.com and The Hollywood Reporter reported. Disney is working with federal investigators and will not pay the ransom, the reports say.

Movie website Deadline identified Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which opens on May 26, as the target, without revealing its sources, while some film writers speculated on Twitter that Pixar’s Cars 3, due for release next month, might have been hit.

Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC is selling part of its stake in Swiss bank UBS at a loss, nearly a decade after it first invested in the bank at the height of the financial crisis.

"Conditions have changed fundamentally since GIC invested in UBS in February 2008, as have UBS’ strategy and business," GIC Chief Executive Officer Lim Chow Kiat said early Tuesday (May 16) in a statement. "It makes sense now for GIC to reduce its ownership of UBS and to redeploy these resources elsewhere," Mr Lim said.

Credit ratings agency Moody’s said Monday it will buy Dutch business intelligence company Bureau van Dijk for for about $3.3 billion to extend its risk data and analytical businesses.

Bureau van Dijk is currently owned by investment firm EQT and it distributes financial information and private company datasets of 220 million companies. "Bureau van Dijk is a high growth information aggregator and distributor that positions Moody’s at the center of a unique network of global risk data," said Moody’s CEO Raymond McDaniel. "This acquisition provides significant opportunities for Moody’s Analytics to offer complementary products, create new risk solutions and extend its reach to new and evolving market segments."

The US and China have reached a 10-point trade deal that opens the Chinese market to US credit rating agencies and credit card companies. Under the deal, China will also lift its ban on US beef imports; in return, Chinese cooked chicken will be allowed into the US market and Chinese banks can enter the US market. And there were numerous other parts of the preliminary agreement. This included language that appears to pave the way for U.S. firms to export liquid natural gas to China, the expediting of Chinese safety reviews for U.S. biotechnology applications, and cooperation between Chinese and U.S. regulators over financial transactions.The deals are the first tangible results of trade talks that began in April after US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Florida.

Richemont reported worse-than-expected results shortly before Friday’s open as the Geneva-based company said a volatile trading environment had caused its net profits to slip more than anticipated. However, the world’s second-largest luxury goods group noted an uptick in sales growth towards the end of its fiscal year, in large part attributable to easier comparisons and support from a sustainable recovery in mainland China, Reuters reported.

Sales at Richemont fell 4 percent at constant exchange rates in the year to March, missing expectations in a Reuters poll of analysts, but with a clear improvement in the second half thanks to a recovery in the United States and strong growth in China.

Zurich Insurance Group referred its profit fell from a year earlier in the first quarter, but added that an improved economic outlook could help the company’s prospects for the rest of the year.

The Swiss insurer said net income fell to $607 million in the first quarter from $875 million a year earlier. A more than 3 percent change to Britain’s Ogden rate, a tool for calculating personal injury and accident claims, dampened Zurich’s core property and casualty business in the first three months of 2017.