Opposition candidate Péter Magyar warns supporters against complacency as some voters undecided ahead of Sunday in Budapest As you’re reading this Trump post, it’s probably worth keeping in mind that his VP, JD Vance, spent most of his time in Budapest fuming about the unacceptable foreign interference in the election and declaring it absolutely outrageous. Continue reading...
Opposition candidate Péter Magyar warns supporters against complacency as some voters undecided ahead of Sunday in Budapest As you’re reading this Trump post, it’s probably worth keeping in mind that his VP, JD Vance, spent most of his time in Budapest fuming about the unacceptable foreign interference in the election and declaring it absolutely outrageous. Continue reading...
Warburg Pincus has launched a fund for investing in European defense assets amid a historic rearmament in the region that will require billions of dollars in private capital. The strategy will receive early backing from MEAG, the asset management arm of insurer of Munich Re , according to a statement Friday. The size of the fund was not disclosed. Bloomberg News reported in January that US-based W...
Warburg Pincus has launched a fund for investing in European defense assets amid a historic rearmament in the region that will require billions of dollars in private capital. The strategy will receive early backing from MEAG, the asset management arm of insurer of Munich Re , according to a statement Friday. The size of the fund was not disclosed. Bloomberg News reported in January that US-based Warburg Pincus was considering a dedicated defense fund as large as €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion). European governments have earmarked hundreds of billions of euros to re-arm the continent and reduce a dependence on the US. Private equity firms have responded by stepping up searches for investment opportunities in the once-shunned sector. “Europe is undergoing a fundamental reassessment of its defense, resilience and security needs, leading to significant need for scaling of the European defense sector,” Tobias Weidner , head of the European industrials team at Warburg Pincus, said in the statement.
Getty Images By Shannon L. Saccocia, CFA We remain positive on risk assets and are poised to take advantage of both what we believe are mispricings in parts of the bond markets as well as more attractive valuations within equities following March’s market weakness. March non-farm payrolls were meaningfully higher than consensus even as the conflict in the Middle East wears on. Payrolls increased b...
Getty Images By Shannon L. Saccocia, CFA We remain positive on risk assets and are poised to take advantage of both what we believe are mispricings in parts of the bond markets as well as more attractive valuations within equities following March’s market weakness. March non-farm payrolls were meaningfully higher than consensus even as the conflict in the Middle East wears on. Payrolls increased by +178k in the month ahead of expectations for a +59k print. Payrolls were revised lower for February to -133k from -92k while January was revised up modestly by +7k. In aggregate, today’s print brings the trailing three-month average payroll gains to +68k – notably stronger than the second half of 2025. Driving the print, once again, was health care. While declining by -28k in February due to a large strike at Kaiser Permanente, health care job growth rebounded in March, with the sector adding +76k. Leisure and hospitality was also notably higher (+44k) as was social assistance (+14k). Notably, construction (+26k), transportation and warehousing (+21k), and manufacturing (+15k) were all positive in March as well; these green shoots are consistent with most recent release of ISM Manufacturing PMI of 52.7, the measure’s third straight increase after 10 months of contraction. Areas of weakness in the report were financial activities (-15k) and the Federal government, which shed another -18k jobs to bring the cumulative decline in U.S. government jobs to almost -12% since October 2024. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3% on a further decline in the participation rate, which fell from 62.0% to 61.9% – the lowest level since November 2021. Employed persons were down by -64k, and there were 332k fewer unemployed persons as many of these individuals left the workforce. Average hourly earnings decelerated as well, up only +0.2% month-over-month and +3.5% year-over-year, while average hours worked declined from 34.3 to 34.2. Our perspective is that this print, combined with th...
Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd. has brought in a former senior equity capital markets banker to lead share sales after last month’s raids in Hong Kong that shook the city’s financial sector, according to people familiar with the matter. The Chinese investment bank has tapped Jean Li, who left her post as co-head of equity capital markets in late 2024, to take charge of such deals, the peo...
Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd. has brought in a former senior equity capital markets banker to lead share sales after last month’s raids in Hong Kong that shook the city’s financial sector, according to people familiar with the matter. The Chinese investment bank has tapped Jean Li, who left her post as co-head of equity capital markets in late 2024, to take charge of such deals, the people said, asking not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Li took up the role in an interim capacity, and the firm is also in the market to look for candidates for a senior equity capital markets role, some of the people said. Guotai Junan has continued to work on Hong Kong initial public offerings , recent filings show . The city’s authorities last month raided the bank, Citic Securities Co. ’s Hong Kong unit and hedge-fund firm Infini Capital Management Ltd. , people familiar with the matter have said. Authorities didn’t name the firms involved and said they were investigating senior executives alleged to have exchanged confidential information for bribes. Guotai Haitong issued a statement confirming the raid on the Guotai Junan office. Li had left Guotai Junan after spending almost 17 years at the firm before rejoining in November as the head of its principal team, according to her LinkedIn profile. In between those roles, she served as a deputy general manager at chemical-products company China Risun Group Ltd. Read More: What We Know About the Finance Industry Raids Samuel Pan has served as Guotai Junan’s head of equity capital markets since 2023, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. His license with Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission for dealing in securities was inactive after March 12. Li referred queries to the bank’s investor-relations department. Guotai Junan wasn’t immediately able to comment. Pan didn’t respond to a request for comment. Intensifying regulatory scrutiny has rattled Hong Kong’s financial industry and ...
TOPSHOT - A television shows the meeting between Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, at a restaurant in Taipei on April 10, 2026. I-hwa Cheng | Afp | Getty Images Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Kuomintang party chair Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on Friday, the first encounter between Xi and a sitting Taiwanese opposition leader in nearly a decade...
TOPSHOT - A television shows the meeting between Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, at a restaurant in Taipei on April 10, 2026. I-hwa Cheng | Afp | Getty Images Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Kuomintang party chair Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on Friday, the first encounter between Xi and a sitting Taiwanese opposition leader in nearly a decade. In a readout released by Chinese state media, Xi said Beijing "welcomes any proposals conducive to the peaceful development of cross-strait relations." That's according to a CNBC translation of the statement in Chinese. Xi also reiterated that "'Taiwan independence' is the primary threat undermining stability across the Taiwan Strait," calling on party leaders on the mainland and Taiwan to oppose "separatism and foreign interference." Cheng took the helm last October of the largest opposition party at a time of rising military and political tensions with the mainland. Her trip to Beijing came as the KMT seeks to position itself as a viable interlocutor with the mainland ahead of Taiwan's 2028 presidential election. The tone of Beijing's official readout marked a meaningful shift, said Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. "The message reduces the risk of military conflict across the Taiwan Strait and is beneficial for both mainland China and Taiwan," Zhang said, adding that it signaled Beijing's preference for a peaceful approach to cross-strait relations. In the statement, Xi reiterated that the mainland and Taiwan share an ethnic and cultural identity that political differences cannot sever, while stressing that the "One China" principle remains the non-negotiable basis for any engagement. The Chinese leader called for broader economic, trade and cultural exchanges, vowing to deepen "political mutual trust" and keep communication channels open. The meeting comes ahead of a planned visit by U.S. President Donald Trump in May, where he ...
(RTTNews) - Asian stocks ended mixed on Friday amid lingering tensions around Israeli strikes across Lebanon and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, despite the ceasefire agreement.
(RTTNews) - Asian stocks ended mixed on Friday amid lingering tensions around Israeli strikes across Lebanon and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, despite the ceasefire agreement.