Inflation

SURE, we need to live with the virus. What’s not said enough is that this means being comfortable, or at least adapting to, uncertainty in central bank communication. These officials aren’t epidemiologists and they don’t know where Covid-19 is going. The hand-holding that’s characterised the past two decades is hard to justify, and shouldn’t be expected going forward. There will be some challenging moments as officials and investors adjust to this new paradigm. Policy makers are confronting elevated inflation that’s proving more stubborn than forecast and an on-again, off-again outlook for the recovery. Omicron looks like it will hurt activity and aggravate the supply chain bottlenecks that are keeping the pace of price increases uncomfortably fast. The International Monetary Fund recently foreshadowed cuts to its growth estimates and warned central bankers to be vigilant. It’s tempting to read last rites for forward guidance and a decent chunk of the messaging …

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- A + A BEIJING (Dec 9): China's red-hot factory-gate inflation cooled slightly in November, driven by a government crackdown on runaway commodity prices and an easing power crunch, amid Beijing's efforts to lessen the crippling effects of surging costs on the economy. The producer price index rose 12.9% in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, slower than October's 26-year high of 13.5% but faster than the 12.4% expected in a Reuters poll of analysts. While factory inflation remains uncomfortably high, the price moderation may give policymakers some latitude to unleash more stimulus to shore up flagging growth. China's economy, which staged an impressive rebound from last year's pandemic slump, has lost momentum in recent months as it grapples with surging prices, a slowing manufacturing sector, debt problems in the property market and persistent COVID-19 outbreaks. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) on Monday announced a cut to the amount …

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Rahul Jain, President & Head, Personal Wealth, Edelweiss Wealth Management It’s an open secret that equities are an asset class that can deliver inflation-beating returns. In a regime of low-interest rates, investment in equities is paramount to shield your wealth from falling prey to inflation. However, several investors fail to hold on to their equity investment and tend to quit following short-term volatility. As a result, not only do they fail to leverage the potential of this asset class to the fullest, but also fall short of the desired corpus for the said goal. Patience: An Essential Virtue to Invest in Equities Among the several virtues that you, as an investor, need to ace the equity game is patience. You need to adopt a long approach to ensure optimum returns from equities. Close Figure this. The Sensex has soared nearly 150 percent since March 2020 lows. However, when markets nosedived during that period because of the pandemic, several …

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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Topline The stock market surged on Tuesday, extending a strong rebound from last week’s rough patch as concerns about the omicron variant continued to abate and investors bet on shares linked to the economic recovery. Key Facts The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.4%, around 500 points, while the S&P 500 gained 2.1% and the Nasdaq Composite 3%. Stocks added to Monday’s gains, continuing a rebound from last week’s selloff, when market volatility surged after the emergence of the new Covid omicron variant. Shares of companies linked to the economic recovery—including airlines, cruises, casinos and other travel-related stocks—continued to lead the stock market higher. Investors now appear to be less spooked by the omicron variant amid reports that it causes milder symptoms than feared, with the nation’s top pandemic expert Dr. Anthony Fauci saying on Sunday that initial data was “encouraging.” …

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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Key Takeaways: Natural Gas Rises as Russia Gathers Troops Near the Ukrainian Border Stocks See a Broad Rally on Tuesday as Technology Stocks Join the Bounce Falling Productivity Points to Rising Inflation Stocks look to add to Tuesday’s gains as equity index futures are pointing higher before the open. However, there’s some uneasiness as President Joe Biden warns that Russia could invade Ukraine. According to The Wall Street Journal, Russia has had an unusual amount of troop movement near its Ukrainian border. Many believe that President Putin is posturing because he wants to push through Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline into Europe, but Ukraine is blocking its development. European natural gas price rose about 6% overnight and U.S. natural gas futures (/NG) are trading 4.18% higher before the open. Outside of these tensions, Pfizer PFE (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) released information showing that …

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What do you want your golden years to look like? Do you want to pick up a hobby you’ve put on the back burner for many years? Or do you find joy in helping others? With early planning, you can be sure you’ll be able to pursue your passions during retirement – without worry. Ms Pereira, a secretary, is 62 years old and thinking about the retirement lifestyle she envisions and how she can live it up even after she has stopped working. When she turned 55, she chose not to withdraw a lump sum from her CPF savings as she was still working. She has been taking art classes and looks forward to creating beautiful artwork full-time after she retires. 3 CPF LIFE Plans Escalating Plan: The Escalating Plan provides monthly payouts that increase by 2 per cent every year. This helps you to maintain your lifestyle even when prices rise. Standard Plan: The Standard Plan provides stable and level payouts. You can consider it if you see yourself leading a more modest …

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Harish Krishnan, Fund Manager – Equity at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company says events like state elections, global interest rate trajectories and growth impulse slowing down from China may impact markets in the near term. Krishnan has more than a decade of experience in equity research and fund management. Keeping long-term view, Kotak AMC is overweight on four themes - financialisation of savings, turning of investment cycle, revenge consumption and global value chains. Edited excerpts: Q: You think RBI would hint at a rate hike in its December policy meeting given the rising expectations of a rate hike in the US? Close Central banks have multiple tools – rates, liquidity and other parameters nudging banks to lend, etc. While central banks across the world last year were unanimous in their support to both liquidity and lower interest rates, over the last 6-9 months, the global central banks are diverging in their policy responses on liquidity and …

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Based on one’s financial goals and risk appetite, there are a variety of mutual funds to choose from. In recent years, many taxpayers have turned to the Equity Linked Savings Scheme or ELSS to get regular returns, generate wealth, as well as avail tax benefits. Moneycontrol got in touch with Sorbh Gupta, Fund Manager, Equity, from Quantum Mutual Fund to know more about ELSS. Investors today generally look for two key functions while choosing an investment option – creating wealth and tax saving. While there are multiple options such as PPFs, FDs and life insurance that help achieve these goals, ELSS stands out with the lowest lock-in period of 3 years. In comparison, PPFs have a five-year lock-in period, and Vikas Patras have five to six year lock-in periods. ELSS are equity-linked funds that offer tax exemption from one’s annual tax-paying income under Section 80C of the Income-Tax Act. The maximum investment limit for ELSS funds is Rs 1,50,000, of which the applicable tax slab …

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Hope isn't really much of a strategy-- unless you are an investment banker. I hear a lot of cheap conversation and a fair amount of wishful thinking about this year's expected abundant crop of initial public offerings, but-- at least to date--there's not much to show for all the talk. I'm sure we'll see a few brand-name, bloated valuation deals come thru the pipeline --although Q1 is already in the books with little or nothing other than Snap to arguably brag about. Then again it's a little tough to brag on an IPO that was recently trading 3 or 4 bucks below its opening price. You can expect to see some aggressively manipulated and short-term upward bumps in the opening sessions for some of these "winners," but overall, it's gonna be another very slow and painful season for IPOs regardless of how much hype the Street and the financial media try to manufacture. Why? There are three pretty clear reasons. (1) For real companies, there's no reason to IPO. A good, solid and growing …

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Atanuu Agarrwal, Co-founder of Upside AI, sees a strong uptick in the markets for the long term in sync with the economic growth. Referring to the host of new-age companies floating their public issues, Agarrwal suggests that before investing, one must make sure that the unit economics of the business makes sense. “If they do, at scale (whatever that means in context of the specific company), the company will be able to generate a superior return on capital. Only then can valuations that look out of whack with prevailing metrics make sense,” she says in an interview with Moneycontrol . Excerpts from the interaction: Most of the key corporate earnings for the September quarter are out. What’s your broad view on the figures? I think there were two major themes – restart and inflation. If you look at the Nifty50 companies that have declared results so far, they seem to be recording a robust 25-percent-plus topline growth driven by post-lockdown demand. However, operating …

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