30 March 2019 FT — Articles to Read

30 March 2019

 

Question: According to MSN: Money, what is the average American Salary per week?

 

United States – Pg. 7

–          …as Mr Trump’s re-election campaign begins to gather pace, it could turn out that the event this week with a more significant impact on the president’s prospects was not the Mueller report but the ominous signals from the bond market

–          The global bond rally came as a range of central banks adopt a dovish stance in the face of slowing growth in Europe and parts of Asia – as well as the US itself

–          The Fed is expecting growth of 2.1% in 2019, weaker than the 2.9% figure recorded for 2018.  Recent US data point to a further slowdown: The Atlanta Fed is projecting annualized growth of 1.5% for the first quarter.  If the bond market is right, the economic prognosis could be on the cusp of getting grimmer at a dangerous time for a president preparing to campaign for re-election

–          ….”extraordinarily strong” correlation between an incumbent president’s margin of victory and household economic confidence, based on surveys going back to 1992

–          The elder Bush failed to win a second term in 1992 after the economy went into a relatively brief recession and consumer sentiment slid

–          Mr Bush accursed Alan Greenspan, then Fed Chairman, of costing him votes by failing to ease policy enough

 

Staggering valuations, equally large losses – Pg. 13

–          Ecommerce group Amazon kept its backers waiting four-and-a-half years after its flotation before posting a small, $5m profit.  By contrast, its losses had grown to $3bn at that point, but that did not hold back its shares

–          Twitter listed in late 2013 but took four years to report its first profit of $91m in the final quarter of 2017.  It shares were down more than 50% by then, however, as investors tired.  Snap, which listed in early 2017, is still waiting for its turn to cheer owners

 

Answer: $900