$18 billion
The International Monetary Fund said it has reached a deal to lend up to $18 billion to Ukraine as part of an economic reform program that Ukrainian officials said would require “painful” change.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
1 million
About one million children under the age of 15 contract tuberculosis around the world each year, twice as many as previously thought, according to a study from researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
It is possible if history repeats itself like in the past from 1994 to 1999, when both the markets and the “fear gauge” moved higher together. Are we entering a similar period again?
(Source: Schwab and Business Insider)
1,190
The total number of defective medical devices recalled in the U.S. rose to 1,190 in 2012, up from 604 in 2003. There was a sharp increase in recalls where the product carried a reasonable probability of death.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
HIGHLIGHTS:
- The Fed announced an additional $10 billion per month in tapering, split evenly between Treasuries and MBS.
- The Fed dropped its reference to 6.5% as a threshold for when they would hike short-term interest rates and indicated that they would follow a “broad array” of indicators, including “financial developments”.
- The majority of members of the FOMC still see the first rate hike in 2015, but the pace of rate hikes is projected to be slightly quicker than previously estimated, even though the economic projections were adjusted downward.
- There was one dissenting vote by Kocherlakota who favored sticking with the unemployment and inflation guidelines.
This was the first meeting for Janet Yellen to preside as Chairwoman, but it is also one with some unfilled seats. While there is plenty of uncertainty with many of the voting members in 2014, we think that the overall composition of the FOMC is likely to be more hawkish this year. While we don’t expect a significant change to current policies in the near term, we think that the changes at the Fed could mean we’ll be hearing differing views in the year ahead.
The Fed’s slower pace of bond buying means that its influence on Treasury yields will continue to decline, while the pace of economic growth and inflation prospects are likely to play a larger role in setting policy. We don’t see the shift from the numerical threshold of 6.5% unemployment to more qualitative information is all that different from the Fed’s previous approach. It allows the Fed more flexibility on policy, but may make it more difficult for investors to assess the Fed’s next steps. Treasury bond yields initially moved higher in reaction to the Fed’s statement, perhaps because of the indication that interest rates might move up more quickly once rate hikes begin. However, in her press conference, Yellen explained that the Fed remains committed to reducing unemployment and keeping inflation in check. All in all, our view is that the Fed is still committed to a “measured” approach to changing policy.
1.6
Thailand’s fertility rate has fallen to an average of just 1.6 children per woman, from seven in the 1970s, disrupting centuries of tradition in which children care for their parents.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
Buyout firm Apax Partners LLP stands to score a 10,000 percent gain on its 2005 investment in King Digital Entertainment Plc (KING) as the maker of smartphone game “Candy Crush Saga” prepares its initial public offering.
In one of its last venture capital deals before it abandoned that business, London-based Apax injected about $35 million into King, according to a person with knowledge of the deal, who asked not to be named because the terms are private. The games maker set terms last week for the IPO that would value it at as much as $7.6 billion. Apax’s stake could be worth $3.5 billion.
While Dublin-based King has developed more than 180 games in the past decade, “Candy Crush,” a puzzle game that features colored candies, fueled most of its growth. The potential windfall comes as venture capitalists are seeing their best returns since the late 1990s dot-com bubble. Twelve venture-backed companies went public in the U.S. last year with market capitalizations above $1 billion at the time of offering.
(Source: Bloomberg)
$1 billion
The U.S. Justice Department is expected to announce a settlement with Toyota Motor Corp. as early as Wednesday that could cost the auto maker more than $1 billion to end a criminal probe into its disclosure of safety issues, people familiar with the matter said.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
1.7 million
General Motors has recalled a further 1.7 million vehicles to fix a variety of problems, chief among them a wiring defect that could result in seat airbags failing to deploy.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)