Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Bad news for China

Another day brought another troubling sign for the Chinese economy. Beijing authorities are said to have told state-owned banks to step up intervention in the currency market in a push to prevent a surge in yuan volatility. Senior officials are also considering using tools such as cutting banks’ foreign-exchange reserve requirements to prevent a rapid depreciation in the currency. The request came as the yuan fell toward 7.35 per dollar. A broader sense of gloom had already descended on China’s markets this week, even as Beijing sought to bolster sentiment with a surprise interest-rate cut, a string of stronger-than-expected daily reference rates for the yuan and large injections of short-term cash to the financial system. Despite all of these measures, the onshore yuan is tumbling toward the weakest level since 2007 and a key index of shares in Hong Kong is close to a bear market. —David E. Rovella

Wall Street, like Big Tech, fired thousands of people over the past year, partially in contemplation of the much-advertised recession that never was. But at least one bank is suddenly hiring again, albeit for a rather unique reason. A fresh bout of regulatory scrutiny has set off a hiring spree at Goldman Sachs, it turns out. The Wall Street firm is said to be enlisting several hundred new staffers to help address concerns from authorities— including the US Federal Reserve.

When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pushed through an anti-China crackdown in his state earlier this year, he won praise from his fellow far-right Republicans. But to Ken Griffin, the state’s wealthiest man, the effort represented an ideological affront. In its most extreme version, the proposed legislation would have essentially prohibited citizens of seven nations, including China and Venezuela, from buying property anywhere in South Florida even if they had work permits. Moreover, those limitations could have posed complications for Griffin’s plan to relocate hundreds of employees to Miami, where he’s planning to build a headquarters costing at least $1 billion. So the Citadel founder got to work.

A recently manufactured Russian missile recovered by Ukrainian forces suggests the invading army is running low on stocks of some advanced weapons, and is having to produce them more quickly to maintain the intensity of its war. The finding of a rocket with an unusually late production date was revealed by pictures analyzed by StateWatch, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization, and Bloomberg News. It adds to other evidence that the Russians are under pressure to fire missiles as soon as they roll off manufacturing lines.

Recently manufactured Russian missile recovered by Ukrainian forces. Source: StateWatch

The recent surge in US mortgage rates has pushed housing affordability to the lowest level in nearly four decades. Last year’s slowdown brought a brief respite from the price gains of the pandemic boom, but now that’s vanished, with home values recovering the $3 trillion they’d lost. One measure of borrowing costs has climbed to a level not seen in more than two decades.

IRA and 401(k) millionaires are staging a comeback, with the number of seven-figure US retirement accounts at Fidelity Investments inching back toward a 2021 high. This year’s double-digit gains in the benchmark S&P 500 have helped swell retirement balances for a third quarter in a row following a plunge that tracked the stock market last year.

Argentina may be headed for disaster again. John Authers writes in Bloomberg Opinion that if Javier Milei dollarizes the economy and abolishes the central bank, as the “libertarian” presidential candidate proposes, very bad things will happen.

New York City is rolling out a plan to convert vacant offices into as many as 20,000 new housing units by helping developers cut through red tape and rezone a section of Manhattan known as Midtown South.

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LVMH is Europe’s most valuable company, having recently touched a $500 billion market cap. But the good times may be coming to an end, and the question of succession looms. The insatiable global demand for luxury goods and stellar financial results made LVMH chief Bernard Arnault the world’s second-wealthiest person. But cooling consumer appetites in critical markets may soon take their toll. In the Bloomberg Originals short documentary, Bernard Arnault: King of Luxury, we meet the man behind a conglomerate built by decades of acquisitions, and explore the question of who will someday replace him.

Bernard Arnault Photographer: Ludovic Marin/AFP

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