Month: July 2017

Asian shares mostly directionless as markets digest weaker-than-expected China PMI

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Major Asian indexes were mostly directionless in Monday trade, after geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula ramped up in recent days and markets digested the release of China PMI data.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged down 0.05 percent and South Korea’s Kospi was off by 0.25 percent in early trade.

In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was higher by 0.26 percent, driven by strong showings in its materials sub-index, which was up 1.57 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.35 percent while mainland markets digested the release of slightly lower-than-expected China PMI data. The Shanghai Composite was flat and the Shenzhen Composite slipped 0.139 percent.

In China, official manufacturing PMI for July stood at 51.4, compared to a Reuters forecast of 51.6. The July figure was also below June’s reading of 51.7. Meanwhile, the official services PMI came in at 54.5 for July, compared to the 54.9 seen in June.

While manufacturing PMI data tends to be more closely watched, China’s pivot toward domestic consumption and away from investment-led growth means the services sector accounts for a bigger slice of the mainland economy.

The Australian dollar, which is sensitive to Chinese economic data, declined before the release to trade as low as $0.7953 on the news compared to levels around the $0.798 handle seen earlier. The Aussie dollar recovered to trade at $0.7981 at 9:49 a.m. HK/SIN.

The dollar recouped some losses after edging down Friday on the back of lackluster second-quarter U.S. GDP figures. The dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of six major currencies, traded as low as 93.256 in the Friday session after hitting as high as 93.946 earlier in the day. The dollar index stood at 93.371 at 9:50 a.m. HK/SIN Monday.

U.S. GDP grew at 2.6 percent in the second quarter, according to the Commerce Department’s advanced estimate released Friday. While the reading met expectations, the 1.9 percent growth recorded in the first half of the year suggested it was unlikely that full-year growth would exceed 2.5 percent, Reuters said.

Meanwhile, Japan June industrial production numbers released Monday reflected a rise of 1.6 percent on month, compared to a Reuters estimate of 1.7 percent. The metric recorded a 3.6 percent fall in the month of May, Reuters reported.

The Japanese currency strengthened slightly against the dollar following the news, trading as little as 110.45 to the dollar after the release compared to around 110.5 seen before. The greenback fetched 110.43 yen at 9:51 a.m. HK/SIN.

Markets also kept an eye on geopolitical developments in the Korean peninsula after North Korea test launched a projectile on Friday. In response, the U.S. flew two B-1B bombers over the peninsula and urged countries in the region to do more to tackle the issue.

Oil prices were moderately higher. Brent crude rose 0.19 percent to hold above the $52 level at $52.62 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 0.2 percent to trade at $49.81 per barrel.

In corporate news, Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings announced Sunday it would sell its fixed-line business to private equity firm I Squared Capital for $1.9 billion, Reuters reported. Hutchison Telecommunications stock soared more than 13 percent in early trade on the news.

On the earnings front, Japan’s Panasonic, Mizuho Financial Group and Japan Airlines, as well as Hong Kong’s HSBC are expected to report earnings.

The economic calendar is fairly eventful (all time in HK/SIN):

10:00 a.m. Singapore June bank lending
11:30 a.m. Thailand June industrial production
Stocks closed mixed on Wall Street Friday as markets saw a fall in Amazon.com stock after the company missed on earnings. The S&P 500 edged down 0.13 percent, or 3.32 points, to close at 2,742.10 and the Nasdaq slid 0.12 percent, or 7.51 points, to end at 6,374.68. The Dow Jones industrial average bucked the trend to rise 0.15 percent, or 33.76 points, finishing the session at 21,830.31.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

How much YouTube would be worth if it were a stock

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

As India and China face off in the mountains, a new confrontation is growing in the ocean

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The rivalry between India and China is heating up as the heavyweight economies face territorial tensions on both land and sea.

A fierce border standoff in Bhutan’s Doklam region — triggered by a Chinese road construction project in a disputed area and a Bhutanese request for Indian help — is now entering its second month with soldiers from both sides engaged in skirmishes. But a new confrontation in the relationship is arising as New Delhi is growing concerned about a Chinese naval presence in its own backyard: the Indian Ocean.

“As the [Doklam] crisis stretches on, China is likely to seek ways to pressure India, both on the border and elsewhere, and this will compound the cycle of competition that is already well underway,” Shashank Joshi, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said in a recent note published by the Lowy Institute.

Indeed, the recent joint naval drills between the U.S., India and Japan — known as the Malabar exercises — were widely interpreted as a coordinated response to perceived Chinese expansion in the Indian Ocean.

In the run-up to Malabar, Indian media reported a surge in Chinese naval vessels around the area, noting sightings of 13 to 14 units in two months. Those included Luyang III class destroyers, hydrographic research vessels, an intelligence-gathering ship and a submarine.

Beijing does operate in the area for its “Belt and Road” initiative, an infrastructure program that involves developing port facilities in the Indian Ocean with Pakistan and Sri Lanka. India isn’t a member of the initiative and has repeatedly indirectly criticized the program for violating Indian sovereignty.

“China’s naval presence in the Indian Ocean is showing signs of a qualitative shift,” Joshi said, noting the mainland’s growing patrols and the July 12 dispatch of Chinese troops to a military base in Djibouti — Beijing’s first long-term foreign military deployment in almost 60 years.

“This Chinese facility is not just a platform from which China can project initially modest power into the western Indian Ocean, but will also justify and support a greater volume and pace of other patrols through the eastern and central Indian Ocean,” Joshi added.

New Delhi is certainly paying close attention to those developments, as reflected by the Malabar drills.

“With over 20 ships, including two submarines and over 100 aircraft and helicopters involved in complex maneuvers, [India’s] strategic messaging to China seemed more than clear,” Abhijit Singh, head of the Maritime Policy Initiative at think tank Observer Research Foundation, wrote in a note.

“Indian commentators cast Malabar as a strategic precursor to a more proactive sea-denial strategy aimed at challenging People’s Liberation Army Navy ships in the Indian Ocean.”

The situation draws parallels with Beijing’s behavior in a different body of water. The world’s second-largest economy has been creating artificial islands in contested sections of the South China Sea. But unlike that international waterway, the Indian Ocean isn’t a site of overlapping sovereign rights, meaning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to counter the mainland on his home turf may not be sustainable.

“There is something essentially flawed about the idea that Indian naval power can prevent Chinese warships and submarines from accessing India’s near-seas. Modern-day trading nations regard the oceans as a shared global common, with equal opportunity rights for all user states,” said Singh.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple is at risk of falling out of the top 5 smartphone vendors in China

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Apple’s share of the Chinese smartphone market fell last quarter, according to one analysis, representing the waning dominance of the iPhone ahead of a major milestone.

Local brand Xiaomi snagged the fourth-place spot that was held by Apple, leaving Apple at No. 5, according to Canalys, an independent analyst company. Samsung is also in the top 10 smartphone brands in China, although only the top four brands were ranked by Canalys’ statement.

Huawei: 23 million
Oppo: 21 million
Vivo: 16 million
Xiaomi: 15 million
Source: Canalys

Apple does not break out figures on sales of individual products in each region, and was not immediately available to comment. But earlier this year, a separate report from Counterpoint Research found that the iPhone was not the top selling smartphone in China in 2016, the first time Apple had been unseated since 2012.

Remaining in the top of the crop is key for Apple because the top five brands accounted for almost 75 percent of the 113 million shipments in China, Canalys estimates. It’s an area where Apple has struggled in recent years, with sales down 14 percent year over year last quarter.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has expressed long-term optimism on the Chinese market, despite strong competition provided by WeChat’s software ecosystem, which works on Android or iPhone devices. Apple recently created a new post, managing director of greater China, tapping an executive that has developed China-specific features for iPhone and iPad.

The iPhone 8, considered a marker of the device’s tenth anniversary, is expected by some analysts to revamp Apple’s influence in China. Sales in greater China are expected to hit $9.96 billion in the September quarter, according to FactSet, up from $8.79 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Brexit talks start in Brussels with 20 months to go

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Brexit Secretary David Davis launches a round of negotiations on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union on Monday when he meets the EU’s Michel Barnier for four days of talks between their teams in Brussels.

A month after a first meeting where the two exchanged gifts inspired by a shared passion for hillwalking and spoke of the mountain of complexity they must climb, the Frenchman will press Davis to agree to Britain covering substantial British financial commitments and offer more detail on other British proposals.

With little more than a year to settle divorce terms before Britain leaves, deal or no deal, on March 30, 2019, the 27 other EU national leaders want British Prime Minister Theresa May to rally her divided nation swiftly behind a clear, detailed plan that can minimize economic and social disruption across Europe as its second biggest economy cuts loose from the continent.

Davis and Barnier will shake hands for the cameras at the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters at 9:15 a.m. (0715 GMT) before a first full session of talks.

“We made a good start last month, and this week we’ll be getting into the real substance,” Davis said in remarks prepared for delivery ahead of the meeting. “Protecting the rights of all our citizens is the priority for me going into this round and I’m clear that it’s something we must make real progress on.”

His office described an offer made by Britain last month as “fair and serious”, though Barnier has dismissed it as falling short of the EU demand that its 3 million citizens in Britain keep all their existing rights for life and have recourse to the EU courts to enforce those rights even after Britain has left.

Priorities

Negotiators will break into groups discussing four key areas of priorities before a planned news conference on Thursday.

Barnier, who secured Davis’s consent last month to the EU’s broad structure for talks, wants to hold the Englishman publicly to whatever else has been agreed during the week, EU officials say.

Working groups will focus on three areas: citizens’ rights; the EU demand that Britain pays some 60 billion euros ($70 billion) to cover ongoing EU budget commitments; and other loose ends, such as what happens to British goods in EU shops on Brexit Day.

A fourth set of talks, run by Davis and Barnier’s deputies Oliver Robbins and Sabine Weyand, will focus on curbing problems in Northern Ireland once a new EU land border separates the British province from EU member Ireland to the south. Some of that will have to wait for clarity on future trade relations.

One key early advance that EU officials hope for this week is for Britain to stop challenging the principle it will owe Brussels money — though how much will have to be argued over and cannot be calculated until Britain actually leaves.

Three more weeks of talks, interspersed with internal EU sessions to coordinate the views of the 27 other governments, are scheduled, from late August until early October. At that point, Barnier hopes to be able to show “significant progress” on the divorce priorities for EU leaders to give him a mandate to launch negotiations on a future free trade agreement.

Davis and May had pressed over the past months for trade talks to start immediately but accepted the EU’s sequence for negotiations last month. However, Brussels accepts that details on the divorce terms will still be open when trade talks begin.

In a sign British ministers are coming round to the EU view that a trade deal can at best be sketched in outline over the next 20 months, two members of May’s cabinet who were on opposing sides of the Brexit referendum debate both said they expected some transitional phase to start in 2019 to smooth the passage from full EU membership to a final free trade pact.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Asia markets mixed in early trade ahead of China Q2 GDP; Kospi gains 0.5%

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Asia markets were mixed in early Monday trade as investors awaited the release of China second-quarter GDP.

South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.47 percent in early trade as the benchmark index closed in on the 2,430 level. The Kospi stood at 2,425.65 at 8:10 a.m. HK/SIN.

Down under, the S&P/ASX 200 traded below the flat line, edging down by 0.35 percent.

Japan markets were closed for Marine Day.

Ahead, investors anticipated a barrage of China economic data due at 10:00 a.m. HK/SIN. That included second-quarter GDP, industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investments.

The world’s second-largest economy grew 6.9 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to a year earlier, above the 6.8 percent forecast.

Also on the economic calendar, Singapore June non-oil exports (NODX) data is due.

In currencies, the dollar was mostly flat after being dented by weaker-than-expected inflation data last Friday. The dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of currencies, traded at 95.096 at 7:55 a.m. HK/SIN. The dollar index traded as low as 95.088 in the Friday session compared to a high of 95.834.

Against the yen, the greenback was steady at 112.42 after sinking last Friday. The dollar had traded around the 113 handle for most of last week.

As the main hurdle to more tightening from the Federal Reserve, inflation is expected to play a decisive role in central bank policy and influence macro market direction this year, said OANDA senior trader Stephen Innes in a Monday morning note.

“With less than a 50 percent December rate hike probability priced in and with no supportive Fed speak on the calendar before July 26, the dollar could struggle,” Innes added.

The Australian dollar traded at USD 0.7824 at 7:55 a.m. HK/SIN after climbing for five straight sessions last week.

Oil prices were moderately higher after settling up around 1 percent in the last session. Brent crude futures were up 0.18 percent at USD 49.00 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 0.15 percent to trade at USD 46.61.

In individual stocks, Hyundai was down 0.65 percent following news that unionized workers at the company had voted to go on strike in reaction to a breakdown in wage negotiations. This was the sixth consecutive year that workers have voted to strike, Reuters said.

In the US, stocks closed higher on Friday. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo kicked off earnings season by posting better-than-expected earnings.

US consumer prices were unchanged in June, data showed on Friday. The softer data led market watchers to believe the Federal Reserve could postpone hiking interest rates this year.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation: Elon Musk

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla Elon Musk warned a bipartisan gathering United States Governors of Artificial Intelligence (A.I) being a “fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation.” and called a government regulation on the same.

Pressed for more specific guidance by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, Musk said the first step is for the government to get a better understanding of the fast-moving achievements in developing artificial intelligence technology.

“Once there is awareness, people will be extremely afraid, as they should be,” Musk said

But first, he asked for some governors to lift a different kind of regulation: state franchise dealership laws that ban the direct sale of his company’s electric cars to consumers.

Musk spoke broadly about solar energy, space travel, self-driving cars and other emerging technology during a question-and-answer session at the summer conference of the National Governors Association in Rhode Island.

He also met privately with some governors, including Louisiana Democrat John Bel Edwards, who recently signed a law that Musk’s Palo Alto, California-based company says blocks it from selling cars there.

Edwards said that Tesla asked for the one-on-one meeting with Musk, which was short.

“I just asked him to come down to Louisiana and sit down with us, sit down with the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association and work out some sort of a compromise, which they have successfully done in other states,” Edwards said.

Allowing manufacturer-to-consumer sales also came up in meetings between Musk and two other governors — the conference’s host, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, and Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. Representatives for the two Democrats confirmed they had private meetings with Musk and the topic came up.

Musk didn’t address such rules in his public remarks, but he did speak about regulation generally — and reiterated his long-held argument that it is needed soon to protect humanity from being outsmarted by computers, or “deep intelligence in the network” that can start wars by manipulating information.

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US firms are making big bets on Bollywood

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India’s multibillion-dollar entertainment industry is quickly gaining a global audience, and it’s not just because of the song and dance.

In hopes of expanding more in the West, for the first time ever, the IIFA awards show, dubbed the Indian Oscars, is being hosted in New York City this weekend.

But U.S. producers have already been paying attention to the robust growth in Bollywood — a colloquial term used to refer to Indian cinema.

In terms of revenue, the industry has gross box-office realizations of $2.1 billion. That is expected to grow at 11 percent compounded annual growth rate reaching $3.7 billion by 2020, according to research published by Deloitte India in 2016.

For years Sony, Disney, Fox and Viacom, among others, have been investing in Bollywood while also finding ways to partner with local Indian studios.

“Bollywood, as we call it, is larger than Hollywood and brings out so much more content, so if you want to play in India you really have to play with local partners to be able to get access to that content and that talent. I think it’s just a no-brainer,” said Anjula Acharia, partner at Trinity Ventures and manager to “Quantico” star Priyanka Chopra.

U.S. content makers are also getting in on the action.

“Netflix and Hulu and Amazon, whoever’s entering the market, realizes that local content is king and people want content that is localized and resonates with them,” said Acharia.

Amazon Prime Video this past week unveiled their first Indian web series, “Inside Edge,” featuring prominent Bollywood stars including Richa Chadda and Vivek Oberoi. Amazon’s move is seen as a way to produce short digital series while at the same time leveraging India’s popular talent.

“A shift happened in television where the urban TV-watching audience got left behind with the kind of content that was being produced,” said Chadda. “Now with Amazon’s entry, we have better content for the urban Indian, the educated Indian, the global Indian, who travels, who knows what to watch and who has exposure to series of the West.”

Chaddha also said that a web series like the one she worked on with Amazon — which focuses on the corruption behind cricket — has allowed actors like herself to experiment outside the traditional Bollywood movie storyline.

“With the current level of censorship in Bollywood films it’s very difficult to make original content or anything experimental or creative. Language is a big issue, characters can’t smoke on screen. If they do, there’s a ticker. Things like that. So, with a digital medium a lot of censorship has not happened – yet. So we have freedom there. And people are exploiting it for however long they can because censorship is a huge issue and it always clashes with creativity,” she said.

Amazon is not alone. Netflix too has been creating and investing in strategic content as it makes its push into India.

“India is hugely important to Netflix because it’s one of the largest internet markets in the world and already we have seen strong growth compared to its Asian markets. Here is a pool of consumers with a great passion for entertainment and a diverse and vibrant entertainment landscape,” said a spokesperson for Netflix to CNBC.

Netflix show “Master of None,” featuring Indian-American comedian Aziz Ansari, touches on the cultural nuances millennials face with parents who emigrated from an Asian country. The show has been seen as a wide-ranging success, and Ansari has already been nominated for an Emmy. Top celebrity blogger Malini Agarwal, known as Miss Malini in India, says Ansari’s show is well followed by Indian millennials.

“He’s actually breaking stereotypes with humor and being an American comic. So I think it’s really easy now for people to say, like, ‘Okay, I’m going to have an Indian actor come and audition for a role, and they’re not just going to play the taxi driver,'” Agarwal said.

But the collaboration between Hollywood and Bollywood is two-fold.

In an effort to add more diversity to U.S. sitcoms and shows, networks have brought over talent from India. ABC recruited Bollywood titan Priyanka Chopra to play the lead role in “Quantico.” Chopra’s prominent role in a major U.S. show is a sharp contrast to what the U.S. media industry has typically seen in the past, when Indians usually played side roles.

“I think Priyanka’s really mowed down the doors for everybody to come in and make a mark here,” Acharia said. “And I think that her success is definitely telling network executives that they should be hiring more Indians, South Asians, into their shows, TVs, and movies.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

KFC – yes that KFC – is selling its own smartphones in China

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Kentucky Fried Chicken celebrated its 30th anniversary of operations in China by unveiling a limited edition smartphone it had collaborated on with Chinese smartphone maker Huawei.

KFC made the announcement about the partnership with Huawei in a post on its Weibo account on Friday. An accompanying video on KFC’s Weibo account highlighted how far both brands had come since their humble beginnings when they first opened for business in 1987.

KFC opened its first restaurant in China a short distance from the Tiananmen Square in Beijing in November 1987. Today, Yum China, which counts KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell in its stable of brands, has more than 7,600 restaurants in the country.

Huawei — a telecommunications equipment company best known for its smartphones — was founded in 1987 in Shenzhen. The company ranked third in terms of market share in the global smartphone market in the last quarter of 2016, according to 2016.

Launched in tribute to KFC’s thirty-year milestone in China, the commemorative version of the bright red KFC Huawei 7 Plus smartphone came complete with a logo of Colonel Sanders and plenty of pre-installed freebies.

The limited edition model included KFC’s mobile app and 100,000 “K dollars” (virtual credits on the KFC app in China). The phone also provided access to K-music — KFC’s new jukebox function available on the KFC app, trade magazine Campaign Asia said.

A total of 5,000 units of the limited edition phone will be released, KFC said on Weibo. The phones cost 1,099 yuan ($161.91) per unit and will be available for sale on the fast food company’s Tmall store from July 13.

Quarterly sales at Yum China came in below analyst forecasts in the second quarter this year, with the poorer-than-expected performance of the company’s Pizza Hut brand blamed.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

I wouldn’t rule out another financial crisis, says IMF’s Christine Lagarde

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, has said that she would not rule out another financial crisis in her lifetime, indicating that comments made recently by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen may have been premature.

“There may, one day, be another crisis,” Lagarde told CNBC Tuesday on the sidelines of a joint conference with the IMF and the Croatian National Bank in Dubrovnik.

Lagarde’s comments responded to a statement made by Yellen a fortnight earlier in which she said she does not expect to see another financial crisis in her lifetime.

“I plan on having a long life and I hope she (Yellen) does, too, so I wouldn’t absolutely bet on that because there are cycles that we have seen over the past decade and I wouldn’t exclude that,” Lagarde said.

She, however, noted the unpredictability of financial crises and said that finance ministers and policymakers should act with caution to prepare for such eventualities.

“Where it will come from, what form it takes, how international and broad-based it will be is to be seen, and typically the crisis never comes from where we expect it,” she added.

“Our duty, and certainly the message that we give to the finance ministers, to the policymakers, is ‘be prepared’. Make sure that your financial sector is under good supervision, that it’s well regulated, that the institutions are rock-solid, and anticipate at home with enough buffers so that you can resist the potential crisis.”

Janet Yellen is to outline her Monetary Policy Report to Congress later Wednesday in a meeting which is also likely to also pose questions about the Fed’s “tapering” plans and her own future at the central bank.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow