• 74% of high-priced London homes are bought using loans
• Rising values and taxes are behind the jump in finance take-up

More home buyers are resorting to mortgages to purchase London’s most expensive houses and apartments as rising prices drag them into higher tax brackets.

Seventy-four percent of homes costing 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) or more in the U.K. capital were bought with a mortgage in the three months through July, up from 65 percent a year earlier, according to Hamptons International. The figure was as low as 31 percent during the depths of the financial crisis in 2009…

U.S. household wealth increased in the second quarter to yet another record, driven by solid gains in financial assets and rising property values, figures from the Federal Reserve in Washington showed Thursday.

• BOE stability officials hold quarterly meeting this week
• Easy access to loans, credit cards fueling debt binge

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has 200 billion reasons to keep an eye on consumer borrowing and he’s about to find out just how concerned he should be.

With household credit rising five times faster than earnings, alarm bells are ringing and regulators have fast-tracked part of their annual stress tests to get an insight into the resilience of banks to a sharp jump in defaults. Carney and his Financial Policy Committee will have that crucial information when they gather for their quarterly meetings this week…

• Fund has ballooned in size since first cash injection in 1996
• Fund manages oil wealth for future generations of Norwegians

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund hit $1 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, driven higher by climbing stock markets and a weaker U.S. dollar.

The milestone valuation was reached for the first time on Sept. 19 at 2:01 a.m. in Oslo, Norges Bank Investment Management said in a statement on Tuesday…

The World’s Biggest Wealth Fund Hits $1 Trillion

• Endowment markdowns in natural resources have hurt its results
• World’s biggest college fund is now valued at $37.1 billion

Harvard University’s endowment reported an 8.1 percent annual investment gain, a lagging performance its new manager said was “a symptom of deep structural problems” that will take years to turn around.

N.P. “Narv” Narvekar, who took over as chief executive officer of Harvard Management Co. in December, said in a five-page letter published Tuesday that the problems “highlight the critical impact of culture, structure, and incentives in an investment organization.”…

• Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management also backs Gogoro
• Taiwanese startup eyes new cities and more R&D spending

Gogoro Inc., an electric scooter-maker backed by Panasonic Corp., raised $300 million from Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte. and other investors to pay for expansion and research and development.

Generation Investment Management LLP, co-founded by Al Gore, Japan’s Sumitomo Corp., and French utility Engie SA, also invested. The new funding brings the Taiwan-based startup’s valuation to about $800 million, including the new cash injection, according to a person familiar with the matter. That’s double the level when it last raised in 2015, the person said…

• President’s legal bills could amount to more than $1 million
• Expenditures are legal, campaign finance lawyers say

President Donald Trump will use money donated to his campaign and the Republican National Committee to pay for his personal legal bills related to investigations into his campaign’s ties to Russia, two people familiar with the matter said.

The first payments from the campaign and RNC have already been made to Trump lawyers John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, said one person. Another person said the RNC has been working for months to figure out the legal parameters for using campaign donations for a candidate’s personal defense…

• Risk-on tone persists, though moves limited before Fed meeting
• Trump set to address North Korea in first UN appearance

U.S. stocks advanced to fresh records, while the dollar halted a two-day drop and Treasuries slipped as investors remained optimistic about the economy. Gold fell as demand for havens faded.

The S&P 500 Index held above 2,500 to notch a fresh record after briefly losing an advance that reached 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added to its all-time high. Earlier, equities from Asia to Europe gained. The dollar climbed versus the euro and pound. The 10-year Treasury yield hit 2.23 percent. Gold tumbled, while oil was little changed…

• SQN Capital financing Suniva trade case seeking solar tariffs
• Opponents argue tariffs may double panel prices, slow installs

A little-known Wall Street lender with a background financing dump trucks and helicopters is bankrolling a trade case that’s threatening the $29 billion U.S. solar industry.

SQN Capital Management typically finances and leases crucial, if prosaic, business equipment: think cement mixers, office furniture, honey-production machines, farm equipment. A $50 million loan to Suniva Inc. was one of its biggest ever, and when that loan went south with Suniva’s April bankruptcy filing, SQN joined the Georgia-based solar manufacturer’s improbable plan: ask President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on cheap imports from Asia…

• Cash may come from Google or private-equity arm CapitalG
• Alphabet grows closer to Lyft as Uber relationship breaks down

Alphabet Inc. has held conversations with Lyft Inc. about a potential investment in recent weeks, signalling strong support for Uber Technologies Inc.’s main U.S. competitor, according to people familiar with the matter.

An investment of about $1 billion in Lyft may come from Google or CapitalG, Alphabet’s private-equity arm, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. A deal may not come together. Alphabet and Lyft declined to comment…

• Bridgewater founder to share internal algos with America Inc.
• Firm’s practices are realistic not utopian, Dalio says

Of all the hedge fund world’s secrets, few are more closely guarded than the inner workings of Bridgewater Associates Inc. Now, founder Ray Dalio plans to share his management system and corporate culture with the world.

“We’re about to take the algorithms we have, and we’re going to give them to others,” Dalio said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “We’re figuring out how to make that fit in a number of other companies, to just pass it along.”…

Boxing champ Floyd Mayweather found a new place to hang up his gloves and spend some of his $100 million purse from last month’s technical knockout of Conor McGregor: a mansion in Beverly Hills, California.

Mayweather closed on a six-bedroom, 10-bathroom, 15,000-square-foot (1,400-square-meter) “French-modern” estate for $26 million, according to Alexander Ali, a spokesman for the home’s developer, Nile Niami. The home, which Niami built speculatively and listed for $28.95 million, comes with a two-bathroom master suite, wine cellar, gym, four-car garage, pool and guest house with a 20-seat cinema. In case the visitors’ quarters are occupied, the estate is just a short walk to the celebrity-studded Beverly Hills Hotel…

• N.Z. dollar falls when polls show Labour leading National
• ‘Labour is being priced as a negative event at the moment’

New Zealand’s election is too close to call but one thing is clear: financial markets don’t want change.

The kiwi dollar has dropped whenever opinion polls show the main opposition Labour Party is ahead, while the currency jumped a full U.S. cent after a survey last week put the ruling National Party in the lead. The question is whether investors, including those offshore who hold 61 percent of New Zealand government bonds, simply dislike uncertainty or really think Labour’s policies would deliver poorer economic outcomes.

• Independent broker estimates $628 million in mortgages lost
• Sweden’s biggest banks say they can see influx from Nordea

Nordea Bank AB is losing clients in Sweden in what independent mortgage brokers say appears to be a protest against the bank’s plan to redomicile to Finland in pursuit of a more accommodating regulatory environment.

The customer shift has been registered by two online home-loan brokers and confirmed by other banks operating in Sweden. Nordea says flows in the country remain “at normal levels” and that the bank’s decision to move is “not a big issue” for most clients…

The world’s central banks can’t sit back and ignore the growth in cryptocurrencies as it could pose a risk to the stability of the financial system, according to the Bank for International Settlements.

It said central banks will need to figure out whether to issue a digital currency and what its attributes should be, though the decision is most pressing in countries like Sweden where cash use is dwindling.

Institutions need to take into account of not only privacy issues and efficiency gains in payment systems, but also economic, financial and monetary policy repercussions, the BIS said in its Quarterly Review…

• Financial shares most favored among Wall Street strategists
• Yet their returns rank third worst in S&P 500 this year

Wall Street banks can’t stop telling investors to buy shares in Wall Street banks. It’s not been the best advice.

Financial shares have the third-worst performance among 11 S&P 500 Index groups in 2017, and are on track for the poorest year relative to the market since 2011. Yet of the 10 equity strategists surveyed by Bloomberg, nine give banks and insurers the highest recommendation and only one holds a neutral view.

DowDuPont, the chemicals giant, said on Tuesday that it would shift the focus of its reorganization plan after shareholders opposed a proposal to break up the company.

The decision is the latest response by a big company to activist shareholders who have taken on ever-larger targets in recent years, demanding changes to corporate strategies. Household names like Procter & Gamble, Nestlé and Samsung have all found themselves in the sights of such investors…

DowDuPont Revises Breakup Plan Opposed by Activist Investors

• First loans for project at former airport come up in November
• Existing lenders are reluctant to extend or provide new loans

When HNA Group Co., the Chinese conglomerate that’s been buying up companies worldwide, spent $3.5 billion in Hong Kong earlier this year on land for its first luxury real estate development, it had no problems getting bank funding.

But now HNA needs more: to refinance the short-term loans it used for its purchases, which start coming due in November, and then to actually build the towers that will lure high-end buyers and start generating money…

Social Finance, an online lender that is one of the more prominent financial technology start-ups, said on Monday that its co-founder and chief executive Mike Cagney planned to step down by the end of the year.

The resignation follows a lawsuit over claims of sexual harassment at the San Francisco-based start-up, which is known as SoFi. Several former employees said that Mr. Cagney, 46, had inappropriate relationships with SoFi employees, which helped foment a toxic workplace culture…

Chief Executive of Social Finance, an Online Lending Start-Up, to Step Down

• Vikram Pandit says AI, robotics reduced need for some staff
• Pandit now CEO of New York-based investment firm Orogen Group

Vikram Pandit, who ran Citigroup Inc. during the financial crisis, said developments in technology could see some 30 percent of banking jobs disappearing in the next five years.

Artificial intelligence and robotics reduce the need for staff in roles such as back-office functions, Pandit, 60, said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin in Singapore. He’s now chief executive officer of Orogen Group, an investment firm that he co-founded last year.

• Quant strategist warns of regulatory risk after Chinese moves
• Valuation not possible under traditional currency measures

Well, it ain’t Jamie Dimon, but there’s another heavy hitter at JPMorgan Chase & Co. who isn’t a fan of cryptocurrencies.

Global Head of Quantitative and Derivatives Strategy Marko Kolanovic (also known as “Gandalf” and “Half-Man, Half-God”) echoed many of his boss’ warnings about digital currencies in an assessment of the asset class on Wednesday.

Bitcoin is down roughly 8 percent since being called a “fraud” by Dimon on Tuesday afternoon…

JPMorgan’s Marko Kolanovic Joins His Boss in Bashing Bitcoin

• Gap between emerging credit risk, Mideast spread at 2007-low
• 50% of Mideast bonds have S&P ratings of A- and higher

There’s a burgeoning opportunity in Middle East debt markets.

Abdul Kadir Hussain, a Dubai-based fund manager who weathered the emirate’s near default almost 10 years ago, has been plotting the average credit risk of emerging-market bonds against the extra yield investors demand to hold debt in the Arab world.

The two have been converging, which means the potential reward for holding riskier developing-nation bonds has almost vanished when compared with Middle Eastern debt, said Hussain, the head of fixed income at Arqaam Capital Ltd…

Here’s something else for policy makers to worry about as they attempt to engineer a soft landing in Australia’s property market.

The country’s lenders could be sitting on A$500 billion ($402 billion) of “liar loans,” or mortgages obtained on inaccurate financial information, according to an estimate from UBS Group AG.

A survey by the firm of 907 Australians who took out a mortgage in the last 12 months found only 67 percent stated their application was “completely factual and accurate,” down from 72 percent the previous year. The most common inaccuracies were overstating income and understating living expenses, the survey found…

A 360-degree video tour through the last available penthouse at Herzog & de Meuron’s TriBeCa skyscraper, 56 Leonard

To view 360-degree video, use Chrome or Firefox. (Sorry, Safari users.) If you’re using a mobile device, click through to your YouTube app.

It’s hard to miss 56 Leonard, the new 60-story glass tower that dominates an otherwise low-key corner of Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood. When the design was unveiled in 2008 by the building’s architect, Herzog & de Meuron, the favored description of the building’s shape was “Jenga-like,” and its cantilevered floors did indeed look like a precarious, dynamic, almost impossibly complicated pile of glass and steel building blocks…

• Chan tells buyers to be ‘very careful’ taking on mortgages
• Comments come after his June warning of ‘dangerous situation’

Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan warned potential buyers to be careful buying property in the world’s most expensive housing market, as moves by the Federal Reserve to unwind its balance sheet may shrink money supply.

Chan warned in June that Hong Kong’s property market is in a “dangerous situation” and vulnerable to a correction. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam describes housing as citizens’ No. 1 concern and recently set up a task force on increasing land supply as she tries to rein in ever-escalating prices…

• Authors find no evidence of premium specific to ‘vice’ stocks
• Outperformance comes from factors such as profits, investment

Ethical fund managers don’t have to be envious of the market-beating returns of so-called sin stocks. They should be able to match them without dabbling in vice, according to a study in the Fall edition of the Journal of Portfolio Management.

The study debunks the popular theory that shares in the alcohol, tobacco, gaming, and weapons industries outperform because investors shun them, enabling those with fewer moral scruples to earn a “reputation risk premium.” …

• Oaktree co-chairman sees value in alternative currency claims
• Bearish billionaire says bitcoin still a speculative bubble

Billionaire investor Howard Marks, who ignited a fierce backlash from cryptocurrency advocates after dubbing bitcoin a “fad” in July, has a had change of heart. Well, sort of.

Bitcoin, in fact, boasts a key attribute that may spur the digital method of exchange to serve as an alternative to legal tenders and as a store of value in the years to come: the simple fact that people believe in it…

Howard Marks Issues a Mea Culpa on Bitcoin, But He’s Still Not Investing

• Bondholders say builder didn’t disclose previous defaults
• ‘Thorough’ research needed in China: Fidelity’s Froehlich

Foreigners have been slow to warm to China’s domestic bond market, the world’s third-largest by value. A look at the latest corporate default may explain why.

Wuyang Construction Group Co., a builder in the eastern province of Zhejiang, defaulted on two put-able notes totaling 1.36 billion yuan ($209 million) last month. Bondholders are now up in arms, claiming in an Aug. 23 filing posted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s website that the company didn’t disclose a raft of transgressions in sale documents for the bonds, which were sold in 2015. Three phone calls to Wuyang Constructions’ headquarters in Hangzhou went unanswered, and the company didn’t respond to a fax from Bloomberg News…

• Party leaders were set to discuss Sendic’s actions Saturday
• Latin American nation has been enjoying economic rebirth

Uruguay’s vice president quit on Saturday, hours before a planned meeting of party leaders to discuss possible misuse of his state-run oil company’s credit card.

Raul Sendic told the ruling Broad Front Party and President Tabare Vazquez that he was stepping down, Sendic said on his verified Twitter account. He said his resignation was final. El Pais, the largest newspaper in the South American country, first reported the news.

• ‘Future growth is uncertain,’ writes analyst Steve Tusa
• Manufacturing giant has been biggest loser on Dow this year

General Electric Co.’s stock slide is poised to get worse, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co., extending a slump that already has wiped out $64 billion in market value this year.

As the maker of power turbines and oilfield equipment grapples with weakness in several key businesses, GE is likely to be capped around $24 a share, JPMorgan analyst Steve Tusa said in a note Thursday. He said he sees “something in the high teens as an investable fair value.” The shares ended Wednesday at $24.92 and haven’t closed below $20 since July 2012…

• High-yield bond fund, GHYB, aims to address default concerns
• Speculative-grade debt slumped in August, pushing up yields

Investors who like junk bonds but are nervous about last month’s high-yield selloff have a new vehicle that lets them avoid the riskiest debt.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s latest exchange-traded fund, which has the ticker GHYB, will focus on high-yield corporate bonds deemed least likely to default, according to an announcement Thursday…

Goldman Sachs’s New Bond ETF Shuns the Riskiest Debt