The emerging-market sell-off is taking a heavy toll on Africa.

The continent’s bonds and stocks are being hammered more than those in most other regions amid a rout that’s wiped over $1 trillion off developing nations’ equity markets this quarter and sapped confidence from Brazil to China…

Market Rout Sends African Assets From the Rand to Bonds Reeling

Central banks in emerging economies are losing the battle with markets as their efforts to shield their currencies struggle for traction, suggesting policy makers have more work to do.

Rising U.S. interest rates, the strong dollar, higher oil prices, China’s market and economic wobbles and fears of a global trade war are conspiring to pressure emerging-market currencies. Here’s a look at how markets have responded to recent central bank moves:

Emerging-Market Central Banks Are Losing Battle Against Traders

A leaked report from a Chinese government-backed think tank has warned of a potential “financial panic” in the world’s second-largest economy, a sign that some members of the nation’s policy elite are growing concerned as market turbulence and trade tensions increase.

Can large U.S. banks hand $170 billion to their shareholders in the next 12 months? Will a top European investment bank botch the first public stress test of its entire U.S. business?

The Federal Reserve will answer those questions and more when it posts results from the second and final stage of its 2018 stress test Thursday at 4:30 p.m. While investors got hints during the first stage last week, the central bank has repeatedly found ways to surprise in past reviews of banks’ risk management and proposed cash payouts…

S&P Global Ratings affirmed the U.S.’s sovereign credit score at AA+, the assessor’s second-highest grade, citing the country’s “diversified and resilient economy” while noting the impact of ongoing political wrangling on public finances.

S&P kept a stable outlook on the rating and said in a statement that it expects positive and negative factors to be “balanced” over the next two years. The current ranking already factors in the effect of American political divisions on the government’s ability to address public finance pressures, it said…

S&P Affirms U.S. Rating, Expects Last-Minute Debt Fixes to Continue

Americans selling homes in the nation’s hottest market last year made enough to turn around and buy a place for cash — and still have spare change for a Tesla.

Sellers in San Jose, California, made a median gain of 54 percent on the homes they bought nine years earlier, the greatest price appreciation of three dozen markets in a report out Tuesday by real estate data provider Zillow. That translates to a profit of nearly $300,000, comfortably ahead of the current median U.S. home price of $215,000…

Where Americans Made the Most Money Selling Their Homes in 2017

Irish banks are set to be forced to hold more capital to cope with a future economic downturn, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The country’s central bank is leaning toward increasing the so-called counter cyclical capital buffer from zero percent in coming months, according to the person, who asked not to be identified as the information is not yet public. The bank could announce an increase within the next 10 days, when the latest buffer review is due to be published, though no final decision has been taken…

Berlin-based robo adviser Liqid Investments GmbH has hired Rothschild & Co to help it find new investors in London as it mulls expanding to other countries.

“As part of our current financing round, we might bring one or two family offices from other European countries on board in order to help us to also offer our digital asset management outside Germany in the future,” Christian Schneider-Sickert, CEO and co-founder of the company, said in an interview with Bloomberg…

Asian junk bonds have sold off amid defaults and concerns over refinancing risks, dividing veterans on where the $121 billion market is headed.

Spreads on the region’s high-yield dollar notes have widened to the highest in nearly two years, according to a Bloomberg Barclays index. The threat of a trade war and rising interest rates have added to concerns after recent defaults by China Energy Reserve & Chemicals Group Co. and Hsin Chong Group Holdings Ltd. For investors like Lombard Odier (Singapore), the selloff has increased the securities’ appeal…

Well, that rally didn’t last long.

It look less than one trading day for the Turkish currency to erase gains fueled by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s election victory on Sunday. And bonds reversed a rally before the vote to send yields back toward record highs…

Turkish Assets Are Back to Square One Before Erdogan’s Next Move

Escalating trade tensions sent U.S. stocks to the steepest drop since early April, as President Donald Trump’s threats of more protectionism against major partners were met with Chinese and European vows of retaliation.

The S&P 500 Index fell 1.4 percent, though comments from National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro brought the measure back from losses that topped 2 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed below its 200-day moving average. Selling was heaviest in tech shares, with the Nasdaq 100 Index sinking 2.2 percent…

Deep in the jungles of eastern India lies an abandoned power plant, a warning symbol for the $38 billion of additional bad loans which are about to engulf the country’s banks.

Like many of India’s power stations, the Jharkhand project had all the markings of success when a group led by State Bank of India lent about $700 million five years ago to build it. There’s abundant coal and water in the area, a rail track was set to run through the premises, and its promise of 1,080 megawatts of electricity was alluring in a country that faces persistent power shortages and blackouts…

Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s new Chief Executive Officer Matt Comyn has embarked on a massive overhaul of the scandal-plagued lender, announcing plans to spin off its wealth management and mortgage-broking businesses.

The asset management, wealth advisory and Aussie Home Loans units will be placed into a new company known as CFS Group to be listed on the Australian stock exchange, the Sydney-based bank said in a statement Monday. It will also conduct a review of its insurance arm, including a potential sale…

Banks may be disguising their borrowings in a way similar to that used by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., with debt ratios falling within limits imposed by regulators just four times a year.

Lenders use repurchase agreements — known as repos — to massage down their assets as reporting dates approach, typically as quarters end, the Bank for International Settlements said in its Annual Economic Report. The practice boosts leverage ratios — the ratio between capital and so-called leverage exposures — allowing banks to report them as being in line with regulatory requirements, it said…

China’s central bank will cut the amount of cash some lenders must hold as reserves, unlocking about 700 billion yuan ($108 billion) of liquidity, as it seeks to control leverage and support smaller companies.

The required reserve ratio for some banks will drop by 0.5 percentage point, effective July 5, the People’s Bank of China said on its website. That’s the day before the U.S. and China are scheduled to impose tariffs on each other, and the cut should help companies affected by deteriorating relations between the world’s two largest economies…

China’s crackdown on shadow banking is leaving otherwise-healthy companies starved of funding, says Abax Global Capital, which is looking to plug the gap.

The manager of debt and private equity funds, which counts Morgan Stanley as a shareholder, aims to raise money from investors later this year and lend more in China, according to Michael Wang, managing partner and president. Any such fundraising would likely exceed $235 million, the size of Abax’s last U.S. dollar fund, he says…

Mark Carney said the Bank of England needs to adapt to the unprecedented changes in the global economy and the financial system as he unveiled another overhaul of the institution’s powers.

Under a new framework outlined Thursday, the U.K. Treasury will pump 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) of capital into the BOE, which in turn will have the ability to take on greater risk if it needs to act to keep the banking system — and the economy — on an even keel…

Call off the panic in emerging-market dollar bonds.

On June 20, a trader dumped about $321 million of the VanEck Vectors J.P. Morgan EM Local Currency Bond ETF, leaving investors wondering if the exchange-traded fund, and the underlying debt, was about to tank. Meanwhile, buyers bolstered the iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF, or EMB, triggering a record $413 million of inflows on the same day…

EM Dollar Debt Attracts Buyers After Trader Dumps Local Bond ETF

Lately I’ve been losing track of how old everyone is. Friends, co-workers and family members are resisting middle age with vigorous exercise, careful diets and regular doctor visits. Even when 50-year-olds look like they’re 50, they often dress or party as if they’re still in their twenties.

Our capacity to fetishize youth never ceases to amaze. But while older Americans definitely want to look like younger folks, they certainly don’t want their finances. That’s because the wealth gap between generations keeps widening, and their children’s future is beginning to look ugly…

Asian stock markets are pricing in the probability of a more serious trade dispute causing an earnings recession at about one in five, according to a UBS Group AG study.

This week’s escalation in tension between the U.S. and China, which led to declines in equities on Monday and Tuesday, has seen equity investors increase their expectations of that becoming a reality by about 9 percent, strategists including Niall MacLeod wrote in a report. A full fledged trade war could see stocks in Asia tumble 30 percent from this year’s peak, they said…

BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd., which broke into the ranks of the 20 biggest private banks in Asia four years after getting into the business, is stepping up its expansion in the region.

Wendy Tsang, managing director at BOC Hong Kong Private Banking, said in an interview last week that she’s aiming to boost the number of relationship managers by at least 20 percent from the current 120 — and, if there’s enough available talent, by up to 50 percent. The unit of Bank of China Ltd. will recruit both externally and internally as it integrates its parent’s Southeast Asian operations, acquired over the past two years…

Walt Disney Co. raised its offer for 21st Century Fox Inc.’s entertainment assets to $71.3 billion, outbidding Comcast Corp. in a battle for one of the media industry’s biggest prizes.

The $38-a-share price is about $10 a share higher than what Disney proposed in December — and $3 above Comcast’s bid from last week. Fox has accepted the offer, saying it provides more flexibility and other enhancements than the $65 billion Comcast deal…

Boeing Co. and the U.S. Air Force anticipate delivery in October of the first KC-46 aerial refueling tanker, settling a disagreement over timing for the much-delayed $44.3 billion program, according to the service’s No. 2 civilian official.

The new schedule is two months earlier than the Air Force had projected. Undersecretary Matthew Donovan called it “aggressive but achievable” in a statement to Bloomberg News…

Boeing’s Tardy $44.3 Billion Tanker Nears Milestone After Spat

Asian stocks traded mixed on Thursday as concern simmers about an escalation of trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Treasury yields and the dollar were steady.

Benchmarks in Japan fluctuated, while South Korean shares edged lower and Hong Kong’s rose. Australian stocks extended an eight-year high as banks drove advances and U.S. stock futures climbed. Indonesia’s rupiah dropped more than 1 percent as trading resumed after holidays, as local markets played catch up to recent losses in emerging markets. Oil held near $66 a barrel ahead of a crucial OPEC meeting that will decide on output…

Taiwan’s central bank will keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged Thursday as a brewing trade war adds to risks facing the export-oriented economy, according to a Bloomberg survey.

A majority of 33 economists said Taiwan will hold the discount rate for banks at an eight-year low of 1.375 percent, while only three predicted an increase of 12.5 basis points to 1.5 percent, the survey showed…

Taiwan Central Bank Expected to Hold Rates as Trade War Escalates

Embattled commodity trader Noble Group Ltd. reached a deal with dissident shareholder Goldilocks Investment Co. over its planned $3.5 billion debt restructuring, agreeing to boost the holding in the new company that stock investors stand to get. The shares surged.

Existing shareholders will now receive 20 percent of the revised company, up from 15 percent, according to an exchange statement on Wednesday. In addition, the two parties will drop all claims against one another, with Noble Group paying Goldilocks as much as $5 million to cover its legal costs…

Not many billion-dollar companies would be willing to circumvent U.S. sanctions for their business partner, but then few people are as powerful as Dan Gertler in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Gertler scored a victory when Glencore said on Friday that it would evade U.S. sanctions to keep paying him royalties from copper and cobalt mines. It’s a rare, possibly unprecedented, arrangement for a global corporation and speaks to Gertler’s power over Glencore, which has bet its future on Congo’s mining riches…

President Donald Trump is threatening to slap tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese imports as trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies reach new heights.

Trump said in a White House statement Monday evening that he had instructed the U.S. Trade Representative’s office to identify $200 billion in imports from the Asian nation for additional tariffs of 10 percent. He said the U.S. would impose tariffs on another $200 billion after that if Beijing retaliates…

A revival in optimism about Thai infrastructure projects has helped shares of the nation’s contractors rebound from a record slide.

A measure of construction and engineering companies has surged about 7 percent so far this quarter, making it the biggest gainer among the Stock Exchange of Thailand’s 28 industry sub-gauges. That marks a turnaround from the group’s worst ever slide of 18 percent in the previous quarter. The shares are a rare bright spot in Thai equities, with the benchmark SET Index down 4 percent since March…

Masayoshi Son is fond of talking about his 300-year vision for SoftBank Group Corp. but some Japanese bond investors are already pondering an earlier event — what will the technology giant be like without its founder?

Son, 60, hasn’t named his successor at the company he founded in 1981 as a software distributor. While there’s no indication that Son has any intention of stepping down from his role as chief executive officer soon, his stated intention to retire in his 60s put the matter in focus when the SoftBank sold six-year yen bonds this month…

Argentine Finance Minister Luis Caputo will become the president of the country’s central bank after Federico Sturzenegger resigned, according to a statement Thursday evening from the ministry.

Nicolas Dujovne will lead a united Ministry of Finance and Treasury, the government said. Sturzeneger’s departure was followed by a slew of resignations among the bank’s senior staff…

Luis Caputo Replaces Sturzenegger as Argentina Cenbank President

Dim Sum bonds could be returning to fashion, as tougher financing conditions in China and strength in the country’s currency push companies to issue debt offshore.

Sales of the bonds, which are yuan-denominated notes issued offshore, total 54 billion yuan ($8.5 billion) this year, already 17 percent more than all of 2017, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That puts Dim Sum issuance on track to reverse a three-year downtrend from its peak of 298 billion yuan in 2014, before a currency devaluation jolted confidence in the Chinese currency…