There has been limited market reaction to the drone attacks on Saudi energy assets as investors focus on interest rates and weak growth. But the unprecedented scale of the strikes, and the threat of more, underline the risky ‘new normal’ for the global economy.
(Sept 16): President Donald Trump said the US is “locked and loaded depending on verification” that Iran staged the attack on major Saudi Arabian oil facilities, an assertion already made by his secretary of state and backed by administration officials.
“There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification,” Trump said on Twitter on Sunday without mentioning Iran or specifying what the response would entail. He said he’s awaiting word from Saudi Arabia about who it believed caused the attack and “under what terms we would proceed!”
SINGAPORE (Sept 9): “Take an interest in the world around you. Read the newspapers. You must have an interest in the world. And you must understand how we fit in.” — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to students at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, on what it takes to be a leader
(Sept 2): China shrugged off US President Donald Trump’s latest escalation of the tariff war, with state media signalling the government is ready to weather the economic turbulence as no progress to resolve the standoff is in sight.
SINGAPORE (Aug 30): The US Federal Reserve has responded to the suggestion that it wade into presidential politics the only way it could: with a forceful denial. “The Fed’s decisions are guided solely by its congressional mandate to maintain price stability and maximum employment,” says a spokeswoman. “Political considerations play absolutely no role.”
The statement is admirably direct. Still, it is not enough. Chairman Jerome Powell has no choice but to speak out to defend the Fed.
(Aug 23): The new tariffs that President Donald Trump has threatened on US$300 billion ($416 billion) of Chinese goods would drag China’s annual economic growth below 6%, according to a Bloomberg survey, which would be the slowest expansion since 1990.
SINGAPORE (Aug 26): “This is a trade war that should have taken place a long time ago. Somebody had to do it. I am the chosen one.” — US President Donald Trump on the ongoing trade war with China.
SINGAPORE (Aug 19): China called planned US tariffs on an additional US$300 billion ($416.7 billion) in Chinese goods a violation of accords reached by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, signalling that a US move earlier last week to delay some of those levies was not enough to stave off retaliation.
(Aug 15): President Donald Trump made what seemed to be an overture to the Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a series of tweets on Wednesday night that linked the protests in Hong Kong to the continuing trade conflict between the US and China.
Trump praised Xi as “a great leader” who wants to “quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem.” The president ended that post with “Personal meeting?" without clarifying whether he was suggesting a summit with Xi.
SINGAPORE (Aug 12): “To my understanding, OP was a term — Optimus Prime, I don’t know — to refer to the Prime Minister.” — AmBank relationship liaison manager Joanna Yu, referring to the alias used by Jho Low for former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak. Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots, the good guys in the animated alien robot series Transformers.
New mandatory cybersecurity rules for financial industry
