월스트리트저널 읽기 - U.S., Iran, Beijing etc.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2023

 

◈ Social Security Raise Shrinks to 3.2% in 2024(2024년 사회보장 인상률 3.2%로 축소)

 

 

Retirees’ Social Security checks got much bigger cost-of living adjustments than usual the past two years. That won’t be the case in 2024.

 

Starting in January, the average monthly Social Security check for retired workers will rise 3.2%, or $59, to $1,906, the Social Security Administration said Thursday. That is a significantly smaller increase than the 8.7% raise retirees received this year, reflecting a cooling in inflation.

 

Still, inflation remains elevated and price pressures persist, posing a challenge to Americans on fixed incomes.

 

◈ U.S. Blocks $6 Billion in Iran Oil Revenue(미국, 이란 석유 수입 60억 달러 차단)

 

 

The U.S. and Qatar have agreed to deny Iran access to $6 billion in oil proceeds that Washington had freed up as part of a prisoner swap reached last month, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

The decision with Qatar, whose government is overseeing Iran’s access to the funds, comes amid concern for Teh-ran’s long-running provision of money, arms and intelligence to the group responsible for the terrorist attack on Israel last weekend, Hamas.

 

According to a preliminary unclassified assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies, Tehran likely knew Hamas was planning operations against Israel but didn’t know the precise timing or scope of the surprise attack.

 

The funds are sitting in a restricted bank account in Qatar, and the U.S. has struck an informal agreement with Qatar to hold off disbursing them to Iran, said the people familiar with the matter.

 

◈ U.S. Hits Two Oil Tankers With Sanctions(미국, 제재로 유조선 2척 타격)

 

 

The U.S. hit two oil tankers and their owners with blocking sanctions and said they had carried Russian oil above the West’s price cap of $60 a barrel, the first time the Biden administration has punished market participants for violating the rules.

 

The Treasury Department said it was targeting one ship with a registered owner in the United Arab Emirates and one with a registered owner in Turkey. Both ships carried Russian oil above $60 a barrel while using U.S. maritime services, the Treasury said.

 

The new sanctions prohibit all U.S. individuals and enti-ties from transacting with the ships and their owners.

 

Russian oil has traded well above the $60-a-barrel limit since late July, posing a challenge to a Western sanctions plan that aims to hold down the Kremlin’s oil revenue while still keeping global oil supplies steady.

 

◈ Stocks End Win Streak After CPI(CPI 이후 주식 연승 행진 종료)

 

 

Major stock indexes fell, snapping a four-day winning streak, after fresh data showed inflation remains a concern.

 

Treasury yields rose after the consumer-price-index report and climbed further after a bond auction revealed weak demand.

 

The S& P 500 declined 0.6%, trimming the benchmark index’s gain in 2023 to 13%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5%, or about 174 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.6%.

 

The losses were broad-based, with nine of the 11 sectors of the S& P 500 ending the day lower. The utilities and materials segments were the worst performers, dropping 1.5% each. The energy and technology groups ticked up 0.1% each.

 

◈ Beijing Must Tackle A Mountain of Local Debt(베이징은 산더미 같은 지방 부채 문제를 해결해야 한다)

 

 

After a decade of kicking the can down the road, China’s local-government debt problem has become impossible to ignore. How adroitly Beijing acts to address it could make or break China’s financial system—and the economy’s trajectory as a whole.

 

China’s city governments have long been burdened with heavy debt—a consequence, in part, of a system that allocates most tax revenue to Beijing but leaves the bulk of expenditures, outside of defense, to cities and provinces. Recently the debt pains of local governments have gotten noticeably more acute.

 

In May, the finance bureau of Guiyang, the capital of the far western province of Guizhou, admitted it had “basically exhausted” measures to defuse debt risks. In September, Inner Mongolia said it would issue 66 billion yuan, equivalent to about $9 billion, of “special refinancing bonds” to help repay higher-interest debt issued before 2018.

 

◈ Banks' Deposit Pressures Could Get Worse(은행들의 예금 압력은 더 악화될 수 있다)

 

 

Higher interest rates have done a number on banks’ deposits. They might not be done.

 

As investors prepare for another round of quarterly bank earnings, the hope isn’t for rosy reports about banks’ deposit costs. Instead, they will be looking for any clarity on whether the worst is over, and when costs might even start to go down.

 

Yes, the rates banks pay to their customers have risen considerably. So perhaps that process has mostly run its course.

 

But there are reasons to think there remains room for banks’ deposit funding costs to keep going up for a while—particularly if the Federal Reserve has truly adopted a higher-for-longer interest-rate stance, effectively giving depositors more time to change their behavior and adjust to the new environment.

 

오늘도 경제신문으로 세상을 봅니다.

 

2023.10.12 - [경제신문 읽기] - 월스트리트저널 읽기 - Exxon, Birkenstock, S&P etc.

월스트리트저널 읽기 - Exxon, Birkenstock, S&P etc.