월스트리트저널 읽기 - Mortgage Rates, S&P 500, Hong Kong's Stock Market etc.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2023

 

◈ Record Mortgage Rates Have Wiggle Room(기록적인 주택담보대출 금리에 변동 여지가 있음)

 

 

Mortgage rates are up sharply, but they have risen more for some than others.

 

The rapid speed of the Federal Reserve’s rate increases has injected volatility into everything from bonds to bitcoin. In the world of mortgage rates, it means that two buyers with similar financial profiles, making similar purchases, can wind up with monthly payments that differ by hundreds of dollars.

 

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 7.49% this week, a fresh 23-year high, mortgage giant Freddie Mac said on Thursday. The rate was 7.31% last week.

 

But typical mortgage rates now range some 0.4 percentage point above or below that average rate, according to an analysis of application data by Freddie Mac. That is more than double the range during the years before the Fed started raising rates. The range was even higher at some points last year and earlier this year.

 

◈ Iraq Asked for $1 Billion in Cash, But Washington Said No This Time(이라크는 10억 달러의 현금을 요구했지만 미국은 이번에 거절했다)

 

 

BAGHDAD—Iraq is seeking a special shipment of $1 billion in cash from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, but U.S. officials have withheld approval, saying the request runs counter to their efforts to rein in Baghdad’s use of dollars and halt illicit cash flows to Iran.

 

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq two decades ago, the U.S. has supplied $10 billion or more a year to Baghdad on semimonthly cargo flights carrying massive pallets of cash, drawn from Iraqi oil sales proceeds deposited at the Fed. In Iraqi hands, the bank notes have become a lucrative source of illicit dollars for powerful militias and corrupt politicians, as well as for Iran, U.S. officials say.

 

In making a request for an extra shipment of $1 billion, Iraq says it needs the cash to help prop up its stumbling currency. After the U.S. denied Iraq’s initial appeal in September, the Central Bank of Iraq last week submitted a formal request, which the Treasury is considering, a senior Iraqi official said.

 

The behind-the-scenes wrangling highlights Baghdad’s unique dependence on the dollar and the little-known system for supplying it. A vast amount of dollars flows through loosely regulated Iraqi banks and currency- exchange shops, which U.S. and some Iraqi officials say are rife with fraudulent transactions and money laundering. Since November, Washington has banned 18 Iraqi banks from dealing in dollars and adopted stricter rules for electronic dollar transfers from its banks.

 

◈ S&P 500 Falls Ahead of Jobs Report(S&P 500이 고용 보고서를 앞지르다)

 

 

Stocks edged lower and Treasury yields stabilized as investors looked ahead to Friday’s jobs report.

 

Major indexes spent most of the day lower before turning positive in the afternoon and then dropping again. Some investors said the market seemed to be in a holding pattern ahead of the morning release of the September employment report. That could hold clues to the Federal Reserve’s progress in its fight against inflation and what could happen at its November meeting and beyond.

 

“The market is trying to sort out what the Fed is going to do,” said Jim Polk, head of equity investments at Home-stead Advisers. “I think that’s going to drive the market for a while.”

 

The S& P 500 fell 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down less than 0.1%, or about 10 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.1%.

 

◈ Hong Kong's Stock Market Faces Liquidity Crunch as Trading Slumps(홍콩 주식 시장은 거래 부진으로 유동성 경색에 직면해 있다)

 

 

Hong Kong’s $4 trillion stock market is having liquidity issues.

 

Trading volumes in the financial hub have slumped over the past three years, reflecting fading investor interest in buying and selling stocks on the city’s exchange. Lower trading activity has also contributed to bigger swings in share prices and has become a sticking point for some Hong Kong-listed companies whose stocks barely trade on some days. That has also made it harder for the exchange to attract listings from global companies.

 

Hong Kong’s stock-exchange operator said in August that “the sustained high interest rate environment, continued global economic fragility and weak market sentiment” were among the reasons for the trading declines.

 

오늘도 경제신문으로 세상을 봅니다.

 

2023.10.05 - [경제신문 읽기] - 월스트리트저널 읽기 - Cuba's Economy, Stocks Rise, Ford's Hybrids etc.

월스트리트저널 읽기 - Cuba's Economy, Stocks Rise, Ford's Hybrids etc.