A passerby walks past an electric monitor displaying various countries' stock price index outside a bank in Tokyo, Japan, March 22, 2023.
Image: REUTERS/Issei Kato
Wake up to the shifts shaping the future.
From boardroom shakeups and billion-dollar bets to the latest tech breakthroughs rewriting the rules, The Company Brief is your front-row seat to the stories moving markets and mindsets.
We cut through the noise so you can stay ahead of the curve, one bold business move at a time.
Morning Bid: Yen's wild ride has markets nervous
The Japanese yen is set to hog the limelight again as the spectre of the first joint U.S.-Japan currency intervention in 15 years looms large, although investors are none the wiser on when and how authorities may step in. The volatile spikes on Friday have been followed by a much more orderly gallop on Monday, taking the yen to a four-month high of 153.81 per U.S. dollar from as low as 159.23 on Friday. Sources told Reuters on Friday that the New York Federal Reserve contacted traders to check rates, often a precursor to an actual intervention. But markets also focused on the U.S. collaboration and have been broadly selling the dollar through Asian hours. That kind of a big yen move without an actual intervention speaks to investor skittishness and relatively light positioning, with traders possibly unwinding short yen positions lest they get in the way of authorities stepping into the market. Top Japanese authorities said on Monday they have been in close coordination with the United States on foreign exchange.
Cosatu warns: Denel’s salary crisis highlights urgent issues
Workers and the nation this week received a deeply worrying reminder about the still fragile state of the Denel Group, the state’s defence manufacturing company, with management’s warning to staff at two of its divisions, Denel Dynamics and Denel PMP (Pretoria Metal Pressings), that there may not be funds to pay their salaries this month. Fortunately, after interventions by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the unions organising at Denel, the National Union of Mineworkers, the National Union of Metalworkers and Solidarity, this crisis was averted, and workers were paid. We must remain extremely concerned, given the devastation unleashed upon the Denel Group during the decade of state capture and corruption, about the state of this once great state-owned enterprise. The systematic vandalism of Denel is well known, including industrial espionage and the hiving off of some of its lucrative operations.
Gold surpasses $5,000, yen strengthens on intervention fear
Gold surged past $5,000 per ounce on Monday, buoyed by safety flows amid dollar weakness following a turbulent week where tensions over Greenland and Iran rattled investors, while markets remained on tenterhooks after violent spikes in the yen. The yen rose over 1% to 153.99 per dollar, after sharp spikes on Friday sparked speculation over potential intervention. The New York Federal Reserve conducted rate checks on Friday, sources told Reuters, raising the chance of joint U.S.-Japan intervention to halt the currency's slide. The prospect of joint intervention to support the yen pulled the dollar lower and broadly lifted other currencies. Japan's Nikkei dropped about 2% while S&P 500 futures fell 0.25% and European futures were 0.27% lower as traders awaited the Federal Reserve's policy meeting later in the week. U.S. President Donald Trump provided temporary relief to markets last week by reversing tariff threats and downplaying potential forceful action against Greenland. However, further sanctions targeting Iran have reinforced market anxiety.