With US stocks faltering, why not look to emerging markets
If investors had been surveying their portfolios in the lead-up to Trump's 'liberation day' on April 2 (when the president announced trade tariffs), they would have been justified in being a little concerned about any emerging market stocks that they held.
Countries seen as emerging, because the economy is growing and becoming more global — such as China and India but also Malaysia and Indonesia — could have been in for a kicking: tariffs might have strengthened the dollar (as they did in Trump's first term), and smaller economies are typically hurt more by any big changes or tariffs.
The reality, however, has been very different. Since the start of the year, the MSCI Emerging Markets index, which tracks companies from 26 countries, is
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Time of India
13-06-2025
- Time of India
Trump's immigration shift? 'They've turned out to be great,' says US President on farm workers; watch video
Despite his typically hardline stance on immigration, US President Donald Trump on Thursday signalled a potential shift—suggesting some undocumented immigrants may be allowed to remain in the US to prevent labour shortages in critical sectors like agriculture and hospitality. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Speaking at a White House event, Trump said an executive order is being considered to allow certain undocumented immigrants to stay in the country, especially those working for American farmers. "Our farmers are being hurt badly. They have very good workers," Trump said. "They've worked for them for 20 years. They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be great. We're going to have to do something about that," he added. Trump indicated the possible executive action would also impact the hotel sector: "We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have." "We're going to have an order on that pretty soon. We can't do that to our farmers," US President said. He did not specify what the order would contain or when it might be issued. Farm industry leaders have long urged the administration to shield agriculture from mass deportations, warning that such policies could severely disrupt the nation's food supply chain, which relies heavily on immigrant labour. According to the US Departments of Labour and Agriculture, nearly half of America's estimated 2 million farm workers—and many in the dairy and meatpacking industries—lack legal status. "Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace," Trump wrote on his social media platform. "Changes are coming!" The US president's remarks come amid nationwide protests against immigration raids. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Demonstrators have criticised the targeting of undocumented immigrants without criminal records, especially those detained at their workplaces. Protests intensified last week following enforcement actions in Los Angeles. On Thursday, Trump acknowledged the broader economic consequences of strict immigration enforcement, including within the hotel industry—an area connected to his own business interests.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Yahoo
The U.S. Dollar Hit a 3-Year Low, But Is the World Really 'De-Dollarizing'?
The U.S. dollar slid to its lowest level since March 2022 on Thursday, putting the benchmark dollar index on track to post its worst first half since that year. The dollar's steep decline has led some market watchers to speculate that the greenback is losing its role as the global reserve currency and backbone of global finance. However, analysts see evidence that dollar demand remains strong, and argue true global "de-dollarization" would require an unlikely shrinking of government or private balance U.S. dollar slumped to its lowest level since 2022 on Thursday, putting the greenback on track to have its worst start to a year in decades. The U.S. dollar index (DXY) slid as low as 98.6 Thursday morning, its lowest reading since March 2022, and more than 9% below where it started the year. The index has only shed more than 9% of its value during the first half of the year two other times since 1985, and the last was in 2002. The dollar has slumped this year as investors have questioned both the U.S. economy's outlook and America's role within the global financial system. President Donald Trump's unpredictable tariff policies and apparent desire to abdicate U.S. leadership of the post-war global economic order has sparked what Wall Street has dubbed the 'Sell America' trade. Evidence of a global distaste for U.S. assets has shown up in the stock, bond, and foreign exchange markets. U.S. stocks severely underperformed equities in most developed markets in the first months of Trump's second term as trade policy threatened to slow U.S. growth. Treasurys and the dollar both tumbled in the days after Trump unveiled his 'Liberation Day' tariffs, 'a very unusual pattern,' former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said at the time. The dynamic, Yellen said, suggested international investors were shunning dollar-based assets and questioning Treasury debt's role as the bedrock of global finance. Others speculated that China was dumping its Treasurys in retaliation for Trump's tariffs. The dollar's bad start to the year has prompted some to wonder if the world is 'de-dollarizing,' a concern that Bank of America analysts in a note on Wednesday said 'miss[ed] the dollar forest for the dollar trees.' On the contrary, they say, 'the world is dollarizing rapidly,' as evidenced by the growth of nonbank financial intermediaries (NBFIs), including investment banks, mortgage lenders, insurance companies, and private equity firms. NBFI-controlled assets more than doubled between 2009 ($28 trillion) and 2022 ($63 trillion), according to BofA. 'We see this rapid growth as reflecting strong demand for dollars,' the analysts wrote. 'Part of this demand likely derives from the increased value of other dollar assets like equities and housing.' The U.S. equity market has ballooned to $60 trillion today from $11 trillion in 2008, the BofA report said, while the housing stock has nearly doubled in the last decade to $50 trillion. True de-dollarization, according to BofA, would be difficult to accomplish. It would require the federal government to tax more than it spends—the opposite of what congressional Republicans are proposing in the tax bill being considered on Capitol Hill. Alternatively, de-dollarization could follow from bank, NBFI, and corporate balance sheets shrinking. But, if that were to happen, as in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, we'd likely see the government increase its own spending, and thus the dollar supply, to stimulate the economy. The U.S. government's embrace of cryptocurrencies could also be a long-term 'dollarizing' force. The Senate on Wednesday voted to advance the GENIUS Act, putting the bill, which establishes a legal framework for stablecoins, one step closer to becoming law. The bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), said on Wednesday the act would 'cement the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency.' BofA analysts agree that the mainstream adoption of Treasury-backed stablecoins, which they expect will eventually offer interest in some form, is likely to boost the demand for U.S. government debt and, thus, augment dollar demand. Wider stablecoin adoption, in turn, could allow the U.S. Treasury to lower its interest expenses by issuing more short-term Treasurys, which have lower coupon rates than long-term debt. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Crypto Insight
06-05-2025
- Crypto Insight
Stablecoin fever: 5 major stablecoins are growing crypto adoption
Increasing institutional interest and moves toward legal frameworks for stablecoins have seen the space grow, with five major projects slated to expand the market in the near future. In the EU, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory package is in full force and has given stablecoin issuers clear guidelines by which they can enter European markets. In the US, the STABLE Act and the GENIUS Act, which would provide rules for stablecoins, are making their way through Congress. As a result, major payments firms like Mastercard and Visa are stepping up support for stablecoin systems, and new coins have appeared, boosting the overall market capitalization of the stablecoin market. Here are five major stablecoin initiatives projected to grow crypto adoption. Tether to relaunch in the US Stablecoin giant Tether is eyeing a relaunch in the US with a dollar-based stablecoin. Tether's USDt is already known worldwide as the largest stablecoin on the market, providing liquidity to crypto trading pairs on numerous exchanges. However, Tether has found itself in hot water with regulators over proof of its reserves, other financial transparency and Anti-Money Laundering concerns. In an April 30 interview with CNBC, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced that the firm wants to launch a rebranded coin in the US, separate from its ubiquitous international stablecoin. 'A domestic stablecoin would be different from the international stablecoin,' he said. The move would give Tether access to US financial markets as the latter's exposure to crypto widens under the pro-crypto administration of US President Donald Trump. Trump dabbles in the dollar with USD1 At the beginning of March, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the cryptocurrency project tied to the Trump family, launched its dollar-backed stablecoin, USD1, on the BNB Chain and Ethereum. According to CoinMarketCap, the coin has over $2 billion in market capitalization at publishing time. The stablecoins follow other high-profile crypto projects that use the president's personal brand as a marketing tool, namely the TRUMP and WLFI memecoins that launched ahead of Trump's inauguration. Trump's ability to influence stablecoin policy has led a group of US senators to call for an inquiry into his personal interests in the project, calling it a clear conflict of interest. Custodia and Vantage Bank launch bank-issued coin on Ethereum Two US banks, the crypto-friendly Custodia Bank and the Texas-based Vantage Bank, have entered a partnership to issue the supposed first bank-issued stablecoin in the US, UK and Europe. On March 25, Custodia stated that it tokenized US dollar demand deposits on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 standard token called Avit. Custodia CEO and crypto advocate Caitlin Long said that Avit is a 'real dollar' in that it tokenizes funds that customers can withdraw on demand, like checking account deposits. Stripe is testing a stablecoin product On April 28, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison announced that his global payments platform was working on a US-dollar-based stablecoin product for use outside the US. The move comes after it received approval to acquire stablecoin payments network Bridge in a $1-billion deal in October 2024, a deal which it completed in February 2025. Bridge was founded by two former Coinbase executives, Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, in 2022 and competes with firms using the ubiquitous SWIFT global payments system. The stablecoin initiative is the latest development in the firm's expanding crypto plans. After a false start on Bitcoin support in 2014, the firm began rebuilding its crypto team in earnest in 2021. On Oct. 9, 2024, the firm opened USDC support for users in 70 countries. UAE's largest bank to issue stablecoin Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company, Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding and First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) partnered to launch a dirham-backed stablecoin on April 28. According to The National, FAB — the largest bank in the UAE — will issue the stablecoin on the ADI network pending approval from the central bank. The ADI network is a project of the ADI Foundation in Abu Dhabi, which itself is a nonprofit organization founded by Sirius International Holding, a local holding firm with a $243 billion market capitalization. The firms claim that the stablecoin will 'have a significant impact on various industries, including finance, commerce, and trade.' Visa, SBI and Mastercard add more stablecoin support New stablecoin issuances are picking up the pace, and payments firms, banks and financial institutions are adding support for them as well. On April 28, international payments giant Mastercard partnered with OKX to expand its stablecoin card options, which allow cardholders to spend stablecoins through their Mastercard linked with prominent crypto firms. Two days later, Visa announced that it partnered with Stripe and Bridge on April 30 to offer stablecoin payments on its network in Latin America, starting with Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Chile. SBI VC Trade, the cryptocurrency subsidiary of the Japanese financial conglomerate SBI, said it was preparing to add support for USDC after local regulators softened their approach to foreign stablecoins. Pending formal approval, the trading platform will be one of the first in Japan to offer cryptocurrency trading in USDC. Regulators and payments providers worldwide are warming up to stablecoins. US lawmakers have yet to vote on the aforementioned crypto bills, but if the stablecoin frameworks pass, adoption is set to take off as firms gain access to a large financial market with clear guidelines. Source:
