Brief : The Federal Reserve on Wednesday held interest rates at near-zero but optimism over the progression of the U.S. economic recovery spurred more Fed officials to pencil in rate hikes by the end of 2023. The Fed also reiterated for now its commitment to its asset purchase program, which is absorbing about $120 billion a month in assets. “Progress on vaccinations will likely continue to reduce the effects of the public health crisis on the economy, but risks to the economic outlook remain,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement. A fresh round of its quarterly economic projections reflected the central bank’s optimism over the economic outlook, with 13 of the FOMC’s 18 members projecting at least one rate hike by the end of 2023. The median member of the FOMC in the so-called “dot plot,” which maps out each member’s expectations for rates over coming years, now expects two rate hikes by the end of 2023. For comparison, the Fed’s dot plots in March of this year showed the median member expecting no rate hikes through that time horizon. The upward revision suggests that the Fed sees a faster-than-expected recovery. The economic projections raised expectations for real GDP growth in 2021 to 7.0%, a notch up from March projections for 6.5%.
Brief: Blackstone Group Inc. offered to take over office developer Soho China Ltd. for as much as HK$23.7 billion ($3.05 billion), its biggest bet yet on the real estate market in Asia’s largest economy. The New York-based private equity firm is offering HK$5 in cash for each Soho share, it said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing Wednesday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report that it was nearing a deal. The bid represents a 31.6% premium to Soho’s last closing price before trading was suspended. Soho Chairman Pan Shiyi and Chief Executive Officer Zhang Xin, who own a majority stake in Soho China, have agreed to sell most of their shares to Blackstone, according to the statement. They plan to keep a 9% stake after the deal closes. Blackstone intends to keep Soho listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the statement shows. Blackstone has been investing in office, retail and logistics assets in China since 2008 and owns approximately 6 million square meters of properties in the country, according to the statement. The firm is doubling down on Asia, seeking to raise at least $5 billion for a fund focused on the region, people familiar with the matter have said.
Brief: State Street Corporation has published new research which reveals that with increasing pressures and demands on returns and reporting, alternative asset managers have work to do to meet the growing needs of institutional investors. The survey found that just 57 per cent of the alternative asset managers interviewed said their investment operations are built to scale to deal with increasing volume and complexity. 70 per cent believe they will need to increase the amount they invest in data storage, management and analysis; and only 24 per cent have already done so. Despite market instability, shifting business models and pressure on asset valuations, the vast majority (82 per cent) of alternative managers surveyed believe their organisation has been effective at responding to increasing investor demand for transparency and additional types of data. However, when highlighting areas for improvement, 57 per cent positively rated their companies data management, but less than half (48 per cent) said they have a good level of efficiency and effectiveness in their business’ technology systems, which underpins their use and management of data.
Brief: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC on Wednesday he expects life could return to normal for developed countries by the end of this year and the rest of the world by the end of 2022. By the end of next year, there should be enough Covid-19 vaccine doses for most world leaders to successfully inoculate their populations against the virus, Bourla said during an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the CNBC Evolve Global Summit. “I think the whole world will have enough volumes [of vaccine doses] by the end of 2022 to vaccinate, to protect everyone,” he said. “And I think that by the end of this year, the developed world will already be in this situation.” Pfizer and German partner BioNTech reached the milestone of manufacturing 1 billion doses of their Covid vaccine last week, Bourla told CNBC. The two companies expect to produce up to 3 billion doses this year. The vaccine, one of three authorized for use in the U.S., has played a major role in driving down the number of new infections and hospitalizations across the country. As many states begin to lift their Covid restrictions and return to normal, leaders from other countries are urging the U.S. to donate leftover shots.
Brief: Nearly three-quarters of fund managers believe inflation will be short-lived, according to Bank of America’s latest investor survey. The survey, which was published Tuesday, found that 72 percent respondents view the current state of rising inflation as “transitory.” Still, fund managers don’t believe inflation has peaked yet, with net 64 percent of survey respondents predicting higher inflation in the next 12 months. The survey, which included 224 participants with a total of $667 billion in assets under management, aggregated responses from June 4 to June 10. According to BofA, economic expectations among survey participants have peaked. Three-quarters of investors said they expect a stronger economy, a percentage that indicates investors’ “cruising altitude” when it comes to the market, according to David Jones, investment strategist at BofA Securities. “They are watching rates and inflation carefully, but people, at the moment, think inflation is transitory,” Jones told Institutional Investor. “We are seeing signs of a peak in optimism.” Jones said the survey responses indicate that the market is evolving from the early part of the cycle into a mid-cycle position. As for expectations for future downturns, 68 percent of respondents think the next recession will occur in 2024 — no earlier.