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Everyone is waiting for rate cuts. But the Federal Reserve has already taken its biggest policy step. If another liquidity squeeze similar to 2019 happens, your money-market fund will be the first domino.   The Fed ended quantitative tightening on December 1. It’s time to take a closer look at where your cash sits — not because conditions are healthy, but because the liquidity “pipes” are clogged, and someone has finally smelled the gas leak.   Quantitative tightening meant the Fed was shrinking its balance sheet by allowing bonds to mature without replacing them. Launched in 2022 to drain the…

A fireworks shop owner in Hunan province died from drinking pesticide after publicly reporting officials for disciplinary violations, Chinese media reported.The owner, surnamed Peng, had recently published a video of himself drinking the substance, local authorities in Chenzhou, Hunan province, said in a notice on Monday.A local task force was investigating the matter to ascertain if the allegations were true and would “deal with the incident according to laws and regulations without mercy”, the statement said.Peng died on Tuesday, according to Jiupai News, a Hubei-based official media outlet, which quoted a friend of Peng’s.A person affiliated with Chenzhou No 1…

The Philippines’ first family has signalled its readiness to open its finances to scrutiny after allegations that President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s son received a disproportionate share of public works funding, deepening a political crisis that has already forced several senior officials from office.Such financial inspections – known locally as lifestyle checks and used to detect unexplained wealth among public officials – have taken on new urgency as the government confronts the widening corruption scandal over “ghost” flood-control projects that were allegedly substandard or never built, a controversy now fuelling nationwide anger amid a year of deadly typhoons.A report last week…

After selling a HK$319 million (US$41 million) luxury home in Hong Kong’s affluent Southern district, a former finance executive has rented a 4,715 sq ft house at The Peak, the city’s most exclusive neighbourhood, for HK$525,000 a month, official records show.Lawrence Lam Yuk-kun was identified as the former owner of a house in Deep Water Bay and the new tenant of a property on Gough Hill Road at The Peak.Lam is an independent non-executive director at Sany Heavy Industry, China’s largest construction machinery maker, which completed its initial public offering in Hong Kong in October.House 3 at 39 Deep Water…

Elon Musk says he aspires to transform his social media platform X into “WeChat++”, akin to Tencent Holdings’ flagship super app, by integrating various social and finance features.On a recent People by WTF podcast hosted by entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, Musk cited the extensive utility of WeChat as a model for X – previously known as Twitter, which he bought for US$44 billion in October 2022.“You can exchange information, you can publish information, you can exchange money,” Musk said, emphasising how users “live their life on WeChat in China” while noting that there was no equivalent app elsewhere in the world.“There’s…

French President Emmanuel Macron has started a three-day visit to China, where he is expected to confront thorny issues including Europe’s trade with Beijing and the Ukraine war.On Wednesday evening, Macron landed in Beijing at the start of his fourth visit to China, which will also include a trip to the southwestern city of Chengdu.He was given a red-carpet welcome by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, with whom he had a brief exchange of words.The French leader is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip, which runs until Friday. He will also meet Premier Li Qiang and Zhao…

China and Russia have reached a “high degree” of strategic consensus on issues related to Japan and jointly oppose the revival of “Japanese militarism”, Beijing said after Foreign Minister Wang Yi met chief Kremlin security aide Sergei Shoigu in Moscow.Statements from the World War II allies after Tuesday’s meeting indicated continued solidarity amid growing China-Japan tensions.Shoigu, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also told Wang that Russia could achieve its “strategic objectives” for the war in Ukraine, hours before Putin hosted White House negotiators on a revised peace plan. The Kremlin said later that the meeting ended without…

More than 1,400 people have been killed across South and Southeast Asia in a week of catastrophic floods, exposing how rising global temperatures are amplifying extreme weather, even as international negotiations to phase out fossil fuels stall.Successive storms, cyclones and relentless rains have triggered catastrophic flash floods and landslides in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, overwhelming local authorities already operating at the limits of their capacity.While monsoon rains are a seasonal fixture, climate scientists warn that the recent onslaught coincides with a potent “Indian Ocean Dipole”: a climate pattern that can vastly amplify rainfall across Asia by warming…

HSBC Holdings, the biggest lender in Hong Kong and Europe, has appointed veteran accountant Brendan Nelson as group chairman, according to its filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday.Nelson, 75, has been serving as interim chairman since October 1, replacing Mark Tucker, who stepped down to become non-executive chairman of insurer AIA.The appointment surprised the market after HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery said a day earlier at a global banking summit in London that Nelson was not seeking the role on a permanent basis, citing reluctance to commit to six to nine years at this stage of his career.“Since…

Global business sentiment towards China improved in the third quarter of 2025, led by a sharp rebound among US companies, but growing concerns in Japan over tensions with Beijing over Taiwan are dragging on the overall outlook, according to a Morgan Stanley report.The US investment bank’s AlphaWise Global MNC China Sentiment Index rose three points to 31, placing sentiment in the “slightly positive” range and signalling a gradual recovery in confidence towards operating and expanding in China.The quarterly survey, published on Tuesday, analysed earnings-call transcripts from 396 multinational firms using artificial intelligence, drawing on 1,241 qualified data points related to…