China’s rare earths controls prompt fears of auto shortages and shutdowns

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. China’s latest export controls on rare earth minerals could cause shutdowns in automotive production, with stockpiles of essential magnets set to run out within months if Beijing fully chokes off exports. Beijing expanded its export … Read more

letting the peso off the leash

Argentina’s libertarian president Javier Milei made a high-stakes strategy change this week, scrapping a currency policy that has underpinned his battle against inflation but unnerved investors. Milei has relied in part on Argentina’s long-standing strict currency controls to tame chronic price rises. The central bank has dramatically strengthened the peso in real terms, but burned … Read more

German bonds rise with euro as investors head for Europe’s haven

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The simultaneous surge in the euro and German government bonds this month suggests a “capital flight” to Eurozone’s benchmark debt as a haven from trade war turmoil, say investors. German bonds and the euro typically … Read more

Neil Woodford times his second coming to perfection

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Neil Woodford picked an auspicious week to try a resurrection. The former UK fund manager, whose eponymous investment boutique collapsed in 2019, announced plans for a new “investment strategy platform” — dubbed “W4.0” — on … Read more

Dubai chocolate sparks pistachio shortage as TikTokers go nuts

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The meteoric rise of Dubai chocolate has triggered a global pistachio supply crunch, exacerbating a worldwide shortage of the green nut and sending its prices soaring. The bars, a marriage of pistachio cream, shredded pastry … Read more

The flaky case for buying the dip

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Either the mighty US mom-and-pop investor base knows something we don’t, or it’s heading for a bruising. Right now, the amateurs are sitting pretty. Domestic retail investors were, by all accounts, conspicuously active buyers of … Read more