China deals a blow to Blackstone’s ambitions
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2021
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
https://www.ft.com/content/24c2b733-9dca-4dcf-81d2-ca90583a3ac9
US consumer prices in August rose at a more moderate pace in a sign that inflationary pressures associated with the end of Covid-19 lockdowns are easing, and bank executives say consumer spending is outpacing pre-pandemic levels as shoppers shrug off the Delta variant, and Blackstone abandoned a large deal in China after Beijing’s antitrust regulators refused to sign off on it within the agreed time frame, and big Chinese cities suspended land auctions in response to rules aimed at lowering housing prices.
Pace of US consumer price rises cools slightly in August
https://www.ft.com/content/eaf6d095-1531-4458-a504-c110d4101469
US consumers still spending despite Delta risk, banks say
https://www.ft.com/content/5189f544-c7ff-4564-8b46-1fb74b70dfd5
Blackstone drops $3bn takeover of property developer Soho China
https://www.ft.com/content/b732381e-61ea-4bab-8260-5048ff737047
Chinese land auction blunder undercuts Xi’s inequality crusade
https://www.ft.com/content/40187a8f-9776-4036-91ca-665b44cec086?
Call of the great outdoors fades for advertisers during muted commuting
https://www.ft.com/content/037b6d79-b9e9-4dc1-8224-413a7f613332
The FT News Briefing is produced by Fiona Symon and Marc Filippino. The show’s editor is Jess Smith. Additional help by Gavin Kallmann, Michael Bruning, and Persis Love. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the financial time. Today is Wednesday, September 15th, and this is your FT news briefing. |
| 0:08.4 | US inflation cooled off a bit in August, and consumers are still spending like it's 2019. |
| 0:14.8 | Meanwhile, China's property market could get dicey, even for the most powerful of investors. |
| 0:20.8 | There's also this broader context at the moment in terms of Xi Jinping making these sweeping |
| 0:26.0 | overholes of China's business and cultural landscape, and property development and real estate |
| 0:31.1 | could well be caught up in this. I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:40.5 | Consumer prices in the US may be leveling off. That's the key takeaway from the most recent |
| 0:45.6 | Consumer Price Index report. In August, prices were up 5.3% compared to last August, |
| 0:52.0 | but more importantly, prices were only up 0.3% from those in July. It means the Federal Reserve |
| 0:59.2 | kind of gets to say, told you so. I think in a lot of ways this helps to confirm the Fed's view |
| 1:06.0 | that inflation is somewhat a transitory phenomenon. That's our US economics editor, Colby Smith. |
| 1:12.8 | I think you've heard from Fed officials over the past couple of weeks that inflation is going to |
| 1:19.2 | turn lower at some point, but they have acknowledged that it is at a bit more of an elevated pace, |
| 1:25.0 | and I think anyone initially expected things like supply chains have really been constrained and |
| 1:30.8 | stayed that way, and maybe even with the Delta variant, they're getting worse to a certain extent. |
| 1:35.2 | So I think there's a broad-based understanding that an openness to the idea that inflation |
| 1:40.8 | might be higher than anticipated, but I think these numbers confirm in a lot of ways that the pace |
| 1:46.5 | of those price pressures has peaked into a certain extent. |
| 1:50.3 | And US consumers are still doing their part for the economy. They are spending big. In fact, |
| 1:56.2 | their spending is still outpacing pre-pandemic levels. That's according to bank executives. |
| 2:01.3 | At JP Morgan, debit and credit card spending is 18% to 19% higher than in 2019. |
| 2:07.5 | It seems US shoppers are shrugging off concerns about the Delta variant and are continuing to fuel |
... |
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