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Record inflows into US money market funds in 2023 have triggered a multibillion-dollar fee bonanza for the asset management industry, which for years treated the product as a loss-leader. US money market fund providers – such as Fidelity, Vanguard and Charles Schwab – collectively earned $7.6bn in fees in 2023 as assets passed $6.3tn, according

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Equities myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Global stock markets are set to record their strongest year since 2019 following a blistering two-month rally as investors bet that major central banks have finished raising interest rates and will cut them rapidly next year.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The US has slapped sanctions on groups in Turkey and Yemen allegedly responsible for funnelling money to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in a crackdown driven by their attacks on commercial vessels passing through the Red Sea.

Central bankers are rethinking their approach to economic forecasting after their high-profile failures to spot the most recent inflationary outburst, as officials argue for greater candour with the markets about the uncertainties they are confronting.  The European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and other official forecasters failed to see how the

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Aerospace & Defence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The order books of the world’s biggest defence companies are near record highs after growing by more than 10 per cent in just two years because of rising geopolitical tension, including the conflict in

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The EU is preparing a back-up plan worth up to €20bn for Ukraine, using a debt structure that sidesteps the objections of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán about funding the war-torn country. After EU leaders failed

The influence of China’s once-powerful central bank has diminished as Beijing steps up a drive to centralise Communist party control over financial regulation. Some of the powers formerly held by the People’s Bank of China have been taken over by a party oversight body and a revamped financial regulator as Beijing resets its growth model.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to fight on in the war against Hamas, despite a mounting death toll and growing international calls to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in the Palestinian enclave and halt

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Blackstone invested more in European real estate than in any other region in 2023, as the world’s largest commercial property owner picked up bargains from market turmoil and distressed sellers.  Real estate deal-making collapsed this

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The measure of inflation preferred by US rate setters fell by more than expected in November, bolstering investor expectations of rate cuts next year. The core personal consumption expenditures price index showed prices rose by

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK economy shrank slightly in the third quarter, according to revised figures that highlight the country’s struggle to shake off its low-growth performance. The Office for National Statistics said on Friday that gross domestic

A global rally in government debt has already driven yields past many Wall Street targets for the end of 2024, highlighting how recent market moves have taken analysts by surprise. When banks began sending out their annual forecasts to clients a month ago, they were broadly united in the view that government bonds would rally

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. UK inflation slowed much more sharply than expected in November to 3.9 per cent, down from 4.6 per cent in October, according to official data that will add to pressure on the Bank of England

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Activist investor Cevian Capital has taken a €1.2bn stake in UBS, betting that the Swiss bank can double its valuation over the next three to five years. Cevian, Europe’s largest dedicated activist, has invested just

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Global Economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Corporate bankruptcies are increasing at double-digit rates in most advanced economies as borrowing costs rise and governments unwind pandemic-era worth trillions of dollars support for struggling businesses. Following a decade of decline the number of

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. This week’s rally in global bond markets has shattered investors’ months-long assumption that interest rates in the US and elsewhere will remain higher for longer. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield, seen as a proxy

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy began this week hopeful that his two biggest allies in the face of Russia’s invasion would finally approve financial aid packages worth a total of $115bn. He ended it with little to show for it. Fraying support for Kyiv in Washington and Brussels coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin vowing to attack

Chinese spies had run a far-right Belgian politician as an intelligence asset for more than three years in a case that shows how Beijing has conducted influence operations in an effort to shape politics in its favour. Daniel Woo, an officer in China’s Ministry of State Security spy agency, pushed Frank Creyelman, a former Belgian

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US interest rates myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday held interest rates at a 22-year high, but most officials forecast that the US central bank would implement 75 basis points worth of cuts next year. The unanimous decision

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK economy unexpectedly contracted in October, driven by falls in every sector and fuelling concerns that high interest rates could push the country into a downturn. Gross domestic product fell 0.3 per cent between

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. German insurers including Munich Re and Allianz have amassed more than €3bn of exposure to the struggling property empire owned by real estate billionaire René Benko. The network of firms in Benko’s Signa group not