Bank of England governor: Businesses tell me they are putting off investment decisions
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18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ex-ECB Official Urges Europe to Back Euro Stablecoins or Risk Losing Financial Power
Stablecoins are growing fast. Most of the $255 billion sector is currently concentrated in U.S. dollar-backed tokens, which account for $241 billion of that total, according to data. Former European Central Bank board member and chair of Société Générale, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, has said that the imbalance could sideline Europe in the next phase of global finance. Writing in the Financial Times, Bini Smaghi noted that the European Union already has the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) law, which forces issuers to back tokens with cash and high-grade sovereign bonds. The bloc also runs a pilot regime for trading on distributed ledgers. Yet the euro barely features in today's stablecoin market because banks and policymakers shy away from the new technology, he wrote. Société Générale, it's worth adding, launched its own euro-backed stablecoin back in 2023. Last month, it also launched a U.S. dollar-backed one. He says the hesitation risks European monetary sovereignty. If consumers and companies adopt dollar stablecoins for everyday payments and savings, deposits could drain from euro-area banks to US-linked platforms. That shift would erode the ECB's grip on money flows and blunt its ability to steer rates or calm markets, Bini Smaghi added. He argued that regulators should lean in, not block progress. By sponsoring euro-pegged tokens and coordinating standards, the ECB could modernize cross-border payments and help unify Europe's capital markets. Should Europe stay on the sidelines, 'it will be accepting its marginalization in the future of global finance,' he wrote.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why Forum Energy Technologies Stock Skyrocketed by 32% in June
The company announced a contract with the Indonesian Navy. It will build that organization a rescue submarine and accompanying technology. 10 stocks we like better than Forum Energy Technologies › Forum Energy Technologies (NYSE: FET), a somewhat under-the-radar product supplier to the oil and gas and defense industries, saw a dramatic increase in its share price in June. This was due mainly to a large contract it secured to provide components for a military client across the Pacific Ocean. Investors clearly liked what they heard about the new deal, as they bid up the company's stock by 32% during the month. In mid-month, Forum announced that it had executed a contract with the Indonesian Navy for the supply of a submarine rescue vehicle (SRV) system. The contract covers the SRV, along with a custom-designed launch and recovery system (LARS) and a decompression system. The SRV is an LR600, a craft purpose-designed and built for rescue operations, and will be equipped with the most up-to-date technology to locate submarines in need of rescue, Forum said. It can perform at depths of up to 605 meters (1,985 feet) and carry up to 20 people. According to the company, it is to be fully integrated with a hyperbaric rescue facility. The LR600 itself is being constructed at a Forum facility in England, while the LARS is to be manufactured in another facility in the company's home state of Texas. In the press release touting its Indonesian Navy contract, Forum quoted its CEO Neal Lux as saying, "Our cutting-edge technologies remain at the forefront of the subsea sector and the safety systems of choice for military and naval forces around the world," adding, "This award also showcases the breadth of our product portfolio and extensive technology capabilities across many differentiated end markets." Forum did not provide any financial details of the Indonesian Navy contract. Perhaps due to its work for government entities, Forum is not the most forthcoming company on the market. So, it feels entirely in character for it to provide only a bare-bones look at the Indonesia deal. Still, it's admirable that the company was able to win what must be a sizable contract for the SRV and the technology accompanying it. Without knowing the financial particulars of the deal, it's tough to gauge how it might impact Forum's fundamentals. We can say that the company knows how to improve its sales through contracts like this -- on an annual basis, they have climbed steadily and, at times, steeply, from just under $512.5 million in 2020 to over $816 million last year. The bottom line is less encouraging, as it has eked out a headline annual net profit only once ($3.7 million in 2022) across the same stretch of time. Before you buy stock in Forum Energy Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Forum Energy Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $699,558!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $976,677!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,060% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 30, 2025 Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Forum Energy Technologies Stock Skyrocketed by 32% in June was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
U.S. Exceptionalism Is Alive and Well as Nasdaq Outperforms Global Peers: Macro Markets
U.S. exceptionalism, the notion that the U.S. economy and its financial markets are distinct compared to those of other nations, remains alive and well, at least according to the equity markets. Since the early April slide, Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq index has surged 31%, while the broader S&P 500 index has rallied 24%, according to data source TradingView. Other major indices, such as Germany's DAX, France's CAC, Japan's Nikkei, and China's Shanghai Composite, have lagged behind Wall Street. Both Nasdaq and the S&P 500 traded at record highs Thursday. Demand for U.S. Treasury notes has held up amid concerns about fiscal sustainability, as noted by CoinDesk last month. The data contradicts the popular narrative that capital flows are rebalancing away from the U.S. en masse due to debt jitters and President Donald Trump's trade war and repeated criticism of the Federal Reserve. "Several key factors that underpinned U.S. exceptionalism remain fully intact and are perhaps even strengthening further," Hani Redha, portfolio manager, head of strategy and research for global multi-asset at PineBridge Investments, wrote in a blog post published last month. Redha pointed to deregulation under Trump as a key factor supporting the US's productivity supercycle – unique among global peers – and its lead globally. Other economic variables, such as the real per capita GDP growth, also support the exceptionalism narrative. The metric measures the rate at which the value of goods and services produced per person in an economy is adjusted for inflation. "The U.S. massively outperforms the EU in terms of real per capita GDP growth. The reasons for that are deeply structural and haven't changed one bit. U.S. exceptionalism - for growth at least - is here to stay...," Robin Brooks, senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, said on X. The U.S. jobs data released Thursday further added another stake in the 'loss of American exceptionalism narrative, as Bruce J Clark, head of rates at Informa Global Markets, said on LinkedIn. The return of U.S. exceptionalism to U.S. stocks can be viewed as a positive development for bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market, given the historical positive correlation between the two. BTC, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, has already risen 44% to $108,000, rallying swiftly from the early April lows of nearly $75,000, according to CoinDesk data. Moreover, with the pro-crypto president in the White House, one may argue that bitcoin is part of the U.S. exceptionalism play. Meanwhile, the return of U.S. exceptionalism could also put a floor under the U.S. dollar. "With today's jobs data putting another stake in the 'loss of American exceptionalism' narrative, the temptation to get long dollars here for a counter-trend trade is big and growing," Clark noted, adding the ECB officials' growing discomfort with the strong euro. Early this week, the FT reported, quoting a senior ECB official, that the central bank may need to signal that too much strengthening in the euro could be an issue, as it might lead inflation to hover below targets. Meanwhile, in an interview with Bloomberg, ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said that "overshooting" of the euro should be avoided, flagging levels above 1.20 as complicated.
