It’s a quiet day on the economic front; the Reserve Bank of Australia’s releases minutes from its last meeting at 10:30 am Tuesday and Hong Kong will report on the April unemployment rate figures at 5:30 pm. Here’s what you need to know:
Beijing biggest winner in stock market rally. State-owned companies are weighed down with unhealthy amounts of debt but the surging stock market in Shanghai can help fix balance sheets, which is why the government is talking up the market. State-backed Najing Huadong Technology sold 10.5 billion yuan of equity in January, lowering its liability-to-debt ratio to 38% from 96%. Expect more stock cheering in the official Xinhua News Agency stories. Wall Street Journal (paywall)
Asian futures up on Wall Street’s rise. Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 0.3%, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (Chinese firms listed in Hong Kong) rose 0.1%. The Singapore-traded FTSE China A50 Index futures lost 0.2 percent. Bloomberg
Wall Street back in its groove — employment back to 2007 levels. Seven years after the financial crisis starting salaries for fresh college grads at investment banks is up to $85,000, after staying near $70,000 in recent years. The former World Financial Center has a vacancy rate of only 5%, quite the recovery from its 41% vacancy following Merrill Lynch’s consolidation post-crisis. M&A activity has now surpassed pre-crisis levels. For anyone who wondered if Wall Street would see the likes of the early 2000s again, it looks like the answer is yes. New York Times (paywall)
China claims four of five most powerful companies in a Forbes list. And they are all state-owned companies. The companies on the Forbes annual Global 2000 list include the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank. The Bank of China hopscotched fivve spots, booting out JP Morgan Chase from the top tier. Quartz
The pope causes a stir in the Middle East. Did Pope Francis call President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority an angel of peace or did he simply say “may you be” an angel of peace? The pope, who is not a native Italian speaker, was speaking softly and in Italian. The statement was seen by many Israeli advocates as a slap in the face after the Vatican announced last week that it would soon recognize the “state of Palestine.” New York Times (paywall)
Wall Street closes Monday on a high note. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 hit new highs in thin trading, buoyed by comments from Fed Chicago President Charles Evans, who said the central bank shouldn’t raise rates before 2016. MarketWatch
Photo: Republic of Korea via Flickr.