Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) ended the second year of the pandemic in a very different place to other major central banks. While the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England this week took aggressive steps to pull back from crisis aid, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his board slow walked it, extending assistance to struggling smaller businesses for …

  Bloomberg A tumultuous year for Chinese markets looks to be finally weighing on demand for new stock funds. While equity funds have raised 2 trillion yuan ($314 billion) this year — matching 2020’s record — fundraising this quarter is poised to be the slowest in two years, according to data from consultancy Z-Ben Advisors Ltd. Launches have slowed through …

  Bloomberg Producers of battery metals and specialist chemicals for electric cars are outpacing sector leaders like Tesla Inc in the stock market as prices of key commodities climb due to tight supply and wider adoption of zero-emission vehicles. Pilbara Minerals Ltd, a Perth-based supplier of lithium raw materials, jumped more than 210% this year, while Ecopro BM Co and …

  Bloomberg Oil posted a weekly decline after a volatile few days that saw traders grow more concerned about the demand impact from the omicron variant and tighter monetary policy. Futures in New York fell as much as 3.4% to briefly trade below $70 a barrel. It ended the week losing over 1% as daily Covid-19 cases in the UK …

  Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding has unveiled ambitious objectives for its Southeast Asian arm Lazada, accelerating an overseas expansion to offset Chinese economic and regulatory headwinds. The Chinese e-commerce leader is targeting a long-term goal of quintupling gross merchandise value, the sum of transactions across Lazada’s platforms, to $100 billion, Alibaba outlined in a presentation to investors. It wants Lazada …

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s succession options for Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr appear less clear after WestJet Airlines Ltd poached one of the German group’s rising-star managers. Alexis von Hoensbroech quit as chief of the Austrian Airlines division to join the Canadian carrier, he said on his LinkedIn page. Lufthansa said earlier that he had chosen to depart and …

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly has tested positive for Covid-19, days after a US Senate hearing with other industry executives during which he appeared to downplay the effectiveness of face masks on planes. Kelly, 66, “recently tested positive for Covid-19 after experiencing mild symptoms and taking a PCR test,” the Dallas-based airline said in a …

Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings’s CEO  Michael O’Leary thinks only vaccinated passengers should be allowed to fly, according to the Telegraph. The newspaper said that the European airline chief pushed back against compulsory vaccine programs being rolled out in Austria and Germany. Instead, governments should “make life difficult” for people who refuse to take the vaccine without good reason. “If you’re not …

  Bloomberg Intel Corp is spending $7.1 billion on new chip packaging facilities in Malaysia, a major investment to ramp up its global footprint and address a crippling global chip shortage it expects to persist until 2023. The company is earmarking more than 30 billion ringgit towards expanding its capacity in the country, Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger told reporters. …

  Bloomberg Oppo took the wraps off a foldable smartphone that’s more than $500 cheaper than Samsung Electronics Co’s Galaxy Fold, launching its maiden attempt to stake out a spot in the nascent category. The Oppo Find N sports a 7.1-inch inner display co-developed with its Korean rival and an exterior 5.5-inch screen. It will start at $1,250 in China …