Bloomberg Hong Kong’s John Lee drew the lowest approval rating in a decade for a new chief executive, underscoring the challenges he’ll face winning over a city that’s facing some of the world’s strictest Covid restrictions. The percentage of people expressing confidence in Lee, who took over as Hong Kong’s fifth chief executive last month, was 45%, according to ...

Bloomberg Moscow is leaning towards rejecting a prisoner swap unless it gets two Russians in return for the two Americans the US wants released, according to people familiar with the Kremlin’s thinking. The US has called on Russia to free WNBA player Brittney Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan, offering to free convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. Discussions have ...

  Bloomberg China’s banks face mortgage losses of $350 billion in a worst-case scenario as confidence plunges in the nation’s property market and authorities struggle to contain deepening turmoil. A spiralling crisis of stalled projects has dented the confidence of hundreds of thousands of homebuyers, triggering a mortgage boycott across more than 90 cities and warnings of broader systemic risks. ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) this week is expected to push through the biggest interest-rate increase in 27 years and unveil its strategy for unwinding some of the £895 billion ($1.1 trillion) of stimulus it delivered over the past decade. The measures would accelerate a historic tightening of monetary policy to choke off the worst bout of inflation in ...

  Bloomberg Banks’ core business of lending has finally turned more profitable again, as the era of negative interest rates in the euro area comes to an end. The EU’s five biggest banks that have reported results so far showed an increase in net interest income of 3.74 billion euros ($3.82 billion) on the same quarter last year, a jump ...

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings’s UK arm is the latest bank to help staff cope with the rising cost of living by making an extra one-time payment. Lower-paid employees will receive the £1,500 ($1,836) boost in their August paychecks, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. All five of the UK’s largest retail banks have now pledged to pay ...

  Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank continued to build the case to keep its policy rate unchanged for longer, as it sees subsiding food costs and slower global monetary tightening. “Bank Indonesia will continue to normalise monetary policy, but there is no need to quickly raise interest rates like other countries,” Governor Perry Warjiyo said in a briefing. Core inflation is ...

Bloomberg Mastercard Inc. said spending on its network jumped 18% as US consumers battle once-in-a-generation levels of inflation. Payment volume soared to $1.65 trillion in the second quarter, topping the $1.64 trillion average of analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The company boosted its forecast for revenue growth for the year after it reported a 58% surge in overseas payments ...

Bloomberg Stocks and US equity futures slid on Tuesday amid escalating US-China tension over Taiwan and deepening worries about a global economic slowdown, driving investors into the safety of government bonds. The Stoxx Europe 600 falls 0.6%, with energy among the few industries bucking the trend after BP Plc hiked its dividend and accelerated share buybacks to the fastest pace ...

Bloomberg Investors may be getting overconfident in betting the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates sooner to bolster a flagging US economy, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists. “Looking at the re-pricing of cyclical assets in the US and EU, we think the market might have been too complacent too soon in fading recession risks on expectations of a ...