Bloomberg The European Central Bank has to end its quantitative easing as soon as possible, according to ECB Governing Council member Klaas Knot, who said there’s not a single reason anymore to continue with the program. “The program has done what could realistically be expected of it,” Knot, who also heads the Dutch Central Bank, said in an interview on …

DUBAI / Reuters The Saudi Arabian central bank’s foreign reserves rose in December for a third consecutive month, a sign that higher oil prices may be easing pressure on the government’s finances, official data showed. The bank’s net foreign assets grew $2.0 billion from November to $488.9 billion last month, after increasing $1.0 billion in November and $8.3 billion in …

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s big hit from stricter global capital standards may be softened by the small print. New rules give supervisors the option to exclude banks’ litigation payouts when calculating their so-called operational risk. If that happens, it would be a boon for Deutsche Bank and potentially improve returns for shareholders. The bank declined to comment specifically on the …

Bloomberg Scott Kirby has a very specific view about how the three US hub-and-spoke airlines work best, having managed two of them. In his current job as president of United Airlines, Kirby’s role is to oversee a major overhaul of how the carrier operates, beginning with a broad restructuring of its three domestic-focussed hubs in Chicago, Denver and Houston. By …

Bloomberg Singapore Airlines Ltd., the premium carrier that’s undergoing a business revamp to fend off competition from Gulf airlines and budget operators, is turning to its employees for ideas. Southeast Asia’s biggest carrier is setting up a lab and encouraging workers across its group—including SilkAir and Scoot—to submit proposals that would help boost efficiency in its operations, Chief Executive Officer …

Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV said it has secured enough money to keep its businesses running in the immediate term and can now start talks with a broader group of creditors. The troubled South African retail group has arranged new credit lines for units in the UK, US and France as well as agreeing a restructuring of its Austrian division, …

Bloomberg JD.com Inc. is preparing to make its US debut with a beachhead in Los Angeles, seeking to best arch-rival Alibaba and challenge Amazon.com Inc. on its home turf. The $68 billion company, which said in December 2017 it’ll start online sales in the US by the second half of 2018, is now seeking funds to bankroll a logistics build-up …

DAVOS / WAM Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairperson of the Middle East and North Africa Regional Business Council (MENA-RBC) has taken part in a panel discussion titled ‘Going Digital in the Arab World’, highlighting innovative approaches and landmark initiatives being implemented by the UAE and other Arab countries to harness the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The …

Bloomberg You’ve traded on inflation data and the prospect of rising sovereign-debt supply. You’ve wagered on Federal Reserve meetings and what the next chairman might do. And you’ve bet on jobs and wage growth that exceed or miss targets. Now try doing it all in one week. With yields threatening to leap higher, bond traders will grapple this week with …

Bloomberg The world’s most volatile new stocks are vanishing from Hong Kong after regulators tightened oversight of the city’s small-cap Growth Enterprise Market. Stocks debuting on GEM in the past 12 months rose an average 23 percent on their first day of trading, down from an eye-popping 605 percent for the year through January 2017, according to data compiled by …