Judging from General Motors Co.’s test cars and Elon Musk’s predictions, the world is headed toward a future that’s both driverless and all-electric. In reality, autonomy and battery power could end up being at odds. That’s because self-driving technology is a huge power drain. Some of today’s prototypes for fully autonomous systems consume two to four kilowatts of electricity—the equivalent ...

Bloomberg The guardians of the world economy brushed aside soaring stock and asset prices as a threat to economic and financial stability even as some bankers warned that investors risk repeating their pre-crisis complacency. The rare turnabout in which central bankers and finance ministers expressed comfort with the level of markets—even as private-sector executives urged caution—took place in and around ...

Reuters Most Middle East stock markets traded in narrow ranges on Sunday while Saudi Arabia was dragged down by several major blue chips. The Saudi index dropped 0.7 percent as Al Rajhi Bank lost 1.0 percent and miner Ma’aden sank 1.9 percent. Petrochemical producer Saudi Basic Industries fell 0.7 percent. Insurers were roughly evenly split between gainers and losers after ...

Bloomberg With the European Central Bank’s (ECB) next policy update less than two weeks away, the institution’s chief is expressing both confidence and patience about achieving its inflation goal. “We are confident that as the conditions will continue to improve, the inflation rate will gradually converge in a self-sustained manner, as we’ve defined many times, and in a durable way ...

DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s central bank may raise the maximum loan-to-deposit ratio for commercial banks if that is needed to help the economy, central bank governor Ahmed al-Kholifey told Al Arabiya television. Kholifey was speaking on the sidelines of meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington. The central bank last raised the ratio in February 2016, to ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc will need to defend its advantages in the payments business from encroachment by technology companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc., according to Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley. “There are some tectonic shifts going on, driven by tech and the geopolitical environment,” Staley said during a panel discussion on Saturday at the annual meeting of the Institute ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s already “very accommodative” monetary policy is fueling robust growth that’s spreading across the economy, said Bank of Thailand (BoT) Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob. The outlook comes as an exports revival in Thailand gains momentum despite a recent rise in the nation’s currency, the baht. Better demand from key trading partners is helping to offset strength in the exchange rate, ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) returned to its five-year-old practice of trimming staff, resuming a trend that had only reversed for a single quarter. The nation’s second-largest bank by assets reduced its total employee count in the third quarter by 1,065 — or 0.5 percent — to just under 210,000 people. The firm added jobs earlier this year for ...

Bloomberg The Harvey Weinstein drama has reached Wall Street. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is exploring options for its less-than $1 million stake in Weinstein Co., the film studio that Harvey co-founded with his brother Bob, according to bank spokesman Andrew Williams. Harvey was booted from the studio after allegations that he had assaulted women over decades. The bank was an ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG wants to keep as many research analysts as possible in London after the UK exits the European Union, Chairman Axel Weber said. It will be the Swiss bank’s traders and sales people who, “in the end, need to move to the EU if the UK were to leave,” Weber said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Global ...