Business

BLOOMBERG The US has told the Chinese owners of the video-sharing app TikTok that they must sell their shares or risk the app being banned in the US, people familiar with the matter said. The Treasury Department is leading the discussion though the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or Cfius, and made the demand recently to Tiktok’s owner, ...

BLOOMBERG China property bulls are looking past what’s likely another disastrous earnings season for the nation’s embattled developers, betting on a recovery as green shoots emerge in sales. Sixteen of Hong Kong-listed Chinese real estate firms have so far flagged profit slumps for 2022 with the number expected to grow, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The wave of warnings, ...

BLOOMBERG Sri Lanka’s economic contraction probably worsened last quarter as borrowing costs at a two-decade high to quell Asia’s fastest inflation took its toll on a nation chasing a $2.9 billion bailout. Gross domestic product fell 13.4% in the three months to December from a year ago, according to a median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg survey. That would ...

BLOOMBERG Hon Hai Precision Industry Co said it expects to multiply its sales of electric vehicle components this year while weathering cooler consumer spending on technology. The Taiwanese Apple Inc assembler offered a forecast of slumping consumer electronics demand this year offset by an uptick in sales of cloud and networking products, PCs and especially EV hardware, which it sees ...

BLOOMBERG China reported a rebound in consumer spending, industrial output and investment this year after coronavirus restrictions were dropped, while warning of risks to the economy’s recovery as unemployment rose and real estate investment continued to slump. Retail sales rose 3.5% in January and February compared to the same period last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Industrial output ...

BLOOMBERG Volkswagen AG boosted its five-year investment plan to €180 billion ($193 billion) as Europe’s biggest carmaker intensifies a push to challenge Tesla Inc’s leadership on electric vehicles (EV).  More than two-thirds of the total — €122 billion — will go to software and electric vehicles, the company said. The previous update of VW’s rolling investment saw the carmaker invest ...

BLOOMBERG Novartis AG is kicking off the sale of some ophthalmology assets, people with knowledge of the matter said, as it seeks to prune its portfolio and focus on growth areas. The Swiss pharmaceuticals group is working with an adviser to gauge interest in the so-called front-of-eye treatments, the people said. The portfolio includes Xiidra, a drug used to treat ...

BLOOMBERG Wheat fluctuated as Russia and Ukraine gave conflicting signals on whether a key grain-export deal had been extended. Wheat futures traded in Chicago fell 0.8%, after earlier gaining as much as 0.6%. Traders are watching to see whether the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allows Ukraine to export crops from three ports, will be renewed when it expires. A ...

BLOOMBERG The UK labour market showed some signs of cooling as wage growth slowed for the first time in more than a year. Average earnings growth excluding bonuses fell to 6.5% from a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. That’s down from a record outside the pandemic of 6.7% in the previous three-month period. Job vacancies fell ...

BLOOMBERG Thai Union Group Pcl, one of the world’s biggest makers of canned tuna, is considering an exit from its loss-making Red Lobster unit less than three years after boosting its stake in the US restaurant chain. The first half of this year will be crucial in demonstrating whether management changes and an operational overhaul can trim losses at the ...