International News

Bloomberg The US job market delivered a blowout performance in December, giving a clearer signal that the economy is on solid footing even as investors fret about the trade war and other risks in 2019. US stocks and Treasury yields surged after Labor Department figures showed employers added the most workers in 10 months, wage gains accelerated and labour-force participation ...

Bloomberg Euro-area companies are bracing for subdued economic momentum in 2019 after activity slipped to a four-year low at the end of last year. Growth in manufacturing and services slowed more than initially reported in December 2018 — weighed down by public protests in France, Germany’s continued struggles in the car industry, and renewed weakness in Italy. Composite gauges for ...

Bloomberg In weighing a bankruptcy, power giant PG&E Corp may be firing a warning shot to California lawmakers: Help us or watch the largest utility in your state go insolvent. The company is considering whether to file for bankruptcy protection in as soon as weeks to organise the billions of dollars in potential liabilities from wildfires its equipment may have ...

Bloomberg India’s economy grew at a faster pace than most major nations in 2018, and this year, it’s poised to overtake the UK to become the world’s fifth-biggest. But that journey won’t be smooth. The outcome of a general election due by May is a potential pitfall for a nation already battered by emerging market turmoil and a currency rout ...

Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co.’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn, indicted on suspicion of violating Japan’s financial reporting laws, will mount a “vigorous defense” at his first hearing on Monday, his son, Anthony, told France’s Journal Du Dimanche in an interview. Carlos Ghosn will attend a hearing of the Tokyo district court on Monday after his legal team requested an explanation of ...

Bloomberg Xiaomi Corp. bought a stake in Chinese home-appliance maker TCL Corp as the two companies agreed to cooperate on the development of smart products and electronic devices. Xiaomi bought 65.2 million shares, or 0.48 percent, of TCL from the secondary market as of January 4, Guangdong-based TCL said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Sunday. TCL ...

Bloomberg Japan will consider countermeasures to protect Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. assets from seizure in South Korea sought in response to a wartime forced-labour complaint, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. It’s “very regrettable that former workers from the Korean Peninsula are taking action for seizing the assets,” Abe told national broadcaster NHK’s “Sunday Debate” programme, adding that he ...

Bloomberg India needs to resume subsidies on imported natural gas to help revive power plants that have been stranded for want of fuel and could turn into bad assets for banks, according to a lawmakers’ report. The federal government should supply the gas at lower than market rates by utilising funds from the so-called Power System Development Fund or from ...

Bloomberg Big US companies are paying higher risk premiums when they borrow and finding less demand for their bonds, a sign that investors are worried about rising wages and slow- ing economic growth hitting corporate profit growth. Companies are responding by borrowing less: they sold around $8 billion of US investment-grade debt last month, about a seventh of the average ...

Bloomberg Just as the pharmaceutical industry’s biggest conference of the year is set to get under way, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to complain that drugmakers aren’t “living up to their commitments on pricing.” Despite talk about halting increases and lowering the price on some treatments, pharmaceutical companies on January 1 returned to the practice of regular price hikes ...