Opinion

Singapore isn’t a place for monetary policy surprises. The central bank’s strike against inflation — only the third unscheduled move in two decades — sends a clear signal that expectations of higher prices for longer have gone mainstream. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) slightly raised the rate of appreciation of its main currency band, meaning it will let the ...

  China is putting market-oriented solutions for its troubled collection of property developers into practice — even in a market frozen by fear. Industry consolidation has always been Beijing’s preferred remedy for a liquidity crisis. In recent years, we witnessed a wave of regional bank mergers, with bureaucrats maneuvering behind the scenes to avoid stirring panic and bank runs. We ...

  After weeks of mostly fruitless diplomacy, Nato is bracing for war. Countering Russia’s buildup on Ukraine’s borders, the alliance is readying a force to deploy to eastern Europe that could include as many as 8,500 US troops. Denmark has dispatched fighter jets to Lithuania and a frigate to the Baltic Sea. Dutch F-35s are being moved to Bulgaria. Multiple ...

  From smartphones to Tesla Inc cars, lithium-ion batteries are everywhere. But when Asia’s richest man went shopping in England with 100 million pounds ($136 million), he came back with humble sodium. Sodium-ion is not a bad choice for Mukesh Ambani to kick off his power-storage gigafactory. For one thing, the earth’s crust has 300 times more sodium than lithium. ...

Just because the failure of SoftBank Group Corp’s sale of Arm Ltd. to Nvidia Corp. seemed inevitable, it doesn’t mean the scuttled deal is any less painful. Executives at Nvidia, the most valuable US chip company, have started telling people that it doesn’t expect to close the $40 billion purchase announced in September 2020, Bloomberg News reported. SoftBank, which was ...

Yet again, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is aiming to address one of the weakest links in the US financial system: money market mutual funds, the object of at least two reform efforts and two major federal rescues in as many decades. This time around, regulators might actually be getting it right. Money market funds emerged in the 1970s ...

More than two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, China is the last major nation pursuing a zero-tolerance strategy, seeking to extinguish outbreaks as soon as individual cases emerge. That policy looks increasingly unsustainable. Chinese leaders should prepare now for a change in course. The emergence of the highly transmissible omicron variant is already testing the government’s approach. Local officials have ...

  There is little doubt that advanced countries in the first half of 2022 will pull back, albeit partially, on the ultra-stimulative monetary policies they have pursued for several years. What is more consequential, yet less certain, is when and how this will lead to a meaningful tightening of financial conditions and what the spillover effects will be for the ...

The biotech sector is more than 40% down from its high last February, while the major pharmaceutical firms are flush with cash. That sounds like the ideal condition for dealmaking. But what if biotech boards and shareholders want takeover bids at yesterday’s sky-high prices? A 2020 study by JP Morgan Chase & Co. analysts found that when markets fall, a ...

One of the most abundant and essential ingredients in electric vehicle batteries is beginning to experience demand pressures, showing how supply chain troubles are getting deeper and the value chain even more expensive. Tesla Inc last week signed a deal with Australian mining company Syrah Resources Ltd to procure materials from the firm’s Louisiana operations, with the raw inputs coming ...