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South Korea rate cut can’t overcome trade war

Asia’s most stubborn central bank just reversed course. With the Federal Reserve all but certain to renew its easing cycle at the end of the month, the Bank of Korea preemptively cut its benchmark interest rate to 1.5 percent from 1.75 percent, in a decision that surprised roughly half of the economists polled by Bloomberg. The central bank aimed to ...

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Merkel, Macron got von der Leyen elected, barely

Ursula von der Leyen has clinched the presidency of the European Commission with a razor-thin margin of nine votes. It’s a win for the national governments that backed her, a loss for the European Parliament that dreamed of putting forward one of its own — and a sign of some very tough tussles ahead for the 28-member bloc. When pulling ...

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JPMorgan, Citi, Wells Fargo can’t escape from Fed hold

Heading into this earnings cycle for the biggest US banks, analysts were already plenty worried about net interest income, which is how much the firms make from customers’ loan payments compared with what they pay on deposits. After all, long-term interest rates have plummeted since the end of last year amid signs of slowing global growth and the Federal Reserve ...

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