Bloomberg If three’s a trend, then US regional bank tie-ups are in the middle of one. Huntington Bancshares Inc.’s $6 billion purchase of TCF Financial Corp., announced, marks the third multibillion-dollar regional bank deal in as many months, and industry executives say more mergers and acquisitions are likely. “Covid put the M&A market into a deep freeze, and we are ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank has put together a gauge of “news sentiment” to measure the balance of negative and positive words used in journalists’ articles on the economy in order to help track perceptions. The index “complements other timely survey-based sentiment indicators in its ability to ‘nowcast’ the economy,” Reserve Bank of Australia economists Kim Nguyen and Gianni La Cava ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Thailand kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a fifth straight meeting to preserve its limited policy space, while reiterating concerns about a currency rally and lowering its economic growth forecast for next year. The central bank held the policy rate at 0.5% in a unanimous decision, after cutting by a total of 75 basis points ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. is planning to increase the bonus pool for its fixed-income traders, who are set to post their best performance in more than a decade. The overall bonus pool for traders who deal in fixed income, currencies and commodities is likely to increase at least 10 percent, while the pool for equities traders will probably be left unchanged, ...

Bloomberg This has been a year like no other. Hammered by an unprecedented health crisis, global stocks tumbled into a bear market at record speed, and then rallied to new highs thanks to a flood of central bank money. Bond yields tanked to uncharted lows and the world’s reserve currency surged to all-time highs, only to then retreat to its ...

Bloomberg Vaccine developers, electric-vehicle startups and a bankrupt car-rental company captured the imagination of individual investors in 2020 as Reddit chat rooms touted the so-called meme stocks as the next big winners. The wild swings reflected bets by individuals, many of them new to the market, who looked to brokerage apps like Robinhood Markets to pass the time during the ...

Bloomberg Russia plans to support a further gradual increase in Opec+ production at the next meeting in January, because crude prices are within an optimal range. “To restore our output, that we’ve reduced a lot, the price range of $45 to $55 a barrel is the most optimal,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters in Moscow. “Otherwise we’ll never ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai’s Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management, in its meeting stressed the importance of following precautionary measures outlined by health authorities in the UAE and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to protect the community from Covid-19. The meeting was chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The committee’s statement came as ...

RIYADH / WAM The Official Spokesman for the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen Brigadier General Turki Al-Malki said that the terrorist Houthi militia launched a ballistic missile from Amran governorate on Saturday morning, using civilian objects as a launch site. The missile fell short in Yemeni territory east of Al-Yatmah, Al-Jawf governorate, he added in a statement. “The Houthi ...

Bloomberg Britain and the European Union (EU) will enjoy a “special relationship” as a result of the historic trade agreement that was reached, according to UK Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove. “We can now embark on a new, more hopeful, chapter in our history,” Gove said in an article published in the Times of London newspaper on Saturday. “We can ...