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US business activity stabilises in July

Bloomberg US business activity stabilised in July, indicating only gradual progress for the economy as some states slow the pace of reopening to counter a pickup in coronavirus cases. The IHS Markit preliminary composite index of purchasing managers at manufacturers and service providers improved 2.1 points to a six-month high of 50, the dividing line between expansion and contraction, the ...

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More Canadian firms than ever are seeking creditor protection

Bloomberg A record number of Canada’s largest businesses are seeking protection from creditors, a testament to the strains companies are under because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the three months through June, 27 firms were granted protection under Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), a federal law that gives insolvent corporations that have debt of more than $3.7 million an opportunity ...

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Mexico’s economic activity sees record dip

Bloomberg Mexico’s economic activity plunged by a record in May, continuing a free-fall caused by a coronavirus outbreak that’s wreaking havoc on output. Activity, as measured by a proxy known as IGAE, dropped 22.7% compared to a year ago, the national statistics agency reported on its website. That’s more than the median forecast for a 20.3% contraction in a Bloomberg ...

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EU hails region’s progress to restrict high-risk 5G vendors

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) praised “good progress” in tackling risky suppliers of core fifth-generation mobile network equipment and called on other member states to follow suit. With countries in the region under intensifying US pressure to ban China’s Huawei Technologies Co., the bloc published a report that assessed how well governments were reducing security risks in the shift to ...

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Intel ‘stunning failure’ heralds end of era for US chip sector

Bloomberg Intel Corp.’s decision to consider outsourcing manufacturing heralds the end of an era in which the company, and the US, dominated the semiconductor industry. The move could reverberate well beyond Silicon Valley, influencing global trade and geopolitics. The Santa Clara, California-based company has been the largest chipmaker for most of the past 30 years by combining the best designs ...

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Tesla benefited from government stimulus

Bloomberg Elon Musk, whose Tesla Inc. was a major beneficiary of government stimulus in the wake of the last global financial crisis, has soured on the concept. The outspoken chief executive officer of both Tesla and US government contractor SpaceX tweeted that “another government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people,” in his opinion. A decade ...

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IRobot slips after it warns of Roomba tariffs

Bloomberg IRobot Corp. shares dropped after the company warned that its Roomba autonomous vacuums could be hit with trade tariffs later this year. “On April 24, the United States Trade Representative granted iRobot an exclusion for its Roomba robot vacuums from Section 301 tariffs through August 7, 2020. The company does not yet know whether an extension for its exclusion ...

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Microsoft readies games for next Xbox led by Halo shooter

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. showed off its most important video game for the next Xbox, a new installment of its flagship multi-billion dollar Halo series, as the company gears up for the release of the latest generation of consoles in time for the holidays. Halo Infinite returns to the saga of Master Chief, the bioengineered super-solider main character of the series, ...

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Hertz to cut $6b in vehicle debt by year end

Bloomberg Hertz Global Holdings Inc. has struck a deal that will cut the debt it owes lenders who financed its rental car fleet to less than $5 billion from $11 billion by December. 31, the company’s main bankruptcy lawyer said in court. Under an agreement with the lenders, Hertz has agreed to sell 182,000 cars over the next few months, ...

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