This time a year ago, the federal funds target rate was 2.25% and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was intent on raising it to 3% while continuing to shrink the size of the central bank’s balance sheet. The massive disruption in the credit markets that followed not only thwarted his aims and catalszed the “Powell Pivot,” but continues to dictate ...

Climate specialists have warned for years about a “carbon bubble” in which markets ignore or massively undervalue the risks to companies from climate change. Two new studies suggest, however, that financial markets have started seriously pricing carbon risk, especially since the Paris Agreement of 2015. Whatever its other effects, that agreement may thus go down in history as the beginning ...

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is ending the year as it began: with a shock. Policymakers held their benchmark interest rate at 5.15% on December 5. Not a single economist among the 43 surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted this outcome. Central banks generally hate giving surprises. It makes people wonder what officials know that they don’t, and tends to sap ...

Next week, the European Union’s leaders will commit to cutting net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. This historic pledge will require the continent to radically overhaul its entire economy, including a revolution in the production of steel, cement and chemicals — whose carbon emissions are particularly difficult to abate. None of this will happen, however, unless European companies ...

Your mother probably told you never to get in a car with a stranger. The multibillion-dollar global ride-hailing industry depends on your ignoring her. If they want to earn that trust, though, companies need to rethink the tradeoff they’ve long made between safety and cost. Around the world, passengers are now hailing more than 10.5 billion rides a year. Not ...

Canada has been a primary target for short sellers since 2013. The principal reasons are the country’s very expensive housing, particularly in Toronto and Vancouver, and consumer debt levels that are among the highest in the world. Canada also has an expansive private mortgage market that supplies credit when banks won’t. It is hard to argue with the vulnerabilities. And ...

Bloomberg Anything is still possible for next week’s UK election, but one outcome would suit many stock investors better than most. “For equities, the best result is a decent Conservative majority,” said Kim Catechis, head of investment strategy at Martin Currie, an affiliate of Legg Mason Inc., managing about $17 billion. A decisive victory for Boris Johnson would see domestic ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s main equity index advanced the most in more than a year after the pricing of Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering and amid hopes of higher oil prices. The Tadawul All Share Index rose 2.4% on Sunday, the most for a session since October 2018. The kingdom raised $25.6 billion from the world’s biggest IPO after selling shares ...

Bloomberg Marfrig Global Foods SA announced an equity offering that will allow Brazilian development bank BNDES to sell its stake in the world’s second-largest beef producer. BNDESPar, the bank’s investment arm, plans to sell about 209.6 million shares, which is all of its 33.74% stake, Marfrig said in a regulatory filing. The company will sell about 90 million shares. The ...

Bloomberg In a small step towards returning Boeing Co.’s 737 Max to service, US regulators are revising requirements for how airlines must operate the plane if equipment breaks down. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued proposed new rules for airline operations on the Max that adapt to the fixes being finalised for the grounded jetliner. The public has 30 ...