The US Federal Reserve’s next meeting is still five weeks away, and President Donald Trump is already talking the economy into a recession in his campaign for lower interest rates. Markets shouldn’t take his latest salvo too seriously. The Treasury Department formally labelled China a currency manipulator for the first time since 1998 after Trump took to Twitter to castigate ...
Read More »Blog Layout
UK, India nationalists will regret Brexit, Article 370
Long on a roll, right-wing nationalists finally seem to be overreaching. Evidence came from two different sources this week: India and Britain. Brexit, advocated and promoted by mostly English nationalists, always threatened the breakup of Great Britain. With new Prime Minister Boris Johnson now vowing to leave the European Union on October 31 without a deal and regardless of the ...
Read More »Nissan-Renault deal is dead in all but name
Even after a relationship is dead, couples often go through the motions of remaining in a marriage. That’s the best way to characterise what’s left of the alliance between Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. Renault must sell down its 43.4 percent stake in its Japanese partner to 5 percent-10 percent and both sides should “invest in new ventures,†Nissan’s ...
Read More »Electric scooters: Europe takes a wild regulatory ride
This has been the summer of the electric scooter in Europe; but the UK and Ireland, which still ban the things, are probably right to hold out. So far, no government in the region has figured out a good way to regulate them. US e-scooter sharing companies like Bird, Lime and Jump (a subsidiary of Uber) have all been expanding ...
Read More »China’s central bank assures firms yuan won’t fall further
Bloomberg Senior People’s Bank of China (PBOC) officials reassured foreign companies that the currency won’t continue to weaken significantly, a day after the yuan fell below 7 per dollar for the first time since 2008. The central bank held a meeting with a number of foreign exporters in Beijing, at which officials also said that companies’ ability to buy and ...
Read More »HSBC’s Swiss unit to cough up $329mn to settle Belgian tax probe
Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc’s Swiss private banking unit agreed to pay about 294 million euros ($329 million) to settle a Belgian criminal probe into allegations it helped wealthy clients dodge hundreds of millions of euros in taxes. The preliminary agreement in Belgium’s largest criminal settlement still needs to be approved by a judge at a hearing that should take place ...
Read More »Bank of Thailand reduces interest rate to spur growth
Bloomberg The Bank of Thailand unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday for the first time in more than four years to boost the economy, and said it sees more room to ease as global risks surge. The Monetary Policy Committee voted five to two to cut its key rate by a quarter-percentage point to 1.5%, the central bank ...
Read More »India delivers rare interest rate cut to boost economy
Bloomberg India’s central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate by an unconventional 35 basis points, its fourth reduction this year to support a slowing economy. The repurchase rate was reduced to 5.4%, the lowest since 2010, surprising most of the 40 economists surveyed by Bloomberg who had predicted a quarter-point cut. AasthaGudwani, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch ...
Read More »Brazil central bank warns of slow pick-up in growth
Bloomberg Brazil’s central bank signaled an acceleration in economic growth will be slow even as a benign inflation outlook clears the way for more benchmark interest rate cuts and the government readies new stimulus. Gross domestic product (GDP) was likely stable or slightly positive in the second quarter and growth will probably show “some acceleration†going forward, policy makers wrote ...
Read More »Citi reduces S&P 500 profit forecast on trade effects
Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. has grown concerned the US-China trade war will persist long enough to dent any potential profit rebound for corporate America. Tobias Levkovich, the firm’s chief US equity strategist, cut his earnings forecast for S&P 500 companies this year by $3.80 to $166.20 a share. Global stocks have tumbled this month amid concern that the US-China trade spat ...
Read More »