Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC says it has a history of working constructively with boards to promote the success of their companies. The activist’s latest goal seems to involve removing the board of Prudential Plc entirely, and dismantling the head office around it, as part of a breakup of the $48 billion insurer. That may not be as hard as ...

The yield on a 30-year USTreasury bond has finally fallen to a record low of 1.83%, having dropped a staggering 50 basis points this year already. With the coronavirus outbreak forcing people to look for havens, there are few signs that this investor frenzy for long-maturity sovereign debt is going to abate anytime soon. The US appears to be headed ...

For a time, it looked like our defenses might hold. The extraordinary lockdown of China’s Hubei province over the past month had at times appeared to be halting the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. For much of that period, new cases outside China were running at just a dozen or so a day, most of them with clear connections back ...

A decision by Thailand’s constitutional court to ban the second-largest opposition party should be a boost for Prayuth Chan-Ocha, junta leader turned elected prime minister. Future Forward’s leaders were among his highest-profile critics. Yet the long sought-after victory looks Pyrrhic. The former general’s problems have been piling up. Thailand’s flatlining economy, already suffering from the worst drought in decades, is ...

It’s long been obvious that one of Germany’s formerly grand centrist parties, the left-leaning SPD, is in decline. But another and even grander centrist bloc, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel, had hopes of avoiding that fate, by defending the hallowed middle ground in politics. Suddenly, though, Germany is having a full-bore political crisis of centrism. Since ...

Bloomberg Stocks dropped globally and US index futures fluctuated on Wednesday as investors fretted fresh evidence of the widening coronavirus outbreak. Gold advanced and Treasuries were steady. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell for a fifth straight session, suffering its longest losing streak since July, as companies including Diageo Plc and Danone SA warned the virus outbreak will hit their ...

Bloomberg Thailand confirmed three more novel coronavirus cases, taking the country’s total to 40, and said it will step up efforts to contain the disease. The stock market slumped the most since 2014. The new cases are in one family and include two people who returned from Hokkaido in Japan and are thought to have contracted the illness there, Permanent ...

Bloomberg China’s tech-heavy ChiNext Index saw losses accelerate on Wednesday in another volatile session for mainland stocks. The index declined as much as 5%, after closing February 25 at the highest level since July 2016. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.8% to close below the key 3,000 point level, joining a global rout. Volume was about 70% higher than the 30-day ...

Bloomberg It is “still too soon” to say whether the coronavirus outbreak will cause a material change in the US outlook, said Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, signalling officials won’t be rushed to judgment on the need to cut interest rates. “Monetary policy is in a good place and should continue to support sustained growth, a strong labour market, ...

Bloomberg If the coronavirus outbreak morphs into a regional economic crisis, the European Central Bank (ECB) isn’t yet poised to rush to the rescue. With interest rates deep below zero and the latest batch of asset purchases still ongoing, room for additional monetary support is severely limited. For policy makers in Frankfurt, that makes their case for governments such as ...