Classic Layout

Comcast’s bad omen for the AT&T

Cord-cutting isn’t stopping. As it turns out, that’s not such bad news for cable giants like Comcast Corp. It is, however, for AT&T Inc. The streaming wars intensified in the fourth quarter amid Walt Disney Co.’s advertising blitz for its new Disney+ service that overtook billboards, shopping malls, public transit and Twitter feeds. At the same time, Apple Inc. began ...

Read More »

Airfare transparency made free market freer

Have you ever shopped online for something (say, a hotel room) and selected an option with an excellent price only to learn, at the time of checkout, that the price is much higher than originally advertised? That happens a lot. A key reason is that advertised prices often exclude taxes and fees. Even if there is some disclosure of that ...

Read More »

Oil was sick even before China’s coronavirus hit

Oil succumbed to the coronavirus because its immune system was compromised already. Amid headlines about quarantined Chinese cities and dozens of potential cases showing up in the US, Brent crude closed on January 24 at $60 and change, its lowest since Halloween. This is all the more remarkable when you consider January has seen several geopolitical shocks stretching from Libya ...

Read More »

‘Global warming’ was a better term than ‘climate change’

As scientific terms go, “climate change” is lame. It sounds like something created by committee. And it’s hard to understand as a crisis when we also hear scientists talking about ice ages and other natural changes to the climate happening throughout earth’s history. “Global warming” is something people have worried about for years, though. It’s essentially another term for the ...

Read More »

Intel can’t win another round in the chip fight

Intel Inc. closed out 2019 learning the hard lesson that making cutting-edge semiconductors is truly difficult. Like a prizefighter who refuses to admit he just hit the mat, the world’s biggest chipmaker is coming out swinging. And it should, because how it gets through 2020 could decide the company’s fate. Once the most advanced supplier of semiconductors, Intel struggled last ...

Read More »

A few thousand Teslas won’t fix China’s problems

Tianqi Lithium Corp. had everything going for it: generous subsidies, Beijing’s blessing on the electric-vehicle industry it supplies, and the hype of Tesla Inc. getting its sedans off the production line in China. The only thing interrupting this nice fairy tale is the reality of demand and making money. Over the past few years, China has supported its electric-car industry ...

Read More »

Stocks pull back as China bars travel to Hong Kong

Bloomberg European stocks erased gains while US index futures trimmed an advance as China restricted travel to Hong Kong in the latest international effort to curb the Sars-like virus from spreading. The yuan fluctuated and Treasuries turned higher. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gave up an early advance after Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said China will stop individual ...

Read More »

South Korean stocks shattered over virus

Bloomberg South Korean stocks bore the brunt of Asian stock declines tied to the new coronavirus on Tuesday as more markets opened after holidays and concerns spread from short-term consumerism to longer-term growth. The benchmark Kospi plunged as much as 3.6%, set for the biggest decline since October 2018. Companies that had benefited from Chinese tourism took bigger hits, with ...

Read More »

China market opening delayed until February 3

Bloomberg China’s financial markets will remain closed until next Monday after authorities extended the Lunar New Year break by three days as they grapple with the worsening virus crisis. Trading will resume February 3, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges said. Shanghai authorities separately advised that companies shouldn’t start work until at least February 9. While onshore markets will be ...

Read More »
Send this to a friend