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Peak robot? Japan says that’s far from automatic

With a trade war intensifying, industrial machinery giants are making investors anxious. It’s not all bad. After what looked like an incipient downturn, orders for Japanese machine tools — a keenly watched da-taset — rose 11 percent in June from a year earlier, figures showed last week. Demand from home and overseas totaled close to 160 billion yen ($1.4 billion), ...

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Google gives investors a reason for short memories

That sound you heard was a sigh of relief from Google investors. Parent company Alphabet Inc. delivered a second-quarter financial report that showed both another impressive stretch of revenue growth and a moderation in the pace of spending that had been making stockholders panic. Google isn’t supernatural, but it has shown that recent investor pessimism about the company has been ...

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Tapping oil reserves will not cure Trump’s gas pain

Besides Twitter — especially of the ALL-CAPS variety — President Donald Trump has another way of influencing troublesome oil prices: Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The question is which is more influential. In theory, those 660 million barrels stashed at four sites along the Gulf Coast should count for more than 280 characters in the ether. But if the aim is ...

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Tesla shows lithium market needs a chill

Isn’t lithium meant to be a mood stabiliser? That’s certainly not what’s happening in the stocks of companies that produce the element used in rechargeable batteries and psychiatric medications. News this week that Tesla Inc sent a memo to some suppliers asking them for payment rebates to help it become profitable shook shares in lithium miners. The Solactive Global Lithium ...

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Large Russian businesses are turning inward

The planned delisting of Megafon PJSC, Russia’s second-biggest mobile operator, from the London Stock Exchange is no ordinary event. The company is one of the most liquid Russian stocks trading overseas, and its exit is further evidence that the country’s businesses are turning inward as exposure to the West becomes increasingly problematic. In 2011, almost 70 Russian companies’ depositary receipts ...

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UBS bucks trend by keeping $2 million bar for rich clients

Bloomberg UBS Group AG has no plans to follow other banks and raise the $2 million threshold for access to its private banking services, the Swiss bank’s China head of global wealth management said. “This is not under discussion,” said Marina Lui in an interview in Hong Kong, asked about moves by other banks to raise the minimums required from ...

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Nordea may challenge $580000 fine imposed by EU’s top regulator

Bloomberg The biggest Nordic bank is considering taking on the European Union’s (EU) top markets regulator after being handed a fine for providing credit ratings without a license. Nordea Bank AB, together with four other major Nordic banks, was called out by the European Securities and Markets Authority for selling so-called shadow ratings to corporate clients without permission. Each firm ...

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TD planning to add 200 advisers to help wealth unit reach profit goal

Bloomberg Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), building on its deal for money manager Greystone Capital Management Inc. earlier this month, plans to hire 200 advisers in Canada this year to boost profit at its wealth-management division as much as 10 percent. The additions are part of Toronto-Dominion’s push to expand in a division that includes online investing, advice and asset management to ...

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BOJ offers unlimited bond buying

Bloomberg Japan’s debt market saw yields surge on media reports of possible changes to the nation’s ultra-loose monetary policy, spurring the central bank to offer to buy an unlimited amount of bonds. The yield on 10-year government securities soared as much as six basis points to 0.09 percent, its biggest increase in almost two years, pulling the yen higher and ...

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Analysts downgrading China’s small banks at record pace

Bloomberg Analysts are taking note of the struggles in China’s banking industry, which is being battered by an official deleveraging drive. At least five smaller lenders have been downgraded by credit-rating companies this year, a record pace for the sector. Spikes in the volume of non-performing loans and an increase in loans overdue are among the reasons. One of the ...

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