March, 2016

• 12 March

  Bond market’s inflation outlook brightens

  Bloomberg The bond market’s outlook for inflation is picking up after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s latest expansion of stimulus. A gauge of German inflation expectations climbed to the highest level since January this week. With Brent crude oil rising for a third week, that’s helping boost optimism among investors before data due on March 17 that, according to ...

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• 12 March

  UK nod for companies to test driverless cars on motorways

  

  Bloomberg Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will give the green light for driverless cars to be tested on U.K. motorways, helping to make the technology available to consumers by the end of the decade. The government also aims to remove regulatory barriers so that driverless cars can be used on British roads within the current parliamentary term, the Treasury ...

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• 12 March

  Govt can’t let smartphones be ‘black boxes’, Obama says

  

  TEXAS / Bloomberg President Barack Obama said that smartphones — like the iPhone the FBI is trying to force Apple Inc. to help it hack — can’t be allowed to be “black boxes,” inaccessible to the government. The technology industry, he said, should work with the government instead of leaving the issue to Congress. “You cannot take an absolutist view ...

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• 12 March

  Peru’s Sol surges the most as investors cover shorts

  Bloomberg Peru’s sol surged the most in almost seven years as a rally in emerging-market currencies erased its losses for this year and prompted traders who had wagered on declines to reverse their bets. The sol rose 2.1 percent to 3.354 per dollar at the close of trading in Lima, its biggest one-day advance since May 2009, according to Datatec ...

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• 12 March

  Canada unemployment up 7.3%, 2,300 jobs lost

  

  Ottawa / AFP The Canadian economy lost 2,300 jobs in February, with fresh losses in the oil-producing provinces raising unemployment to 7.3 percent, the highest level seen in three years, official data showed Friday. The results fell short of analysts’ expectations of 10,000 new jobs and unemployment holding steady at 7.2 percent. Although there was a slight increase in the ...

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• 12 March

  Brazilian Real advances for 3rd week, ‘longest’ amid impeachment talks

  

  RIO DE JANEIRO / Bloomberg Brazil’s real advanced for the third week, the longest rally since November, amid growing speculation that a change in government would boost local assets. The currency gained 1.1 percent to 3.5856 per dollar, the strongest level on a closing basis since Aug. 28, bringing its weekly advance to 4.7 percent. It’s up 12 percent this ...

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• 12 March

  US-Canada war over gas market share will heat up in 2017

  

  BLOOMBERG U.S. gas drillers battered by the lowest prices in 17 years have found another release valve for their output: Canada. Over the past five years, the shale boom that unlocked vast supplies of natural gas across North America has tripled pipeline shipments from the U.S. to Mexico, and spurred the first seaborne exports from the lower 48 states. Now, ...

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• 12 March

  5 years after the spark, Syria war at a critical juncture

  

  BEIRUT / AP After five years of bloodshed — after a quarter of a million deaths, and the flight of millions of refugees — Syria has arrived at a critical juncture: A diplomatic framework is in place to end the carnage, a two-week-old partial ceasefire is holding, and peace talks are set to resume in coming days. “The indicators from ...

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• 12 March

  Greece to fix refugee camp overflow ‘within week’

  Athens / AFP Greece aims to deal swiftly with the migrant overflow at the Idomeni refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border where some 12,000 people are camping in miserable conditions waiting to cross. “I hope the situation at Idomeni is resolved within a week without recourse to force,” Mega television on Saturday quoted Dimitris Vitsas, the minister charged with coordinating ...

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• 12 March

  Britain sends more troops to train Iraqis fighting IS

  London / AFP Britain said on Saturday it was sending more troops to Iraq to bolster its mission training up the armed forces taking on the IS extremist group. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said a further 30 troops would be deployed to provide training in logistics and bridge-building, as well as specialist medical staff. The move would take the total ...

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