December, 2022

• 29 December

  Serbs unblock roads in Kosovo

  

    Bloomberg Serbs in Kosovo began removing road barricades erected in protest against the largely ethnic-Albanian government, after the US and European Union increased pressure on both sides to avert a new Balkan conflict. After weeks of obstruction, protesters ceased blocking traffic at Merdare, the key border crossing between Serbia and Kosovo, police said. At the same time, two trucks ...

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• 29 December

  Britons facing more travel disruption in fresh strikes

    Bloomberg Strike-weary Britons may face further travel disruption on Friday, when road traffic officers and control-room staff begin a two-day action, the latest in a wave of walkouts sweeping across Britain. Members of the Public and Commercial Services union working for National Highways in the southwest and the West Midlands will strike, a move the union said would reduce ...

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• 29 December

  BOJ defends yield-curve target with more bond buying rounds

  

    Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) announced two additional rounds of unscheduled bond-purchase operations, fighting back against traders betting it will further relax its yield-curve control policy. The central bank offered to buy unlimited amounts of two- and five-year notes at a fixed yield, along with 600 billion yen ($4.5 billion) of one-to-10 year bonds. That was on top ...

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• 29 December

  Goldman Sachs CEO warns more job cuts weeks away

  

    Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc is working on a fresh round of job cuts that will be unveiled in a matter of weeks, Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said in his traditional year-end message to staff. “We are conducting a careful review and while discussions are still ongoing, we anticipate our headcount reduction will take place in the first ...

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• 29 December

  Credit market cracks widen as distressed debt nears $650b

  

    Bloomberg Multiple stress points are emerging in credit markets after years of excess, from banks stuck with piles of buyout debt, a pension blow-up in the UK and real-estate troubles in China and South Korea. With cheap money becoming a thing of the past, those may just be the start. Distressed debt in the US alone jumped more than ...

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• 29 December

  Argentina must avoid ‘hot money’ pitfall: Economist

  

    Bloomberg An Argentine economist drafting recommendations for a more business-friendly government that could emerge from 2023 elections has a message for foreign investors eyeing potential regime change. “We’re not interested in hot money in Argentina,” Carlos Melconian, head of think tank Ieral, said. “Capital inflows that create quick profits and get confounded with the element of confidence don’t interest ...

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• 29 December

  Deep slump in kwacha may prompt Zambia rate hike

    Bloomberg A sharp slump in the kwacha that’s placing upward pressure on inflation may prompt monetary policymakers to raise interest rates for the first time in more than a year when they meet in early 2023. Consumer prices rose an annual 9.9% this month, compared with 9.8% in November, interim Statistician-General Mulenga Musepa told reporters in the capital, Lusaka. ...

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• 29 December

  US futures advance as tech stocks rally; dollar declines

  

    Bloomberg US equity-index futures gained on Thursday as technology shares rallied on the penultimate trading day of what’s been a brutal year for financial markets. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose more than 0.6% following gains for Asian technology stocks earlier amid signs China is easing a regulatory crackdown. Contracts on the S&P 500 were up about 0.3%. ...

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• 29 December

  Big Oil and tanks top Europe’s stock markets in 2022, real estate lags

  

    Bloomberg Beset by war, soaring costs and higher interest rates, 2022 was a year many European companies — and stock market investors — would prefer to forget. Carefully crafted investment strategies were thrown into disarray, first by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis, then by surging borrowing costs that lifted Germany’s 10-year bond yield, Europe’s benchmark, ...

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• 29 December

  UAE: Unemployment insurance scheme to start from January 1

  

    Abu Dhabi / WAM The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) has announced that the subscription to the Unemployment Insurance Scheme will start on January 1, 2023, calling on UAE nationals and residents who work in the federal government and private sector to subscribe. Stemmed from the Federal Decree-Law No. 13 of 2022, the Unemployment Insurance Scheme aims ...

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