April, 2022

• 11 April

  European natural gas declines with flows from Russia stable

  

    Bloomberg Benchmark European natural gas prices declined for a seventh consecutive session, with Russian flows to the continent continuing while the war in Ukraine grinds on. Orders for Russian gas shipments via Ukraine edged higher, but remained below capacity, while the Yamal-Europe pipeline continued to flow eastward to Poland from Germany. Gas transiting Russia’s main pipeline link to Europe, …

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• 11 April

  UK travel disruption drags on, set to hit Easter holiday

  

  Bloomberg Travel disruption continued to hit UK holidaymakers as officials warned of expected queues at airports later in the week and motorists faced fuel shortages. Both EasyJet Plc and British Airways had more cancellations, though the airlines said those flights had been called off in advance. According to FlightAware data, British Airways canceled 7% of flights today and delayed 19%. …

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• 11 April

  Sichuan Air suspends its staff for online remarks

  

    Bloomberg Sichuan Airlines Corp suspended one of its employees after contentious comments he posted online were unearthed, highlighting growing jitters in China after a deadly air crash last month. An internet user took to Weibo to ask the carrier to prevent the staff member in question — identifiable as an ethnic Mongolian Chinese national called Ayingga — from flying …

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• 11 April

  UK shoppers to get ‘buy now, pay later’ at Westfield malls

  

    Bloomberg Clearpay Finance Ltd is partnering with mall landlord Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield in the UK, continuing the buy-now-pay-later provider’s expansion into brick and mortar retail globally. Customers at 13 stores in Westfield’s pair of giant London shopping centers will be given the option to pay in installments through Clearpay, which is known as Afterpay outside Europe. It adds to Clearpay’s UK …

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• 11 April

  Heathrow hiring as traffic hits highest since start of Covid

  

    Bloomberg London’s Heathrow airport will ramp up hiring “as fast as possible” after passenger numbers surged last month to the highest since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The 4.2 million travellers passing through the facility during March represents a more than seven-fold jump from a year earlier, according to a statement on Monday. The hub, once Europe’s busiest, is racing …

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• 11 April

  JD’s billionaire founder steps down

  Bloomberg JD.com Inc’s billionaire founder Richard Liu has stepped down as chief executive officer of China’s No. 2 online retailer, joining tech tycoons that exited top management roles after Beijing’s sweeping internet-sector crackdown. Xu Lei, who was recently promoted to president after more than a decade at the company, takes the helm of the e-commerce titan effective immediately. Liu’s lieutenant …

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• 11 April

  European stocks waver on China Covid spread, French uncertainty

  

    Bloomberg European equities started the week on a negative note as investors weighed an array of risks from China’s Covid-19 flare up to an uncomfortably tight race for the French presidency, surging bond yields and the war in Ukraine. The Stoxx 600 Europe Index falls 0.2% as of 8:52 am in London, tracking Asian stocks lower. Technology stocks were …

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• 11 April

  Tech rout may drag Bitcoin to $30,000

  

    Bloomberg Bitcoin’s tendency to move in tandem with technology stocks means the biggest cryptocurrency may slump to $30,000 by June, according to Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of crypto trading platform BitMEX. Hayes, in a blog post on Monday, also said the same dynamic could drive Ether to $2,500. The tokens traded at around $42,300 and $3,180, respectively, at 12:43 …

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• 11 April

  Oil sheds bulk of war-driven gains in 2nd weekly decline

  

  Bloomberg Oil retreated for a second week in the wake of plans for massive stockpile releases, a demand-sapping virus outbreak in China and a hawkish turn from the US Federal Reserve. West Texas Intermediate fell 1% this week, with the US benchmark giving back most of its gains since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. Oil rallied to the highest …

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• 11 April

  UK’s unemployed face biggest drop in benefits in 50 years

  

    Bloomberg Britain’s unemployed face a further blow when the value of their welfare benefits is set to fall the most in half a century, according to new research. Analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows the decline comes with the real value of out-of-work benefits already at historically low levels because the Treasury froze payouts or increased them by …

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