October, 2020

• 24 October

  Japan’s newest low-cost carrier hiring 100 staff

  

  Bloomberg At a time most airlines are shedding jobs, there is one that’s hiring — a new low-cost carrier called Zipair Tokyo Inc. The unit of Japan Airlines Co will take on around 100 employees from the broader JAL group as it launches passenger flights between Tokyo and cities including Bangkok and Seoul, a JAL spokesman said. The budget airline …

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• 24 October

  Southwest Air opens middle seats, leaving Delta, Alaska as holdouts

  

  Bloomberg To block or not to block. The middle seat has become a critical issue for airlines as coronavirus-wary leisure travelers straggle back onto planes. Southwest Airlines Co said that it would begin filling middle seats on December 1. The change leaves Delta Air Lines Inc and Alaska Air Group Inc as the only two major US carriers that will …

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• 24 October

  JC Penney lenders seek to slow property sale

  

  Bloomberg A group of creditors to JC Penney is seeking to slow the sale of the bankrupt retailer’s real estate to another group of lenders, saying that it provides the buyers an undeserved windfall and reeks “of not only greed but abhorrent bad faith.” The objecting creditors, led by Aurelius Capital Management, say they submitted a $750 million competing bid …

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• 24 October

  Flipkart invests $204m in Birla’s retail business

  Bloomberg Walmart Inc’s Indian e-commerce operation Flipkart invested 15 billion rupees ($204 million) in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd as it looks to bolster its presence in one of the world’s fastest-growing retail markets. Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla’s retail business will issue preference shares to Flipkart, giving it a 7.8% stake, Aditya Birla Fashion said in an exchange filing. …

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• 24 October

  Recovery in Canadian retail sales fizzling

  Bloomberg The recovery in Canadian retail sales is fizzling Sales eked out a gain of 0.4% in August, Statistics Canada said in Ottawa. That fell short of the 1.1% median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Excluding vehicles, receipts rose 0.5%, versus a forecast gain of 0.9%. After cratering in April on mandatory lockdowns, retail sales increased for four …

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• 24 October

  US airlines seek testing to sidestep quarantines

  Bloomberg A coalition of airline and travel industry groups is urging top US officials to develop standards for rapid testing and other measures to sidestep the growing quarantine restrictions imposed by states. Eighteen states have some type of quarantine for people arriving from Covid-19 hot spots, but “this patchwork of rules is confusing and discourages travel,” the group of 20 …

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• 24 October

  SNB may have to sell some of its $100bn in US stocks

  

  Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) could be forced to sell a chunk of its more than $100 billion US stock portfolio as part of a campaign to ban it from investing in defense companies. A poll by gfs.bern for public broadcaster SRG showed 54% of voters in favour of the proposal, which goes to a national vote on November …

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• 24 October

  Wells Fargo weighs asset-manager sale

  

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. is exploring the sale of its asset-management unit as the biggest banks choose paths of diving deeper into the business or getting out. The Wells Fargo unit could fetch more than $3 billion, according to a person briefed on the matter, who said the bank began discussing a possible deal with other asset managers and …

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• 24 October

  Barclays climbs as Staley’s traders thrive on volatility

  

  Bloomberg Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jes Staley’s drive to make investment banking the centerpiece of his strategy paid off in the third quarter, with equities trading in a volatile market beating the bank’s Wall Street peers. The shares approached a two-month high. The London-based bank’s equity trading income jumped 40% and foreign-exchange, rates and credit trading rises 23%, …

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• 24 October

  Riksbank revealing grim view of latest Covid trend

  

  Bloomberg The Riksbank governor, Stefan Ingves, fears the economic outlook is deteriorating amid signs the coronavirus pandemic is tightening its grip across Europe, and ensnaring Sweden again too. “If you look at our forecasts, it will take a few years before GDP is back” at pre-crisis levels, Ingves said in an interview in Stockholm. “And those forecasts were done before …

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