April, 2020

• 4 April

  UK house prices surge before virus hit

  

  Bloomberg UK house prices were climbing at the fastest pace in more than two years before the coronavirus pandemic almost brought the market to a standstill, according to Nationwide Building Society. Values rose 3% from a year earlier in March, and gained 0.8% from February alone, the mortgage lender said. The sample period excludes recent disruption caused by UK’s restrict- …

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• 4 April

  Foxconn to investors: 5G iPhone can launch in fall

  

  Bloomberg Apple Inc’s most important manufacturing partner has reassured investors it can still get the latest 5G-enabled iPhones ready for an autumn launch despite global Covid-19 upheaval. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, which makes most of the world’s iPhones, told investors it’s lost time to travel restrictions and other disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But with months to go …

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• 4 April

  German startups join forces to create virus-tracking app

  

  Bloomberg A group of German startups are working on an application that will help the government track people who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus and, ultimately, ease restrictions when the pandemic begins to subside. Startups including insurance firm Wefox Group Services GmbH, software provider Finleap and artificial intelligence platform Arago announced the app in a website. Arago, which …

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• 4 April

  Tesla’s Model Y gets high marks from a critic Musk respects

  

  Bloomberg Tesla Inc’s new Model Y has what people have come to expect from Elon Musk’s cars: It’s lightning quick, handles nicely and has better electronic gadgetry than its competitors. Unlike past Tesla offerings, early versions are rolling off the assembly line looking more like you’d expect from a company with a handle on the finer points of car building, …

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• 4 April

  Spotify’s new kids app offers range of options

  Bloomberg Spotify Technology SA is offering parents cooped up at home a new way to entertain their kids. The Swedish audio streaming giant will roll out a kids app in the US, Canada and France, the company said. The new app includes more than 8,000 songs, as well as audio books and bedtime stories, all of which are handpicked by …

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• 4 April

  Banks under pressure to raise loan margins in Greater China

  

  Bloomberg Banks are under increased pressure to raise loan margins in the Greater China region as the coronavirus pandemic weakens lending and a global dollar liquidity squeeze pushes up funding costs. That’s a key takeaway from a Bloomberg survey of 15 major syndicated loan arrangers operating in the region, including international and Chinese banks. The survey was conducted between March …

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• 4 April

  Norway’s biggest bank halts $1.4bn dividend

  

  Bloomberg DNB ASA, Norway’s biggest bank, is postponing its $1.4 billion dividend as it gives in to calls from national and European authorities to show restraint during the current economic crisis. DNB initially dragged its feet after Norway’s financial watchdog last month urged banks to refrain from dividends. The Norwegian bankers’ association, Finance Norway, argued the move was unnecessary and …

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• 4 April

  S Africa eases bank rules

  

  Bloomberg South Africa’s banking regulator plans to give banks a break from accounting and capital rules that could release around 300 billion rand ($17 billion) for lending to help the economy cope with the fallout of the coronavirus. “It’s quite big, it’s quite meaningful,” said Kuben Naidoo, deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank and chief executive officer of …

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• 4 April

  RBNZ urged to release ‘all guns blazing’ on QE to slash rates

  

  Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank needs to step up the scale and pace of its quantitative easing (QE) to achieve a meaningful fall in interest rates, market participants say. Since beginning purchases last week, the Reserve Bank has bought NZ$1.4 billion of government bonds at four auctions. While yields have moved lower, the market is wary that an expected NZ$17 …

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• 4 April

  Central banks in Southeast Asian coordinating efforts

  

  Bloomberg Officials from leading Southeast Asian central banks have agreed to coordinate efforts to boost their economies, all struggling under the blow from the coronavirus pandemic. Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo told reporters in an online briefing that he held talks a day earlier with officials from five central banks in the region. He didn’t give details of what kind …

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