October, 2019

• 27 October

  UBS ‘job cuts’ reach Europe as two dozen gone

  

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG has cut about two dozen jobs in Europe over the last two weeks as Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti restructures the investment bank after a poor performance this year. At least 10 of the cuts came at the equities trading division, people familiar with the matter said. Five positions were eliminated in Zurich, including three managing …

  Read More »
• 27 October

  India’s SBI profit beats estimates on bad loans

  

  Bloomberg State Bank of India (SBI) Ltd posted a bigger-than-expected profit in the fiscal second quarter as asset quality improved. Shares jumped. Net income more than tripled to 30.1 billion rupees ($424 million) for the three months ended on September 30 from 9.4 billion rupees a year earlier, India’s largest lender said. Analysts had expected a profit of 22.9 billion …

  Read More »
• 27 October

  Chinese official touts blockchain after Xi praises technology

  Bloomberg A senior Chinese foreign-exchange regulatory official called for “special attention” to be paid to blockchain as the nation looks to gain advantages from digital finance. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange is looking to use blockchain and artificial intelligence in cross-border trade finance and macro-prudential regulation, Lu Lei, deputy director of the regulator, said at the Bund Summit in …

  Read More »
• 27 October

  World’s most expensive bank cuts back on water to trim costs

  

  Bloomberg Weeks after Armand Wahyudi Hartono became the vice president director of Indonesia’s largest non-state bank, he noticed how staff were leaving half-empty glasses of water after work. The next morning, he restricted the amount of drinking water available at PT Bank Central Asia’s (BCA) headquarters. Such stringent cost control is just an example of how the lender has managed …

  Read More »
• 27 October

  Sabic slumps to lowest quarterly net in a decade

  

  Bloomberg Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (Sabic) posted its lowest quarterly profit in at least a decade as the chemical maker took an impairment charge and cheaper oil put pressure on its product prices. Net income slumped 86% from the previous year to 830 million riyals, while sales fell 23% for the same period to 33.7 billion riyals, the company known …

  Read More »
• 27 October

  Rumbling sound in US stocks marks return of risk appetite

  

  Bloomberg Beneath the din of earnings, clanging economic alarms and the blare of a political circus, US investors are quietly rediscovering their nerve. With the S&P 500 just touching a record, it may sound odd to suggest there was a lack of confidence to begin with. But gains this year have been built on caution as investors chased the safest, …

  Read More »
• 27 October

  Pound traders struggle to unpick hypotheticals

  

  Bloomberg The pound may be back from the precipice, but it’s still some way from sunlit uplands. A formal request to delay Brexit has all but removed the risk of a sterling crash triggered by a no-deal scenario. Instead, it’s left the pound in limbo and exposed to a tangle of political quarrels on both sides of the English Channel. …

  Read More »
• 27 October

  Investigators blame 737 Max design, pilot failure for crash

  

  Bloomberg Indonesian investigators found sweeping problems and missteps in connection with last year’s fatal Lion Air crash, including design flaws in Boeing Co’s 737 Max jet, certification failures by the US regulator and a raft of errors at the airline by pilots and mechanics. In a much-anticipated report, the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) listed its findings and recommended fixes …

  Read More »
• 27 October

  India’s top airline posts ‘biggest’ quarterly loss

  

  Bloomberg InterGlobe Aviation reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss, amid fierce competition in India, illustrating how even the country’s biggest airline isn’t immune to challenges in one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets. Loss at the operator of IndiGo widened to 10.7 billion rupees ($150 million) for the three months ended on September 30, compared with a loss of 6.5 billion …

  Read More »
• 27 October

  American rises as CEO sees cash flow poised for takeoff

  

  Bloomberg American Airlines Group Inc surged as executives sketched out a robust outlook for 2020 after two punishing years for investors. Profit and cash flow are poised to rise as the company improves operations and reaches the end of heavy investments in new jets, Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker said. That will enable the company to cut debt even if …

  Read More »