April, 2021

• 28 April

  Biden aims for Trump voters, suburbs with jobs-plus-kids pitch

  

  Bloomberg Joe Biden’s massive infrastructure and family-support plans are a direct appeal to the discontented White voters who put Donald Trump in office and to independent suburban women, his advisers say, with the president staking a claim on economic issues ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. The so-called American Jobs Plan Biden released last month features spending on traditional infrastructure ...

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• 28 April

  India politicians vow to pay women for housework as coronavirus rages

  

  Bloomberg As India battles the world’s worst virus outbreak, some key political parties are promising an unprecedented monthly payment to all homemakers in a bid to win crucial state elections. If enacted the stipends would be some of the first in the world to specifically address women’s unpaid labour, which economists estimate accounts for up to 39% of global GDP ...

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• 28 April

  HSBC profits rise in Q1 as positive outlook spurs credit loss reversal

  

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc posted its best quarter since the pandemic began as an improving economic outlook drove optimism about the ability of borrowers to repay loans and its strategic reset to Asia remained on track. First-quarter profit more than doubled as $400 million of loan loss reserves were released, spurred by the rollout of vaccination programs in markets like ...

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• 28 April

  Nomura, UBS take global banks’ Archegos hit to over $10 billion

  

  Bloomberg Global banks’ losses related to the collapse of Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management topped $10 billion after Nomura Holdings Inc and UBS Group AG disclosed more than $3.7 billion of combined hits from the collapse of the US family office. The Japanese bank booked about 245.7 billion yen ($2.3 billion) of losses in the three months ended March 31, ...

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• 28 April

  Kotak Mahindra shares fall as India caps CEO’s term

  

  Bloomberg Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd were the most hit among peers after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) capped founder’s tenure as chief executive officer of a bank to 15 years. That gives the world’s wealthiest banker Uday Kotak less than three years to find a successor, according to a note by Suresh Ganapathy, an analyst at Macquarie ...

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• 28 April

  Citi’s Asia chief calls retail exit in 13 nations a strategic necessity

  

  Bloomberg Citigroup Inc’s decision to exit retail banking operations in 13 markets outside the US including China was crucial for its ability to redeploy capital to areas where it can make bigger profits, according to an internal memo by the bank’s Asia-Pacific chief. “This was not about any specific markets or the attractiveness of individual consumer markets,” Peter Babej said ...

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• 28 April

  Zimbabwe’s biggest bank to cut staff

  

  Bloomberg Zimbabwe’s CBZ Bank Ltd., the country’s biggest lender, begun voluntary job cuts as it deals with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic on the corporate landscape. The bank needs to review its structures and operations to adapt to new ways of working, according to a memo from group CEO Blessing Mudavanhu and its chief human resources officer. “The manner ...

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• 27 April

  Kuroda to miss price goal as Japan’s inflation hunt drags on

  

  Bloomberg Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will fail to reach his goal of stable 2% price growth during his term after what will have been more than a decade of stimulus to stoke inflation, according to the Bank of Japan’s latest forecasts. Even with an economy expected to show a faster recovery from the pandemic, a slew of ...

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• 27 April

  Bond investors take riskier bets in hunt for returns

  

  Bloomberg Bond investors, emboldened by a recovering economy and a global vaccine rollout, are taking on more risk, sometimes a lot more risk. Insurers, pension systems and high-grade credit managers in the US and Europe are buying bigger amounts of junk-rated debt to offset shrinking yields, forcing high-yield investors to jostle for allocations of BB rated bonds — the safest ...

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• 27 April

  Thai stocks face hurdles over worst virus outbreak

  

  Bloomberg Thai equities face new hurdles as the country’s worst Covid-19 outbreak will further squeeze corporate earnings and delay an economic recovery, according to Thailand’s second-biggest private money manager. Investor optimism over prospects for a return of foreign tourists has been eroding amid a new wave of the virus that took hold this month, said Vasin Vanichvoranun, executive chairman at ...

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