December, 2018

• 25 December

  Holiday shopping roars to a close amid US shutdown

  

  Bloomberg “Sell” may be the chorus on Wall Street, but optimistic shoppers looking to fill the empty space under the country’s Christmas trees were out in full force during the season’s final shopping weekend. With Christmas, Americans streamed into brick-and-mortar stores on Saturday and Sunday looking for deals. The International Council of Shopping Centers predicted heading into the weekend that …

  Read More »
• 25 December

  Nike shares fall the most since October

  

  Bloomberg Nike Inc. shares fell the most in more than two months, erasing much of the gain that followed strong earnings results. The world’s biggest sports apparel and footwear company tumbled 5.9 percent to $68.10 in New York, the biggest loss since October 10. The drop was likely a product of the current market, where investors are making emotional decisions …

  Read More »
• 25 December

  Pandora spent 2018 purging its top ranks

  

  Bloomberg Pandora A/S has spent 2018 purging its upper ranks, including getting rid of its chief executive and its chief financial officer. The question now is what’s in store for its board, which oversaw an abysmal year in 2018 as shareholders in the Danish jewellery maker suffered a 61 percent slump in value, the worst in seven years. The company’s …

  Read More »
• 25 December

  Unilever takes over Vegetarian Butcher

  

  Bloomberg Unilever is acquiring The Vegetarian Butcher, a Dutch maker of plant-based meat substitutes, as part of an ambition to expand its foothold in foods that are healthier and have a lower environmental impact. In taking over the business, the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is “responding to the growing trend among consumers to increasingly …

  Read More »
• 25 December

  Anti-drone tests failure exposes US airport vulnerability

  

  Bloomberg US airports may be just as vulnerable as London’s Gatwick airport to the kind of illegal drone incursions that shut down the UK’s second-busiest hub last week. Counter-drone technology performed so poorly in US government tests in recent years that the systems couldn’t reliably identify rogue unmanned aircraft, casting doubts on whether there’s a viable short-term solution to the …

  Read More »
• 24 December

  UAE conventional banks’ assets hit AED2.275trn

  ABU DHABI / WAM The assets of UAE conventional banks (CB) amounted to around AED2.275 trillion, accounting for 79.7 percent of total banking assets by the end of November 2018, with Sharia-compliant banks accounting for 20.3 percent of total banking assets, according to statistics released on Monday by the Central Bank of UAE. The total assets of CB increased by …

  Read More »
• 24 December

  UAE participates in ‘customs law committee’ meet

  CAIRO / WAM The United Arab Emirates is participating in the 32nd meeting of the Unified Arab Customs Law Committee, which began at the Arab League headquarters, under the chairmanship of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The UAE delegation was headed by Ali Rashid Al-Dhanhani, Director of the Legal Affairs Department of the Federal Customs Authority, and included Ibrahim Al …

  Read More »
• 24 December

  Saudi eyes deal to create $182 billion mega bank

  

  Bloomberg National Commercial Bank (NCB), Saudi Arabia’s biggest lender, started initial talks with Riyad Bank for a merger — a deal that would create the Gulf’s third-biggest lender with $182 billion in assets. Talks may not result in a transaction, National Commercial Bank said in a statement. The lender said it has coordinated the move with the central bank and …

  Read More »
• 24 December

  China slashes import tariffs on 700 goods

  

  Bloomberg China announced another round of tariff cuts, lowering import taxes on more than 700 goods from January 1 as part of its efforts to open up the economy and lower costs for domestic consumers. There will also be cuts to some export tariffs, and temporary import tariff rates will be as low as zero for some goods, the Ministry …

  Read More »
• 24 December

  European energy giants keen to build wind farms off US East Coast

  

  Bloomberg An Italian construction company just sold its lease to develop a wind farm in waters off the New Jersey coast for $215 million, about 21,000 percent more than it paid only three years ago. Toto Holding SpA’s US Wind unit, which paid about $1 million for the lease off Atlantic City in 2015, resold it to Electricite de France …

  Read More »