January, 2021

• 24 January

  UK retail sales less than expected in Dec

  Bloomberg UK retail sales rose less than expected in December, adding to evidence that a succession of Covid-19 lockdowns is dragging down the economy. Sales in shops and online increased 0.3% after declining in November, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. That’s a percentage point less than economists had expected. From a year earlier, sales rose 2.9%. The report ...

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• 24 January

  Biden speaks to leaders of Canada and Mexico on migration, trade

  

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden spoke with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, his first calls with foreign counterparts since his inauguration this week. In a nod to continental cooperation, Biden’s first conversation was with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The White House, in a statement, said Biden underscored to Trudeau “the strategic ...

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• 24 January

  China allows coast guard to fire on foreign vessels

  

  Bloomberg China’s passed a controversial law that gives the coast guard more freedom to fire on foreign vessels, a move that could fuel risk of military miscalculation in the Western Pacific. The law is aimed at “safeguarding national sovereignty, security and maritime rights,” the official Xinhua News Agency said in a report on Saturday. The law will take effect from ...

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• 24 January

  Trump’s impeachment trial to begin in February

  Bloomberg Arguments in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump will begin the week of February 8, giving the Senate time to continue confirming President Joe Biden’s cabinet, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. The House will transmit the single article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday and, as in previous impeachments, senators will be sworn-in as ...

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• 24 January

  Sunak’s tax choices to fix UK debt range from wealth to fuel

  

  Bloomberg The UK is still in the grip of the coronavirus crisis, but political speculation is already rife on how the country will manage the ballooning debt it has run up to fight the pandemic. With the nation still fresh from almost a decade of austerity, there’s little appetite for spending cuts to shrink a deficit on course to reach ...

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• 24 January

  New-home sales in London slump as virus curbs deter investors

  

  Bloomberg New-home sales in London are plummeting as lockdowns hurt demand and investors hold back from building apartments. Sales of newly built homes totaled 4,190 in the fourth quarter, down 27% from a year earlier, according to preliminary data compiled by researcher Molior London. The figures are based on transactions at developments with at least 20 units, which are predominantly ...

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• 24 January

  EU plants flag with social bonds in defining year of debt sales

  

  Bloomberg The European Union (EU), set to become one of the largest issuers of green and sustainable bonds, will sell debt for the first time in 2021 off the back of record-breaking demand last year. The bloc will likely issue 14 billion euros ($17 billion) of seven-year and 30-year social bonds for a job support program in the coming week. ...

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• 24 January

  Grocery delivery firm Instacart to cut 1,900 jobs

  Bloomberg Instacart is cutting about 1,900 employees’ jobs, including 10 workers who formed a union, as the company seeks to boost its ranks of contract workers. The grocery delivery company already classifies most of its workers as independent contractors, whose numbers have ballooned to more than 500,000 during the coronavirus pandemic. But starting in 2015, the company hired a small ...

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• 24 January

  VW posts $12.2bn profit in show of pandemic resilience

  

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG said a robust sales recovery toward the end of the year helped cushion annual results from the effects of the pandemic. Operating profit before one-time items related to VW’s diesel-emissions scandal falls to about 10 billion euros ($12.2 billion) last year, VW said in a statement, from 19.3 billion euros in 2019. Automotive net cash flow shrunk ...

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• 24 January

  Tencent seeks video breakthrough after $240bn Lite app hit

  

  Bloomberg WeChat creator Allen Zhang is counting on a breakthrough in video to thwart TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd., building on the success of his last big overhaul of the all-in-one messaging app. Zhang, celebrated in China for inventing Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s signature creation, has toyed for years with ways to keep and expand WeChat’s industry lead, particularly as upstarts like ...

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