May, 2018

• 28 May

  Reality sets in for big-box retailers after Amazon awakening

  Bloomberg With Amazon now gobbling up more than 40 percent of all online spending in the US, that’s left traditional retailers scrambling for the rest. Walmart Inc., Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. have all made big investments in recent years in e-commerce — sprucing up websites, offering more delivery options and making acquisitions like Walmart’s $16 billion deal for ...

  Read More »
• 27 May

  OPEC, allies reach goal of wiping out oil glut

  

  Bloomberg OPEC and allied oil producers including Russia concluded that the crude market re-balanced in April, when their collective production cuts achi- eved a key goal of draining the surplus in global stockpiles. The excess in oil inventories, which has weighed on prices for three years, plun-ged in April to less than the five-year average for stockpiles in developed nations, ...

  Read More »
• 27 May

  China’s CEFC set to meet bond interest payment

  

  Bloomberg Beleaguered CEFC China Energy Co. is set to meet an interest payment on a dollar bond, just days after defaulting on a separate debt obligation in the domestic market and as more of the once-promising energy conglomerate’s ambitious deals fail. Bank of Communications Trustee Ltd., the trustee for the $250 million of dollar bonds issued by CEFC Shanghai International ...

  Read More »
• 27 May

  Total takes 10% stake in Russian LNG project

  Bloomberg Total SA will take 10 percent stake in a multibillion dollar liquefied natural gas project in Russia’s frozen north from Novatek PJSC. Total is aiming to become a key global LNG player, competing with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp., after it snapped up assets from Engie SA last year. The world’s biggest oil companies are also ...

  Read More »
• 27 May

  Halfway back from brink, stocks sit still as investor mood heals

  

  Bloomberg Anyone with a sense of symmetry can appreciate the S&P 500 Index right now. After bouncing all year, the equity benchmark just spent a week sitting at the precise midpoint of this year’s trading range. A perfect 50 percent retracement, in the language of technical analysis. Which is to say, it’s stopped moving — at least for the last ...

  Read More »
• 27 May

  Political risks grip European markets

  

  Bloomberg Traders could be forgiven if flashbacks of the euro zone crisis come back to haunt them as the euro slid to a six-month low and risk premiums on Spanish and Italian bonds soared amid rising political risks. European risk assets took a massive pounding ahead of a long weekend in London as investors fled from riskier bonds, stocks and ...

  Read More »
• 27 May

  Swiss private banks may finally merge

  

  Bloomberg For years, Swiss private banks largely resisted the temptation to merge with rivals. Often run by proud families, few wanted to let go of their independence or dilute their legacies. While local giants UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG went through painful reorganisations, smaller banks had time to continue with business as usual, even winning over disaffected ...

  Read More »
• 27 May

  Wells Fargo dismisses bankers in struggling municipal-bond unit

  

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co.’s new public finance chief Stratford Shields is shaking up the department by dismissing senior bankers in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and bringing in colleagues from his former employer, Morgan Stanley. Fifteen employees from its public finance department were removed, retired or quit as the bank shifted its strategy, according to a person familiar ...

  Read More »
• 27 May

  BoK stands pat in face of rising uncertainties

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of Korea (BoK) stayed the course amid rising uncertainty, leaving its benchmark interest rate unchanged in a unanim-ous decision. The central bank is balancing concerns including record household debt and recent weak domestic economic data with external risks such as rising US interest rates and global emerging-market instability. Governor Lee Ju-yeol described uncertainties as high, and as ...

  Read More »
• 27 May

  Kenya retains rate caps in new draft law

  Bloomberg Kenya plans to overhaul legislation governing its financial sector by creating new agencies that regulate the cost of credit and protect consumers, according to a draft law on the Treasury’s website. The Financial Markets Conduct Bill seeks to “promote a fair, non-discriminatory marketplace for access to credit, to provide for the establishment of uniform practices and standards in relation ...

  Read More »