February, 2018

• 13 February

  Rebound in global equity may lift Gulf markets

  DUBAI / Reuters A rebound in global equity markets may lift stock markets in the Gulf on Tuesday. Wall Street’s three main indexes surged well over 1 percent on Monday, and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan is up 1.2 percent on Tuesday morning. Brent oil has not recovered much, however, standing at $62.95 per barrel. In Egypt, …

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• 13 February

  Hong Kong banks seen locking mortgage rates to lure customers

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s biggest banks are increasingly locking mortgage rates to lure customers from upstart rivals in the world’s least affordable housing market, where borrowing costs are soon expected to rise. HSBC Holdings Plc and BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd. are offering fixed rates of 1.68 percent for the first year of a new mortgage, lower than the 2.15 percent …

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• 13 February

  Deutsche Bank sanctioned for misleading buyers on bond sales

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay about $4.5 million to settle a US regulator’s allegations that it misled clients about how much bonds backed by commercial mortgages were worth, earning the lender bigger profits than it should have made. Salespeople in its Deutsche Bank Securities unit induced customers to pay higher prices for bonds by misrepresenting how much the …

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• 13 February

  BOE officials say rate rising soon

  

  Bloomberg Bank of England policy makers are uniting behind the key message of the Inflation Report, telling investors that interest-rate increases will come quicker than officials previously expected. Ian McCafferty, seen as one of the most hawkish members of the rate-setting panel, reiterated that on LBC Radio, saying it’s likely borrowing costs will rise earlier, and to a greater extent, …

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• 13 February

  Credit Suisse ‘posts’ trading losses, lower capital buffer

  Bloomberg In his first two years running Credit Suisse Group AG, Tidjane Thiam has been putting out fires. Today there’s still smoke. The Swiss lender is expected to report a third straight annual loss, mainly due to a 2.3 billion-franc ($2.45 billion) writedown related to a change in US tax policy at the end of last year. Even without that …

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• 13 February

  Demographics pose biggest challenge for Asia’s central banks

  

  Bloomberg Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda says it’s the most significant challenge facing his economy. Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol says it’ll be tougher to manage than record levels of household debt or future Federal Reserve interest-rate increases. The issue perplexing Asia’s central bankers: demographics. And making matters worse is the realisation there’s very little they can do …

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• 13 February

  Tycoons team up for $6.7 billion upgrade of aging Manila airport

  

  Bloomberg Seven Philippine conglomerates, including those led by billionaires John Gokongwei and Lucio Tan, submitted a proposal to modernise and expand the capital’s 70-year-old airport in a plan that will potentially triple capacity and help ease congestion. Ventures of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., Ayala Corp., LT Group Inc. along with Alliance Global Group Inc., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings …

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• 13 February

  Greece’s Aegean Air to sign $5.5bn jet deal

  

  Bloomberg Aegean Airlines, the former island-hopper that’s expanded to replace defunct Greek flag-carrier Olympic Air, plans to order at least 50 new single-aisle jetliners in the next three or four weeks. Aegean, which has already doubled its fleet since 2013, will choose between the latest Airbus SE A320neo and Boeing Co. 737 Max narrow-body models, Chief Executive Officer Dimitrios Gerogiannis …

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• 13 February

  Gucci overtakes Hermes on designer Michele’s revamp

  

  Bloomberg Gucci surged past rival Hermes in sales as shoppers snapped up more of designer Alessandro Michele’s crystal- and sequin-coated creations over the holidays. The Italian fashion label closed out the year with another quarter of runaway growth, with comparable sales rising 43 percent, parent Kering SA said in a statement on Tuesday. Its revenue of 6.2 billion euros ($7.6 …

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• 13 February

  Southwest Air’s de-icing stumble was third in 2 months

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co.’s cancellation of 250 flights at Midway Airport Feb 11 was the third time in two months that a shortage of de-icing fluid has complicated the carrier’s Chicago operations. Heavy snows forced Southwest to use much more than the normal amount of glycol to remove ice and snow from planes that parked at the airport overnight, eating …

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