May, 2020

• 25 May

  Swedish jobless rate rises to 7.9% in April

  

  Bloomberg Sweden’s unemployment rate rose more than expected in April as the effects of the Covid-19 crisis continued to wreak havoc across the Nordic region’s biggest economy. The seasonally-adjusted jobless measure increased to 7.9% from 6.7% a month earlier, Statistics Sweden reported. Economists were expecting a rate of 7.8%, according to the median of seven estimates from a Bloomberg survey. ...

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• 25 May

  Hertz says pandemic decimated revenue, leading to bankruptcy

  

  Bloomberg Hertz Global Holdings Inc., the car-rental company which filed for bankruptcy, said the collapse in air travel amid the coronavirus hit its biggest source of rental revenue. “The overall impact of the Covid-19 crisis devastated our revenue,” according to a court filing signed by Jamere Jackson, an executive vice president and chief financial officer of Hertz. The company, whose ...

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• 25 May

  Aston Martin to tap AMG head as new CEO

  Bloomberg Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc is poised to replace Chief Executive Officer Andy Palmer with the head of Daimler AG’s Mercedes-AMG performance division, according to people familiar with the matter. AMG head Tobias Moers could be named as Aston Martin’s new CEO as soon as this week, the people said, asking not to be named because the matter ...

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• 25 May

  German businesses bet on gradual rebound from virus hit

  

  Bloomberg German businesses are counting on an improvement in the economy in the second half after the coronavirus pandemic depressed private spending and investment and plunged the economy into a recession. Companies surveyed by Ifo showed cautious optimism in May, with a gauge of expectations rising after the previous month’s plunge. A full-fledged recovery though is still a long way ...

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• 25 May

  BlackRock to find skeletons in $45 billion bond market

  

  Bloomberg As BlackRock starts to kick the tires of Sweden’s credit market at the behest of the Riksbank, a world of trouble is about to reveal itself. “This market seems completely dead,” said Hakan Karlsson, chief executive of MaxFastigheter i Sverige AB, a property firm with an unrated bond maturing in September. “If we want to retain the possibility of ...

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• 25 May

  China sets yuan fix at weakest since ‘08 after currency drop

  

  Bloomberg China set its daily yuan reference rate at the weakest level since 2008 after the currency hit a seven-month low in onshore trading amid increasing political tensions with US. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) put the yuan fixing at 7.1209 per dollar. That compares with the 7.122 average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of traders and analysts. The ...

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• 25 May

  Millennials prefer robot bankers to humans, Nordic data show

  

  Bloomberg The robots advising investors at the biggest Nordic banks just had their best quarter since being switched on. Much of their sudden popularity has coincided with the crisis triggered by Covid-19. But the banks behind the bots say the development has also laid bare where human financial advisers add no value, and robots do. At the biggest Nordic bank, ...

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• 25 May

  Singapore’s dollar set to remain under pressure

  

  Bloomberg Singapore’s currency looks set to remain under pressure as global headwinds outweigh the benefits of an easing in the nationwide lockdown. The US dollar-Singapore dollar pair has failed to break below technical support at its one-month low, suggesting its next move could well be higher. Data this week is expected to show the nation’s economy contracted 1.8% y/y in ...

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• 25 May

  Bankers stay home as S Africa Inc prepares return to work

  

  Bloomberg Investec Chief Executive Officer Fani Titi saw a sign of things to come when he dropped by the bank’s headquarters last week. The usually buzzing escalators that criss-cross the four-story building in Sandton, South Africa’s business capital, were eerily silent. He was one of only 440 employees in an office block normally occupied by 10 times that number. Two ...

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• 25 May

  Deutsche asks top managers to forgo a month’s pay

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG asked its top managers to join executive committee in foregoing a month’s pay after the lender resumed a sweeping job cuts program to reduce expenses. “As our restructuring plans progress, the management board and the group management committee have decided to lead by example and give a broader group of senior managers the opportunity to be ...

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