February, 2020

• 12 February

  Italy senate votes for trial of Salvini in migrant case

  

  Bloomberg Matteo Salvini will stand trial for refusing to allow stranded migrants to enter Italy, an outcome he sought as it could bring one of his favourite themes to the forefront of the nation’s political debate. In a preliminary vote, the Rome-based Senate gave the go-ahead to a trial for Salvini, leader of the right-wing League party, after he blocked ...

  Read More »
• 12 February

  Preventing climate change is a human rights issue

  

  Every society in the world is going to pay a price for global warming. But it’s the poorest countries and communities who will suffer the most from rising seas and burning lands — and likely also from any drastic measures taken to prevent climate change. The environmental crisis is closely linked to the humanitarian one, and requires the joint action ...

  Read More »
• 12 February

  Why ECB chief cares about your house

  

  The European Central Bank (ECB) faces many thorny issues as it embarks on its first monetary policy strategy review in nearly two decades. From the setting of the bank’s inflation target, to its role in tackling climate change, the famed diplomatic skills of President Christine Lagarde will be tested. One aspect of the review should prove uncontroversial, however: The ECB ...

  Read More »
• 12 February

  Xerox’s higher bid might be enough to bring HP to table

  In the lumbering takeover battle for HP, Carl Icahn-backed Xerox Holdings Corp. had been wielding plenty of stick, so it was about time for some carrot. What came was more of a crudite, but it might just be the appetizer that HP needs. In the three months since Xerox’s initial bid, Icahn, who’s already the biggest investor in Xerox, took ...

  Read More »
• 12 February

  Coronavirus poses double whammy for oil producers

  The coronavirus outbreak is already threatening oil markets. The fear of lower demand — from a disease-stricken China and eventually globally as the economic impact widens — has destabilised prices, sending crude to its lowest levels in more than a year. For major oil-producing countries, the declines, coming at a time of curtailed output, threaten economic shocks that if long-lasting ...

  Read More »
• 12 February

  Why Ghana is Africa’s leading candidate for economic leap

  

  Every time a region of the world goes from being poor to being rich one country tends to be responsible for getting the process started. In Europe that was the UK, which was the first to industrialise. In East Asia it was Japan. In West Africa it could be Ghana. Ghana has a number of big advantages over other countries ...

  Read More »
• 12 February

  Sanders, Warren and politics of grievance

  

  A wealth tax and a ban on hydraulic fracking, both of which have the support of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, would address seemingly separate issues. Yet they stem from a common impulse, one that also undergirds the current trade war: to use the tax code to punish those seen as responsible for unfairness, even if doing so hurts the ...

  Read More »
• 12 February

  High-frequency trading is changing for the better

  

  There’s been a spate of stories about the troubles of high-frequency trading (HFT) firms. This is no temporary downswing. The factors that allowed successful firms to trade actively for a decade with seemingly no losing days are gone and there’s no reason to expect them back. Nevertheless, HFT will be as important a force in the market in the 2020s ...

  Read More »
• 12 February

  US futures advance with Europe stocks; oil rallies

  

  Bloomberg US equity-index futures gained along with European stocks on Wednesday and crude oil rallied amid signs the spread of the coronavirus in China is slowing and investor optimism the global economy can weather the storm. Treasury yields edged higher. Contracts on all three major American gauges pointed to a firm open after China’s Hubei province reported the lowest number ...

  Read More »
• 12 February

  Indian stocks rise on ‘risk appetite’

  

  Bloomberg Indian stocks rose for a second day as a general appetite for risk, seen across Asia, helped drive gains in equities. The S&P BSE Sensex advanced 0.9% to 41,565.9, at in Mumbai and the NSE Nifty 50 Index climbed 0.8% on Wednesday. The S&P BSE Midcap Index, comprising 101 companies, dropped 0.3%; the gauge of mid-sized firms has risen ...

  Read More »