February, 2020

• 22 February

  Walmart Inc must prove misstep isn’t bad stumble

  Walmart Inc. has been battling to take on Amazon.com Inc., but it was weakness in old-fashioned categories of retailing, not whizzy tech, that undermined its holiday performance and prompted it to come up short of expectations for this year. And that pressure’s not going away anytime soon, considering the continued onslaught from rivals that excel at back-to-basics shopkeeping, such as ...

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• 22 February

  Trump’s India trip: Full stadium and mostly empty promises

  

  If there’s one thing everyone knows about President Donald Trump, it’s that he loves a captive audience — the larger and more enthusiastic, the better. This is one of the many things he has in common with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On February 24, both of them will have a chance to indulge their shared passion. Trump is to ...

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• 22 February

  China bankruptcies won’t save dollar bondholders

  

  Who says China’s vast bureaucratic machine is too busy fighting the coronavirus to do anything else? The country is finally speeding up its creaky bankruptcy process after two years of record defaults. Within one day of filing paperwork, a Beijing court has accepted a creditor’s application to start the restructuring process for Peking University Founder Group — a state-linked conglomerate ...

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• 22 February

  IMF, Argentina re-engage in crucial test of resolve

  

  Concluding a week-long visit to Argentina to collect data and meet economic officials, the International Monetary Fund staff (IMF) mission issued a statement notable for what it says and what it doesn’t. It marks the beginning of yet another round of more formal consultations and highlights one of the most complex, if not the most complex, country cases to face ...

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• 22 February

  ECB’s Lane expects euro-area economic rebound from virus

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) expects the euro-area economy to bounce back from the coronavirus outbreak, Chief Economist Philip Lane said, playing down concerns that the region could slip into a downturn that requires another interest-rate cut. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg TV in New York, Lane acknowledged that the full impact of the disease remains unknown, and ...

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• 22 February

  Fed’s Brainard calls for new strategy to reach inflation goal

  

  Bloomberg Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard called for the adoption of new strategies by the central bank to achieve its 2% inflation goal and fight off future recessions. The Fed should seek above-target price gains to make up for past inflation shortfalls and should cap Treasury debt yields if it’s forced to lower short-term rates as far as they can ...

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• 22 February

  Canada’s RBC planning to start direct-to-consumer bank in US

  

  Bloomberg Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) plans to start a new “direct-to-consumer” business in the US to increase deposits and ultimately broaden out its offerings to a more mainstream clientele. The expansion is likely to come at the end of 2020 or early next year, and will be focused initially on higher-net-worth customers, Chief Executive Officer David McKay said during ...

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• 22 February

  Yen not losing haven status: BOJ’s Kuroda

  

  Bloomberg Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda shrugged off speculation that the yen is losing its status as a safe asset and blamed its depreciation on the dollar. “I don’t think there has been a fundamental change in the situation of foreign-exchange rates,” Kuroda told reporters on Saturday in Riyadh, where he is attending a Group of 20 meeting. ...

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• 22 February

  JPMorgan, United Airlines renew credit-card deal into 2029

  

  Bloomberg United Airlines Holdings Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co renewed their long-time credit-card partnership through 2029, capping months of negotiations. The new deal, and an amended pact with Visa, gives United an extra $400 million this year, according to a regulatory filing by the airline. United declined to provide additional details on the financial impact of the agreement. Revamping ...

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• 22 February

  Hindujas, Cerberus partner to bid for Yes Bank stake

  Bloomberg Hinduja Group Ltd is partnering with private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP in seeking to pick up a stake in embattled Yes Bank Ltd, according to people familiar with the matter. Representatives of Cerberus and the UK-based Hinduja group, run by brothers Gopichand Hinduja and Ashok Hinduja, met Reserve Bank of India officials earlier this month regarding the ...

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