January, 2020

• 25 January

  In HK, choosing restaurants is a political act

  

  Bloomberg In deciding where to dine out in Hong Kong these days, many local residents are turning to a Yelp-like mobile app: Not for reviews of food or service, but to separate “yellow” from “blue” eateries. After more than seven months of unrest, even choosing a restaurant has become political in Hong Kong. Of 3,000 eateries listed on the app, ...

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• 25 January

  Can Wall Street save us from climate change?

  

  Climate change has come to Wall Street in the guise of Larry Fink. For those who don’t know, Fink runs BlackRock, a $7 trillion collection of investment funds consisting of stocks, bonds and other securities. Fink is a global opinion-maker, and he believes that worldwide climate change is driving “a fundamental reshaping of finance.” This is, or could be, a ...

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• 25 January

  The iron ore party draws to a close

  

  Iron ore had a carousing 2019 — for all the wrong reasons. A fatal dam collapse in Brazil, followed by a tropical cyclone in Australia, battered production and sent prices to their highest level in five years. Early figures from BHP Group and Rio Tinto Group show just how much benefit both have reaped. With supply coming back, Chinese mills ...

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• 25 January

  HK risks squandering its Alibaba dividend

  Hong Kong is missing an opportunity to displace the US as an offshore listing venue for Chinese companies by keeping trading fees too high. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s $11 billion offering in November showed the potential for the city’s stock exchange to attract US-listed mainland enterprises amid an unsettled trade relationship between the two largest economies. Relatively expensive costs threaten ...

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• 25 January

  Trump’s French trade truce puts off the battle

  Who said Davos doesn’t make a difference? As world leaders, business executives and cheerleaders for the planet descended on the Swiss resort for the annual World Economic Forum, one diplomatic victory was being chalked up on the sidelines: A presidential truce between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron over France’s plan to tax tech companies, which the US says discriminates against ...

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• 25 January

  ‘No-deal’ Brexit is finally back as a real possibility

  

  The UK-European Union trade talks haven’t started officially, but both sides are testing out negotiating lines. Britain is already colouring some of them red, setting up a fight later this year that will encompass the three Fs: fish, financial services and the freedom to diverge from EU rules. To use another f-word, all three issues are fraught. But it’s the ...

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• 25 January

  Netflix is starting to feel the heat

  

  Disney+ and other new streaming-TV apps are starting to nip at Netflix Inc.’s heels. While that means Netflix will have an even tougher time enticing new users, its streaming imitators aren’t giving subscribers reason enough to cancel the tried-and-true service. For the first time ever, Netflix has serious competition, and fourth-quarter results offered a first glimpse at what that might ...

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• 25 January

  Airbnb’s $30 billion listing must do more for cities

  

  Which would you prefer: cheaper rent or a cheaper holiday rental? I’d wager heavily that most people would answer “rent.” It’s a bigger slice of personal spending. Short-term accommodation accounted for just 1% of US household budgets in 2016, compared to the 16% spent on housing, according to analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, ...

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• 25 January

  Mercedes mulls more hybrids at AMG unit

  

  Mercedes-Benz is considering adding more plug-in hybrids to its AMG performance-car lineup, as the world’s top-selling luxury carmaker seeks to balance consumer demand for roaring combustion power with government pressure to meet stricter emission rules. Fleet customers of Daimler AG’s main brand have responded well to a growing list of hybrid models for sale, ranging from compacts to full-size vehicles, ...

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• 25 January

  Bird’s UK chief departs after e-scooters remain banned

  

  Bloomberg E-scooter startup Bird Rides Inc has lost its UK and Ireland boss, Richard Corbett, who left the company after two years at the helm. Since launching in London in 2018, the venture capital-backed startup has struggled to deploy its scooter-rental business as a result of tight regulation, which Corbett says was made impossible to overcome while lawmakers focussed on ...

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