January, 2020

• 22 January

  ‘Xi isn’t tightening China’s grip on HK’

  

  Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping offered personal assurances that he wouldn’t use protests in Hong Kong as an excuse to increase Beijing’s control over the city, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said, as she used a World Economic Forum visit to try and reassure global investors. Speaking to Bloomberg Television in Davos, Lam pushed back against protesters who say China is ...

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• 22 January

  Di Maio quits as Five Star chief, fuelling talk of vote

  

  Bloomberg Italy’s Luigi Di Maio resigned as leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, as his fading populist party faced the prospect of being thrashed in regional elections this weekend. The 33-year-old Di Maio told a meeting of Five Star ministers that he’s stepping down from his party job, but plans to stay on as foreign minister at a meeting ...

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• 22 January

  Trump notches wins to fuel re-election before trial

  

  Bloomberg Donald Trump has kicked off the 2020 election year with a string of key foreign policy and economic wins that his campaign hopes will overshadow — and outlast — the political fallout from his historic impeachment. As the Senate began his impeachment trial in Washington, Trump tried to pull the spotlight to Davos, Switzerland, where he touted his record ...

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• 22 January

  What the China trade deal means for US oil producers

  

  On the face of it, the Phase One trade deal signed between the US and China last week looks set to provide a big boost to American oil and gas producers who need to develop new export markets. Just how well they fare against exporters who are much closer to the world’s biggest energy importer may depend as much on ...

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• 22 January

  Steven Mnuchin plays it ultra-safe

  

  After three years of will-he-or-won’t-he, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin officially decided that it’s not worth rocking the boat when it comes to financing the federal government. The Treasury announced that it would start issuing 20-year bonds in the first half of this year, bringing back the maturity for the first time since 1986. While it sounds like a big ...

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• 22 January

  CEO Jamie Dimon’s good works shouldn’t be hidden

  The first annual results season is underway since the Business Roundtable, a US group of top bosses chaired by JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive officer, Jamie Dimon, clarified the “purpose of a corporation” back in August. It should be a moment for CEOs, including Dimon, to show they’re serious about the commitments they made, and for investors to hold ...

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• 22 January

  Masayoshi Son should try angel investing

  The reputation of Masayoshi Son, the world’s most prolific unicorn breeder, came crashing down last year with the collapse of WeWork. An 80% writedown on The We Co., and a 970 billion yen ($8.8 billion) loss at the SoftBank Vision Fund delivered some cold hard truths about his vulnerability. You might think that Son would have learned his lesson. Instead, ...

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• 22 January

  BlackRock’s new morality marks the end for coal

  

  BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink published two letters — one to CEOs, one to BlackRock clients — outlining the asset manager’s environmental, social and governance priorities for 2020 and beyond. To say the letters’ import is significant doesn’t nearly do it justice. Last week, I attended a conference of energy CEOs, executive board members, institutional investors and proxy ...

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• 22 January

  Trump’s economy isn’t as strong as jobs numbers suggest

  

  For much of Donald Trump’s presidency, the economy’s historically low unemployment rate has coexisted with the president’s historically low approval rating. “The fact that we have the strongest economy in 50 years and he’s stuck at 43% approval ought to scream volumes for his language and his overreach,” one Republican pollster said. That’s one explanation. There is another: The US ...

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• 22 January

  Foxconn may be about to prove Elon Musk wrong

  

  Five years ago, in a routine display of trash talking, Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk made a now infamous quip about how hard it is to manufacture automobiles. “Cars are very complex compared to phones or smartwatches,’’ he told German newspaper Handelsblatt. “You can’t just go to a supplier like Foxconn and say: Build me a car.” He may be proven ...

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