January, 2020

• 5 January

  High-beta stocks that saved 2019 serve notice of its risks

  

  Bloomberg High-beta stocks, occupants of the market’s frenetic edge, were the names everyone wanted to own in the fourth quarter, when they rallied on signs of peace. Saviours of active funds, the high-beta group — defined as companies that do a little better or a little worse than standard benchmarks — annihilated all comers over the last three months of ...

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• 5 January

  Dollar’s losses may just be getting started

  

  Bloomberg The dollar had an awful December and things may only get worse. That’s the view of a growing number of fund managers and strategists including those at M&G Investments Ltd, Brandywine Global Investment Management and ABN Amro Bank NV. A truce in the US-China trade war, improving global growth and a shrinking yield premium on US Treasuries will undermine ...

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• 5 January

  Bitcoin begins year negative after 2019’s eye-catching surge

  Bloomberg Bitcoin’s not yet having a happy new year. A sell-off in the largest digital token pushed the price below $7,000 on January 2. Bitcoin dropped as much as 4% to fall to its lowest level since mid-December, according to Bloomberg data. Bitcoin is coming off an eye-catching 2019, which saw it gain close to 95% despite repeated bouts of ...

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• 5 January

  Minority shareholders win as Hudson’s Bay head raises offer

  

  Bloomberg Hudson’s Bay Co chairman Richard Baker raised his offer to take the struggling retailer private, handing a victory to minority shareholders including Catalyst Capital Group Inc that fought to derail the original bid. Hudson’s Bay said in a statement it agreed to a new bid by Baker and a group of allies, who together control the company. The offer ...

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• 5 January

  Nintendo’s flagship store in Tokyo not big enough for its fan base

  

  Bloomberg Just before Christmas last year, a trip to Nintendo Co’s flagship store in Tokyo would have required an hour’s wait just to get in and buy a plush Mario toy or a set of chopsticks bearing Luigi’s face. Opened in November on the sixth floor of the renovated Shibuya Parco shopping mall, the constantly packed 300-square-metre showcase exhibits the ...

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• 5 January

  Most of 2019’s jet accidents occurred in North America

  

  Bloomberg The number of fatal aviation accidents in 2019 rose above the five-year average to 20, with more than half occurring in North America, the Aviation Safety Network said. The 20 crashes killed 283 people, with the bulk of the deaths coming from the Ethiopian Airlines disaster in March, when a Boeing Co 737 Max jet plunged into the ground ...

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• 5 January

  Inspectors skipped ‘checks’ for Ghosn jet

  Bloomberg Inspectors at a Japanese airport didn’t conduct X-ray checks on large cases before they were loaded onto a private jet that’s thought to have carried Carlos Ghosn as the former Nissan Motor Co chief executive officer escaped to Turkey, NHK reported on Sunday. Kansai International Airport inspectors didn’t examine the cases as they were too big to fit into ...

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• 5 January

  Hong Kong retail sales weaken as tourism plunges

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s retail sales posted another double-digit decline in November as visitor arrivals to the financial centre plunged. Retail sales by value retreated 23.6% in the month from a year earlier, extending the run of declines to ten months. The decline in November was slightly better than economists’ expectation and the record contraction in October. By volume, sales contracted ...

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• 5 January

  Amazon mulls offline stores in Germany

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc is considering opening offline retail stores in Germany, newspaper Die Welt reported, citing an interview with Ralf Kleber, head of the company’s operations in the country. Kleber didn’t specify the timing of the plan. Amazon already operates offline stores in the US and the UK, including Amazon Go supermarkets and the Whole Foods Market chain. It has ...

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• 5 January

  Moment of truth for Musk as made-in-China Teslas roll out

  

  Bloomberg Elon Musk’s decision to assemble Tesla Inc cars in China required years of planning and billions of dollars in spending. Now comes the challenging part. The electric Model 3 sedans rolling off the assembly line at Tesla’s Shanghai plant — its first outside the US — face a market where total vehicle sales are expected to fall for a ...

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