November, 2019

• 17 November

  Line would be lucky to find a suitor, even Yahoo

  Line Corp. would be lucky to have a suitor. Even if it bears the name Yahoo. The instant-messenger company has been marching toward irrelevance since its dual Tokyo and New York initial public offerings three years ago, with management failing to navigate any clear future for the company or its core product. They’ve shown zero interest in geographical expansion and ...

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• 17 November

  Spain’s split vote leaving compromise only option

  If you are searching for an example of political hubris, look no further than what has happened in the last six months in Spain. At a general election last April, the left-wing Socialist Party and the centrist Ciudadanos registered strong electoral gains, which put them in a comfortable position to form a government together. Instead, party leaders Pablo Sanchez and ...

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• 17 November

  Boeing 737 Max return has more layers than an onion

  

  Boeing Co.’s 737 Max may be inching towards a return, but the crisis is far from over. The airplane maker said that it continues to aim for Federal Aviation Administration certification of updates to the troubled Max in the current quarter, which could allow it to start delivering the jets in December. It could take several more weeks to finalize ...

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• 17 November

  Unilever chairman leaves $162bn role to run $85mn fund

  

  And then there were none. Almost exactly a year after Unilever NV announced the departure of chief executive officer Paul Polman, the consumer goods giant’s chairman Marijn Dekkers is stepping down with immediate effect. Nils Andersen, a non-executive director since 2015, will replace him. In one sense it’s a natural time for a change. Dekkers has overseen the CEO succession, ...

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• 17 November

  Wall Street is wrong about negative interest rates

  

  The titans of finance have a new foe, and it’s not Jeremy Corbyn or Elizabeth Warren. Wall Street’s elite is attacking Europe’s central banks over their reliance on negative interest rates, saying they’re hurting the economy. Monetary authorities do need to be mindful of the side effects of unconventional measures. But there’s little evidence that negative rates are proving harmful. ...

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• 17 November

  Bruising year for stocks is ending in unheard of calm

  

  Bloomberg An investor probably would’ve panicked if you told her at the start of 2019 that the trade war wouldn’t go away. Or that earnings would fall flat and that a bid to kick out the president would erupt. Fast forward 11 months and nobody seems to care. Volatility in the equity market is flirting with a two-year low, with ...

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• 17 November

  ‘Bitcoin should hit $150,000 before an ETF can work’

  

  Bloomberg The $200 billion cryptocurrency market is far too small for an exchange-traded fund to work, according to Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC’s Tom Lee. Numerous attempts to get approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for crypto-related ETFs have been stymied, and Lee doesn’t think it’s a bad thing. Big fund launches in the US can have around ...

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• 17 November

  New face of Boeing jets tries to win back 737 Max buyers

  

  Bloomberg Days after Stanley Deal took the helm of Boeing Co’s jetliner business last month, he was winging across the globe to meet with the airline bosses most shaken by the deadly crashes that have plunged the manufacturer into crisis. Deal spent the October 29 anniversary of the first of two 737 Max crashes with Rusdi Kirana, founder of Indonesia’s ...

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• 17 November

  S African Airways faces scrutiny over sale plan

  

  Bloomberg South African Airways (SAA) officials will be summoned to a meeting with regulators next month to disclose details about talks with potential equity partners and give assurances that any deal won’t violate foreign-ownership laws. Under the Air Services Licensing Act of 1990, airlines must be at least three-quarters owned by South Africans to operate a domestic service. That would ...

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• 17 November

  JC Penney soars on profit forecast, turnaround plan

  Bloomberg JC Penney Co shares surged after the company raised its profit forecast, even amid another quarterly sales decline, as the battered department-store chain’s turnaround plan gains more time to play out. Excluding some items, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation will exceed $475 million this year, up from a previous forecast of between $440 million and $475 million. ...

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