November, 2019

• 11 November

  Are we heading towards the US-China tech war?

  

  President Trump seemed to be nearing a preliminary truce in his trade war with China. But the deeper danger that still lies ahead is a Sino-America technology war, as the two countries race to develop artificial intelligence. Beijing and Washington seemed to be clearing a path for a limited tariff-reduction deal with the announcement by China’s Commerce Ministry of a ...

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• 11 November

  Brazil is again Lula’s political prisoner

  

  When he walked out of jail in Curitiba in southern Brazil after 580 days, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was not an entirely free man. He is merely the highest-profile beneficiary of the November 7 Supreme Court decision to allow convicted criminals to remain at liberty until they exhaust all possible appeals. Yet for loyalists of the practically ...

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• 11 November

  How an $85bn buyout of Walgreens could be done

  

  The mooted record-breaking leveraged buyout of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is a reminder of the powerful role of private capital in modern finance. But the fact that a private equity owner has a chance at making decent returns even after paying a premium for the US pharmacist raises difficult questions. Might the public markets be missing something yet again? A ...

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• 11 November

  Look within for China’s true growth threat

  Investors and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are fretting over the risk of a potential global recession caused by the US-China trade war. Their concern is misplaced. The true danger to global growth is the weakness of China’s domestic economy. Total US trade isn’t declining. On the contrary, it’s growing at or just beneath its decade-long rate. ...

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• 11 November

  Stocks retreat as unrest in Hong Kong adds to nerves

  

  Bloomberg Stocks in Europe slid on Monday along with US equity-index futures as traders awaited further developments on the trade front, while turmoil in Hong Kong added to the risk-off mood. Gold and the yen climbed. Banks and miners led the Stoxx Europe 600 index lower, and futures on the S&P 500 gauge also fell after President Donald Trump said ...

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• 11 November

  Zimbabwe bourse’s CEO bemoans 80% local currency crash

  

  Bloomberg When it comes to adverse conditions for stock-market trading, Zimbabwe’s bourse belongs in a special category for extreme cases. Consider the challenges confronting Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer Justin Bgoni: a local currency that has crashed more than 80% since a peg to the US dollar was ended in February and annual inflation that the International Monetary Fund ...

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• 11 November

  Alibaba seals $38b Singles’ Day sales record

  

  Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd logged more than 268 billion yuan ($38.3 billion) of purchases during its Singles’ Day bonanza, exceeding last year’s record haul after a 24-hour shopping marathon. An estimated half-billion shoppers from China to Russia and Argentina swarmed the e-commerce giant’s sites to scoop up everything from Apple Inc and Xiaomi Corp gadgets to Ugandan mangoes. The ...

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• 11 November

  Boeing 777X engine damaged in shipping mishap before flight test

  

  Bloomberg Boeing Co said one of the first revamped General Electric Co engines intended to power its 777X flight-test aircraft was damaged during a freak shipping accident last month. While the incident isn’t expected to create a new delay for the 777X, it does add to a string of mishaps to confound Boeing’s newest model. The 777X is already behind ...

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• 11 November

  NJ Transit issues plea to help ease mega-mall traffic

  Bloomberg New Jersey Transit issued an urgent appeal for private industry to help transport millions of people annually to a newly opened mega-mall just west of Manhattan. “It can’t take 10 years,” Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, New Jersey’s transportation commissioner and NJ Transit board chairwoman, told a meeting of potential private partners in East Rutherford. “Frankly it can’t take five.” American Dream, ...

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• 11 November

  Sears to close 96 more stores citing ‘difficult’ environment

  

  Bloomberg The owner of Sears and Kmart is closing almost a third of its remaining stores just months after buying the struggling retailer out of bankruptcy. Transform Holdco LLC’s shutdown of 96 locations will leave just 182 outlets for the company, which was once America’s biggest department store chain. The merchant “has faced a difficult retail environment and other challenges” ...

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