October, 2019

• 5 October

  US tech giants turn to India for new apps before world release

  

  Bloomberg India is emerging as the testing and acquisition playground for global consumer technology companies, especially the so-called FAANGs, according to a veteran internet analyst. RBC Capital Markets’ Mark Mahaney, who calls himself Wall Street’s “oldest internet analyst” after covering the sector for more than two decades, said India is now more popular than markets like China because it has ...

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• 5 October

  Sony slashes price of PlayStation Now video game service in half

  

  Bloomberg Sony Corp cut the price of its PlayStation Now video-game service in half, to $9.99 a month, a reflection of the increasing competition in online offerings. The industry leader in video games said it’s also adding limited runs of top-selling titles to the service, such as Take-Two Interactive Software Inc’s Grand Theft Auto V, and launching the first global ...

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• 5 October

  China soy-buying may signal prudence before US talks

  

  Bloomberg Chinese firms have been snapping up US soybeans, but don’t mistake this as a sign of buyer confidence in upcoming trade talks. The companies, which received a fresh 2 million-ton quota from Beijing to import American beans free of retaliatory tariffs, have been seeking soy every day so far. That’s likely because they want to rush through orders in ...

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• 5 October

  The ideology of climate change denial in the US

  

  More people are coming around to the idea that climate change is really bad news. A recent Washington Post poll found that 38% of Americans now consider climate change a crisis, with another 38% calling it a major problem. And denialism is in retreat — an overwhelming majority, and even 60% of Republicans, admit that the problem is manmade. The ...

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• 5 October

  China won’t save world economy

  

  US recession indicators are growing stronger and there’s one bigger-than-usual reason why the world should be worried: China isn’t coming to the rescue this time. In the past week alone, a gauge of US manufacturing unexpectedly fell to its weakest reading in a decade and payrolls at private companies grew less than forecast. Economists are starting to wonder whether the ...

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• 5 October

  Metro Bank pays an awful lot just to keep going

  Metro Bank Plc, the upstart UK lender, evidently has little other option than to enter the last-chance saloon. The first company in more than a century to go head-to-head with Britain’s big four banks is struggling to recover from an accounting error (underestimating the risk on some loans) , which led to a sell-off in its shares. Confidence was undermined ...

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• 5 October

  Don’t escalate dispute between Airbus, Boeing

  The world’s longest running and most expensive trade dispute looks set to end in a destructive shootout — that is, if the US and European Union don’t show some sense. On October 2, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) authorised the US to proceed with tariffs on as much as $7.5 billion in European exports, likely including planes, aircraft parts and ...

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• 5 October

  Another RBI rate cut is not going to help India

  

  It’s almost universally expected in India that the central bank’s monetary policy committee will lower interest rates this week. Many expect it to keep cutting until the policy rate hits 5% by the end of the year; it was 6% in June, and the committee cut it by an unexpected 0.35 percentage points in its last meeting to bring it ...

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• 5 October

  Tesco boss is leaving before his sell-by date

  

  In the five years since Tesco Plc was plunged into the biggest crisis in its history, Dave Lewis, its chief executive officer, has executed an (almost) textbook turnaround of Britain’s biggest retailer. He’s now decided that his job is done and he will hand over the reins next year to Ken Murphy of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. “Drastic Dave” — ...

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• 5 October

  Sony’s PlayStation Now needs more than a price cut

  

  Sony Corp. has halved the price of its PlayStation Now subscription games service. Competition from console rival Nintendo Co. as well as new offerings from Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc. are the obvious reasons. In addition, though, PlayStation Now failed to live up to its potential. At $19.99 per month, the product was way overpriced. After four years, Sony ...

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