October, 2019

• 1 October

  A promotion for one of Trump’s punching bags?

  Jeff Zucker, the president of cable-news network CNN, is reportedly considered AT&T Inc.’s top internal candidate to become CEO of the entire WarnerMedia division. I can imagine what Donald Trump would make of this news. How should investors take it? WarnerMedia houses CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. and other media properties that made up the former Time Warner Inc., which AT&T ...

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• 1 October

  China’s wealth fund dives into a crowded pool

  The world’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund is playing a dangerous game. China Investment Corp. aims to have as much of 50% of its portfolio in alternative assets by the end of 2022. That means the $941 billion fund is diving deeper into illiquid investments including real estate, infrastructure, hedge funds and private equity just as such trades are becoming increasingly ...

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• 1 October

  Carbon taxes alone won’t slow global warming

  

  With crowds taking to the streets to call for action on climate change and activists haranguing the United Nations, the issue of global warming is once again front and center. The equivocation of former years seems belatedly to be giving way to a general realisation that something must be done. The effort will be sweeping and global, and starting now ...

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• 1 October

  This deal is a bad bet on self-driving cars

  

  Fear has taken control in the bidding war for German lighting group Osram Licht AG. A raised bid of 4 billion euros from AMS AG is well above what the target’s shareholders appeared happy to accept and what rival bidders had put on the table. Osram shareholders win. For AMS’s investors and staff, the risks have substantially increased. The sweetener ...

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• 1 October

  Credit Suisse spy drama uncovers a deeper malaise

  

  Private bankers have been gripped by their very own thriller this week, complete with Credit Suisse Group AG spying on a departing executive, an alleged car chase and a bust-up. Managing money for the rich isn’t what it used to be. Prosecutors are probing the incident and Switzerland’s second-largest bank is conducting its own inquiry to determine who among the ...

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• 1 October

  Stocks decline, Treasuries advance after weak data

  

  Bloomberg US stocks fell, while Treasuries rose after a key gauge of manufacturing posted the weakest reading since the end of the last recession. Gold turned higher along with the yen. The S&P 500 declined for the third time in four sessions, erasing an earlier advance more than 0.5 percent, after the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index slipped to ...

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• 1 October

  Bitcoin isn’t world’s most widely used cryptocurrency

  

  Bloomberg What’s the world’s most widely used cryptocurrency? If you think it’s Bitcoin, which accounts for about 70 percent of all the digital-asset world’s market value, you’re probably wrong. While concrete figures on trading volumes are hard to come by in this often murky corner of finance, data from CoinMarketCap.com show that the token with the highest daily and monthly ...

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• 1 October

  Indian banking sends new shudder through markets

  

  Bloomberg Indian regulators’ ability to come to grips with the nation’s banking crisis has been thrown into doubt amid reports that a cooperative lender had extended outsize loans to an insolvent developer. The Reserve Bank of India took the rare step of limiting withdrawals from Mumbai-based Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank Ltd. Local media reported that loans to Housing ...

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• 1 October

  Indiabulls seeks hearing after record share slide

  

  Bloomberg Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd, a major Indian shadow lender that’s caught in the crosshairs of the troubles plaguing the industry, is seeking to bring forward a court hearing on fraud allegations after a record share slump. The development represents an effort to get out ahead of recent headlines that contributed to its share price losing an unprecedented 34 percent ...

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• 1 October

  Thai bank open to merger as it plans to grow wealth business

  

  Bloomberg Kiatnakin Bank Pcl, one of Thailand’s smallest publicly traded lenders, is open to a merger as competition from other banks and technology firms intensifies. The bank plans to expand its wealth management business, while being more cautious with automobile loans, one of its biggest lending areas, President Philip Chen Chong Tan said in an interview. Thailand’s aging population has ...

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