October, 2019

• 15 October

  US shale oil boom is nearly over

  

  America’s second shale boom is running out of steam. But don’t panic just yet, a third one may be coming over the horizon. The US Energy Information Administration published its latest short-term energy outlook last week and has cut its forecast of oil production by the end of 2020 for the fourth straight month. It now expects American output to ...

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• 15 October

  Renault’s boardroom coups

  

  During the past 12 months Renault SA has looked more like a soap opera than a carmaker. The French company served up an ill-tempered denouement when it sacked Chief Executive Officer Thierry Bollore, who said he was the victim of a “coup.” Bollore only took the job in January after his predecessor Carlos Ghosn was arrested for alleged impropriety around ...

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• 15 October

  Xi upstages Trump with a Chinese welcome mat

  Donald Trump isn’t the only leader with a sense of drama. The timing of China’s announcement that it will remove foreign ownership caps on financial services firms next year is no accident. It arrives as the climactic day of trade talks is about to get under way in Washington, and presents a challenge to the US president’s efforts to limit ...

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• 15 October

  Three nations that prospered in 2010s are really in trouble

  

  Most developed countries grow at about the same rate, thanks to the broad march of technological progress and globalisation. But in each decade, there are a few stars that outperform the rest. Typically, other rich nations look to these winners for clues about how to raise their own growth rates. In the decade since the financial crisis, Germany, Singapore and ...

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• 15 October

  Fed brings bazooka to fight the repo market

  

  Strategists at Bank of America Corp. published a report that said “the Fed needs a bazooka of asset purchases.” However, they said, that’s unlikely to happen, and the central bank will probably buy only $25 billion to $50 billion a month in Treasury bills, “to guard against the perception of QE.” Well, the Federal Reserve brought the heavy artillery. The ...

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• 15 October

  Uber scrambles into groceries with new acquisition

  

  But why? That’s the question I keep asking as Uber Technologies Inc. makes the case that driving people around cities gives it a leg up on moving physical goods from place to place — restaurant food, freight by truck and groceries. Uber expanded those efforts by agreeing to buy a majority of Cornershop, which helps supermarkets, pharmacies and food retailers ...

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• 15 October

  Walmart, Amazon holiday pricing wars heating up

  

  Bloomberg Hold on to your smartphone — the holiday price wars between Walmart Inc and Amazon.com Inc are heating up. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has introduced a programme to temporarily lower the price consumers pay for some items on its marketplace site, where third-party vendors pay Walmart a fee to list their goods. The merchants selling on the site, ...

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• 15 October

  Southwest pilots don’t see 737 Max return until Feb

  

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co’s pilots don’t expect to see Boeing Co’s 737 Max resume flights until February “at least,” given work still to be done in a process fraught with safety concerns and politics. That’s well beyond the January 6 date the carrier has set for the grounded plane to be back in its schedule. But ending a global flying ...

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• 15 October

  Authentic Brands to buy Barneys for $268m

  

  Bloomberg Authentic Brands Group LLC is in talks to buy luxury chain Barneys New York Inc for $268 million and open 41 Barneys shops in Saks Fifth Avenue stores, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Authentic Brands would close most existing and planned Barneys stores, including potentially the flagship Madison Avenue location, said the person, who asked ...

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• 15 October

  US litigator joins Boeing defense in Lion Air suit

  

  Bloomberg Veteran litigator Dan Webb has joined Boeing Co’s legal team to defend the company in cases related to the deadly Lion Air 737 Max crash in October 2018, according to a court filing in Chicago. Webb will work with lawyers at Seattle-based Perkins & Coie LLP on nearly 60 lawsuits brought on behalf of victims Lion Air Flight 610, ...

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