September, 2019

• 25 September

  Banks are still clubs run by the boys

  

  So divergent have their fortunes been since the financial crisis, European banks tend to trail their Wall Street peers on most of the metrics investors care about. Gender diversity at the top might be the next lagging indicator. There are rare bright spots in Europe. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc promoted Alison Rose to chief executive officer, the first ...

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• 25 September

  No, US retailer Walmart is not suddenly woke

  

  It has been a busy month at Walmart Inc. First, America’s largest retailer said it would stop sales of some kinds of ammunition in the wake of a shooting at one of its stores in El Paso, Texas. Then the company said it would cease selling e-cigarettes as a mysterious lung illness has raised new concerns about the safety of ...

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• 25 September

  What Apple can learn from Starbucks on EU taxes

  The Luxembourg court decisions on Starbucks Corp.’s antitrust tax case – which was a loss for the European Union — and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s – which was a win – offer important clues to how a much bigger tax showdown between Brussels and Apple Inc. might play out. While there’s something for critics and defenders of the EU 50-50 ...

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• 25 September

  Modi government sends up monetary helicopters

  

  India is making a second big fiscal gamble. The first – a switch from sales to consumption taxes – has failed to achieve revenue targets. The government, which two months ago was trying in desperation to tax everything that moved, has suddenly changed tack and is slashing levies on company profits. Will this revive animal spirits and sputtering GDP growth, ...

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• 25 September

  Europe’s passive fund revolution

  

  The UK Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is the nation’s biggest steward of public sector retirement savings by membership, responsible for nest eggs almost 6 million members worth 275 billion pounds. So the revelation that it’s under pressure from the government to shift more of its money into passive products should be a wake-up call to a stock-picking industry still ...

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• 25 September

  SoftBank’s eyes wide shut just won’t work anymore

  

  They built him up. And now they want to bring him down. SoftBank Group Corp.’s sudden turn against WeWork CEO Adam Neumann highlights how the Japanese conglomerate has wielded far more dollars than sense in its investment strategy. Officials tied to SoftBank want Neumann to step down as CEO, according to reports over the weekend. SoftBank and its Vision Fund ...

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• 25 September

  US equity futures decline, Europe stocks dip; oil falls

  

  Bloomberg US equity-index futures dipped while stocks slumped in Europe and Asia as investors weighed the deepening political gridlock in Washington against prospects for reduced trade tension between America and China. The dollar advanced and oil fell. Contracts for all three main equity gauges signalled more declines at the New York open as traders grappled with the impeachment investigation into ...

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• 25 September

  India’s Sensex snaps 3-day winning run

  Bloomberg India’s equities benchmark snapped a three-day winning streak, tracking declines in global stocks, as investors assessed the potential fallout of an impeachment inquiry of US President Donald Trump. The S&P BSE Sensex dropped 1.3 percent to 38,593.52 at the 3:30 pm close in Mumbai, while the NSE Nifty 50 Index also fell by the same magnitude. Both gauges surged ...

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• 25 September

  BofAML spots bargain upside bet on US stocks

  Bloomberg For US equity investors wary of a sell-off but loath to miss out on a stocks rally, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is pitching an options strategy known as a calendar risk reversal. Relatively muted swings and a wide price gap between bullish and bearish options bets means it is attractive to sell a medium-term put on the S&P ...

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• 25 September

  Daxing airport helps China rival US in skies

  

  Bloomberg Just five years ago, Daxing was a dusty area of farmland to the south of Beijing, largely neglected by visitors to the city. That’s no longer the case, now that an enormous airport has emerged there to thrust China even closer to toppling the US as the world’s biggest aviation market. Beijing Daxing International Airport, an 80 billion yuan ...

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