August, 2019

• 14 August

  S’pore adds dour note to global outlook

  

  Singapore just gave a verdict on who’s winning the trade war. The answer is few countries, if any, in Asia. The deep cut in the trade-reliant economy’s growth forecast was disappointing, albeit not startling. There may be no expansion at all. Growth is likely to be between zero and 1 percent this year, compared with a previous projection of 1.5 ...

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• 14 August

  This UK fund giant has a $6.3bn target on its back

  Asset managers face “tough industry conditions with flows difficult to come by and fees under pressure,” says Standard Life Aberdeen Plc Chief Executive Officer Keith Skeoch. He’s not wrong; but competitors are weathering the ongoing storm far, far better than his firm is this year. SLA’s performance this year is dismal, with its shares languishing at their lowest level since ...

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• 14 August

  US tariffs delay is a cold comfort for retailers

  It looks as if the Trump administration didn’t want to be accused of ruining Christmas. The US Trade Representative’s office said that it would delay until December 15 the imposition of tariffs on certain goods coming to the US from China. The government said products such as cellphones, laptops, as well as some toys, clothes and shoes would be spared ...

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• 14 August

  German economic reversal piles pressure on Merkel for stimulus

  

  Bloomberg Germany’s economy shrank in the second quarter, ramping up pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to unleash fiscal stimulus as manufacturers reel from a US-China trade war. The latest report, paired with a protracted slump in business expectations, raises the risk that Europe’s largest economy is on the verge of falling into a recession. It would be the first in ...

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• 14 August

  World’s longest undersea rail tunnel hits its first obstacle

  

  Bloomberg A plan to build the world’s longest undersea rail tunnel has hit its first snag. Financing of 15 billion euros ($16.8 billion) was agreed this year for the tunnel to link Finland and Estonia. But the Baltic nation of 1.3 million people wants more details on that funding, the business plan behind the idea and Finland’s role before giving ...

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• 14 August

  UK wages rise at fastest pace since 2008

  Bloomberg UK wages rose at their fastest pace in 11 years in three months through June and employment climbed to a record high. The stronger-than-forecast figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest the labour market remains tight, meaning the Bank of England is unlikely to join the global rate-cutting trend, at least for now. However, unemployment rate rose as ...

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• 14 August

  US farmers stung by tariffs now face a $3.5bn corn loss

  

  Bloomberg American farmers already stung by President Donald Trump’s trade wars now face billions of dollars in potential losses as controversial data from the US government snuffs out a rally in corn. The Agriculture Department said farmers planted a bigger corn area than analysts estimated and pegged crop yields that also exceeded expectations, sparking the biggest rout in futures since ...

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• 14 August

  Facebook confirms it transcribes ‘audio files’

  

  Bloomberg Facebook Inc. (FB) has been paying hundreds of outside contractors to transcribe clips of audio from users of its services, according to people with knowledge of the work. The work has rattled the contract employees, who are not told where the audio was recorded or how it was obtained — only to transcribe it, said the people, who requested anonymity ...

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• 14 August

  British artist gathered 10,000 tulips to show AI is beautiful

  

  Bloomberg If you want to know what a large set of data points feels like, try carrying 500 tulips through the streets of the Netherlands. This was the life of 34-year-old British artist Anna Ridler, when she set out to build with her own two hands the most extensive dataset of tulips possible. While it sounds scientific, the project was ...

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• 14 August

  Renault’s no-frills brand bracing for costly exhaust rules

  Bloomberg Close to 10,000 people gathered near a Cistercian abbey north of Paris in June, not for a religious festival, but to celebrate a Romanian automaker named Dacia. Eric Lanneau, a 57-year-old former plumber, attended the Renault SA brand’s annual picnic, which featured a performance by French pop star Jenifer. He bought a Dacia Duster in May, won over by ...

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