August, 2019

• 5 August

  Japan-South Korea trade spat may claim chips, car makers

  

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, is already reeling from Japan’s export curbs on three key materials needed to make semiconductors. An expanded list that includes machine technology could make it even harder for Samsung and South Korean carmakers to make their chips and cars (CNCs). The list of products being exported to Korea that could meet ...

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• 5 August

  Malaysia voices trust in South China Sea pact amid trade war

  

  Bloomberg Malaysia is confident it can reach an agreement with China to settle tensions in the South China Sea after its neighbors warned that incidents in the disputed waters had “eroded trust.” The country is “very hopeful” that a code of conduct for the area will be completed within the three-year deadline or earlier, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said ...

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• 5 August

  China hits back at Trump with weaker yuan, halts crop imports

  

  Bloomberg China responded to Donald Trump’s tariff threat with another escalation of the trade war on Monday, letting the yuan tumble to the weakest level in more than a decade and asking state-owned companies to suspend imports of US agricultural products. The moves are likely to further antagonise Trump, who has criticised Beijing for managing its currency unfairly and failing ...

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• 5 August

  Japan Inc joins exodus from China’s factories as tariffs bite

  

  Bloomberg Top Japanese companies including Sony Corp., Ricoh Co. and Asics Corp. are orchestrating shifts in production away from China, joining manufacturers from other countries seeking to sidestep US tariffs. Sony said last week that trade-war levies may cause it to raise prices or move production of PlayStation consoles, cameras and projectors outside of China, steps that could affect profit ...

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• 5 August

  UK yields hit record low on election risk, global trade woes

  

  Bloomberg UK government bonds rallied, driving benchmark yields to a record low, as global risk sentiment worsened and speculation swirled that the nation’s new Prime Minister is preparing for a general election. Ten-year gilt yields slipped below 0.5% for the first time on a potential increase in UK political uncertainty, with Premier Boris Johnson’s spending plans fueling speculation about a ...

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• 5 August

  Facebook puts its name on Instagram, WhatsApp brands

  Bloomberg Facebook Inc. plans to attach its name to Instagram and WhatsApp, branding them “Instagram from Facebook” and “WhatsApp from Facebook.” The move is controversial because both of the apps were born outside of Facebook, have very different corporate cultures and have thrived, in part, by having their own identities with consumers. Founders of the photo-sharing app and the messaging ...

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• 5 August

  Putin’s commitment to ditch the dollar slowly becoming a reality

  

  Bloomberg Russia is acting on a pledge by President Vladimir Putin to shrink the role of dollar in international trade as tensions sour between Washington and Moscow. The shift is part of a strategy to “de-dollarize” the Russian economy and lower its vulnerability to the ongoing threat of US sanctions. But while the central bank was able to quickly dump ...

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• 5 August

  Euro-area growth momentum slides

  

  Bloomberg Economic activity in the euro area’s private sector weakened further as still-solid services couldn’t make up for rapidly deteriorating manufacturing. A composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 51.5 in July, with goods output falling for a sixth months and at the greatest extent since 2013. “The service sector continued to sustain the expansion of the overall euro-zone economy ...

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• 5 August

  Brazil mulls dropping barriers to US ethanol

  Bloomberg As China turns its back on American ethanol in a lingering trade spat, Brazil is considering opening its doors to US biofuel. Brazilian authorities are debating whether to yield to Washington’s request to lift ethanol-import duties as a way of facilitating talks for a bilateral trade deal with the US. A broad trade accord would benefit many Brazilian products ...

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• 5 August

  Trump officials still pushing for a coal bailout, says regulator

  

  Bloomberg High ranking officials in the Trump administration are still pushing to bail out money-losing coal plants, more than a year after an earlier proposal to revive the industry failed. Any new effort to save coal plants may find a friend in Kentucky Republican Neil Chatterjee, now chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the very agency that rejected the ...

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