August, 2019

• 5 August

  Verizon: The sleeping wireless giant

  

  Verizon Communications Inc. is the wireless industry’s sleepi- ng giant. Suddenly, its smal-ler rivals — AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Dish Network —are giving it every reason to wake up. Shares of Verizon have been a snooze this year, as AT&T steps up the competition and the drama around T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint continues to dominate the news. Verizon said it ...

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• 5 August

  The next bailout may come from consumers

  With markets focussed on rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and what sorts of policy levers might be used in a downturn, we got good news this week in learning that Americans’ personal saving rate is higher than previously thought. Should we enter an economic downturn in the near future, households will have room to spend more and save less, ...

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• 5 August

  Relocating federal jobs is anything but efficient

  The Donald Trump administration is planning to move hundreds of federal jobs away from Washington. In principle, this idea could make sense — so long as it’s competently executed and done for the right reasons. In practice, the plan seems likely to fail both tests. As currently designed, the proposed relocations promise to yield meager, if any, savings to taxpayers. ...

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• 5 August

  Apple’s plunge into the app store ads could be a problem

  

  I wrote recently about why Amazon.com Inc.’s commercial messages in product searches are a risky way to levy additional fees on the companies that sell through its digital mall. Apple Inc. is increasingly wading into similar waters. Type in “maps” in the search bar of Apple’s widely used iPhone app storefront, and you might see a result for Google Maps ...

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• 5 August

  Barclays CEO Staley gets a Brexit lifeline

  

  The growing threat of a hard Brexit has prompted many investors to steer clear of British banks. For Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley, a rupture with the European Union could turn out to be a handy lifeline. Staley, who has focussed on reviving the UK lender’s investment bank, has set himself a profitability target for 2019 and 2020 ...

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• 5 August

  Bond market’s inflation bets show revolt against Fed

  

  Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has taken a lot of heat about his failure to effectively communicate the central bank’s intentions with its first interest-rate cut since the financial crisis. One thing he was clear about, though: Policy makers find stubbornly low US inflation concerning, and persistently missing the Fed’s 2 percent target for price growth was a chief reason ...

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• 5 August

  US stocks stumble, Treasuries gain as yuan breaches ‘7 level’

  

  Bloomberg US equity futures slumped with European stocks on Monday, tracking a sell-off across Asia after China struck back in its trade dispute with America and let its currency weaken through a milestone level. Treasuries led a global bond rally as investors dashed to safer assets. S&P 500 Index futures slumped as much as 1.5 percent, while declines in mining, ...

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• 5 August

  HK stocks match longest losing streak since 1997

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong equities are rapidly turning into a losing bet as economic woes and escalating street protests hammer sentiment. The MSCI Hong Kong Index closed down 3.2 percent on Monday in a ninth day of declines, matching the longest streak since the 1997 handover. Landlords and retail stocks once again bore the brunt of the selling as protesters sought ...

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• 5 August

  RBA keeps rate-cut on cards to shield Aussie from global easing

  

  Bloomberg Australia’s central bank (RBA) chief Philip Lowe is leaving open the door to further interest-rate cuts in order to prevent a wave of global easing from neutralizing his back-to-back reductions and boosting the currency. The Reserve Bank is set to keep the cash rate at a record-low 1% on Tuesday, traders and economists predict, following June and July’s cuts. ...

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• 5 August

  HSBC ousts Flint, announces new round of job cuts

  

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc abruptly ousted its chief executive officer after just 18 months, citing an “increasingly complex” environment, and announced a new round of job cuts. The exit of John Flint, a 51-year-old who started at HSBC as a trainee, highlights tension with Chairman Mark Tucker, known to be a hard-charging executive who was the first outsider to fill ...

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