August, 2019

• 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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• 5 August

  Romania extends rate pause after EU’s fastest inflation dips

  

  Bloomberg Romania prolonged more than a year of steady interest rates, looking past the European Union’s fastest inflation as the world’s major economies pivot towards looser monetary policy. Following the first cut in US borrowing costs since the financial crisis, the National Bank of Romania left its benchmark rate unchanged at 2.5% on Monday, as predicted by economists in a ...

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• 5 August

  Philippine central bank sees 50bps rate cuts ahead

  

  Bloomberg Philippine central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno said he expects to cut interest rates by another 50 basis points this year, with the timing dependent on economic data. “Until the end of the year, it’s around 50 basis points,” Diokno said on Monday, when asked if he was open to lowering borrowing costs further. “If we do 50 basis points, ...

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• 5 August

  Apple drops Barclays card rewards plan

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. and Barclays Plc have dropped the rewards program from their longtime credit-card partnership in advance of the debut this month of a new Apple Card with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The Apple-branded Barclays card is no longer offering $50 worth of Apple gift cards and providing three points per dollar spent on Apple products to new customers, ...

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• 5 August

  World’s biggest banks hit record low as China pain spreads

  

  Bloomberg Stock investors have never been so downbeat on the world’s biggest banks. China’s “big four” state-owned lenders, which together control more than $14 trillion of assets, tumbled to record-low valuations on Monday amid mounting concern that Beijing will encourage them to bail out smaller peers. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s largest lender by assets, lost ...

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• 5 August

  Amazon presses sellers over ‘pricing’ on Walmart

  

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc’s determination to offer shoppers the best deals is prompting merchants selling products on its marketplace to raise their prices on competing websites, a testament to the company’s growing influence over the e-commerce market. Amazon constantly scans rivals’ prices to see if they’re lower. When it discovers a product is cheaper on, say, Walmart.com, Amazon alerts the company ...

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• 5 August

  Dozens of flights cancelled despite Heathrow strike delay

  

  Bloomberg The first part of a two-day strike at London’s Heathrow airport was averted and some flights were reinstated as talks with ground staff continue, while British Airways is also set to hold a new round of negotiations with pilots in a separate pay dispute. The Unite union, which had balloted 4,000 Heathrow ground workers on a strike, suspended its ...

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• 5 August

  Next surges after financial guidance upgrade

  

  Bloomberg Next Plc shares surged after the company raised its financial guidance, helped by e-commerce investments that are keeping the UK retail bellwether ahead of troubled rivals. The apparel chain’s warehouse and distribution upgrades are boosting online sales, which rose 12 percent in the latest quarter, even as British department stores and other fashion chains sink deeper into trouble. The ...

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• 5 August

  Climate change hurts vegan ice cream as coconut supply at risk

  

  Bloomberg Vegan ice cream is a hot commodity these days. But violent storms that have devastated farms in Southeast Asia are threatening to take away one of its best ingredients — coconuts. Much of the world’s supply comes from the region, which is grappling with an increase in storms’ frequency and intensity because of warming seas. Coconuts’ natural creaminess is ...

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• 4 August

  Total revenue of 50 listed firms rises to AED33.7b in first half

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM The total combined revenue of 50 companies listed on the Abu Dhabi and Dubai financial markets rose to AED33.73 billion in the first half of 2019, increasing by 14.7 percent compared to the same period in 2018. A survey conducted by the Emirates News Agency (WAM), on companies that disclosed their financial results showed that the ...

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