August, 2019

• 4 August

  Boris Johnson dreams of a ‘side-deal’ Brexit

  

  Boris Johnson is playing the part of the “madman” negotiator to a tee. The new British prime minister insists he will take his country out of the European Union on October 31 with either a completely new withdrawal deal or none at all — however high the economic cost. With Johnson refusing to even meet his EU counterparts until they ...

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• 4 August

  Hugo Boss suits are out of favour with American consumers

  

  As if the luxury goods industry didn’t have enough to worry about with the troubling developments in its key Asia markets, Hugo Boss AG has raised the specter of things going wrong in America too. The maker of smart suits said that its sales (when excluding currency movements) and earnings growth would be at the lower end of its anticipated ...

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• 4 August

  GDP is just one indicator of many for measuring economy

  

  Every so often you see someone demand that leaders abandon their focus on gross domestic product in favour of other metrics of economic success. Some countries are actually trying to do this; for example, New Zealand just introduced a happiness index (Bhutan did something similar two decades ago). But modifying GDP is probably more trouble than it’s worth. GDP does ...

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• 4 August

  It’s not just Fed and Trump that trouble stock market

  

  Bloomberg In a week when just a few words from Jerome Powell and Donald Trump were enough to send stocks reeling, it’s easy to conclude their pronouncements are all that matter to markets right now. But something else keeps showing it can sway prices: bad earnings. While investors clearly were glued to every word from the central bank and president, ...

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• 4 August

  China set to allow investors to buy shares of tech firms

  

  Bloomberg Chinese authorities proposed rule changes that would for the first time allow local investors to buy shares of some popular technology companies listed in Hong Kong — including, potentially, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The country’s stock exchanges published draft regulations that would bring stocks with different classes of voting rights into the trading links between the mainland and the ...

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• 4 August

  Rates markets ripe for shake up as five Asia central banks meet

  

  Bloomberg This week looms as a key one for Asian financial markets with no less than five central banks set to hand down decisions that may set the tone for the rest of the year. Markets are predicting policy makers in India, the Philippines and New Zealand will all cut interest rates to shore up faltering growth, while those in ...

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• 4 August

  Deutsche Bank tech issue causes six-hour email outage in US

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG, which has been working to improve its technology, faced a systems outage in which email was unavailable for thousands of employees. “Earlier, we experienced an email outage that impacted DB employees in the Americas region. We have since resolved the issue and restored access for employees,” Deutsche Bank spokesman Troy Gravitt said in a statement. Trading ...

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• 4 August

  Swiss Franc hits highest level against euro in two years

  Bloomberg The Swiss franc advanced to its strongest level against the euro since 2017 after US President Donald Trump escalated trade tensions with China and fueled demand for haven currencies. The franc dipped below the crucial 1.10 threshold against shared currency, which analysts at Commerzbank think could prompt the Swiss National Bank to intervene and curb the currency’s appreciation. Investors ...

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• 4 August

  French lenders nurse huge losses on loans to retail giant

  

  Bloomberg Credit Agricole SA and Natixis SA are among French lenders nursing losses on loans made to Rallye SA and other parent companies of retailing giant Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, which are creaking under more than 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of debt. Natixis made a provision for credit losses of 110 million euros in the second quarter because of its ...

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• 4 August

  Royal Bank of Scotland drops as gloom about Brexit deepens

  

  Bloomberg Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc(RBS) slid as the state-controlled lender indicated it’s unlikely to reach key profitability targets next year given the political and economic tension around Brexit. Outgoing Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan blamed an “uncertain and competitive environment” as the bank reported second-quarter net interest income that missed analysts’ estimates. The bank said it’s very unlikely ...

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