June, 2019

• 17 June

  UK builder Kier to cut 1,200 jobs

  

  Bloomberg Kier Group Plc plans to cut 1,200 jobs, exit businesses and suspend dividends as the British engineering company struggles to rein in debts piled up during a rapid expansion. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Davies is pulling Kier out of homebuilding and property maintenance to focus on construction of other buildings and infrastructure such as roads and railways. The job ...

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• 17 June

  Is Iran-US tinderbox about to catch fire?

  

  As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of “unprovoked attacks” near the Strait of Hormuz, video screens behind him showed thick black smoke billowing from the two tankers that were struck on June 13. It was the dramatic imagery that sometimes precedes armed conflict. Pompeo didn’t offer hard evidence, and Iran denied the attacks. The US response in escalating ...

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• 17 June

  Brexit, wages a poisonous mix for BOE

  

  Three years on from the UK’s vote to quit the European Union (EU), its failure to come up with a realistic plan for how to withdraw is pretty farcical. Officials at the Bank of England aren’t laughing, though. Mark Carney, the bank’s governor, has gone slowly on raising interest rates as he waits for the fog of Brexit to clear. ...

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• 17 June

  US private equity firm KKR settles for less in Germany

  Closing a leveraged buyout in Germany can be as painful as pulling teeth. That isn’tdeterring KKR & Co. as it tries to grab a stake in the country’s most influential publishing business. The US private equity firm’s 6.8 billion-euro ($7.7 billion) deal to take Axel Springer SE private with its founding family comes with some big compromises. They only highlight ...

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• 17 June

  PM Modi’s GDP numbers have done real damage

  For four years, India has battled the suspicion that its new and improved GDP series is a rose-tinted view of reality. Now that Narendra Modi is prime minister for a second term, he must see that battle for what it is: a lost cause. Unlike harmless advertising puffery around a toothpaste that kills 99.9% of germs, the narrative of 7% ...

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• 17 June

  A weak euro is not Europe’s main advantage, Mr Trump

  

  The other day, US President Donald Trump retweeted my column about overtourism in Europe. I’d simply accept the extraordinary publicity of the presidential retweet, if he hadn’t claimed in his tweet that an undervalued euro is the reason Europe faces an excess of tourists. That, in my view, is largely inaccurate; a weak euro really isn’t the story behind Europe’s ...

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• 17 June

  This Apple supplier made crucial mistake

  

  Japan Display Inc.’s (JDI) decision to cut staff, reduce pay and take more write-offs was the inevitable result of management’s shortsighted strategy. A planned bailout by a consortium of new backers is unlikely to solve its core problems unless key changes are made. I argued in February that the company needs new leadership. On Wednesday it announced just that: President ...

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• 17 June

  Climate change is all most of us have ever known

  

  In May, the Toronto Star launched an in-depth series on climate change in Canada, with a straightforward title: “Undeniable.” It’s an apt description of the evidence within the reporting and elsewhere in publicly available data. “Undeniable” might be a useful descriptor, but let’s frame climate change differently: how this reality manifests itself within the human experience, and how politics are ...

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• 17 June

  S&P futures drift as focus turns to central banks

  

  Bloomberg US equity futures drifted on Monday while European stocks edged lower following a mixed session in Asia as a big week for central-bank policy gets underway. Treasuries fell and the dollar was steady. Contracts on the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 gauges struggled for traction, while the Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped. Deutsche Bank boosted ...

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• 17 June

  India’s Sensex falls as monsoon delay fans investors’ concerns

  

  Bloomberg Indian stocks completed their longest run of declines in more than a month as the late arrival of monsoon rains, crucial for crop output, heightened investor concern about the government’s ability to bolster a slowing economy. The S&P BSE Sensex fell 1.3% to 38,960.79 in Mumbai, clocking its steepest four-day slide in five weeks. The NSE Nifty 50 Index ...

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