May, 2019

• 29 May

  Salvini faces his crunch moment

  

  The European Parliament elections were hardly a triumph for the populist parties. But in Italy, the far-right nationalists were on a roll. The League won 34.3% of the vote, doubling its share in last year’s general election. The 5 Star Movement collapsed to just 17.1%, but Brothers of Italy, a smaller far-right party, took 6.5%. Two in five voters chose ...

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Lenovo cannot justify goodwill in these times

  Lenovo Group Ltd. just reported March quarter profit that climbed threefold to beat the highest analyst estimate. The Chinese computer maker’s focus on higher-margin products will offer investors some comfort that management’s turnaround strategy has been successful. That’s not wrong. But a lot has changed in the past year. The world is facing a tougher economic outlook, which will impact ...

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Ban ‘non-electric’ cars to reduce emissions

  Most modern cities have measures to reduce congestion. But if their goal is to dramatically improve air quality and extend lives shortened by pollution, then tolls and parking meters simply aren’t enough. It’s worth asking what a more ambitious target would look like. Amsterdam has made itself a test case, proposing an outright ban on gas and diesel vehicles by ...

  Read More »
• 29 May

  World’s most contested coal mine doesn’t add up

  

  Is the world’s most bitterly contested coal mine finally getting the go-ahead? After the opposition Labour party suffered heavy losses in coal-mining regions in Australian federal elections, the Carmichael project looks to be getting closer than ever to approval. In the view of the government’s resources minister Matt Canavan, the pit being developed by Adani Mining Pty., a unit of ...

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Jaguar Land Rover dangled shiny keys

  

  These days, any news seems to be good news for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). After Tata Motors Ltd.’s UK unit posted 120 million pounds ($152.8 million) of pretax profits and positive free cash flow for the quarter, the company’s US-listed shares rose as much as 10% in pre-market trading and bond prices ticked up. Both numbers remain deep in the ...

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Indonesia is turning Chinese with this debt binge

  

  Indonesia was never keen to be part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. That hasn’t stopped it from embracing the Chinese way when it comes to financing roads and railways. The government of President Joko Widodo plans to spend more than $400 billion building airports, power plants and other infrastructure in the next five years, Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro told ...

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Stocks slump as warning by bond-market rings louder

  

  Bloomberg Stocks extended their global retreat on Wednesday as investors fled to bonds, driving yields down to multi-year lows in a fresh wave of risk aversion. Gold advanced. US futures slumped for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes, signalling an opening drop in New York. Declines in miners and tech companies pulled the Stoxx Europe 600 Index lower, after ...

  Read More »
• 29 May

  South Korea’s stock loses 2019 gains as trade war continues

  

  Bloomberg South Korea’s $1.3 trillion stock market became the latest victim of the US-China trade war, with its benchmark index losing all of this year’s advance on Wednesday. The Kospi index fell 1.3 percent to 2,023.32 at the close in Seoul, its lowest since January 4. Foreign investors sold a net 360 billion won ($301 million) of Kospi shares in ...

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Mispricing climate change may hurt financial stability, says ECB

  

  Bloomberg Climate change could hit bank balance sheets with a knock-on effect on financial stability, the European Central Bank (ECB) warned on Wednesday. In a special feature for its semi-annual Financial Stability Review on Wednesday, the ECB said problems will materialise if markets aren’t correctly pricing the risks stemming from extreme weather events and the transition to a low-carbon emission ...

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Irish government reaps central bank payment of $2.4b

  

  Bloomberg The Irish government sna-gged a payment of about 2.1 billion euros ($2.4 billion) from the country’s central bank, according to a person familiar with the matter. The transfer flowed from the bank’s 2018 earnings, said the person, who asked not to be named as the information is private. Details will be published with the regulator’s annual report on Wednesday ...

  Read More »