May, 2019

• 21 May

  T-Mobile under pressure to sweeten Sprint package to get regulatory nod

  

  Bloomberg T-Mobile US Inc. suffered a significant setback in its bid for regulatory approval of its takeover of Sprint Corp. after failing to win over the US Justice Department with a remedy package, putting pressure on the companies to offer more concessions. The wireless carriers could try to sell additional assets to resolve the department’s concerns that the deal would ...

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• 21 May

  Slowdown in US housing helps landlords raise rents

  

  Bloomberg The US housing slowdown is turning out to be a gift to apartment landlords. After all, those people who aren’t buying still need somewhere to live. Data from Zillow shows that home-price appreciation continued to slow in April from a year earlier, driven in part by softening West Coast metros like San Jose and Seattle. The company also reported ...

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• 21 May

  Tesla in ‘code red’ as sell-off after capital raise exceeds 20%

  

  Bloomberg Tesla Inc.’s stock rout following this month’s $2.4 billion capital raise intensified after a once-bullish analyst called the range of issues facing the electric-car maker a “code red situation.” The shares have dropped in nine of the last 10 trading days, a stretch that started the day Tesla closed offerings of new stock and convertible bonds to shore up ...

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• 21 May

  Indonesia vote: Jokowi wins second term, rival cries foul

  

  Bloomberg Indonesian President Joko Widodo won last month’s bitterly contested election by a double-digit margin, official results showed on Tuesday, an outcome rejected by his rival who threatened a legal challenge amid threats of street protests by his supporters. Widodo, known as Jokowi, won 55.5 percent of the national vote, compared to his challenger Prabowo Subianto’s 44.5 percent, the General ...

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• 21 May

  May faces Brexit showdown, seeks ministers’ backing

  

  Bloomberg Theresa May faces a showdown with her cabinet on Tuesday as she seeks their backing for one last push for her divorce deal with the European Union. Pro-Brexit ministers and those looking to succeed May as prime minister are expected to lead objections as they debate proposals to make the agreement more attractive to the opposition Labour Party, potentially ...

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• 21 May

  Austria’s Kurz faces no-confidence vote

  

  Bloomberg Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is set to face a no-confidence vote as soon as next week, raising the specter of a deepening state crisis. His decision to sack nationalist Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, triggering the resignation of the remaining Freedom Party cabinet members, estranged his erstwhile partners and raised the chances that the parliamentary motion will pass with Freedom ...

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• 21 May

  Separatists leave jail to sit in Spanish parliament

  

  Bloomberg Five Catalan separatist leaders emerged from jail to take up their seats in Spain’s parliament on Tuesday in an act of political theatre that may inflame passions on both sides of a divided country. Oriol Junqueras, the leader of the Esquerra Republicana party, is among four pro-independence campaigners who won seats in the lower house in Spanish general elections ...

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• 21 May

  Trump subpoena defiance puts Democrats in a bind

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s decision to fight “all the subpoenas” is pushing Democrats towards a complicated and risky choice: take on the White House in a lengthy court battle or begin an impeachment. The impeachment process would strengthen Democrats’ legal case for enforcing subpoenas, but it would open them to political attacks from Republicans saying they are rushing toward a ...

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• 21 May

  Iran, US mobilisations could lead to conflict

  

  Behind recent US and Iranian military mobilisations lies a perception by each side that the other may be about to attack. This doesn’t appear to be posturing by either nation but is instead a confrontation that could lead to actual conflict if there’s a miscalculation. The United States sent an aircraft carrier task force, bombers and other assets to the ...

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• 21 May

  The US consumer isn’t so mighty

  

  It’s no secret the US economy keys off consumption. On that count, it’s beginning to look less and less like an expanding economy. Whether it’s the internals of the first-quarter GDP report or the source of March personal spending, the trend is not the friend of growth in coming months. Some of it comes down to the state of US ...

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