May, 2019

• 6 May

  How foreigners helped cool Australian housing

  

  There’s a familiar refrain in Australia when public discussion turns to the country’s eye-wateringly expensive housing market: Foreigners are to blame. Public figures from former Prime Minister Tony Abbott to populist entrepreneur Dick Smith to far-right Senator Fraser Anning all agree that immigration is a key reason why the country’s homes are some of the world’s priciest. At the same ...

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• 6 May

  Warren Buffett is buying into a different Amazon

  

  Warren Buffett has repeatedly said he was an “idiot” for not buying stock of Amazon.com Inc. when the company was younger and its share price was lower. Now comes news that his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. plopped some shares of the e-commerce giant in its shopping cart, at a time when Amazon is shedding some but not all of the characteristics ...

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• 6 May

  Uber left its most lucrative ride behind in Asia

  

  All it takes is a quick trip to Jakarta to realise that Uber Technologies Inc. missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime. Go-Jek Indonesia PT and GrabTaxi Holdings Pte, which started out as copycats of the US ride-hailing pioneer, have morphed into something far grander. Not only are their main car-hire businesses thriving, the companies have turned into super-apps ...

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• 6 May

  Stocks tumble as Trump trade threat reverberates

  

  Bloomberg Equities slumped globally and Treasury futures climbed with other haven assets after President Donald Trump’s threat to increase tariffs on Chinese imports called into question the chances of a resolution to the trade war. The yen rose while crude oil slid. Futures on the S&P 500 index sank as much as 2.2 percent, signalling a punishing start to the ...

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• 6 May

  India stocks fall as fresh US trade angst routs Asian markets

  

  Bloomberg Indian equities joined Monday’s sell-off across risk assets amid worries that a fresh spat between the US and China may delay the widely-anticipated trade truce between the world’s two biggest economies. The S&P BSE Sensex declined 0.9 percent to 38,600.34 at the close in Mumbai, falling for a fourth consecutive session, its longest losing streak since February. The NSE ...

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• 6 May

  China’s tech stocks suffer most amid trade war fears

  Bloomberg Chinese tech and telecom stocks were the hardest hit on Monday as two tweets from US President Donald Trump soured the outlook on trade talks and sent global markets plunging. A gauge of information technology stocks dropped 5.8 percent, the most since July 2015, leading the MSCI China Index lower. Telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp tumbled as much as ...

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• 6 May

  China tightens rules for banks after bad loans rise

  

  Bloomberg China’s banking regulator has told the nation’s major lenders to accelerate recognition of nonperforming loans, as officials seek to bolster the quality of lending, according to people familiar with the matter. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission in recent weeks used so-called window guidance to inform banks with nationwide operations that they must classify corporate loans overdue for ...

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• 6 May

  Global easing could start Down Under with chance of RBA rate cut

  

  Bloomberg For the first time since Philip Lowe took the helm of Australia’s central bank in September 2016 there’s a real chance he may cut interest rates, making him the first in the developed world to do so this cycle. Economists and markets are both split on whether the Reserve Bank will cut at Tuesday’s meeting, with the highest odds ...

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• 6 May

  India’s shadow bank full-blown crisis averted but troubles to persist: HDFC head

  

  Bloomberg Troubles among India’s non-bank financiers will persist for at least a year even if the danger of a full-blown financial crisis has passed, according to the head of the nation’s most valuable bank. Tighter regulatory oversight and asset sales have staved off the worst of the problems afflicting India’s non-bank financial firms following last year’s defaults by Infrastructure Leasing ...

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• 6 May

  IMF economist to head Pakistan central bank

  

  Bloomberg Pakistan appointed International Monetary Fund economist Reza Baqir as its central bank governor amid sweeping changes across the nation’s key finance and economic posts as the government negotiates for a crucial bailout from the global fund. Baqir was appointed to run the State Bank of Pakistan for a three-year term shortly after former governor Tariq Bajwa and Federal Board ...

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