May, 2019

• 20 May

  Negative outlook hits Nissan credit rating

  

  Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co’s credit standing took another hit, as S&P Global Ratings placed the automaker’s rating on negative watch after it issued a weaker profit outlook last week. There is a more than one-in-three chance of a further delay in Nissan’s profit recovery, said the rating agency, which in February lowered the company’s long-term issuer credit rating for the ...

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• 20 May

  China probes former securities regulator

  

  Bloomberg Liu Shiyu, the former head of China’s securities regulator, is under investigation for suspected law violations and has turned himself in, authorities said. Liu, who remains a senior Communist Party official, is cooperating with the probe, according to a statement from China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. He was chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission for three years ...

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• 20 May

  Japan’s unexpected growth spurt comes with reasons for caution

  

  Bloomberg Japan’s unexpected growth spurt in the first quarter masked weakness in the economy just as policy makers prepare to hike the sales tax in October. Gross domestic product expanded an annualised 2.1 percent, but the biggest driver was imports falling even faster than exports, which meant that net exports technically fueled growth in the economy. Declining imports is a ...

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• 20 May

  US utilities charging customers for coal cleanup face blowback

  

  Bloomberg First, states across the US ordered utilities to clean up ponds full of toxic coal waste. Now, they’re balking at how much companies want to charge for the work. Officials from Virginia to North Carolina to South Carolina are pushing back on utilities’ plans to charge customers for the costs of shuttering coal-ash ponds, long the primary way of ...

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• 20 May

  National Grid falls over nationalisation talks

  

  Bloomberg National Grid Plc shares dropped the most in more than a month after it unveiled a decline in adjusted operating profit as the UK network operator rebuffed proposals to nationalise energy assets. The nationalisation proposals “are only going to cause a huge amount of disruption,” Chief Executive Officer John Pettigrew said in an interview. It’s “the last thing you ...

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• 20 May

  US new housing starts beat estimates

  

  Bloomberg US new-home construction rose for a second month and topped estimates in April in a sign of positive momentum for the housing sector at the start of the second quarter. Residential starts increased 5.7% to a 1.24 million annualised rate after a 1.7% gain in March that was previously reported as a drop, according to government figures. Permits, a ...

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• 20 May

  Optimism builds as London office developers tune out Brexit

  

  Bloomberg For London office developers at least, the Brexit waiting game is over. Developers mostly steered clear of doing new projects on spec in the political upheaval that followed the UK’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Now the surprising resilience of London’s office market, highlighted by technology giants like Alphabet Inc. committing to open new bases in the ...

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• 20 May

  Palestinians set to boycott US-led Mideast peace summit

  

  Bloomberg The Palestinian Authority said it will boycott a conference launching the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan because it’s focused on economic issues rather than the political disputes at the heart of the conflict with Israel. The White House announced that it will hold a conference in Bahrain next month to promote economic development in the Palestinian territories as ...

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• 20 May

  China has more to offer than US, says Philippine diplomat

  

  Bloomberg The US is projecting “strategic confusion” in the South China Sea, the Philippines’ top diplomat said, prompting the Southeast Asian nation to deepen its ties with China. President Rodrigo Duterte prefers China’s offer of loans and investments in the absence of a clearer stance from the US in the disputed sea amid growing rivalry between the two nations, Philippine ...

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• 20 May

  Merkel successor red-faced as move backfires

  

  Bloomberg Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is fighting to preserve her position as Angela Merkel’s heir apparent after her attempts to accelerate the transfer of power backfired. Kramp-Karrenbauer, who replaced Merkel as head of the Christian Democratic Union in December, embarked on a charm offensive to demonstrate her loyalty to the German chancellor after failing to win support for an effort to persuade ...

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