May, 2019

• 1 May

  Twitter’s recovery looks like real thing

  

  Last year, I wasn’t sure that Twitter Inc.’s recovery was real. Now, it looks as if it is. Twitter is not out of the woods, but it’s clear the company has stabilised financially after a long stretch of wobbles. Advertising sales rose 18 percent in the first quarter, the company reported. That was the fifth consecutive period of healthy gains. ...

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• 1 May

  ‘Plant a tree, save the planet’ isn’t enough

  Limiting climate change means curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, it’s well known. But controlling emissions won’t be enough by itself to stop global temperatures from warming uncomfortably beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius. Carbon dioxide already in the air needs to be cleared away too. By the end of this century, up to a trillion tons of carbon dioxide will have to be removed, ...

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• 1 May

  What Emmanuel Macron is doing right for France

  Emmanuel Macron is trying to be something new in French politics — a president who responds to public concerns without dropping his reforms at the first sign of trouble. Instead he has tried to air public grievances and react without caving into protesters’ demands. For this he deserves credit. To pull France out of the economic troubles that have created ...

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• 1 May

  Robots? No breakthrough tech will be in your cars

  

  Over the next 20 years, what will be the most unexpectedly transformative technology? It’s a question that’s been asked of me more than once recently, and my counterintuitive answer is the automobile — and I am not referring to self-driving vehicles. Often innovation comes most strongly in basic, frequently used services, where the value proposition is already well established. So ...

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• 1 May

  StanChart is making the right billion-dollar move

  

  Standard Chartered Plc Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters is going make a lot of shareholders, including its largest stockholder Temasek Holdings Pte, very happy. Having paid out a $1 billion fine for violating Iran sanctions, the bank had cleared the decks for buybacks to cheer disgruntled shareholders and boost its return on tangible equity. On April 29, the bank delivered. ...

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• 1 May

  Carney’s replacement needs to be committed

  

  The UK government’s decision to publish a job listing for the next Bank of England (BOE) governor has prompted speculation over who will replace Mark Carney and where he or she should come from. But the issue of when the next bank chief should be expected to step down from the role is just as important. Philip Hammond, Chancellor of ...

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• 1 May

  ECB wins respite as growth cheer cancels Draghi stimulus alarm

  

  Bloomberg European Central Bank policy makers who sounded the alarm about the region’s slowdown last month can now relax a bit as the stimulus they prepped becomes less urgent. It was during the first quarter that officials, led by President Mario Draghi, reactivated plans to aid growth in a moment of embarrassment so soon after concluding bond purchases last year. ...

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• 1 May

  Goldman plans Mexico expansion with new stock-trading brokerage

  

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is planning to open a stock-trading brokerage in Mexico as it boosts its presence in Latin America’s second-largest economy. The move will allow the firm to buy and sell stocks locally on behalf of clients, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The new business line, still months away from being up and running, ...

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• 1 May

  Singapore central bank projects softer growth amid global lull

  

  Bloomberg Singapore’s economy will slow in 2019, reflecting a weakening in key trading partners and a further cooling of the electronics sector, the central bank said. The city state is set to expand slightly below the midpoint of a 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent forecast range for this year after growing 3.2 percent in 2018, the Monetary Authority of Singapore ...

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• 1 May

  US cuts government borrowing estimate

  Bloomberg The US Treasury Department indicated that the government will need to borrow less than previously estimated as the Federal Reserve slows the reduction of its asset portfolio on its balance sheet. The department expects to issue $30 billion in privately held net marketable debt between April and June, assuming a cash balance of $270 billion at the end of ...

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