April, 2019

• 3 April

  Slovak leader capitalises on anti-graft wave

  

  Bloomberg Slovakia’s outgoing president is mounting a challenge against the country’s dominant political force, capitalising on a wave of anti-corruption outrage that helped elect a pro-European liberal to replace him. Andrej Kiska will create a new political party after stepping aside in June to make way for the euro-area member’s first woman president, Zuzana Caputova, who won by a landslide ...

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• 3 April

  Duterte calls China friend amid sea row

  Bloomberg Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is maintaining a friendly tone towards China, even after defense officials raised concerns over an increased Chinese presence around a disputed island in the South China Sea. China isn’t after Philippine territory and hasn’t asked for anything in exchange for the weapons and aid it’s given the Philippines, Duterte said in a campaign speech in ...

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• 3 April

  Let’s not stress about the next US recession

  

  With recession anxieties climbing, people are increasingly worried about the Federal Reserve’s capacity to respond. I take issue with the premise: I don’t expect a recession this year, and when one does come I think it will be mild enough for the Fed to handle. Three factors seems to be driving recession fears. First, recent data — such as weak ...

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• 3 April

  EU should brace for ‘last’ Brexit delay

  

  European leaders have placed a lot of faith in Theresa May’s ability to get her Brexit deal through an increasingly fractious UK parliament. That optimism looks increasingly misplaced after British lawmakers rejected her plan three times. MPs are now preparing for yet another attempt at sketching out what flavour of Brexit they would prefer: Staying in the customs union, staying ...

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• 3 April

  H&M finally shows some signs of retailing life

  Hennes & Mauritz AB is a model retailer, but its pile of unsold clothes has been obscuring that fact. Last week, there were the first signs of that changing. The company reported first quarter pre-tax profit that significantly beat the consensus of analysts’ expectations. Sales rose 10 percent in local currencies in the three months to February 28, and were ...

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• 3 April

  Europe’s banking union is under attack

  Ask for a concrete example of the euro zone’s march towards further integration, and you will soon hear the words banking union. At the height of the sovereign debt crisis, European leaders agreed to move supervision of the region’s most important lenders to the European Central Bank (ECB), create a single rulebook, and start centralised funds to deal with future ...

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• 3 April

  Deutsche Bank’s merger knife won’t spare Asia

  

  Sometimes being good enough just isn’t enough. That’s the situation Deutsche Bank AG’s Asian employees may find themselves in if a merger with Commerzbank AG goes ahead. Deutsche Bank has relatively resilient investment- and corporate-banking franchises in the region, where Commerzbank has only a tiny presence. But the optics are awkward: It’s a unit stuffed with highly paid bankers at ...

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• 3 April

  Don’t blame China for Germany’s data shocker

  

  China has become the fail-safe excuse for every bad economic indicator in the world. Among industries, autos are playing a similar role. So it should be little surprise that both have been fingered as fall guys for a slump in Germany manufacturing activity that spurred gloom over global growth and doom in financial markets. The purchasing managers’ index fell to ...

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• 3 April

  Walmart beats Amazon in this $35bn market

  

  On a number of fronts in online shopping, Amazon.com Inc.’s strategy is clear and brutally effective. It is gunning for more dollars in high-margin categories such as home goods with a growing catalog of private-label items. It’s offering two-hour delivery in some markets, a speedy service few retailers are in position to match. And its popular, voice-activated Alexa devices and ...

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• 3 April

  Stocks advance on upbeat economic data; bonds dip

  

  Bloomberg US stocks advanced and bonds retreated globally as upbeat economic reports from China to Europe and renewed hopes for a Sino-US trade deal attracted investors to riskier assets. The euro and pound strengthened. The S&P 500 climbed for a fifth day, equaling the longest winning streak in two months. The Dow briefly erased gains after a gauge of US ...

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