March, 2019

• 9 March

  Japan GDP tops forecasts in Q4

  

  Bloomberg Japan’s economy expanded more than first estimated in the fourth quarter, driven partly by stronger business investment. Yet more recent gauges of factory output and exports point to a gloomier outlook for this year. Gross domestic product grew at an annualised pace of 1.9% in the three months through December. That compared with an initial reading of 1.4% and ...

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• 9 March

  Top Taiwanese firms plan to hire 16,000 people this year

  

  Bloomberg Taiwan’s three biggest financial firms plan to boost headcount by more than 10 percent this year as the local stock market rebounds. Cathay Financial Holding Co. and CTBC Financial Holding Co. plan to hire 5,000 people each, while Fubon Financial Holding Co. is looking to add more than 6,800 roles, the companies said this week. Taiwan’s benchmark equity index ...

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• 9 March

  Berry bests Apollo with $4.4b deal to form plastics giant

  

  Bloomberg Berry Global Group Inc. agreed to buy RPC Group Plc for 3.34 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) to create one of the world’s largest plastic-packaging companies, derailing a rival takeover plan by Apollo Global Management. Once a holding of Apollo, Berry boosted the cash part of its proposal to win backing from RPC’S board. Shareholders wou-ld get 793 pence a ...

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• 9 March

  Airbnb agrees to buy HotelTonight in its biggest acquisition yet

  

  Bloomberg Airbnb Inc. agreed to buy HotelTonight, its biggest acquisition yet, in a move to increase hotel listings on the site ahead of an eventual initial public offering for the home-sharing startup. Airbnb declined to disclose financial terms of the deal, but a person familiar with the matter said the price is close to HotelTonight’s last private valuation. A venture ...

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• 9 March

  Purdue Pharma says trial timing won’t sway bankruptcy call

  

  Bloomberg Purdue Pharma LLP says its decision on whether to file for bankruptcy to avoid being swamped by opioid lawsuits doesn’t depend on the timing of the first trial over its role in the public-health crisis. A judge in Oklahoma refused Purdue’s, Johnson & Johnson’s and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.’s requests to push back a May trial of Oklahoma officials’ ...

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• 9 March

  Aluminum costs down 12% since tariffs imposed: Trump

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump took a victory lap on Twitter, saying aluminum prices are down about 12 percent since his tariffs were implemented. While Trump’s figure is mostly accurate, as far as the price of the metal traded on the London Metal Exchange is concerned, the president failed to point out that the impact of tariffs was reflected mostly in ...

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• 9 March

  US hiring plunges to weakest in a year

  

  Bloomberg US hiring was the weakest in more than a year while wage gains were the fastest of the expansion and the unemployment rate fell, a possible sign that America’s jobs engine is starting to slow down. Treasuries rose while the dollar and stock futures fell. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 20,000 after an upwardly revised 311,000 gain the prior month, ...

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• 9 March

  Can the Mueller report provide any resolution?

  

  Robert Mueller’s final report should present Congress with a clean choice: Either the facts warrant impeachment of President Trump, or they don’t. That was the promise of Mueller’s appointment as special counsel: He would gather the evidence, and then Congress and the public could make a judgment. In a country with a healthy political system, Mueller’s report would lead to ...

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• 9 March

  China’s tax cuts just won’t cut it

  

  Beijing’s tax cuts will do little to lift China Inc. from its malaise. Premier Li Keqiang’s annual work report to the National People’s Congress set out a widely expected cut of 3 percentage points to the top value-added tax bracket of 16 percent and a 1 percentage point cut to the 10 percent bracket. In theory, both are aimed at ...

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• 9 March

  Even Germans can’t deny reality in Europe

  

  So, they have been paying attention to the fragile state of Europe’s economy after all. According to a Bloomberg News report, the European Central Bank (ECB) will acknowledge that its own downgrades to the euro area’s growth and inflation forecasts are big enough to justify a change in monetary policy. This is the green light for a new round of ...

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