March, 2019

• 31 March

  Ditching May won’t help to mend her Brexit plan

  Surely never in the history of British politics has so much effort been expended to so little effect. Another week of frantic Brexit drama yielded no change in the choices facing the UK, and brought the country no closer to deciding. It’s still either leave the European Union with no deal, accept the withdrawal agreement Prime Minister Theresa May has ...

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• 31 March

  What is coming after a chaotic week in Brexit?

  

  March 29 was meant to be the day that Britain officially left the European Union (EU). It was instead the day lawmakers rejected Theresa May’s exit deal for a third time, plunging the country deeper into crisis. It marked the ninth consecutive “no” vote this week, after MPs rejected eight ways forward. In the end, May summed it up best: ...

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• 31 March

  Huawei really needs its 5G party invite

  

  For all the hullabaloo about Western nations banning network equipment made by Huawei Technologies Co., the importance of that business to the Chinese company is decreasing. Sales to phone carriers slipped to 41 percent of total revenue last year, according to Huawei’s annual report. That’s the lowest portion on record. Revenue from consumer products, notably smartphones, climbed 47 percent to ...

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• 31 March

  Apple gets news subscriptions wrong again

  

  Apple’s News+ service makes a a grab for the news junkie’s Holy Grail: a universal subscription to get behind all paywalls, the Spotify (OK, OK, the Apple Music) of journalism. So far, Apple doesn’t have it right. That would take a much more creative effort than the company may be capable of achieving. Compared with creating a universal subscription for ...

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• 31 March

  Resurgent India bulls look to RBI to keep market rally going

  

  Bloomberg Indian markets have staged an eye-catching comeback in March after taking a drubbing in the first two months of the year, and bulls are salivating at the prospect of more gains. Foreign investors who shunned rupee bonds and stocks in the wake of border skirmishes with Pakistan have returned as tensions eased, with inflows eclipsing those for closely-watched emerging-market ...

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• 31 March

  Worst-performing stocks in Ghana as foreigners exit

  

  Bloomberg Ghana’s stocks are the worst-performers globally in the first quarter after a sell-off by foreign investors hobbled the local currency and demand from local institutional investors dried up. The Ghana Stock Exchange Composite Index has lost more than 14 percent this year, making it the laggard in dollar terms among 94 global equities benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg. The index ...

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• 31 March

  ECB needs clear monetary policy case for tiering: Knot

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank would need a clear monetary-policy reason to consider acting to mitigate the effects of negative interest rates on banks, Governing Council member Klaas Knot was quoted as saying. “There must at least be some evidence that negative rates are disrupting the impact of monetary policy through their effect on bank profitability,” Knot, who is the ...

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• 31 March

  One-year Brexit extension likely, says Goldman

  

  Bloomberg The defeat of Theresa May’s stripped-down divorce agreement with the EU means a softer and longer Brexit process is now more likely, according to Goldman Sachs. While there’s still time for London and Brussels to renegotiate the exit deal before the next “cliff-edge” on April 12, the timing of the ratification of a modified pact are now skewed towards ...

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• 31 March

  French banks call on Yellow Vests to spare local branches

  Bloomberg French banks are urging Yellow Vests protesters to spare local branch offices as the nation braces for the 20th week of street demonstrations. “Hundreds of local agencies” were vandalised in the past four months and employees have been threatened, the heads of BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole SA, Groupe BPCE, Societe Generale, Credit Mutuel and Banque Postale wrote in ...

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• 31 March

  Banks slash outlook for Swedish krona

  

  Bloomberg Everyone is lining up to attack Sweden’s currency, from investors to the country’s leaders. The krona’s four-year slump has led to soul-searching in the Scandinavian nation about whether the policies pursued in the wake of the financial crisis have backfired. Banks are slashing their outlook for the krona, a former prime minister has suggested dumping it for the euro ...

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