February, 2019

• 4 February

  Anil Ambani’s RCom plunges 54% on bankruptcy filing

  

  Bloomberg Billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd. had a record plunge in Mumbai after the company said it will file for insolvency following failed attempts to sell assets and repay about $6.3 billion of debt. Shares of RCom, as the company is called, were trading at 7.01 rupees in Mumbai, down 39 percent. The company’s dollar-denominated bonds due November 2020 ...

  Read More »
• 4 February

  Sony sees biggest drop since 2015

  

  Bloomberg Sony Corp. reported weaker profits in the PlayStation business and cut its annual revenue forecast, triggering the steepest share decline in almost three and a half years. The stock fell 8.1 percent in Tokyo on Monday, the most since September 2015, after operating income in games fell 14 percent to 73 billion yen ($666 million) for the holiday quarter. ...

  Read More »
• 4 February

  Australian building approvals suffer as housing woes deepen

  

  Bloomberg Australian building approvals suffered the biggest annual back-to-back drop in almost a decade as a housing slump deepens. Building permits fell 22.5 percent in December from a year earlier after plunging 33.5 percent in November, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed in Sydney on Monday. That’s the worst two-month result since January-February 2009, during the depths of the global ...

  Read More »
• 4 February

  China luxury dealmaker plans IPO for Lycra unit

  Bloomberg Acquisitive Chinese luxury apparel firm Shandong Ruyi Group is planning an initial public offering (IPO) for The Lycra Co., maker of the elastic material used in yoga pants and skinny jeans. Ruyi aims to list the business within three years, the group’s chief strategy officer, Kelvin Ho, said in an interview in Hong Kong. Lycra Co. owns some well-known ...

  Read More »
• 4 February

  Shopping spree to show what’s up with China economy

  

  Bloomberg China’s consumers have cut back on purchases of everything from Apple Inc.’s iPhones to Swiss watches as the trade war with the US hits the economy. Landing just days after hundreds of local companies issued profit warnings and multinationals sounded the alarm about softening demand, the week-long Lunar New Year holiday will provide the next litmus test of the ...

  Read More »
• 4 February

  Business groups line up behind limits to Trump’s tariff powers

  

  Bloomberg After failing to stop Donald Trump from unleashing tariffs on national security grounds, the US business community is lining up behind efforts to limit his power to impose them. The US Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and two coalitions with dozens of trade associations are backing legislation to require congressional approval before a president imposes such national-security tariffs. Trump ...

  Read More »
• 4 February

  Nissan scraps plan to make SUV in UK over Brexit worries

  

  Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co. abandoned a plan to make the X-Trail sport-utility vehicle at the UK’s biggest auto factory, saying uncertainty over Brexit isn’t helping on future investment. “We appreciate this will be disappointing for our UK team and partners,” Nissan Europe Chairman Gianluca de Ficchy said in a statement. “While we have taken this decision for business reasons, the ...

  Read More »
• 4 February

  UK sees consumer worries near crisis-era levels, investment falls

  

  Bloomberg Concern about Brexit’s impact on the UK economy is growing, with consumer worries near crisis-era levels, investment falling and the property market suffering. Nationwide Building Society said that house-price growth ground close to a halt as values rose just 0.1 percent in January from a year earlier. That report came hours after research group GfK said consumers are the ...

  Read More »
• 4 February

  Infrastructure spending to help US keep recession at bay

  

  Bloomberg Minnesota leaders are starting work on a $2 billion light rail project, the state’s largest infrastructure project — and the kind of spending that may help keep recession risk at bay. Spending by cities and states is a bright spot that could help to extend the expansion, now in its 10th year and within months of becoming the longest ...

  Read More »
• 4 February

  Job creation is job one

  

  Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome (‘Jay’) Powell didn’t waste much time getting to the point at last week’s press conference. “My colleagues and I have one overarching goal: to sustain the economic expansion, with a strong job market and stable prices, for the benefit of the American people,” he said. It was a statement purged of ambiguity, with the Fed deciding ...

  Read More »