January, 2019

• 27 January

  Indonesia palm oil tycoon dies

  Bloomberg Eka Tjipta Widjaja, who became a coconut and palm-oil trader at the age of 15 before building a multi-billion dollar empire with businesses spanning paper and pulp to financial services, has died. Widjaja, 98, passed away at his home in Jakarta on Saturday, said Gandi Sulistiyanto, a managing director at Sinar Mas Group. The founder of Sinar Mas was ...

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• 27 January

  Modi’s record debt sales to pressure Indian bonds

  

  Bloomberg After posting the best quarter in four years, Indian bonds are pitted against a familiar foe: likely record debt sales by the government to finance populist measures before national elections due by May. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration may announce plans to borrow 6.4 trillion rupees ($90 billion) for the next fiscal year in its budget, according to the ...

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• 27 January

  Rallying tech stocks get no love with profit recession looming

  

  Bloomberg Tech stocks are bouncing back. But distaste for what was the market’s favourite group as recently as last summer is starting to spread among large swaths of money managers. Headed into the heart of earnings season, hedge funds cut their industry exposure to the lowest level since July 2016, client data compiled by Goldman Sachs showed. Meanwhile, investors have ...

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• 27 January

  Mideast shares climb

  

  Bloomberg Most Middle Eastern stock indexes rose as investors tracked full-year earnings and merger deals. Egypt’s main gauge advanced to its highest level since November. Global Telecom Holding added 10 percent after majority shareholder Veon Ltd. offered to support the company’s funding requirements and look at taking it private. Ahli United Bank shares in Bahrain and Kuwait rose after Kuwait ...

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• 27 January

  Philippine fund now looks for new horizon

  Bloomberg A Philippine fund manager that made money amid the 2018 equity meltdown is now looking for new horizons. Michael Garcia, the CEO  and chief investment officer of MBG Capital Inc. in Manila, wants to apply his expertise of Philippine shares to Vietnam and Myanmar. While considered frontier markets, he says they offer investment themes similar to the ones he’s ...

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• 27 January

  Trump considers action to limit states’ powers to block pipelines

  

  Bloomberg The Trump administration is considering taking steps to limit the ability of states to block interstate gas pipelines and other energy projects, according to three people familiar with the deliberations. The effort, possibly done through an executive order, is aimed chiefly at states in the Northeast US, where opposition to pipeline projects has helped prevent abundant shale gas in ...

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• 27 January

  Shale drilling expands first time in 2019

  Bloomberg Oil explorers expanded drilling in US fields for the first time this year as rising crude prices buoyed optimism. The number of rigs targeting oil in the country rose by 10 this week to 862, according to data released by oilfield-services provider Baker Hughes. The hike only partially reversed the worst setback for American exploration in almost three years. ...

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• 27 January

  Trump’s spat with Seoul raises fears of US pullback

  

  Bloomberg Just as President Donald Trump looks to make peace with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, his administration is putting fresh strain on the US’s seven-decade alliance with South Korea. At issue is the Trump administration’s insistence that South Korea accepts as much as a 50 percent increase in what it pays for US military protection, including subsidizing the nuclear-capable ...

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• 27 January

  Stone didn’t work for me near election, says Trump

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump lashed out at media again on Twitter after a longtime ally’s indictment, saying that “Roger Stone didn’t even work for me anywhere near the Election!” Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged longtime Trump adviser Stone with attempting to undermine government investigations by lying about his links between Trump’s campaign and WikiLeaks. Stone’s arrest could carry serious ...

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• 27 January

  Latam nations rally around Trump in break from past

  Bloomberg Until recently, it would have been unthinkable for a majority of Latin American countries to rally around US President Donald Trump’s push for regime change in Caracas. In a quick succession of statements, eleven Latin countries followed Trump’s lead to recognize Juan Guaido, the leader of Venezuela’s national assembly, as the country’s interim president. That’s a far cry from ...

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