January, 2019

• 26 January

  India’s next budget may rely on some bogus numbers

  

  In a few weeks, India’s finance minister will present what’s called an “interim budget” — the accounts of the year gone by, as well as his plans for the year to come. It isn’t supposed to be a regular budget because the government faces reelection in a few months; the convention is that the next finance minister gets to make ...

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• 26 January

  Grab can’t afford to fail the finance test

  

  After sending rival Uber Technologies Inc. packing from Singapore and other Southeast Asian markets, homegrown ride-hailing firm Grab Pte. set itself a stiffer target. It wants to be a regional super-app. Think of it as a digital conglomerate that hooks customers for one thing, only to promise them value for several others, sort of like a Netflix Inc. subscription that ...

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• 26 January

  Europe’s next two fronts in its war on Google

  

  Despite its lobbying, Google can’t seem to win in Europe. The French privacy watchdog has blown through the US internet giant’s claim to comply with data-protection legislation, and its threat to pull its news-aggregation service in the region will likely prove far less effective than the company expects. Google’s troubles with the European Union’s antitrust authorities are well-known: the company ...

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• 26 January

  Amazon Go attracts a host of cashierless imitators

  

  Bloomberg Mighty AI spent much of its first five years building software that helps self-driving cars recognise real-world objects. The Seattle startup went so far as to open a Detroit office to cozy up to the auto industry. Then last February, Mighty AI’s sales team received an unusual request: Instead of identifying pedestrians and cars, could they track items plucked ...

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• 26 January

  Tencent, Netease still frozen out as China approves latest games

  

  Bloomberg Tencent Holdings and Netease Inc were again left out when regulators green-lit the latest batch of online games, spurring concern that China’s largest gaming companies may have to wait longer than anticipated to start making money off hit titles. Neither company appeared on a list of 93 domestic games approved for licenses in January and were also absent from ...

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• 26 January

  Boeing flying car shows glimpse of the future

  

  Bloomberg A Boeing Co flying car designed to whisk passengers over congested city streets and dodge skyscrapers completed its first test flight, offering a peek into the future of urban transportation the aerospace giant and others are seeking to shape. A prototype of its autonomous passenger air vehicle completed a controlled takeoff, hover and landing during the test conducted in ...

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• 26 January

  Apple appoints battery executive from Samsung SDI

  Bloomberg Apple Inc has hired an executive from Samsung SDI Co, the battery making affiliate of Samsung Electronics Co, to help lead its own battery work. Soonho Ahn joined Apple in December as global head of battery developments, after working as a senior vice president at Samsung SDI since 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. At Samsung SDI, Ahn led ...

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• 26 January

  ECB keeps policy unchanged to battle economic slowdown

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) pledged to keep interest rates at record lows at least through the summer after policy makers met amid rising concern about the region’s growth outlook. The decision came just hours after a report signalled the euro area’s economic slowdown is set to drag on, with the region beset by political strife and global risks ...

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• 26 January

  Big US banks let stress tests make decisions

  

  Bloomberg If you’re a bond trader at a major bank, the next time you ask for an increase in your position limit, the answer is likely to be based on regulatory stress tests. Seventy-eight percent of global banks now use the tests to assess concentrations and set limits internally, according to a Deloitte survey. That’s up from 67 percent in ...

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• 26 January

  Banks’ presence shrinks in US corporate bond market

  

  Bloomberg The biggest issuers of US corporate bonds are easing up on selling new securities, which could translate to gains for investors holding the debt. Banks and other financial companies have sold around $50 billion of bonds so far this year, down more than 40 percent from the same period a year ago. For the largest US banks the decline ...

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