February, 2019

• 5 February

  California, EPA trade barbs on fuel efficiency as deadline looms

  

  Bloomberg US and California officials agreed on one thing about auto emissions standards: they’re still miles from an agreement, with a crucial deadline just two months away. In separate comments, Sacramento and Washington’s top environmental regulators said they’ve yet to overcome a long-running impasse over the Trump administration’s proposal to cap auto emissions and fuel economy standards after 2020 and ...

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• 5 February

  UK services sector raises risks for economic growth

  

  Bloomberg The UK economy is at risk of stalling after growth in the services sector came close to a standstill, with firms growing increasingly anxious about Brexit. The purchasing managers index for services dropped to a 2 1/2-year low in January, IHS Markit said in a survey, falling more sharply than economists had forecast. Companies said they were less likely ...

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• 5 February

  J&J to settle bulk of consumer lawsuits

  

  Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health-care products, has agreed to settle the bulk of consumers’ lawsuits alleging it sold defective artificial hips and misled patients about their dangers, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “The parties have reached an agreement that hopefully will resolve most, if not all, of the litigation,’’ said attorney Mark Lanier, ...

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• 5 February

  ‘Apple buyout targets could include Netflix’

  

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. investors are likely looking for the company to use its massive cash pile to make acquisitions, and names like Netflix Inc., Activision Blizzard Inc. and Sonos Inc. are among the companies that JPMorgan sees as strong strategic fits. Shares of Apple have lost more than 25 percent from an October record, dropping on concerns over the demand ...

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• 5 February

  Siemens-Alstom’s expected EU veto unleashes political storm

  

  Bloomberg When Siemens AG and Alstom SA unveiled their rail merger in 2017, the former arch-rivals hailed the deal as a historic union, forming the basis of a European champion with the heft to take on an expansionist Chinese competitor. The plan may well go down in history books, but not for the reasons the companies hoped. Rather, the European ...

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• 5 February

  Britain is left choking on Nissan’s exhaust fumes

  

  Nissan Motor Co’s decision to back out of its planned investment in its Sunderland plant has (surprise!) divided opinion in Britain along pro- and anti-Brexit lines. “It’s not you, it’s me” was the message Leavers read into Nissan’s statement. It wasn’t meant to be, they shrug. And, anyhow, Nissan is sticking around to make other models in Sunderland. Those worried ...

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• 5 February

  Rising credit-card use is bad news

  

  Even though evidence is mounting that the US economy may be soon heading into a recession, there are plenty of analysts who say that the surge in credit-card borrowing is a sign of strong confidence among households. That’s hardly the case. In fact, households’ confidence in the future growth of their incomes has been cooling since late last summer, which ...

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• 5 February

  Who’s afraid of the big bad banking inquiry?

  Why have Australia’s big four banks been suffering over the past year? Is it the Royal Commission into misconduct in the financial sector, due to publish its final report after local markets close on Monday? Or is it the effect of a housing market entering a once-in-a-generation slump? While the real answer is probably a mixture of the two, it’s ...

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• 5 February

  Yes to billions for the border ‘but not wall’

  As congressional negotiators attempt to reach a deal on border security to keep the US government open, Democrats would be smart to come to the table willing to match or even exceed President Trump’s demand for a $5.7 billion appropriation. They need only insist that the money be spent on measures that would effectively strengthen America’s borders. That would include ...

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• 5 February

  What Microsoft can teach Facebook about playing nice

  

  As another European Commission mega-fine on Alphabet Inc. nears, it prompts the question: can the Google parent ever free itself from the specter of penalties from the region’s regulators? The same goes for Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., each of which is facing scrutiny for how they handle data. They could do a lot worse than looking to a fellow ...

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