January, 2019

• 19 January

  Nike’s new $350 smart sneaker requires regular recharging

  

  Bloomberg Nike Inc has found a new way to capture more information about its customers: through their sneakers. At an event called the “Future of Footwear,” Nike unveiled a new shoe concept, called Nike Adapt, that tracks performance in real time, allowing the company to give weekend warriors athletic tips and also sell them more products. “It’s the start of ...

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• 19 January

  SocGen mulls closing $4.7bn proprietary-trading unit

  

  Bloomberg Societe Generale SA is considering closing its proprietary-trading unit, people familiar with the matter said, a week after French rival BNP Paribas SA decided to shut its operation. SocGen executives are reviewing the future of the Descartes Trading division, which makes risky bets with its shareholders’ funds, said the people, who requested anonymity as the details are private. The ...

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• 19 January

  Fed’s Quarles plays up economy’s strengths as markets see risks

  

  Bloomberg Federal Reserve Governor Randal Quarles expressed optimism about the state of the US economy, calling strong hiring and low inflation a “good environment” even as investors focus on mounting threats to growth. “Clearly markets are more attuned currently to the downside risks, but the core base case remains very strong,” Quarles, the central bank’s vice chairman for supervision, said ...

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• 19 January

  Draghi running out of time to sort top jobs as Brexit looms

  

  Bloomberg Mario Draghi is running out of time to say whether he’ll shake up the responsibilities of his top officials to ensure smooth leadership in the supervision of the region’s banks. The European Central Bank president faces a deadline of February 11, when Executive Board member Sabine Laut- enschlaeger’s non-renewable five-year term as vice chair of bank supervision expires. He ...

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• 19 January

  Morgan Stanley keen to woo rich Chinese entrepreneurs in Singapore

  

  Bloomberg Morgan Stanley, the world’s second-largest wealth manager, is beefing up its services for rich clients in Singapore with a focus on Chinese entrepreneurs looking to set up family offices in the city state. “The city is a key business hub for China entrepreneurs, as well as a family office nexus,” Vincent Chui, who heads the bank’s Asia wealth operations, ...

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• 19 January

  Bank of Italy cuts growth forecast for two years

  Bloomberg The Bank of Italy cut its growth forecast for this year and next while signalling that the euro region’s third-biggest economy might have slipped into a new recession at the end of 2018. The economy is seen expanding 0.6 percent this year and 0.9 percent next, down from prior projections of 1 percent and 1.1 percent respectively, the central ...

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• 19 January

  Avianca Brasil in talks with Elliott for cash injection

  

  Bloomberg Avianca Brasil is in talks with Elliott Management Corp for a possible cash injection, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The airline, also known as Oceanair, is in early talks with the New York hedge fund led by billionaire Paul Singer to get fresh cash as it struggles to keep operations going after filing for bankruptcy protection ...

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• 19 January

  Asia’s richest man plans to take on Amazon in India

  

  Bloomberg Reliance Industries Ltd will roll out its online shopping platform to 1.2 million retailers and store-owners in western India, starting on an ambitious plan to take on Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart on its home turf. Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, intends to take on the world’s largest retailers by combining his Jio telecom service, mobile devices and ...

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• 19 January

  Singapore plans to buy F-35 fighter jets to replace F-16 fleet

  

  Bloomberg Singapore has identified Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as the most suitable replacement for its fleet of F-16 fighter jets and plans to buy a small number for evaluation, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The Air Force’s F-16s that were in service since 1998 will retire soon after 2030, Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen ...

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• 19 January

  Casino to sell six stores to Leclerc for $114 million

  

  Bloomberg Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA agreed to sell six loss-making Géant hypermarkets across France to current grocery-market leader Groupement E. Leclerc for 100.5 million euros ($114 million.) The stores, located outside Paris, are “the least performing” in its network and accounted for a total trading loss of about 8 million euros in 2018, Casino said in a statement on Saturday. The ...

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