January, 2019

• 6 January

  Trump slams pharma firms over price hikes

  

  Bloomberg Just as the pharmaceutical industry’s biggest conference of the year is set to get under way, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to complain that drugmakers aren’t “living up to their commitments on pricing.” Despite talk about halting increases and lowering the price on some treatments, pharmaceutical companies on January 1 returned to the practice of regular price hikes ...

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• 6 January

  UK mortgage approvals drop over Brexit fears

  

  Bloomberg UK mortgage approvals dipped to a seven-month low in November and unsecured credit rose at its slowest annual pace for almost four years, the Bank of England (BOE) said. The figures reflect weakening consumer confidence as fears mount that Britain could crash out of the European Union without a deal. House prices rose the least since 2013 last year, ...

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• 6 January

  Broadcom profit estimates defy share drop on Apple sales outlook warning

  

  Bloomberg Earnings estimates for suppliers to Apple Inc have fallen along with their share prices since October las year, but estimates for at least one notable name are holding on: Broadcom Inc. Unlike other companies with a lot of exposure to the iPhone maker, which lowered its sales outlook, Broadcom’s earnings estimates have actually risen. Currently, the semiconductor maker is ...

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• 6 January

  Volvo Trucks to take $780mn charge over emissions flaw

  

  Bloomberg Volvo AB, the world’s second-largest truckmaker, will set aside 7 billion kronor ($780 million) to address a faulty emissions-control component that’s worn out more quickly than expected. The charge will eat into operating income in the just-finished fourth quarter, while the drag on cash-flow will impact the coming years, the Gothenburg, Sweden-based manufacturer said in a statement issued after ...

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• 6 January

  Today’s Germany is best one the world has seen

  

  In one of contemporary history’s intriguing caroms, European politics just now is a story of how one decision by a pastor’s dutiful daughter has made life miserable for a vicar’s dutiful daughter. Two of the world’s most important conservative parties are involved in an unintended tutorial on a cardinal tenet of conservatism, the law of unintended consequences, which is that ...

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• 6 January

  GE should engage on asset sales

  

  New General Electric Co. CEO Larry Culp could help himself out by accelerating asset sales. Shares of the troubled industrial conglomerate climbed in late trading on January 4 after Bloomberg News reported Apollo Global Management was considering a bid for the company’s GE Capital Aviation Services jet-leasing business. A deal, if one were to happen, would underscore Culp’s willingness to ...

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• 6 January

  End the shutdown with a deal on Trump’s wall

  It’s depressing — but at the same time fitting — that the new Congress has come to town in the midst of another government shutdown. For the moment President Trump sees tactical advantage in extending his dispute with Congress over funding his “wall.” Most of the country would be grateful if he and the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives came to ...

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• 6 January

  In Space, China has taken a big step but not the lead

  On January 2, China successfully landed its Chang’e-4 spacecraft on the moon’s far side — an impressive technological accomplishment that speaks to China’s emergence as a major space power. Understandably, some Chinese scientists are taking a victory lap, with one going so far as to gloat to the New York Times that “We Chinese people have done something that the ...

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• 6 January

  Yield curve is telling Fed to hold on interest rates

  

  Imagine if you could predict recessions, years in advance, more accurately than professional economic forecasters, just by looking at a few data points. Well, according to a 2008 paper by economists Glenn Rudebusch and John Williams, you can. The data you have to look at is what’s known as the yield curve — a technical term for the different interest ...

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• 6 January

  The IPO of China Tobacco will be far from smoking hot

  

  The Hong Kong IPO of China Tobacco International (HK) Co. is looking like a hard sell. The offshore unit of China National Tobacco Corp. is not only in a sunset industry that’s been under attack globally because of smoking’s link to cancer, it’s also found itself in the crosshairs of the US-China trade war. Add to that a forecast slump ...

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