December, 2018

• 29 December

  Qualcomm gets trial in case that threatens its dominance

  

  Bloomberg Two years after the US Federal Trade Commission sued Qualcomm Inc, unleashing a series of existential challenges to the company’s business model, the chipmaker is about to get its chance to square the record. Lawyers for the regulatory agency and the company are set to begin presenting arguments on January 4 in a 10-day non-jury trial over claims that ...

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• 29 December

  UK plans to double charge on disposable plastic bags

  

  Bloomberg The UK is planning to double the charge on disposable plastic bags issued by the country’s largest retailers to 10 pence (about 13 cents) as part of a drive to protect the environment. The fee will also be extended to all small shops, according to the plans published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The proposals ...

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• 29 December

  Battered Apple poised to lead FAANGs in 2019

  Bloomberg Move over, Netflix: Apple Inc will be the best performing FAANG stock in 2019, according to veteran analyst Gene Munster. Apple will be rewarded in the coming year as investors focus more on revenue and earnings growth rather than iPhone unit sales, said Loup Ventures’ Munster, who has covered the company for more than a decade. The Cupertino, California-based ...

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• 29 December

  Brazilian rental car demand profiting from ride sharing

  

  Bloomberg Brazil’s top rental-car companies say a cultural shift towards sharing automobiles rather than owning them will bolster demand as growth quickens in Latin America’s largest economy. The three main providers of rental cars in Brazil have far outpaced the Ibovespa’s 11 percent advance in 2018. Cia de Locacao das Americas is up 85 percent, Localiza Rent a Car SA ...

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• 29 December

  Donald Trump is a test of economy’s breaking point

  

  The president usually doesn’t do a lot to affect the US economy. When people say that President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush created jobs, it shouldn’t be taken literally — what really created the jobs was a confluence of vast and complex economic forces that the president affects only marginally. To substantially change the course of the economy, ...

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• 29 December

  Behind myth of China’s great tech grab

  

  For all the concern over China’s targeting of foreign intellectual property, how much forced transfer of leading-edge technology really happened? By the looks of the Chinese auto industry, hardly any. If there has been, then Beijing has precious little to show for it in a market of 25 million cars a year. Take the case of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings ...

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• 29 December

  Paris scooters can’t outrun yellow jackets

  The sight of “yellow vest” protesters torching cars and smashing storefronts on some of the poshest avenues in Paris this month was a double-blow for the city’s Mayor Anne Hidalgo. First, it was a clear hit to the image of Paris as a global magnet for talent, investment and technology. Hidalgo has spent much of the last two years talking ...

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• 29 December

  Cargo ships can go green with new technologies

  Shipping is the lifeblood of global commerce — more than 80 percent of world trade goes by water. But the industry is also an environmental menace, producing as much carbon dioxide annually as Germany. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has helpfully called for ships to produce about 85 percent less sulfur by the end of next year, and to halve ...

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• 29 December

  Earth has seen CO2 spike before. It didn’t end well

  

  Asteroid impacts used to be science popularisers’ favorite existential threat, but space rocks have been displaced by atmospheric carbon. This is not just fashion but the result of a new reading of our planet’s past. In the 1990s, scientists thought asteroid impacts had triggered five mass extinctions, including the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Now, they’ve come ...

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• 29 December

  Hong Kong’s insurance party keeps rocking

  

  The biggest acquisition of a Hong Kong company this year shows that the lure of insurance as a means to access the vast pool of mainland Chinese savings remains undimmed. Last week a company controlled by one of the city’s oldest business families beat out Canada’s Sun Life Financial Inc. to buy FTLife Insurance Co., a minnow in an insurance ...

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