January, 2019

• 6 January

  Japan mulls avoiding ‘steel seizure’ in S Korea

  Bloomberg Japan will consider countermeasures to protect Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. assets from seizure in South Korea sought in response to a wartime forced-labour complaint, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. It’s “very regrettable that former workers from the Korean Peninsula are taking action for seizing the assets,” Abe told national broadcaster NHK’s “Sunday Debate” programme, adding that he ...

  Read More »
• 6 January

  India panel seeks gas subsidy to revive power plants

  

  Bloomberg India needs to resume subsidies on imported natural gas to help revive power plants that have been stranded for want of fuel and could turn into bad assets for banks, according to a lawmakers’ report. The federal government should supply the gas at lower than market rates by utilising funds from the so-called Power System Development Fund or from ...

  Read More »
• 6 January

  Big US companies borrow less as risk premiums soar

  

  Bloomberg Big US companies are paying higher risk premiums when they borrow and finding less demand for their bonds, a sign that investors are worried about rising wages and slow- ing economic growth hitting corporate profit growth. Companies are responding by borrowing less: they sold around $8 billion of US investment-grade debt last month, about a seventh of the average ...

  Read More »
• 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 ...

  Read More »
• 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, ...

  Read More »
• 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 ...

  Read More »
• 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 ...

  Read More »
• 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 ...

  Read More »
• 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 ...

  Read More »
• 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 ...

  Read More »