November, 2018

• 20 November

  BASF eyes $2.3bn profit boost from corporate revamp

  

  Bloomberg BASF SE Chief Executive Officer Martin Brudermueller unveiled a comprehensive redesign of the chemical giant’s corporate structure to boost profit by 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) from 2021 and challenge smaller, more focussed competitors. The Ludwigshafen, Germany-based company is also targeting growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 3 percent to 5 percent per year, although ...

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• 20 November

  Coal pollution to surge in UK if Brexit comes without deal

  

  Bloomberg Britain’s pollution levels would probably rise if the country crashes out of the European Union without a deal, breaching a key pledge Prime Minister Theresa May has made to rein in emissions. That’s the conclusion of Bloomberg NEF, which forecasts that burning coal would increase in the first quarter of next year if there’s a no-deal Brexit. Without a ...

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• 20 November

  US homebuilder index dips most since 2014

  

  Bloomberg Confidence among US homebuilders plummeted by the most since 2014 as the highest borrowing costs in eight years restrain demand, adding to signs of a cooling housing market that will weigh on the Federal Reserve’s debate over how far to raise interest rates. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index dropped eight points in November to ...

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• 20 November

  London stockpile of unsold houses hits all-time high

  

  Bloomberg London’s stock of completed but unsold homes has surged by almost half this year as Brexit uncertainty and affordability issues dog the housing market. The number in the capital jumped to 2,374 units as of September 30, the most on record and up from 1,595 at the end of 2017, according to data compiled by Molior London. The borough ...

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• 20 November

  Want to topple Trump? Take John Delaney seriously

  

  The world’s oldest political party has developed an aversion to discretion. The Democratic Party is manacled to an over-caffeinated base that believes that deft government can deliver parity of status to everyone while micromanaging the economy’s health care sector, which is larger than all but three other foreign nations’ economies. Inconveniently, the party must appeal to voters who, living in ...

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• 20 November

  Retailers are heading into holidays

  

  When the forecasts landed earlier this fall for the holiday shopping blitz, all signs pointed towards a merry Christmas for retailers. But last week, major chains such as Macy’s Inc., Walmart Inc., Nordstrom Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc. saw their shares whacked after publishing third-quarter earnings results. Was that a signal that something has gone off course? I don’t think so. ...

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• 20 November

  Hedge fund quant sale is a marriage of convenience

  The appetite for low-cost passive funds is driving evolution at both ends of the scale in the asset management business. The biggest firms need to add more exotic products which can still command higher fees than their vanilla funds. And that means there’s an opportunity for smaller specialist managers to sell themselves to their larger brethren. Sushil Wadhwani is selling ...

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• 20 November

  The Brexit deal is just too good for Europe

  If the British parliament throws out the deal that Prime Minister Theresa May’s government has negotiated with the European Union (EU), it will be most regretted in Brussels, because the deal in its existing form essentially insulates Europe from most of the Brexit fallout. There’s a reason Donald Tusk, the European Council president, hurried to call a meeting of EU ...

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• 20 November

  China stimulus efforts are falling for good reason

  

  China’s vaunted economic managers aren’t infallible — and they’re currently making a familiar mistake. They are trying to accomplish too many objectives simultaneously, many of which conflict with each other. Instead of engineering a recovery, the resulting confused policy mix is only feeding a growing feeling of uncertainty among Chinese markets, businesses and households. That will continue to depress growth ...

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• 20 November

  Trump isn’t the global economy’s only challenge

  

  The world’s policy makers need to disentangle their feelings about Donald Trump from their efforts to address the challenges facing the global economy and US-Asia relations. It’s a tall order, but there are signs that they might be making progress. Over the past year, I’ve been to a lot of conferences where everyone was focused on Trump and the disruptions ...

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