November, 2018

• 19 November

  Taiwan braces for earnings gloom as trade war bites

  

  Bloomberg Disappointing earnings may not be over for Taiwan companies, dragged by waning demand for Apple Inc.’s flagship iPhone and deteriorating relations between the island’s two biggest trade partners. Net income for companies on the Taiex index is expected to drop 9.2 percent on-year this quarter after undershooting estimates in the three months through September, the first miss since the ...

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• 19 November

  China’s biggest insurer buys stake in Finleap

  

  Bloomberg Ping An Insurance Group Co., China’s biggest insurer by market value, led investors in injecting 41.5 million euros ($47 million) into Germany’s Finleap GmbH in its latest round of funding. The Chinese behemoth’s $1 billion-Global Voyager Fund led the investment round, the companies said in a statement on Monday, which didn’t disclose additional terms. The deal values the Berlin-based ...

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• 19 November

  Hong Kong fintech firm TNG to plan US IPO

  

  Bloomberg TNG FinTech Group Inc., a Hong Kong-based digital wallet operator, plans to seek as much as $300 million in a US initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. The company, whose investors include billionaire Henry Cheng’s NWS Holdings Ltd., is working with advisers on preparations for the proposed share sale, according to the people. It aims ...

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• 19 November

  China probes Australian barley as trade tensions simmer

  

  Bloomberg China is starting an anti-dumping investigation on imports of Australian barley, sending a signal the world’s top commodity buyer may be increasing scrutiny of one of its most important suppliers. The one-year probe will start on Monday, and could be extended to May 19, 2020, according to a statement on the Ministry of Commerce’s website. Australian barley is being ...

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• 19 November

  Brexit brings out some British gallows humour

  

  Brexit is turning into a national humiliation. To see just how desperate the situation is, look at how some Britons are trying to make light of it. Two videos went viral this week. In the first, BBC political commentator Chris Mason simply threw up his hands and admitted he simply hadn’t the foggiest idea what could happen next. “You might ...

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• 19 November

  Oil demand for cars is already falling

  

  The International Energy Agency (IEA) published its World Energy Outlook, its annual effort at revising assessments of future demand for and supply of fuels and electricity. There’s a familiar theme within it: The IEA expects more renewable-energy use in the future than it did in last year’s outlook, which was more than it forecast in the 2016 outlook. There’s also ...

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• 19 November

  Google, second fiddle in cloud, needs new tune

  Google’s new cloud boss is used to being the underdog, and that’s fitting for the role he’s stepping into at one of the world’s most powerful corporations. The Alphabet Inc. unit has been trying for years — halfheartedly, at least until recently — to leverage its technical expertise in web search into areas such as renting computer power and data-crunching ...

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• 19 November

  Is the trade war really holding China back?

  With China posting its weakest growth in a decade, officials have blamed a “challenging external environment” – polite language for the trade war. It makes for a good sound bite with an obvious villain. But in reality, responsibility for the slowdown rests squarely with Beijing’s policies and cracks in the economy. For all the headlines and hand-wringing, the macro-level impact ...

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• 19 November

  Harvard problem is a version of America’s

  

  In the hierarchy of pleasures, schadenfreude comes second, so conservatives are enjoying Harvard’s entanglement with two things it has not sufficiently questioned — regulatory government and progressive sentiment. The trial that recently ended in Boston — the judge’s ruling might be months away, and reach the US Supreme Court — concerns whether Harvard’s admissions policy regarding Asian-Americans is unjust, and ...

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• 19 November

  Dell’s bump should be enough to get deal done

  

  Dell Technologies Inc.’s raised bid for its tracking-stock stepchild is so complicated it just might work. The technology giant is now offering $120 per share, or $23.9 billion, to buy out holders of the DVMT stock that was created to fund Dell’s 2016 buyout of EMC Corp. and was meant to reflect the value of that company’s stake in VMware ...

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