November, 2018

• 5 November

  Diverging economies will keep driving markets

  

  The divergence among economies, and the asset-price dispersion that has come with it, remains one of the key global issues for policy makers and investors this year. The phenomenon isn’t sufficiently appreciated, even though it has material impact on benchmark market relationships and leads to feedback loops between financial and economic influences. Yet it will continue to be important, defining ...

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• 5 November

  Driverless cars and future of parking

  

  Alphabet Inc. subsidiary Waymo got the green light to test its driverless vehicles in California, an expansion of the program currently underway in Arizona. Waymo’s minivans will be driving in a swath of Silicon Valley around its headquarters, an area the company says it knows well. If — or when — Waymo and other driverless-car operators expand into denser urban ...

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• 5 November

  Credit Suisse fails to shrink to greatness

  Credit Suisse Group AG CEO Tidjane Thiam likes to be clear about what he can and can’t control as he tries to turn around the Swiss bank. While he has been able to contain risk, slash costs and raise capital, top-line revenue is out of his hands, he told Bloomberg Television. The not-so-small catch for investors: Revenue is exactly where ...

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• 5 November

  Why US share of global wealth keeps growing

  There has been a lot of hand-wringing in recent years about the re-emergence of undemocratic regimes around the world and the collapse of the US-led global order established after the Cold War. The data in the Global Wealth Reports, published annually by Credit Suisse, could provide a clue to some of the economic dynamics underlying these trends. The reports track ...

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• 5 November

  China has wrong medicine for endangered species

  

  China’s decision to reverse a 25-year-old ban and allow trade, in ‘special cases,’ in products made from critically endangered tigers and rhinos provoked a predictable firestorm of criticism. China has sought to portray the move as a responsible way to regulate such goods: The goal is to produce a steady supply of things like rhino horns — used in traditional ...

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• 5 November

  Tesla profit benefits from extra credit

  

  Tesla Inc.’s quarterly SEC filing has arrived. And while there is much to read through, one thing that usually emerges quickly from these documents is exactly how much revenue was made from regulatory credits. To recap, Tesla gets the credits for selling electric vehicles and then sells them to other carmakers that manufacture traditional cars. The pattern of revenue from ...

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• 5 November

  Twitter’s problem is bigger than the Like button

  

  Speculation flew over the past day or so that Twitter was getting rid of its Like button. The social-media company quickly reassured the public that this was just one possible change among many being discussed as part of an internal dialogue about encouraging healthy conversation. But the mere fact that eliminating Like is being considered illustrates the problems with Twitter’s ...

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• 5 November

  Barclays fares worst in Europe bank stress tests as Brexit looms

  

  Bloomberg Barclays Plc was the worst performer among 48 banks in Europe’s toughest stress test yet, underscoring the vulnerability of UK lenders to weak growth, credit losses and Brexit. Fellow British lender Lloyds Banking Group Plc didn’t fare much better in the test, with a key measure of financial health falling sharply in the most adverse scenario envisioned by supervisors. ...

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• 5 November

  EU loyalist raises alarm over ‘cliff edge’ facing banks

  

  Bloomberg One of the European Union’s most loyal members is voicing deep unease at the path Brexit negotiations are on. Denmark, which joined the EU the same year as Britain, is urging Brussels to work much faster to avoid the dysfunction that would ensue in the event of a so-called hard Brexit. A key concern is that the EU still ...

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• 5 November

  One in 10 of Chinese banks flunks PBOC test

  

  Bloomberg About one in 10 of China’s 4,000 banks received a fail rating in the central bank’s first review of the industry’s risks, highlighting challenges facing the nation’s $45 trillion financial system. Four hundred and twenty firms, all rural financial institutions, were deemed extremely risky after scoring eight or higher out of 10, according to the 2018 China Financial Stability ...

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