August, 2018

• 26 August

  Air France-KLM, BA pull out of Iran amid US sanctions

  

  Bloomberg Two of Europe’s biggest carriers, Air France-KLM Group and British Airways, said they’ll suspend services to Iran, citing the reduced commercial viability of the route in the wake of the latest US sanctions. Air France and Dutch sibling KLM will halt flights by the end of September due to “weak commercial results,” the group said. British Airways, IAG SA’s ...

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• 26 August

  Sears plans to close 46 more unprofitable stores in November

  

  Bloomberg Sears Holdings Corp. continues to clean house, announcing plans to shutter an additional 46 unprofitable stores in November. The struggling chain informed workers at the impacted stores this week, and liquidation sales will begin as early as August 30. The move is “part of our ongoing efforts to streamline Sears Holdings’ operations, strengthen our capital position and focus on ...

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• 26 August

  United sees fare gains as cheap tickets reduce

  Bloomberg United Continental Holdings Inc. is seeing improved average airfares as US rivals offer fewer bargain-basement ticket prices. “It’s not really that fares have gone up much, it’s that the $25, $30 fares that were prevalent a year ago are much more narrow today,’’ United President Scott Kirby said. The improvement is helping United weather higher fuel costs, Kirby said. ...

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• 26 August

  Ryanair bans ‘wheelies’ in cabin for non-priority passengers

  

  Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc is locking the cabin door on traditional carry-on suitcases for its non-priority customers and forcing them to check the luggage for a fee — or go with a smaller bag — to save time loading passengers on and off flights. Starting on November 1, Europe’s biggest discount airline will only allow travellers who pay for priority ...

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• 26 August

  Still arguing over Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy

  

  Who lost Lehman Brothers? Could it have been saved? As we approach the 10th anniversary of Lehman’s collapse (September 15), these questions won’t go away. The Lehman bankruptcy is portrayed as the pivotal event that converted severe — but familiar — disruptions in financial markets into a full-blown panic. Nothing like it had occurred in the United States since the ...

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• 26 August

  ECB leaves firms staring into void

  

  September in the European corporate debt market is often a time of much rejoicing. The dearth of activity in August is replaced by a flood of issuance, tightening spreads, and a general feeling that bonds are back. Not this time. This August has been particularly miserable, and almost all of the factors that made it that way have every reason ...

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• 26 August

  Target answers Walmart with its own big win

  With its blistering pace of comparable sales growth in the second quarter, Walmart Inc. threw down the retail gauntlet when it reported earnings last week. Target Corp answered with some impressive results of its own. The big-box retailer reported that comparable sales increased 6.5 percent in the second quarter over a year earlier, its biggest growth on this measure in ...

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• 26 August

  While emerging-market euphoria wanes, risks rise

  Over the past decade, a lot of capital has flowed into emerging markets thanks in part to excessive liquidity in advanced economies. This money has often found its way into risky or suspect investment structures. Should a crisis strike — say, contagion from Turkey — investors in these markets will be exposed to risks that they simply aren’t prepared for. ...

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• 26 August

  Trump leaves Xi no room to make a trade agreement

  

  With the latest round of trade talks between the US and China ending in a predictable stalemate, one thing has become clear: The Trump administration’s approach to these negotiations has made it all but impossible for Chinese President Xi Jinping to make a deal. Until that changes, there’s no end in sight for the tariff-for-tariff tussle between the two countries, ...

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• 26 August

  Fed may be about to make a mistake

  

  The natural state of a capitalist economy is expansion. Recessions occur when “something breaks” rather than an expansion simply dying of old age. Unfortunately, central banks have a history of pumping the brakes for too long and too hard when attempting to contain growth and inflation and are often the cause of a recession. Given that the Federal Reserve has ...

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