August, 2018

• 12 August

  10-year high in ‘US inflation’ less exciting under hood

  

  Bloomberg US inflation in July, excluding noisy food and energy prices, was the highest since 2008 at 2.4 percent. A closer look suggests there probably isn’t much cause for concern at the Federal Reserve. Excluding shelter costs, US services inflation edged down last month. Central bankers pay close attention to services inflation because it correlates more closely with domestic labour ...

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• 12 August

  US SEC postpones decision on Bitcoin ETF listing to Sept

  

  Bloomberg The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed a decision on whether to allow the listing of an exchange-traded fund backed by Bitcoin. The agency now has until September 30 to “approve or disapprove, or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove” a proposed rule changefrom Cboe Global Markets Inc. that would allow the fund from VanEck Associates ...

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• 12 August

  GE prepares $1.5bn sale of power-conversion unit

  

  Bloomberg General Electric Co. is working with bankers on a possible sale of its power-conversion business, people familiar with the matter said, as the fallen manufacturer attempts to regain its footing by slimming down. The unit formerly known as Converteam could fetch about $1.5 billion, below the $3.2 billion GE paid for the assets in 2011, said the people, who ...

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• 12 August

  Indian Oil’s quarterly profit soars 50% as refining margin rises

  

  Bloomberg State-owned Indian Oil Corp. posted a 50 percent jump in quarterly profit as the margin for converting crude into fuels more than doubled. Net income climbed to 68.3 billion rupees ($992 million) in the quarter ended on June 30, from 45.5 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said in a stock-exchange filing. That compares with the 53.3 billion-rupee ...

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• 12 August

  PMI signals improvement in Egyptian non-oil sector

  

  Cairo / Emirates Business The Emirates NBD Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for Egypt, sponsored by Emirates NBD and produced by IHS Markit, contains original data collected from a monthly survey of business conditions in the Egyptian private sector. Commenting on the Egypt PMI survey, Daniel Richards, MENA Economist at Emirates NBD, says, “The positive PMI reading for the first month ...

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• 12 August

  Samsung unveils Note9, watch, home speaker

  

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled the Galaxy Note 9 in New York, banking on the larger-screen device to rejuvenate sales of a struggling flagship line and fend off Apple Inc.’s upcoming iPhones over the holidays. The 6.4-inch screen Note 9 will start at $999.99 and max out at $1,249.99 — becoming, at about $100 above the iPhone X’s upper limit, ...

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• 12 August

  Bytedance to raise $3bn in new funding round

  

  Bloomberg Beijing Bytedance Technology Co Ltd., the startup behind hit Chinese news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, is seeking to raise as much as $3 billion in a funding round that is mostly targeting US investors, a person familiar with the matter said. The fast-growing company held meetings with potential investors for a financing that could value Bytedance at as much as ...

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• 12 August

  Walmart, JD invest $500mn in Chinese logistics service firm

  

  Bloomberg Dada-JD Daojia has raised $500 million from existing backers JD.com Inc.and Walmart Inc. to quicken the growth of its delivery network across China. The logistics company said it intends to use the funds to invest in supply chain technology and serve merchants on its platform, which connects scooter-riding drivers in about 400 cities with about 1.2 million online merchants ...

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• 12 August

  Flood cripples Philippine capital as 54,000 evacuated to safer ground

  

  Bloomberg More than 54,000 people were moved to safer ground in the Philippine capital and nearby provinces, while calls for help swamped social media as monsoon rain triggered floods reminiscent of Typhoon Ketsana, which killed hundreds of people in Metro Manila in 2009. Marikina City implemented forced evacuations affecting at least 21,000 people after its river, the catch basin of ...

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• 12 August

  Indian panel to examine China-backed ‘trade pact’

  Bloomberg A panel of Indian ministers will meet to consider objections by several departments against an Asian trade pact spearheaded by Beijing citing fears of a flood of Chinese imports, people with knowledge of the matter said. The group headed by Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu will meet on August 10 to discuss concerns flagged by the ministries of steel, pharmaceuticals, ...

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