August, 2018

• 8 August

  California wildfires are largely burning in rural areas—for now

  

  Bloomberg Dry, hot and windy conditions are threatening to expand California’s largest wildfires, which so far are burning in largely rural areas, muting their economic impact. The fires, which have killed 12 people and burned an area almost as big as Rhode Island, have hit the tourism industry around Yosemite National Park but left agricultural areas mostly unscathed. “While the ...

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• 8 August

  Brexiteers are their own worst enemy

  

  As the Brexit shambles rolls on, I’ve been puzzled by the hostility of Brexiteers to the proposal that Theresa May is trying to sell at home and to the European Union. A weird domestic alliance of hardline Leavers and zealous Remainers could block May’s plans, regardless of how the EU responds — and the result might well be a no-deal ...

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• 8 August

  Bull market bashers can’t cry complacency

  

  The S&P 500 Index rallied, coming within 0.3 percent of its intraday record set in January. If a new high is rea-ched in coming days, it wou-ld cap an incredible come- back from the sell-off in late January and early February that drove the benchmark into a correction. It would also renew criticism that investors are too complacent. If only ...

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• 8 August

  Forget Amazon, GM’s move should worry health insurers

  Health-care sector stalwarts may be right in thinking that the joint venture between Amazon.com Inc., JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. poses no near-term existential threat. It will likely be years before the initiative develops the potential to have a meaningful impact on the industry’s behemoths, particularly insurers. But things are happening elsewhere in the meantime. Employers ...

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• 8 August

  Samsung, Apple and the optics of domestic cash

  For Samsung Electronics Co, the answer was 180 trillion won ($161 billion). For Apple Inc. it was $350 billion. The question was: How much are you going to contribute to your home economy? But for the smartphone giants’ finance teams, it might just as well have been – what’s the biggest number you can rustle up to impress politicians? Samsung ...

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• 8 August

  Elon Musk shows just why Tesla should be private

  

  The manner in which Elon Musk disclosed that he was “considering taking Tesla private” shows why this would be the best possible outcome for all involved. The stock jumped 4 percent on Musk’s tweet, on top of an existing rally that had taken hold 30 minutes earlier on a Financial Times report that Saudi Arabia had bought stock in the ...

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• 8 August

  FAANGs are more solo acts than a tech supergroup

  

  It’s time for FAANG stocks to break up, at least in investors’ minds. Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet can’t get away from one another. Every time one grabs the spotlight — as Apple did last week when it became the first US company with a $1 trillion market value — it brings along the other four. They’re ...

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• 8 August

  Snapchat is becoming like the internet it disdains

  

  Snapchat has defined itself in opposition to the internet establishment. It didn’t want to be a digital hangout like Facebook that lured the masses to perform for strangers. Snapchat’s advertisements wouldn’t be “creepy” like other internet ads. Web-video programs from partners such as ESPN wouldn’t be the schlock people saw elsewhere. Now, though, Snapchat is borrowing liberally from the internet ...

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• 7 August

  Peruvian exports to UAE soar as trade ties deepen

  

  Dubai / Emirates Business Peru’s Trade, Tourism and Investment Office has revealed that exports from Peru to the UAE have risen by almost 10,000 percent in seven years. Exports from Peru to the Emirates increased from $6 million in 2011 to $600 million last year thanks to increasing demand from consumers and the ongoing work of the Trade, Tourism and ...

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• 7 August

  DP World buys Danish firm in AED2.8bn deal

  

  DUBAI / WAM DP World on Tuesday announced the signing of the acquisition of 100 percent of the Unifeeder Group for euros 660 million (AED2.8 billion) from Nordic Capital Fund VIII and certain minority shareholders. Based in Aarhus, Denmark, Unifeeder operates the largest and most densely connected common user container feeder and an important and growing shortsea network in Europe, ...

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