July, 2018

• 31 July

  Starbucks to begin coffee delivery in China with Alibaba

  

  Bloomberg Starbucks Corp. will be joining forces with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to begin delivering its drinks and baked goods in China, according to people with knowledge of the plans, rolling out an effort to stave off competitors and turn around sales in the country. Ele.me, the meals delivery service owned by Alibaba, will handle the logistics in a deal ...

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• 31 July

  EU hurtles towards a pyrrhic Brexit victory

  

  There were a few “Amens” coming from the UK after Italy’s far-right deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, reportedly told The Sunday Times that “there is no objectivity or good faith from the European side” when it comes to the bargaining over the terms of the UK’s exit from the European Union. He urged UK Prime Minister Theresa May to hold ...

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• 31 July

  BoJ has found some cover for tapering

  

  When a central bank feels the need to tell the world that its monetary policy is “continuous” and “powerful,” you know investors will conclude that it’s neither. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has finally created some cover for stealth tapering. The BOJ left its main stance unchanged on Tuesday. It’s holding the short-term policy rate (which it charges banks ...

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• 31 July

  Walking dead reincarnated at Credit Suisse Group

  Credit Suisse Group AG was not long ago ranked alongside Deutsche Bank AG as a basket-case bank whose CEO was a possible “dead man walking.” Yet Tidjane Thiam has shaken off that prognosis by essentially copying his Swiss rival UBS Group AG. He’s shrunk his firm’s trading unit to focus on wealth management, all while cutting costs. And it’s paid ...

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• 31 July

  Trump’s tech tariffs are awesome, for SE Asia

  Donald Trump may well be the best thing that’s happened to Southeast Asia’s humble electronics industry in quite a while. Relatively small, and frankly not as sexy as their North Asia cousins, makers of components and devices with factories dotted around the region may get some time in the spotlight thanks to the US administration’s decision last month to levy ...

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• 31 July

  Japan is going global as America looks inward

  

  If a random American were to be asked “Which countries are at the forefront of globalisation?” or “Which countries are the guardians of the liberal order?,” it seems unlikely that Japan would be among the countries they named. The Land of the Rising Sun is typically thought of as a closed-off country, with little immigration, a protectionist trade policy and ...

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• 31 July

  GDP growth data shows how little things have changed

  

  The second-quarter gross domestic product data released recently showed a robust 4.1 percent increase. It wasn’t “historic,” as President Donald Trump proclaimed, but it was undoubtedly solid. With midterm elections a little more than three months away, it is no surprise the release became fodder in our endless national political debate. Lots of misinformation and questionable claims were proffered. But ...

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• 31 July

  Gauging the Fed’s reaction to Trump’s tweet

  

  Judging from commentary in markets late last week, an additional factor now features in the calculus of some Fed watchers as they look forward to this week’s two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting: how policy makers will respond to President Donald Trump’s tweets suggesting that the central bank refrain from raising interest rates and risk ”taking away our big competitive ...

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• 30 July

  Dubai DED issues first licence in Chinese language

  DUBAI / WAM The Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai has issued the first licence in Chinese and Arabic to one of the investors from the Republic of China. This is in line with the latest strategic partnerships betw-een the UAE and China to strengthen bilateral cooperation in economic, investment and trading sectors. The issuance of the Chinese licence ...

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• 30 July

  Oil hits one-month high amid global supply risks

  

  Bloomberg Crude rose by the most in a month as traders focus on supply risks from Canada to the Middle East. Futures in New York advanced as much as 2.5 percent on Monday amid speculation that a Canadian oil-sands facility that supplies US refineries won’t return to full production as quickly as expected. Threats elsewhere included an imminent labour strike ...

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