July, 2018

• 14 July

  Singapore fund gets skeptical of tech firms

  

  Bloomberg Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, which backed some of China’s biggest technology startups, is becoming more selective about investments in the sector amid soaring valuations. An influx of investors of all stripes, from venture capital to sovereign wealth and hedge-funds, has driven up valuations of many unprofitable startups, Jeffrey Jaensubhakij, group chief investment officer of GIC Pte., said in an ...

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• 14 July

  Apple fails to tempt Indian consumers

  

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. has lost a trio of pivotal executives in India in recent weeks as it struggles to boost iPhone sales in the world’s fastest-growing major smartphone market, people familiar with the matter say. Among the executives who’ve departed are its national sales and distribution chief, the head of its commercial channels and mid-market business, and the head of ...

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• 14 July

  Tesla, BMW bypass Trump’s trade war, score a win for China

  

  Bloomberg Less than a week into President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, global automakers have shown there are ways to bypass the battle — and scoring a win for Beijing in the process. Tesla Inc. and BMW AG are among the biggest potential losers from Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs on car imports from the US because much of their production ...

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• 14 July

  Trump considers tapping US oil reserve as prices at pump rise

  

  Bloomberg The Trump administration is actively considering tapping into the nation’s emergency supply of crude oil as political pressure grows to rein in rising gasoline prices before congressional elections in November, two people familiar with the situation said. No decision has been made to release crude from the 660-million-barrel stockpile, known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but options under review ...

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• 14 July

  UK energy costs head higher with plan to leave single market

  

  Bloomberg Britain’s paper on leaving the European Union raised more questions for the energy industry than it answered, setting up the risk that the legal arrangements allowing power and gas to flow across borders could come unraveled and drive up the cost of doing business. The government for the first time raised the possibility of leaving the EU’s single market, ...

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• 14 July

  Apple updates Pro laptops ahead of fall product blitz

  

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. released an upgraded MacBook Pro line that’s faster and has more features, targeting its loyal base of professional users like app developers and movie editors. The new laptops, which come in the same 13-inch and 15-inch sizes as last year’s models, include pro-focused upgrades like additional memory and storage, the ability to compile code faster, brighter screens, ...

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• 14 July

  SoftBank rolls out app for parking spaces in Japan

  

  Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. is rolling out a new app that will let drivers find and reserve parking spaces across Japan. The new service, called BLUU Smart Parking, will let drivers find open parking spots, reserve them in advance and pay fees using smartphones. Each location will have cameras and magnetic sensors to monitor cars as they enter and leave, ...

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• 14 July

  Wait for rules on ‘self-driving cars’

  

  Bloomberg It’s premature to regulate the self-driving vehicles being tested by companies such as General Motors Co. and Waymo LLC, the US government’s top auto safety official said. “At this point the technology is so nascent I don’t think it is appropriate today to regulate this technology,” Heidi King, deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said. ...

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• 14 July

  Robot trains are slashing mining costs in Australia’s outback

  

  Bloomberg Snaking through Western Australia’s Outback, a driverless train has made the first autonomous delivery of iron ore from a Rio Tinto Group pit to a coastal port, as the No. 2 miner looks to reap the benefits from a $940 million plan deploying the world’s biggest robots. The maiden 280-kilometre journey was completed carrying a cargo of 28,000 metric ...

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• 14 July

  EU weighs changes to WTO regulations to appease US

  

  Bloomberg The European Commission proposed ways to resolve the Trump administration’s concerns over the functioning of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in a bid to avert a looming crisis that could undermine the WTO’s ability to arbitrate trade disputes. “The dispute settlement function of the WTO is at grave danger, and swift action by members is needed to preserve it,” ...

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