July, 2018

• 28 July

  India’s forex reserves head for $400bn as RBI defends rupee

  

  Bloomberg India’s foreign exchange reserves may soon drop below the $400 billion mark for the first time since November as the central bank steps up action to shore up one of Asia’s worst-performing currencies. Reserves have steadily declined by $21 billion from a record peak of $426 billion in mid-April, and official data showed it was little changed in the ...

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• 28 July

  Deutsche Bank plans staff cuts in Chicago

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG is cutting dozens of employees and consolidating space at its Chicago office as part of a broader plan to shrink its US operations, according to people briefed on the matter. The German lender’s Chicago office — which houses units including front-office trading, operations and treasury — will be reducing headcount, said the people, who asked not ...

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• 28 July

  RBNZ to decide on interest rates in Q2

  

  Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) new monetary policy committee with external members could begin deciding on interest rates in the second quarter of next year, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. Legislation to enact the government’s RBNZ reforms should pass into law by April, which could allow the enlarged policy committee to begin deliberations as soon as May, ...

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• 28 July

  Blackstone picks banks for $1 billion India REIT

  

  Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, has picked banks for India’s first real estate investment trust (REIT) listing, people with knowledge of the matter said. The US company and local partner Embassy Group selected firms including Bank of America Corp., Morgan Stanley, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., said the people. The REIT ...

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• 28 July

  ECB keeps to policy path to end bond purchases

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (EDCB) stuck to its plan to end bond purchases as the European Union and US stepped back from a trade war andthe currency bloc’s economic expansion remained solid. The Frankfurt-based institution reiterated it will continue buying $35 billion of assets a month until the end of September, reduce the pace to 15 billion euros from ...

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• 28 July

  AEP kills plan for largest US wind farm after Texas rebuff

  

  Bloomberg American Electric Power’s (AEP) $4.5 billion Wind Catcher project was done in by shaky economics, and may become a teaching moment for other developers planning big clean-energy projects. The company pulled the plug on what would have been the biggest-ever US wind farm. Texas regulators rejected the project because it didn’t offer enough benefits for ratepayers, and Oklahoma came ...

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• 28 July

  BP’s $10.5 billion deal scores prized BHP shale assets

  

  Bloomberg BP Plc agreed to pay $10.5 billion, its biggest acquisition in almost two decades, for most of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s onshore US oil and natural gas assets, including in the prized Permian Basin. The deal gives the London-based energy giant a position in the Permian, a swath of west Texas and New Mexico that’s the world’s fastest-growing major oil ...

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• 28 July

  Shell starts buybacks even as profit misses expectations

  

  Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc finally gave investors the share buybacks they’ve been demanding, even as profit fell short of expectations despite resurgent crude prices. The Anglo-Dutch energy producer said that it is starting a $25 billion share-repurchase programme, initially buying up $2 billion of stock over three months. That should soothe investors who have grown increasingly anxious about when ...

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• 28 July

  On Brexit, what the EU says ten times is true

  

  When she started learning to play chess, my younger daughter was aghast that the pieces could’t always go where she wanted them to; she still ignores, for the most part, her opponent’s moves, figuring it’s enough for a victory to make good ones of her own. For two years, UK Prime Minister Theresa May has exhibited the same behavior. She ...

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• 28 July

  China isn’t using yuan to fight tariffs

  

  Since April, the yuan has fallen by almost 8 percent against the US dollar. This has led many analysts and politicians to speculate that China is intentionally trying to devalue its currency to offset the effect of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. It almost certainly isn’t. In theory, the price of the yuan is set by a basket of more than ...

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