May, 2018

• 22 May

  Burberry needs a touch of that Markle sparkle

  

  The sight of Meghan Markle’s mother carrying what looked like a Burberry outfit was enough to ignite speculation she’ll wear the brand to her daughter’s wedding. The British luxury group could certainly do with some Markle sparkle. Organic sales increased by an anemic 2 percent in the three months through March, trailing growth at rivals like LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis ...

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• 22 May

  Italy’s populist future comes fraught with perils

  Two and a half months after an inconclusive general election, Italy looks as if it will soon have a government — a populist coalition between two anti-establishment parties, the Five Star Movement and the League. Having won a clear popular mandate, the two parties must be given a chance to govern. But the program they have in mind is extravagantly ...

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• 22 May

  Don’t raise rates just to keep wages in check

  

  Macroeconomics is getting interesting again. For the past five years, monetary policy was simple and boring — the economy was recovering steadily, but not yet at full employment, and inflation remained muted, so the Federal Reserve simply had to keep interest rates low and not interfere with a good thing. But now this happy era of tranquility may be ending. ...

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• 22 May

  Carmakers’ captives show reasons to be fearful

  

  Bets on the world’s biggest car companies look a bit less safe as the US market confronts slowing sales, an obsession with trucks and ballooning numbers of used cars. Bonds of captive auto-finance companies like Ford Motor Credit Co., Toyota Motor Credit Corp., General Motors Financial Co. and Daimler AG’s financing subsidiary have been trading more like their parents in ...

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• 22 May

  Someone should give Fortis directors a discharge slip

  

  Fortis Healthcare Ltd. has to admit a new owner to keep the lights on. Before it does, though, India’s second-largest hospital chain must write four of its board members a discharge slip. The country’s serious fraud office and the stock-market regulator are investigating Fortis even as it tries to sell itself to one of five serious suitors, which include Malaysian, ...

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• 22 May

  US stocks rise as risk-on creeps back, dollar falls; Italy bonds up

  

  Bloomberg A degree of risk appetite returned to global markets on Tuesday, with developing-nation stocks and currencies rebounding and Italian bonds climbing. The dollar fell as Treasury yields climbed, and the pound advanced. US equity futures pointed to a higher open and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index nudged upward after the MSCI Asia Pacific gauge eked out a gain in ...

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• 22 May

  Malaysia’s foreign stock inflows for 2018 got wiped out

  

  Bloomberg While locals in Malaysia cheer the ouster of the Barisan Nasional coalition for the first time since independence, foreign stock investors are voting with their feet. Foreign inflows into the local stock market of $937.8 million were wiped out as concern remains on how the new coalition party under 92-year-old PM Mahathir Mohamad will continue economic growth. As of May ...

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• 22 May

  Record $1 billion loss signals a ‘happy year’ for India’s SBI

  

  Bloomberg State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender by assets, joined its private peers in shrugging off losses as investors believe the lenders have finally got a handle on bad loans. SBI’s shares surged to a six-week high after it reported a record loss on Tuesday, weighed down by a doubling in provisions for soured debt. A similar contrarian ...

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• 22 May

  Former exec sues Deutsche Bank over $4.7 million bonus

  

  Bloomberg A former Deutsche Bank AG executive, Nizar Al-Bassam, is suing the German lender to reclaim bonuses totaling about 4 million euros ($4.7 million) following a probe into hiring practices in Russia and the UK. Al-Bassam, a former head of corporate and debt capital market finance for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said he believed the ...

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• 22 May

  Wells Fargo ready to boost auto lending

  

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan said the firm is ready to increase lending for car sales after pulling back last year, and it’s now looking with consternation at the commercial real estate market. In auto lending, “we’ve pulled back enough and now we’re going to be growing that business again,” Sloan said in an interview ...

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