April, 2018

• 18 April

  SNB poised for first rate hike in decade next year

  

  Bloomberg The franc may be close to the Swiss National Bank’s previous currency ceiling, but that doesn’t mean investors should expect an interest rate hike too soon. A monthly survey of economists shows they anticipate the Swiss central bank will keep its deposit rate at minus 0.75 percent the first nine months of 2019, before raising it by 25 basis ...

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• 18 April

  Inflation gains footing in Japan as BOJ ponders future exit

  

  Bloomberg Inflation is showing signs of taking root in Japan. With price gains halfway to the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent target, domestic demand is picking up after years in which external factors such as energy prices did most of the work. As the economy continues to grow, this could open the door for the central bank to start adjusting ...

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• 18 April

  Infosys CEO says now is time to sacrifice margins for growth

  

  Bloomberg Salil Parekh didn’t get much time to settle in after taking over the helm of Infosys Ltd. Since becoming chief executive officer in January, the 53-year-old has crisscrossed three continents to meet with customers and employees to get his hands around the challenges facing India’s iconic tech-services giant. He talked with 48 clients in his first three months — ...

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• 18 April

  Malaysia’s IHH seeks time, financials before Fortis bid

  

  Bloomberg IHH Healthcare Bhd. has asked Fortis Healthcare Ltd. for three weeks to complete due diligence ahead of making a potential binding offer, people with knowledge of the matter said, as the takeover battle for India’s second-largest hospital chain escalates. IHH, Asia’s most valuable hospital operator, sent a letter to Fortis’s board on April 16 with the due diligence request ...

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• 18 April

  BMW, Tesla to gain as China removes ownership cap

  

  Bloomberg China’s decision to stop putting foreign carmakers in bed with local partners is unlikely to prompt a major unwind anytime time soon. But it dangles the lucrative draw of future wholly-owned future factories. Such a move would benefit new competitors like Tesla Inc. and late China-arrivals like Fiat Chrysler Automobiles with no or limited joint-venture production in China. Luxury ...

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• 18 April

  Third-tier cities lead China’s home price gains

  

  Bloomberg China’s home prices rose at the fastest pace in three months in March, fuelled by gains in smaller cities, even as the government maintained a two-year campaign to cool the housing market. New-home prices across 70 cities gained 0.42 percent from a month earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics. That compared ...

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• 18 April

  ‘Pearls imports’ hint at capital flight from India

  Bloomberg Runaway jewellers have become somewhat of a staple of news headlines out of India. But reading the small print of trade numbers may tell a new story — flight of capital. A spurt in imports of precious stones and pearls, at a time when gold imports have moderated, has raised the red flag for analysts at Credit Suisse AG, ...

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• 18 April

  ‘China’s Hawaii’ offers visa-free access to 33 more nations

  

  Bloomberg China has extended visa-free access to Hainan for another 33 — mostly European and South American — countries, as President Xi Jinping seeks to boost the tropical province’s popularity among foreign tourists. New regulations expanding the travel privileges to 59 nations come into effect in May, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the State Immigration Administration. Tourists from ...

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• 18 April

  IBM turnaround questioned on slow growth of new businesses

  

  Bloomberg IBM’s one-quarter growth streak is already in doubt. Shares of the technology company fell in early trading after it reported narrower profit margins and no revenue growth, excluding help from a weak US dollar. That cast a shadow over an effort to sell more-profitable cloud-based software to revive growth after five years of revenue declines. Though heading in the ...

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• 18 April

  AT&T may have an edge over US govt in court battle for Time Warner

  

  Bloomberg AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Inc. may have gained an edge in the biggest merger trial in decades as the companies have exposed weaknesses in the Trump administration’s antitrust lawsuit to block their $85 billion merger, according to lawyers and economists following the battle. As the US rested its case in the fifth week of the trial, AT&T and ...

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