February, 2018

• 6 February

  Kenya charges opposition figure amid protests over arrests

  BRUSSELS / Reuters Kenyan authorities charged an opposition figure over his attendance at a mock inauguration ceremony, as protests erupted over the arrest of anti-government leaders. Police charged Miguna Miguna with being present at the administering of an oath of office to National Super Alliance leader Raila Odinga on January 30 “purporting to bind” Odinga to a treasonous offense, according ...

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• 6 February

  As Venezuelans flee, refugee camp springs up at border

  

  Bloomberg Colombia has created a shelter along its eastern border to care for Venezuelans escaping their nation’s autocratic government and ravaged economy, and Brazil may follow suit. Refugee camps, a sad staple of life in Africa and the Middle East, are rare in South America. But the migration is of a volume unseen in the region since armed conflicts gripped ...

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• 6 February

  Day of reckoning for S Africa’s Zuma as ANC top brass meets

  

  Bloomberg Time appears to be running out for South African President Jacob Zuma. Six weeks after his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, replaced him as leader of the ruling African National Congress, the party’s top brass is due to meet in Cape Town to decide whether to force him from office. The crunch meeting of the National Executive Committee comes a day ...

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• 6 February

  How Europe can meet Trump’s three challenges

  

  Donald Trump is a man more of words than actions. Still, his administration’s recent rhetoric in three areas — currency, trade and taxation — is raising hackles across the European Union. Unity among EU member states is key to addressing the first two challenges in a way that safeguards the European economy. On the third, however, the EU should view ...

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• 6 February

  Across the globe, what earnings giveth to stocks they can taketh away

  

  The market’s worst defence could be its too-good offence. The stock market plunged on Monday, extending a slide that started last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank as much as 1,500 points before recovering to close just down 1,175. The S&P 500 Index dropped more than 4%. This, of course, wasn’t what was supposed to happen for a specific ...

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• 6 February

  Goldman is warning of more pain ahead

  

  Whenever there’s a sharp global sell-off sparked by US equities, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. comes out warning of more volatility and pain ahead. In July, when there was a brief dip and the Cboe Volatility Index jumped, the venerable investment bank said selling from risk-parity funds, which buy government bonds to hedge against stock portfolios, could lead to more offloading ...

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• 6 February

  The question on day one for Powell’s Fed

  Jerome Powell takes over as chair of the Federal Reserve just as new figures show earnings and inflation edging up. It’s good news that the recovery is helping wages to rise faster and bringing inflation closer to the Fed’s target of 2 percent — but as last week’s big drop in equity prices suggests, it also complicates Powell’s job. Though ...

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• 6 February

  China could seize the lead in self-driving cars

  

  In China, the cars are becoming smarter. Last week, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Foxconn Technology Co. Ltd. led a $348 million fundraising round for Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology Co. Ltd., a three-year-old startup developing internet-connected, electric cars. The investment might seem an odd one for online retailer Alibaba. But it’s part of a larger vision for transportation that includes ...

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• 6 February

  Apple investors don’t need to hit the panic button yet

  

  I have some bad news, and some probably-not-terrible news about Apple Inc. The bad news was Apple didn’t have a terrific holiday season for its most important product. Apple said that it sold 1.2 percent fewer iPhones in the three months ended December 30 than it did in the same period of 2016. Analysts had expected those unit sales to ...

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• 6 February

  Paris is city of fintech love for startups seeking hookups

  

  The fintech dating game is on in Paris. Entrepreneurs in Europe’s financial-technology sector are pushing low-cost payments solutions to steal market share from banks, hoping the challenge they pose will spur the lenders to buy them or seek partnerships with them. Many startups are eyeing deals or potential backing in Paris to meet the top executives of French finance, from ...

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