January, 2018

• 13 January

  In Oregon, progressivism spills over at the pump

  

  Frank Lloyd Wright purportedly said, “Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.” Today, however, Oregon is the state with the strangest state of mind, which has something to do with it being impeccably progressive: In the series ‘Portlandia,’ the mention of artisanal lightbulbs might be satirical, but given today’s gas-pumping controversy, perhaps ...

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• 13 January

  Draghi unheeded as ECB minutes prompt new bets on 2018 hike

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank is again struggling to get the message across to markets that any unwinding of stimulus will be slow and steady. The euro soared, bonds slid and investors this week stepped up bets that interest rates will rise before the end of 2018, disregarding President Mario Draghi’s assurances that no such thing will happen until well ...

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• 13 January

  HSBC hires from Goldman, JPMorgan for Asia equities

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc made a slew of hires from rivals including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as the bank revamps its equities business in the Asia-Pacific region and expands a nascent majority-owned securities venture in China, people familiar with the matter said. Among the recent additions are Michael Parry, who joined from Goldman Sachs as a director focused on Asian ...

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• 13 January

  Investors to central banks: Monetary policy planning could roil markets

  

  Bloomberg Global central banks are being served a sharp reminder by investors that their monetary policy planning carries the potential to roil the financial markets in 2018. A minor tweak in the Bank of Japan’s bond-purchase operation saw the yen strengthen more than 1 percent in two days. A change in the way China’s central bank manages the yuan sparked ...

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• 13 January

  Dollar bears get warning as Asian banks put brake

  

  Bloomberg Dollar bears take heed: Asian central banks may be putting the brakes on the greenback’s slide. After working for three years to staunch the yuan’s slump, China is now moving to combat the opposite problem. The People’s Bank of China has stopped using a component of its daily fixing formula that had been widely interpreted as a tool to ...

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• 13 January

  Nainital Bank put up for sale by India lender

  

  Bloomberg Bank of Baroda, India’s third-largest state-run lender, is seeking to sell unit Nainital Bank Ltd. as it sheds non-core assets to bolster its balance sheet, people familiar with the matter said. A decision on the size of the stake to be sold will depend on approvals from the Indian central bank, the people said, asking not to be identified ...

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• 13 January

  Morgan Stanley counters bond bear market call

  Bloomberg Morgan Stanley countered Bill Gross’s call that Treasuries are in a bear market. “Don’t worry, Treasuries continue to offer value,” Morgan Stanley strategists Matthew Hornbach and Guneet Dhingra in New York wrote in a note. “This isn’t the bear market you’re looking for,” according to the firm, one of the 23 primary dealers that underwrite US debt securities. A ...

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• 13 January

  JetBlue delays fleet update as Boeing, Airbus eye small jets

  

  Bloomberg JetBlue Airways Corp. has delayed a decision on updating its fleet of regional jets as it watches a brewing rivalry between Boeing Co. and Airbus SE to gain sway in the market for smaller planes. The carrier had hoped to decide by the end of 2017 whether to keep its 60 Embraer SA E190s. But an Airbus agreement to ...

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• 13 January

  Heathrow Airport crams more flyers onto bigger jets

  

  Bloomberg London’s Heathrow airport, which has operated its two runways close to capacity since the start of the decade, managed to squeeze in 2.3 million more passengers last year as airlines deployed bigger planes and carried more people per flight. The traveller tally at the home base of British Airways increased 3.1 percent to 78 million even as the number ...

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• 13 January

  Jeju beats London, New York in busiest air route

  

  Bloomberg The world’s busiest air route isn’t London to Paris or New York to Los Angeles, but the trip between Seoul and a tiny island off the coast of South Korea. Planes made 65,000 trips between the Korean capital and Jeju island—a journey of little more than an hour—in 2017, equivalent to 178 flights a day, according to data from ...

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