September, 2017

• 16 September

  Bigger cities aren’t better in Amazon’s contest

  

  The competition to host HQ2, as Amazon’s planned second headquarters is called, has captivated the nation. The lucky city can expect an economic bonanza: 50,000 jobs, plus the tech ecosystem that the online retail giant’s presence will inevitably attract. But the winner doesn’t have to be a big metropolis. On the contrary, Amazon has the power to create an entirely ...

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• 16 September

  Don’t sweat yuan’s climb; consumers drive China

  

  The yuan’s ascent this year has brought with it some of the usual handwringing about the impact on China’s exports. The anxiety kind of misses the point about modern China, as does much of the political conversation in America. A peek at the past week’s data from China is instructive. The really important numbers weren’t a decline in exports, but ...

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• 16 September

  Fed leadership changes may bring a GDP-focused agenda

  

  Federal Reserve Vice Chair Stanley Fischer’s decision to resign in October with nine months remaining on his term could mean the potential is high for central-bank policy to be reshaped much sooner than many investors expected. Fischer’s departure will leave four of the seven seats on the Fed Board of Governors vacant, and that doesn’t include the one held by ...

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• 16 September

  Cook weighs Apple’s biggest deal yet to protect chip supply

  

  Bloomberg It’s been a busy week for Apple Inc. While Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook showed off the 10th anniversary iPhone in California, his lieutenants worked half a world away on what may become the company’s largest deal ever. Apple is in talks to invest about $3 billion in Toshiba Corp.’s memory chips business as part of a consortium led ...

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• 16 September

  Microsoft adds cloud security to secure data from hackers

  

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp., working with chipmaker Intel Corp., is offering a cloud-computing service with more powerful encryption to secure data from hackers—and protect it from secret government data-gathering. Called Azure confidential computing, the technology encrypts data while it is in use—which is when most security breaches occur, according to Azure Chief Technology Officer Mark Russinovich. The new product works by ...

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• 16 September

  Samsung ties robot-car efforts into Harman after $8 billion deal

  

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. is upping its $8 billion bet on automotive technology, forming a separate business unit within Harman to house autonomous driving products and plowing $300 million into a new fund investing in startups in the space. The autonomous driving unit will compete on everything from driving algorithms to systems integration, Dinesh Paliwal, Harman’s chief executive officer, said ...

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• 16 September

  Small consumer drones unlikely to cause head injury: study

  

  Bloomberg The small, popular drones flooding the commercial market are unlikely to cause severe head injuries if they fall out of the sky and strike people, a new study has concluded. The results are similar to findings earlier this year by researchers associated with the Federal Aviation Administration and offer more justification for opening the door to unmanned operations over ...

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• 16 September

  Forex reserves in India top $400bn for the first time

  

  Bloomberg India’s foreign-exchange reserves rose past $400 billion for the first time ever, strengthening policy makers’ buffers ahead of an expected reduction in US stimulus. The stockpile stood at $400.7 billion on September 8, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a release. With the Federal Reserve set to shrink its balance sheet—details of which could be announced next ...

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• 16 September

  Pound surges to a post-Brexit high

  

  Bloomberg The pound climbed to the highest level against the dollar since just after Brexit vote and UK government bonds tumbled. Sterling surged past $1.36 after Vlieghe, considered a dovish voter, turned hawkish to tell a conference that the moment was approaching for a rate hike. The premium to hold call options on the pound relative to puts rose to ...

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• 16 September

  Bank of Russia clings to caution but stops short of hawkish bias

  

  Bloomberg Governor Elvira Nabiullina really means it when she says the Bank of Russia will follow no predetermined course on rates. Its outlook will allow for pauses as well as cuts of 25 to 50 basis points, depending on forecasts and the situation with inflation and the economy, Nabiullina told reporters in Moscow. The governor spoke after the central bank ...

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