July, 2017

• 31 July

  Alphabet to fix clean energy’s storage problem with salt

  

  Bloomberg Alphabet Inc.’s secretive X skunk works has another idea that could save the world. This one, code named Malta, involves vats of salt and antifreeze. The research lab, which hatched Google’s driverless car almost a decade ago, is developing a system for storing renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted. It can be located almost anywhere, has the potential ...

  Read More »
• 31 July

  Can Pompeo keep the CIA out of the ditch?

  

  If the ghosts who inhabit the walls of the CIA could talk, they would tell Director Mike Pompeo to be careful. The agency is entering a danger zone where a White House in turmoil wants the CIA to take aggressive action overseas, but hasn’t developed the clear strategy or political support needed to sustain it. Pompeo is an activist, an ...

  Read More »
• 31 July

  Europe’s stressed bankers are getting killed by calmness

  

  The election of Emmanuel Macron in France vindicated euro optimists, boosted stock markets and paved the way for lenders like Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG to raise extra capital. What it didn’t do was unleash a wave of revenue growth for Europe’s top investment banks — at least judging by their latest quarterly earnings. The combination of ...

  Read More »
• 31 July

  Donald Trump’s tax trade goes cold

  

  President Donald Trump says cutting corporate taxes is his No. 1 priority after repealing Obamacare. And House Republicans laid out recently what they would like to see done with the tax code. Investors, though, appear to have lost faith in their ability to follow through. The shares of the 100 S&P 500 companies that paid the highest effective tax rates ...

  Read More »
• 31 July

  As Sharif goes, politics in Pakistan failed again

  Given Pakistan’s history of coups, political dysfunction and high-level graft, the Supreme Court’s decision to oust Nawaz Sharif as prime minister for lying about his allegedly ill-gotten wealth would seem a victory for transparency and the rule of law. In fact, the verdict raises as many questions as it answers. Sharif resigned on Friday when the court disqualified him from ...

  Read More »
• 31 July

  China stimulus measures went the wrong way

  

  When the Great Recession hit, China didn’t hesitate to open up the fiscal taps. But the fast-developing country also embraced another form of stimulus that was a bit different from what John Maynard Keynes had recommended — it encouraged its banks to start lending a lot more. They lent money to corporations, local governments and a variety of private actors. ...

  Read More »
• 31 July

  Nomura needs offshore focus to keep post-earnings glow

  

  Nomura Holdings Inc. turned in laudable first-quarter results Friday, but Japan’s largest brokerage needs to keep its eye on the overseas ball. Cost cutting and a revival in domestic retail broking helped Nomura offset the fixed-income trading slump that’s beset Wall Street rivals and local peer Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Buoyant results at home don’t mean Nomura can forget about ...

  Read More »
• 31 July

  Governments’ promises won’t kill internal combustion engine

  

  European governments are making big promises to ban the sale of cars with combustion engines: Germany by 2030, France and the UK by 2040. It’ll take a lot more than promises, though, to bring about the all-electric future. The initiatives could become the biggest government-driven revolution in a major market since anti-tobacco legislation—and a benevolent one, given that car makers ...

  Read More »
• 31 July

  Stocks advance as growth optimism boosts metals

  

  Bloomberg European stocks headed for the first gain in three days, spurred by raw-material producers on optimism the global economy is gathering momentum. The dollar gained, paring its worst monthly decline since January. S&P 500 Index futures edged higher after Anglo American Plc, Glencore Plc and Rio Tinto Plc helped underpin an advance in the Stoxx Europe 600 gauge. Miners ...

  Read More »
• 31 July

  Saudi dips on weak Q2 while blue chips support Dubai

  

  DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s stock market index recorded its sixth straight session of declines on the back of weak second-quarter corporate earnings, but Dubai outperformed a weaker region as bluechips rose. The Riyadh index slipped 0.3 percent as shares of milk and yoghurt maker Saudi Dairy Foodstuff Co fell 1.3 percent after it reported a 5.2 percent drop in ...

  Read More »