May, 2017

• 1 May

  Baidu boosts content spending for video and news services

  

    Bloomberg Baidu Inc. will boost spending on content for its video streaming and news aggregation services as it tries to nurse its core internet search business back to health. The strategy is designed to attract new users as China’s biggest search provider enters a critical period after sales in 2016 grew at the slowest pace on record. The company ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Chinese investment in Australia surges 11.7% as deals hit record

  

    Bloomberg Chinese investment in Australia surged 11.7 percent last year to A$15.4 billion ($11.5 billion) amid booming demand for agricultural assets and infrastructure, according to a report released on Monday. A record 103 deals were signed with Chinese companies in 2016, with 76 percent of those reached with private firms, KPMG and the University of Sydney said in the ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  After oil, real estate becomes Canada’s new crutch

  

    Bloomberg Two things happened last week that were a reminder of just how vital real estate has become to Canada’s economy. Statistics Canada released gross domestic product data that showed February was a banner month for sectors linked to housing. The real estate industry, residential construction, financial and legal services generated a combined 0.5 percent increase in output, the ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  UK warns Google, Twitter, FB to better fight hate speech

  

    Bloomberg UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd warned Facebook Inc,. Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Twitter Inc. to improve monitoring of extremist and hate content after a panel of lawmakers urged her to consider making the hosting of such material a crime. A report from Parliament’s cross-party Home Affairs Committee, published on Monday, said the companies are “shamefully far” from having ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Poland eyes N-station to keep coal plants humming

    Bloomberg Poland hopes a nuclear power station may allow it to continue using the European Union’s biggest coal deposits to fuel the bloc’s biggest eastern economy. The country, which gets more than 80 percent of its electricity from coal, may use a pledge to build its first nuclear power plant as a bargaining chip in key talks with the ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Trump’s tax plan ‘boon for rich, unclear for middle class’

  

    Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s economic advisers pitched his new tax plan as a cut for the middle class and not the wealthy, but the opposite may be true. Tax policy experts say its current provisions would undoubtedly mean lower taxes for top earners, while the impact on middle incomes is less clear. Trump’s blueprint — a list of bullet ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Russian mining biggies eyeing return to London stock market

  

    Bloomberg For three years, Russian companies retreated from the London stock market. Now, a pair of oil and mining billionaires is hoping to break the drought. En+ Group Ltd., owned by aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, and Polyus PJSC, a gold producer controlled by the family of Suleiman Kerimov, are planning to sell shares in May or June. If successful, ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Former investor considers contagion odds as Home Capital Group swoons

  

    Bloomberg The escalation of Home Capital Group Inc.’s distress last week has led one of its largest former investors to rethink — if only slightly — the prospects of troubles spreading through the rest of Canada. After the alternative-mortgage lender set up a C$2 billion ($1.5 billion) credit line to offset a run on deposits, Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  Continental boosts electric car spend as combustion era peaks

    Bloomberg Continental AG will scale back investments in traditional motor components and allocate more funds for hybrid and electric powertrains as the auto-parts maker prepares for the eventual decline of combustion engines. Europe’s second-largest component supplier will invest an additional 300 million euros ($326 million) to develop and expand its offering of electric- and hybrid-car technologies by 2021, the ...

  Read More »
• 1 May

  US factories expands less than forecast

    Bloomberg America’s factories expanded less than forecast in April as measures of orders and employment pulled back, Institute for Supply Management data showed on Monday. Even with the retreat last month, the gauge remains well above the 51.5 average for all of 2016 and indicates healthy optimism among factory managers. The data show manufacturing is settling into a more ...

  Read More »