April, 2017

• 2 April

  Pound set for quarterly gain yet Brexit blurs outlook

  

    Bloomberg The pound headed for its first quarterly gain versus the dollar since mid-2015 as data showed the currency’s Brexit decline delivered a double boost for the UK economy. A bumper contribution from trade saw the nation’s gross domestic product grow an unrevised 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter, its fastest pace in a year, data showed. In the ...

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• 2 April

  Newly-merged First Abu Dhabi Bank outperforms region

  

    DUBAI / Reuters Stock markets in the Gulf moved sideways in thin volumes on Sunday, while shares of the newly-formed lender in Abu Dhabi, First Abu Dhabi Bank, outperformed a day after the legal completion of the merger. Shares of First Abu Dhabi Bank – the new name of the newly merged National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First ...

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• 2 April

  Whimpering finish caps best quarter for US equities since 2015

  

    Bloomberg Its last day may have been a washout, but the first quarter just took its place among the best of the lengthening bull run for US stocks. Even with a 0.2 percent decline, the S&P 500 Index surged 5.5 percent in the three months ended March 31, the biggest advance since shares jumped 6.5 percent at the end ...

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• 2 April

  Argentina’s biggest brokerage weighs local IPO

    Bloomberg Puente Hnos SA, the largest local brokerage in Argentina, is weighing selling shares of its UK holding company in Buenos Aires before the end of the year. The company is still considering an initial public offering in New York or London, Federico Tomasevich, Puente’s global chairman, said in an interview. Selling the securities in Argentina is preferred because ...

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• 2 April

  Is the American Dream killing us?

  

    It isn’t often that economics raises the most profound questions of human existence, but recent work of economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton (husband and wife, both of Princeton University) comes close. You may recall that a few years ago, Case and Deaton reported the startling finding that the death rates of non-Hispanic whites aged 50 to 54 had ...

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• 2 April

  When ‘tourist’ investors come to Silicon Valley

  

    I’m taking you on a nostalgia trip. Remember the olden days (2016), when it seemed outlandish investments in technology startups were a thing of the faraway past (2015)? Snap out of it. Just look at the headlines of the past few weeks. China’s on-demand ride king Didi Chuxing is considering a $6 billion investment backed by SoftBank. Airbnb finalized ...

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• 2 April

  Making the most of India’s big tax reform

  

    Given the usual speed of economic reform in India, it’s remarkable that the biggest change in years might actually start on schedule. “Start,” though, is the operative word. If the country’s new national goods-and-services tax does go into effect in July, which looks more likely now that Parliament has passed the requisite legislation, that will be worth celebrating. The ...

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• 2 April

  ‘Flynn testimony’ drops a bombshell on Trump

    As the debate over Russian scandal rages, Trump aides are volunteering to testify to Congress without even being asked for. First it was ex-Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in January for misleading the White House about his conversation with Russian envoy Sergei Kislyak, offered to testify if granted immunity. Flynn initially lied to Vice President ...

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• 2 April

  Nuclear power may need to get small to survive

  

    With the bankruptcy this week of Westinghouse Electric Co., the future of big nuclear power plants in the US isn’t looking good at all. But maybe, just maybe, there is hope for something smaller. Westinghouse, which was acquired by Japan’s Toshiba Corp. in 2006, has been building the only nuclear power plants currently under construction in the US: two ...

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• 2 April

  Even best stock pickers can’t beat bots

  

    BlackRock shook the world of active management when it announced that it had fired five of its 53 stock pickers. BlackRock will also move $6 billion of the $201 billion invested in traditional active management to quant strategies. The announcement may not sound earth-shattering, but it augurs a larger trend: Traditional active management is dying, but perhaps not for ...

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