March, 2017

• 26 March

  Health firms plan for $8.6bn market opening in Finland

  

    Bloomberg Finland’s need to rein in public spending could be a boon for the nation’s private health-care providers. The parliament this month started a debate on government plans to open up the country’s 8 billion-euro ($8.6 billion) basic health-care and welfare market to private competition by 2019. More freedom for patients to choose their doctor will lead to better ...

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• 26 March

  Watchmakers confront US ‘consumer blockage’

  

    Bloomberg Just as a four-year slump in Chinese demand for Swiss watches shows signs of ending, sales in the US, the next-largest market, have wilted. Swiss watchmakers have been caught off-guard as demand keeps sinking this year in the US, which is key for Rolex, LVMH’s TAG Heuer and Richemont’s Baume & Mercier. That’s raising concern that consumers there ...

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• 26 March

  UK tells WhatsApp to open up to intelligence services

  

    Bloomberg UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp messaging system should open its encryption to security services and urged online companies to be more aggressive in shutting down sites exploited by terrorists. After newspapers disclosed that Khalid Masood, who killed four people in London last week, had used WhatsApp shortly before he began his attack, Rudd identified ...

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• 26 March

  Food lobby calls for tariff-free post-Brexit trade with EU

    Bloomberg Industry bodies representing the UK food supply chain have called on the government to seek a tariff-free trade agreement with the European Union during coming Brexit negotiations. In a joint statement on Sunday, the British Retail Consortium, the National Farmers Union and the Food and Drink Federation urged Prime Minister Theresa May to also ensure transitional trade agreements ...

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• 26 March

  Middle East stock markets mixed in mostly thin trade

  

    Reuters Middle East stock markets were mixed in mostly thin trade on Sunday, with Saudi Arabia giving up early gains triggered by progress in reforms that could help it to join MSCI’s emerging market index. The Saudi index rose as much as 0.5 percent in early trade but closed 0.1 percent down in its thinnest volume since last September. ...

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• 26 March

  Stocks wobble, finish mixed as GOP pulls plug on health bill

  

    AP US stocks flirted with sharp losses but managed a mixed finish during the weekend, after Republicans cancelled a vote on their health care bill because it became clear the bill would fail. Hospital stocks soared in response, while companies that stand to benefit from other Trump proposals faltered. For the second day in a row, stocks started higher ...

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• 26 March

  Shares of China’s Huishan Dairy sinks 85%

    Bloomberg Shares of China Huishan Dairy Holdings Co. sank by a record 85 percent in Hong Kong before the company halted trading. The sudden crash wiped out about $4.1 billion in market value. A record 779 million shares in the Shenyang-based company changed hands, the most on Hong Kong’s exchange. Chairman Yang Kai said online speculation its largest shareholder ...

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• 26 March

  Startup uses AI to pick images from video

  

  Bloomberg If you’re a brand advertiser at a car company or a cereal maker, you may want to know when your product appears, unscripted, in hundreds of hours of TV shows or online videos. How to track that without watching all of it? An artificial intelligence startup has the answer. Matroid, founded by Stanford University adjunct professor Reza Zadeh, can ...

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• 26 March

  Ripcord bots provide easy access to paper files

  

    Bloomberg Most staple removers fit in the palm of your hand. This one would fill your living room and uses robotics and artificial intelligence. Ripcord, a startup backed with a $9.5 million funding round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has created a machine its founders think is key to solving a huge problem faced by companies as ...

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• 26 March

  LG organises competition to tap ‘techorating’ skills

  

    Emirates Business LG Electronics announced the launch of the first-ever LG Signage Design competition for innovative professional designers and architects across the region to push the boundaries of artistic designs within new and existing commercial spaces. Participants are expected to submit design proposals using LG’s ultra-flexible open frame OLED and ultra-stretch LCD digital signage solutions across four categories for ...

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