February, 2017

• 18 February

  Retail has good reason to hate a border adjustment tax

  

    Chief executives from retailers including JC Penney Co., Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. went to Washington on Wednesday to implore President Trump not to follow through with pledges to tax stuff sold in the US but made abroad. Lobbying from companies against the so-called border adjustment tax (BAT) might not be enough to sway Trump, who based much ...

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• 18 February

  Trump, Flynn and the politics of credibility

  If the scandal surrounding Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, were merely about whether he broke the law, it would be over. The controversy persists because it calls into question Flynn’s judgment and credibility — and by extension, that of Trump’s administration. Last December, on the day the U.S. enacted sanctions against Russia for interfering in the U.S. presidential ...

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• 18 February

  Lee’s arrest may turn up heat on Park

    And lastly it came. Samsung’s Group de facto leader Jay Y Lee was formally arrested over his alleged involvement in massive corruption scandal. It is believed that Lee, scion of the South Korea’s richest family and vice chairman of Samsung’s Electronics, gave bribes worth $36 million to President Park Geun-hye and her close friend, Choi Soon-sil, to help win ...

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• 18 February

  Summer is looking bright for oil prices

  

    Seasonal demand dynamics are looking up for oil prices. But there are downside risks to U.S. natural gas: Higher oil prices are an incentive for more shale oil drilling, which increases the level of associated natural gas production when there is weakening seasonal natural gas demand. Technicals for natural gas prices have also weakened, and shale oil drilling is ...

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• 18 February

  Nestle’s new CEO shows bland can taste good. No, really

    The Ulf-man cometh. And it’s all rather underwhelming. Ulf Mark Schneider, the new chief executive of Nestle SA, has laid out what is ultimately a more sensible course for the world’s largest food company. As expected, he’s ditched the strict adherence to an organic sales-growth target of 5 to 6 percent. This year, it’ll be more like 2 to ...

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• 18 February

  Brexit means markets turn bearish on UK

  

    When UK voters decided last June to leave the European Union, global investors anticipating the opposite result wiped out billions of pounds in the currency market. Sterling plummeted a record 8.05 percent to a 31-year low. It’s been seven months since those British voters narrowly rejected the view of prime ministers, presidents, finance ministers, business leaders and economists that ...

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• 18 February

  Air Canada tumbles after pricier fuel saps profit forecast

  

    Bloomberg Air Canada dropped the most in seven months after the country’s largest airline said rising fuel costs would cause a key profit measure to fall by half in the first quarter. The forecast implies earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and aircraft rent of C$250 million ($190 million) in the first quarter, trailing the C$366 million estimated by Fadi ...

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• 18 February

  Bombardier sees business-jet rebound as boost from US nears

  

    Bloomberg Bombardier Inc. expects that business-jet sales could rebound as soon as the second half, getting a boost from U.S. demand as the economy gains traction. “We are confident that we are at the bottom or close to the bottom. Moving forward, it should be better,” Chief Executive Officer Alain Bellemare said in a telephone interview Thursday. “I don’t ...

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• 18 February

  Astronauts trip delayed over safety concerns

  

    Bloomberg Boeing Co. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. won’t be certified this year to send astronauts to space and may be delayed into 2019 because of potential safety hazards, according to US investigators. Boeing parachute systems haven’t been adequately evaluated and SpaceX engine turbines have cracked during testing, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Thursday that outlined ...

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• 18 February

  Boeing, Saab hanker for scale to meet Modi’s ‘make in India’ plea

  

    Bloomberg Boeing Co. and Saab AB, competing for $25 billion in fighter jet orders in India, said the country stands a better chance of securing local manufacturing if its air force and navy join forces. Combining the two orders would give the makers enough scale to set up a local assembly line that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been ...

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