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Barclays Plc plans to hire more than 1,000 staff in the coming weeks to help consumers manage their finances through the looming downturn, according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) C.S. Venkatakrishnan. The British bank follows similar moves by HSBC Holdings Plc and Virgin Money UK Plc as consumers struggle with the fastest price rises in four decades coupled with high …

The latest tumble in Hong Kong stocks puts at risk of losses the around $15 billion of complicated structured products linked to that market that have mostly been sold to retail investors in South Korea. As of September, $14.8 billion of equities-linked securities products, or ELS, tied to Hang Seng China Enterprises Index had yet to mature, according to the …

US equity futures fall as megacap technology shares slumped in pre-market trading, marring a three-day rally on Wall Street and raising new doubts over whether this year’s $5.5 trillion selloff is nearing a bottom. Contracts on the Nasdaq 100 fell more than 1% after disappointing quarterly updates from Microsoft Corp., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. S&P 500 …

Flair Airlines Ltd, a low-cost Canadian airline, is in talks to go public through a merger with New Vista Acquisition Corp., a blank check-firm backed by a former Boeing Co. chief executive officer. New Vista may seek to raise additional financing to support a transaction. The special purpose acquisition company is led by Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s CEO from 2015 to …

Unilever Plc recalled popular brands of aerosol dry shampoo, including Dove, after discovering they were contaminated with a chemical called benzene that can cause cancer. The recall also covers brands such as Nexxus, Suave, Tresemmé and Tigi, which makes Rockaholic and Bed Head dry shampoos, according to a notice posted on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) website. Unilever’s recall …

The UK’s chaotic mini-budget prompted HSBC Holdings Plc to increase its loan loss provision by $200 million in the third quarter, another sign of the economic turmoil created by the aborted fiscal statement. The lender took a $279 million charge against its UK unit in the period, according to an analyst presentation on Tuesday. That included “$200 million of additional …

Workers at Japanese banks aren’t having to rush back to the office, unlike their counterparts on Wall Street, even as the country gradually returns to normal life after the pandemic. The nation’s three largest lenders — Mitsubishi UFJ Financial group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial group and Mizuho Financial group  — said they are allowing more flexibility, eschewing a minimum number of …

Rishi Sunak might be a safe pair of hands for the UK economy, but investors don’t expect his premiership to give a significant boost to country’s beaten-down equities. While the ex-Goldman Sachs banker is set to bring an end to the kind of extreme volatility that characterised Liz Truss’s brief tenure in Downing Street, Sunak’s more prudent fiscal approach is …

A record exit by overseas investors from mainland-China equities is putting a fresh focus on stocks with high foreign ownership. Statistics on foreign ownership was the primary client query at Bank of America Corp (BofA) after a leadership reshuffle — which tightened President Xi Jinping’s grip over the country’s ruling party — spurred a historic market rout. “The number one …

Lisa Jarvis Some rather alarming headlines recently circulated about the newest members of the omicron family. “Nightmare Covid variant,” read one. “The most immune-evasive Covid variants yet.” Or, as one would-be pandemic influencer said in a tweet shared thousands of times: “MOTHER OF GOD… #COVID variants worse than CDC has been admitting.” Apparently, it’s spooky season for Covid variants. Or …